The Elephant Kid aka “ESUZOU-kun” is supposed be posted on the front window of most convenience store”SAFETY STATION” signs.
Open 24/7, convenience stores are wrangling with Japanese government officials to curb their late night operations to help combat global warming. However, the Japan Franchise Association is countering with this Elephant campaign saying that….”Convenience stores that stay open 24 hours serve an essential role as a refuge for potential crime victims or simply for people in need of help. Convenience stores provide a refuge for lost children or women seeking to escape stalkers…” –japantimes .co.jp
In our 2006 report Robot Love, the 3Yen covered a robot called, “Saya,” who was propped up as a receptionist at the Science University of Tokyo. Judging from the the expression on the face Saya the fem-bot, she did not have much job satisfaction. Now looking at her face, Saya seems much happier as a robo-teacher at a demonstration primary school in Tokyo (even though they did force her to wear the same yellow women’s suit for the past five years).
Robot teacher that can take the register and get angry –School pupils are to be taught by the world’s first robot teacher in one of the most radical uses so far of android technology.– Telegraph.co.UK 06 Mar 2009— Robot teacher: Named Saya, she can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions. The device, created by scientists after 15 years of research, is being trialled at a primary school in Tokyo.
Named Saya, she can speak different languages, carry out roll calls, set tasks and make facial expressions –including anger– thanks to 18 motors hidden behind her latex face.…more…
According to the Erosblog, the Japanese Ministry of Education made two movies on a ‘girl Tarzan’ theme. The above photo comes from the book Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema by Jasper Sharp (2008), nothing survives of these movies except a handful of publicity stills such as this one from Cave of Lust with the actress Aki Ema and her lucky monkey.
The Japanese weather forecasting company Weathernews is deploying nationwide 500 of these “Pollen-Robo”—pollen counting robots to monitor to pollen levels as the allergy season begins in Japan.
The Weathernews will ask volunteer monitors to place the Pollen-Robo robots outside their dwelling to record in real-time the pollen, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure, which will then be relayed via the Internet back to the Skynet company. To a “benefit” to the volunteer monitors, the Terminators Pollen-Robo will light up through a range of five colors to indicate pollen levels and for added fun it will have two glowing LED eyes.
Today’s Robots.net features “Japan’s Stupidest Robot”—the University of Tokyo’s YKRN robot that won the Bacarobo 2008 competition (baka = stupid, robo = robot). The championship has Three Stupid Robot Principles:
1. The Stupid Robot must be mechanical.
2. The Stupid Robot shall not be useful—it should be worthless as possible and not have any useful function for society.
3. The Stupid Robot shall make people laugh.
The Japanese Word of the Year is “Hen” -…in this case meaning ‘Change’.
However, I am very used to being called in Japanese a “HEN-na gaijin”–literally “odd’ + ‘foreigner/alien’ as you can see on the right.
So, I just learned that I’m a “Changed Alien“, ha, ha.
UPDATE: ‘Change’ voted Japan’s character of the year - Yahoo! News - Fri Dec 12, 4:02 PM ET
[The photo below shows] World’s heritage Kiyomizu temple priest Seihan Mori puts the finishing touch on a caligraphy …The public sent in 111,200 nominations for the kanji of the year. Of those, a majority 5.42 percent endorsed “change”… and “fall” to reflect the global market plunge.
“I think it is an expression of the Japanese people’s wishes to see political, economic and societal changes, as they were impressed by Mr. Obama’s message of change,” Mori said… Story thanks to Omae Mona
This news report of, “Japan Railways [sic] has just launched a poster campaign” is wrong in a couple ways. The posters belong to the Tokyo Metro subway not Japan Railways, and the Metro’s campaign was launched eight months ago last April.
Check out this fun detail.
Ok, ok, the above poster is my Photoshop fun, but below is the OFFICIAL Tokyo Metro poster, which I saw for the start of the Projectile Vomiting Season in Japan.
Just in time for the end-of-the-year drinking parties*, the Tokyo Metro subway has started to put up new posters today reminding folks to barf at home and not on everyone on the train (as is the norm in Japan flickr).
–Mass exercises with “Gari-Gari” Brother, check.
–Beer-bong helmet, check.
–Superman t-shirt with diaper, check.
–Japanese TV show, check…
The comedic idea here is that Gari-Gari Brother (”garigarigarikuson”) must really know his exercise because his is an otaku NEET who really needs exercise.
Check out the crappy Japanese website of comedian garigarigarikuson (machine translation) and rough/direct translation of the YouTube info that reads: “Expo of laughter — exercises of a NEET”.
Language note: Translation dictionaries define “gari-gari” as onomatopoeia for grinding or gnawing but more currently it has become a humorous buzzword for meaning a grasping person or being overly needy.
The randoseru, the leather backpack that every elementary school kid wears is a quintessential Japanese sight.
Red Randoseru are for girls, black ones are for boys and “Peach Backpacks” are for….
In case you were wondering, Randoseru (Raenzel) is from the German word for rucksack.
Previously, the 3Yen featured the ultimate Randoseru-wearing Japanese schoolgirl robot, Strongmachine in this Polysics’ music video. Boomp3.com
And finally, here’s a typical Japanese TV commercial for Randoseru, which makes me really want to buy one now…
NOT.
As part of the ongoing series of the Tokyo Metro’s “Train Manner” (sic) campaign, here’s October’s poster…
Click to view full-size poster.
Rest-of-the-story….
Playing “air golf”–visualization practice—on train platforms is one of the more entertaining hobbies of ever-madcap salarymen that you can observe in Japan. Golf visualization practice has results in a few deaths but mostly it’s just fun quirk of Japanese life. As well as traditional “air guitar,” I have seen air bowling, air ballroom dancing, and air badminton being practiced on subway and train platforms.
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–Click for full-size photo.
by Jasper Sharp (2008), nothing survives of these movies except a handful of publicity stills such as this one from Cave of Lust with the actress Aki Ema and her lucky monkey.
as onomatopoeia for grinding or gnawing but more currently it has become a humorous buzzword for meaning a grasping person or being overly needy.
(Raenzel) is from the German word for rucksack.
