At the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, a two person Papier-mâché rhinoceros costume rampaged out of its pen and trampled zookeepers until it was tranquilized. The rhino was part of the yearly safety drill at Tokyo area zoos. Last year, the nearby Tama Zoo was menaced by a man in a tiger mascot costume.

via The Telegraph

This breathakingly bizarre music video by Japanese artist Sekitani Norihiro may be less than two minutes long, but it feels like an unending seizure of frenetic, gorey, vaguely sexual insanity. The video is for the song “ACA” by Japanese grindcore producer Maruosa.

via Chris Menning

YouTuber MJRecession placed a video camera on a sushi serving conveyor belt at a restaurant in Japan. As the camera traveled around the restaurant it captured the wonderful reactions of the customers. This isn’t the first time someone has placed a camera on a sushi conveyor belt—the concept has even been used in a music video.

via PetaPixel

Japanese artist Mariko Sakaguchi photographs herself sitting in a bathtub in unusual locations like lecture halls, film sets, and offices.

via PetaPixel & BOOOOOOOM!

For 2011, Japan’s high-end Rihga Royal Hotels updated their box of gourmet chocolates from chocolatier L’éclat. The solar system of 8 delicious planets now includes (sorry, Pluto): Mercury as coconut mango, Venus as lemon cream, Earth as cocoa, Mars as orange praline, Jupiter as vanilla, Saturn as rum raisin, Uranus as milk chocolate and Neptune as cappuccino.

via Nerdcore, Publique and Ufunk

image via Nerdcore

Japanese delivery driver Yu Muroga was working on the day of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and his onboard video camera caught the earthquake on video. Not realizing the tsunami danger, Muroga continued about his deliveries until one hour later, when he and fellow motorists were engulfed in the massive tsunami surge. The camera kept recording even after Muroga escaped, until the car was crushed about 4 minutes into the surge.

For more information see this article by Majirox News.

via MetaFilter

This vending machine prototype by Japanese manufacturer Sanden features a 65″ transparent HD touchscreen on the front of the machine (video via DigInfo TV). A customer can see through the display in order to look at the products within, while simultaneously using the touchscreen to interact with the machine. The vending machine also has a camera that can determine the customer’s age and gender in order to display ads targeted at their demographic.

via DVICE

photos via DigInfo TV

A Transformers-style robot escapes from a film shoot and marches around a Japanese city while generally being a jerk in this hilarious music video for “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto” by Japanese band Polysics. The song is a cover of the 1983 hit “Mr. Roboto” by Styx.

via topherchris

Japanese artist Sagaki Keita creates beautiful drawings of classic works of art and other iconic images but with a whimsical twist—the drawings are in fact made up of hundreds of cartoonish doodles.

via Colossal

Today, Honda unveiled the fourth generation of ASIMO, their irresistibly adorable humanoid robot. New ASIMO can detect nearby humans as it moves about autonomously, run at a leprechaun-brisk 5.5 mph, hop on one foot, and serve drinks. And in a testament to the robot’s sophistication, many of its behaviors look startlingly and endearingly child-like (see a public demonstration of ASIMO’s new skills via plasticpals).

The all-new ASIMO is now advanced from an “automatic machine” to an “autonomous machine” with the decision-making capability to determine its behavior in concert with its surroundings such as movements of people. At the beginning of the development process, the following three factors were identified as necessary for a robot to perform as an autonomous machine, and the technologies required to realize these capabilities were developed; 1) high-level postural balancing capability which enables the robot to maintain its posture by putting out its leg in an instant, 2) external recognition capability which enables the robot to integrate information, such as movements of people around it, from multiple sensors and estimate the changes that are taking place, and 3) the capability to generate autonomous behavior which enables the robot to make predictions from gathered information and autonomously determine the next behavior without being controlled by an operator. With these capabilities, the all-new ASIMO takes another step closer to practical use in an environment where it coexists with people.

via IEEE Spectrum

Japanese manufacturer NSK is developing a robot guide dog that can see obstacles with a Microsoft Kinect controller, walk on stairs, and respond to voice commands (video). The development team hopes to have a commercial version ready by 2020.

via Plastic Pals & i09

photo via NSK

Yukigassen is a Japanese winter sport that is a cross between capture the flag and a snowball fight. Created in 1988, the sport has since spread to the other snowbound countries including the United States and Sweden (see highlights from Sweden’s 2010 Yukigassen Championship). Each year, the competition culminates in the Showa-Shinzan International Yukigassen in Sobetsu, Japan.

photo via Yukigassen USA

The “Tohoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture” by British artist Luke Jerram is a visualization of seismometer readings from the March 11 catastrophic earthquake. Jerram converted nine minutes of seismometer readings to a 3D cylindrical design, which was then 3D printed. The sculpture will be on display at the “Terra” exhibition at Jerwood Visual Arts in London, November 9 to December 11.

We previously wrote about Jerram’s public piano project.

via Radiolab

Sakura Gakuin is a Japanese pop (J-pop) idol group made up of 12 young girls in their early teens. Several subgroups of the “band” contribute songs to their album “Sakura Gakuin 2010 Nendo ~message~“. One of these is BABYMETAL.

In the video, the crazy-cute girl-trio materialize in via a vaguely satanic circle–sans pentagram, it must be noted. They are backed by a crunching skele-costumed metal trio, and you have to say the chocolate-in-peanut-butter mix of J-pop cute with dark metal stylings works pretty well. Maybe less on the cutesy chorus than the skitter-rap-rhythmed verses. Yes, I am taking the musical aspect of this seriously, just for a second. And… done.

I’m sure that Sakura Gakuin as a whole have a great thing going. But, c’mon. These kids should quit the day job and get us a whole album / string of videos for BABYMETAL, ASAP. But don’t take it from me, here’s a Japanese Pop enthusiast perspective: 19-year old Danish blogger Nino-baby reviewed the whole album and here’s her take:

Heavy Music Club BABYMETAL – Doki Doki?Morning
No doubt the best song on the entire album xD I’ve never heard an idol song like this ever. Amazing Suzuka singing to Moa’s and Yui’s young childish voices with metal-like rock music in the background just sounds freaking awesome! And I must not forget to mention I love the song’s intro going from cute idol-like innocence to hardcore rock style in less than 10 seconds xD Just too epic for words *o* I can’t wait to hear more BABYMETAL songs – this sub unit is just the best thing ever created! (lol)

For further study….

An intro video Sakura Gakuin, where they introduce themselves and say impossibly cute things (for a bit too long):

Here’s a fun song by another subgroup of Sakura Gakuin named SCOOPERS

These astonishing before and after photos of areas affected by Japan’s devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami show the terrible destruction in the disaster’s immediate aftermath, followed by 6 months of remarkably speedy progress in the cleanup effort. The photos are presented by The Frame, The Sacremento Bee’s photo blog.

thanks to Graeme Wagoner-Lynch for the tip

photos via AP/Kyodo News

Japan’s Ministry of Defense has developed a 16″ diameter remote-controlled spherical flying drone that can hover, fly horizontally at 40 mph, and even roll across the ground (see a video of the craft by DigInfo).

via TechCrunch

photo via DigInfo

2012, the latest music video featuring the synchronized robotic dancing of Genki Sudo and World Order.

Android Dreams by Samuel Cockedey is a beautiful time-lapse video of Tokyo set to the Blade Runner soundtrack.

via MetaFilter

In the “Escape” series by Japanese artist Yuki Matsueda, framed everyday objects appear frozen in the midst of exploding toward the viewer.

via The Inspiration Grid, Inspire First, & Design You Trust

The Shampoo Robot by Panasonic uses 24 robo fingers to shampoo, rinse, massage, and dry a person’s hair (see a demo video). The robot is due for commercial release in 2012.

via TechCrunch

Japanese artist y_yamaden carved this Marge Simpson sculpture out of a banana. We previously wrote about the artist’s many other wonderfully creepy banana sculptures.

Japanese company REAL-f creates 3D Photo Forms, eerily photorealistic replicas of faces and (coming soon!) entire heads. Prices start at about $3,900.

via TechCrunch

Toilet Bike Neo is a combination toilet and motorized tricycle that runs on biogas derived from human waste (see a somewhat baffling Japanese commercial for the toilet bike). The tricycle is a publicity stunt by TOTO, a Japanese manufacturer of bathroom fixtures, to raise awareness for the TOTO Green Challenge, an effort by the company to cut their carbon emissions in half by 2017. Toilet Bike Neo just started a 600 mile publicity tour from Kyushu to Tokyo.

Visitors to the Toilet Bike website can also enjoy a companion illustrated tale about a plucky boy, an evil aristocrat, and reduced carbon emissions.

via Spoon & Tomago

Osaka Station City features a dot matrix water clock that shows the time as well as astonishingly complex graphics, all with drops of falling water (see a video of the clock in action and a close up video of the water droplets).

via Geeks Are Sexy

photos and video by Gorimon

Uchida Geinousha, who runs the “Super Wan Wan Circus” based in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, has broken the record for the dog handler with the most dogs skipping on a rope when she was able to get 13 dogs jump rope at the same time.