video by stevenagata

photo via Tokyo Hotaru Festival

photo by Mai Suzuki

photo via Tokyo Hotaru Festival

On the evening of May 6, 100,000 LED lights were sent drifting down the Sumida River in Tokyo (video). Intended to resemble fireflies, the lights were the finale of the Tokyo Hotaru Festival (Tokyo Firefly Festival).

via Spoon and Tamago & Super Punch

Information Systems graduate student Nobuhiro Takahashi at Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communications has been working on SHIRI, a “humanoid buttocks robot” that is primed to express “various emotions with organic movement of the artificial muscles.” In the video, this butt robot is shown reacting to being spanked, slapped, caressed and stroked. The giver feels SHIRI brace (at the 2:32 mark) and express a “happiness” response (at the 2:47 mark).

via Gizmodo Japan and Kotaku

Japanese ad agency I&S BBDO Tokyo developed Design NORI, intricately patterned laser-cut sushi nori seaweed sheets, for their client Umino Seaweed Store. The store’s owner Umino Hiroyuki wanted to rebuild his business after the wake of the March 2011 tsunami and hired I&S BBDO Tokyo to help. Each of the five nori designs are cut in a traditional Japanese pattern: Sakura (Cherry Blossoms), Mizutama (Water Drops), Asanoha (Hemp), Kikkou (Turtle Seashell), and Kumikkou (Tortoise Shell). Design NORI is currently featured through May 27, 2012 at KATAGAMI Style, a 19th century Japanese stencil art exhibition at Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo, Japan. RocketNews24 recently interviewed Umino Hiroyuki who was surprised by Design NORI’s worldwide success and is hoping to lower production costs so that it can be made on a larger scale.

via Make and Jeannie Jeannie

images via Jeannie Jeannie and RocketNews24

Lucio Arese created this video for the song “Mimic” by Japanese electronic music composer Yu Miyashita. It features spastic digital animation superimposed on an empty cattle market, or as Arese describes it: “plastic clashes of a digital inserted foreground into an old and rusty environment.” Below are a couple stills from the video:

Images by Lucio Arese

Here’s another video by Arese: “You” featuring the song “Icefall” by Nobukazu Takemura, another Japanese experimental electronic artist. It’s a pulsing minimalist black and white, x-ray-esque rhythmic animation that evolves hypnotically…

Japanese beer brand Kirin has developed Ichiban Shibori Frozen Draft, a unique beer that is topped with a frozen foam head by a machine similar to a soft-serve ice cream dispenser. The beer is currently available in select Tokyo restaurants but is expected to launch in other Japanese cities in May. See the frozen foam being applied to the top of the beer in this promotional video.

via PSFK and beerstreetjournal

Squacco has posted a short and very funny video in 2008 of her Japanese beer-pouring robot friend attempting to serve her a can of beer.

via Boing Boing and Brandon Boyer

photo and video by Squacco

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience directed by Brad Crawford is an upcoming documentary about Japan’s thriving arcade culture (trailer). The film’s production company, Strata Studios, is raising funds to complete the film on Indiegogo. We previously wrote about the film project last year.

Mameshiba are Japanese bean-dog characters that tell unsettling and often unwelcome trivia. Mameshiba were created by Japanese ad agency Dentsu. They premiered as a series of absurd commercials (see all of them).

Thanks to Katrina Dickson for the tip.

Japanese designer Mayuka Nakamura created these wonderful sushi warships for her graduation project at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music.

via ITmedia & Kotaku

Designer Andrew Huang created this open source Geiger counter prototype for Safecast, a non-profit organization that is creating a global network of radiation sensors. The Geiger counter prototype will help expand Safecast’s existing network of more than 135 off the shelf sensors, which are currently set up around Japan to monitor radiation from last year’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Safecast has so far collected more than 2.7 million measurements around Japan—the data is freely available and can be viewed on a variety of maps.

Last November PBS Newshour profiled the Safecast project:

Japanese manufacturer Sanden has designed a vending machine that can be operated during a power outage thanks to an integrated hand-crank generator. The machine requires 70 laborious turns of the crank to power up (video).

via Technabob & Japan Trends

photo and video via CScout Japan

Japanese dance group Wrecking Crew Orchestra performs in electroluminescent suits for a distinctly Tron-like effect. See them at work in this five minute live performance and this short smartphone ad.

via Topless Robot

This incredible Starbucks café in Fukuoka, Japan has a unique weaved wood interior that is intended to complement the surrounding neighborhood and the nearby Dazaifu Tenmangu temple. The café was designed by Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma and Associates.

via The Fox Is Black & Geekosystem & Architizer & Frameweb

We Are All Radioactive is an online documentary film project that focuses on a group of surfers helping to rebuild northern Japan after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (and tsunami). The project is by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama and TED film director Jason Wishnow. A fundraising campaign has been started on IndieGoGo to fund each of the episodes. They will make episodes as each financial milestone is reached until April 15, 2012.

A statement from Lisa about the project:

Sunday is the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, and we really need to remind people of how people in Japan are still living with the aftermath + uncertainty about radiation every day.

Because I’m a storyteller and I spend a lot of time on the Internet, I figured the best way for me to help Japan is to tell stories that are normally ignored. Like the stories of these surfers. And the fishermen they’re helping. And the government officials who are looking for a neutral third party to connect them with the locals.

Jason Wishnow describes the project:

In a hidden Japanese surf spot and historic fishing village where fresh water means life for the locals, we captured post-tsunami reconstruction efforts undermined by looming fears from Fukushima’s March 2011 nuclear meltdown.

We traveled to a town called Motoyoshi, about 100 miles north of Fukushima, where a group of surfers have pitched tents on unaffected patches of land and set out to rebuild northern Japan. We gave waterproof video cameras to the residents of Motoyoshi, so they could share their experiences through their own lens. Finally, we spent time with Japanese artists, anti-nuclear activists, government officials, and global experts on radiation to help solve pressing, unanswered questions.

In February 2012, Japanese toy company Takara Tomy created a giant Transformers-themed snow sculpture in the shape of Optimus Prime for the 53rd annual Asahikawa Winter Festival in Hokkaido, Japan. It measured 53 feet tall and was 427 feet wide and had giant built-in snow slides. Other smaller Transformers snow sculptures were created for the festival, including Bumblebee. The Japan Self-Defense Forces built the various sculptures in the freezing cold for the event. An impressive fireworks display closed out the festival.

images via Takara Tomy and Asahikawa Winter Festival

Japanese artist Takanori Aiba creates astoundingly detailed sculptures of tiny buildings. The sculptures are inspired by the Japanese art forms of bonsai (miniature trees) and suiseki (stone appreciation). For more photos see Aiba’s Flickr site.

via My Modern Metropolis

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