Check out the new Honda website featuring “ASIMO 360° - a computer-generated model depicting ASIMO’s capabilities” that have been improved recently.

Asimo.Honda.com/insideASIMO

Here’s an interesting combination of highly energy-efficient OLED lighting and stereo speakers by Kenwood.
By creating stereo speakers that can also offer 80% energy savings using OLED lighting, Kenwood may have a mega-hit product. Oddly, it is nearly impossible to purchase energy-efficient LED lighting for the home in Japan and Kenwood may have found itself a new niche in the market.*

daylife.com - April 27, 2009…Kenwood unveils organic light emitting diode (OLED) lights, which also enables stereo sound…. Kenwood and Japan's Yamagata University professor Junji Kido developed the ultra-thin lighting equipment.

*Note: In recent years, Kenwood has fallen on hard times like other high-end stereo equipment manufacturers—The premium stereo market is a faction of its former self since the sound quality of inexpensive stereo equipment is more than sufficient to handle MP3 playback, and personal stereos such as iPods have taken over the public’s attention.

UPDATE:
A totally different use that Kenwood also plans for the OLED light/speaker is as an energy-saving Fire Exit Sign that also works as a loudspeaker for emergency announcements.

Shown above with his energy-saving Fire Exit Sign/loudspeaker,
the joint-venture inventor of the OLED light/speaker, Junji Kido, says that compared with, “…a fluorescent lamp… the luminous efficiency of [the OLED] light-nearly 100%-is incomparably higher than that of a regular light bulb or fluorescent lamp-10-20%.” …more…

As my buddy, Rob Pongi aptly describes, “the Andy Warhol of Japan: Takashi Murakami yes, the same artist who created a million dollar Japanese Jack Off Statue has done it again with this eye-popping animation for Louis Vuitton:”

Read more about Murakami, Japan’s master of puerile art, in my previous 3Yen stories:
— Kick my flower balls
— ‘Little Boy’ Japan’s Exploding Otaku
— ‘Inochi’ — life in Japanese

Leave to the over-funded NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) to invent beyond-bazillion, googlephonic multichannel sound for headphones. I mean, she-e-e-eit..Why bother to put 22.2 speaker elements in headphones?

NHK Develops Headphone Processor for 22.2 Multichannel Sound
Nikkei Electronics, Tech-On! - April 22, 2009

Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) developed a headphone processor that can precisely reproduce “22.2 multichannel sound,” which provides more realistic sensations compared with 5.1ch surround sound, with headphones available on the market...more...

Props to the Steve Martin bit from his album “Googlephonics (Album Version).”

I bought a Stereo! Wow! With two speakers!
But then I heard the quad with the four speakers and I was like this is it, so I got rid of the stereo and got the quad.
I’m listening to this thing and I’m like “Hey this sounds like SHIT!”
So, I got rid of that and got the dodecaphonic with the 12 speakers.
This was more to my liking…for a while. But the year gets pretty sophisticated pretty fast and I got rid of that and got the milliphonic with the 1,000 speakers.
And I’m listening to that one and I’m like, “Hey, this sounds like SHIT too! The other one was SHIT one, this one is SHIT too!”
So, I traded that in and got the googlephonic, which is the highest number of speakers you can have before infinity.
Sounds like SHIT!
So, then I said, “Hey, maybe it’s the needle!”
I had the typical diamond needle. I searched around got the moonrock needle, cost me 3 million bucks, but what the hey. So, now I have a googlephonic stereo with a moonrock needle. It’s okay for a car stereo, I wouldn’t want it in my house.

AMAZON.com
Googlephonics (Album Version)
by Steve Martin
From the album Comedy Is Not Pretty
Price: $0.99
* Original release date: November 30, 1978
* Format: MP3, 256 kbps — plays on iPod® and all MP3 players

Times are getting tough in Japan and even the “idols” are struggling and hawking their talents on the street.

Click for full size.

Via (and apologies to) dannychoo.com
Struggling Idol
You are in Akihabara and see what appears to be a struggling idol selling her DVD for only 480 yen where the average price is 4,800 yen. She looks up at you and gives you the watery eye puppy look. What do you do? ...more…

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Footnote:
“Idol”, or aidoru in Japanese, are disposable media personalities in their teens and early twenties who are considered particularly cute and pretty. For more info about Japanese-style idols, refer to Wikipedia as well as 3Yen report on these life-size cardboard cutouts of idols.

Check out this fun theme… 20 photos of Pikachu girls via Izismile.com.

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Also refer to the previous 3Yen report about the bouncy Pikachu’s privates (right) as well as other our Pokemon stories including:

—Hulk Hogan pops Pokemon
—Bride of Pokemon, et al
—‘POKEMON’ causes cancer!

Japan Inc. has been touting farming in concrete bunkers and urban high rises as way to counter the Japan’s problem of having the world’s least efficient and unprofitable agricultural sector. SDK Corporation has advanced this damp-dreaming by producing LED grow lights that are 70% more efficient than previous technologies.

Apr 3, 2009 –Nikkei Electronics Asia– Tech-On! Showa Denko KK (SDK) has introduced aluminum-gallium-indium-phosphide (AlGaInP) LED chips that emit red light with a wavelength of 660nm, claimed to be the optimum light for accelerating the growth of plants…efficiency of LED lamps using the AlGaInP chips is claimed to be about three times as high as that of conventional red LED lamps ...more...

According to the SDK press release:
“….facilities for growing vegetables in an environment of controlled lighting, temperature, humidity, CO2 concentration and nourishment are attracting attention as they ensure stabilized production regardless of season or place, and realize multiple cropping. Furthermore, they do not need fungicides or insecticides because of the controlled environment. Nearly 30 facilities of this kind are already in operation in Japan….more...”

Recent research suggests that the ideal balance essential for plant growth is 92% red LEDs and 8% blue LEDs—grow lamps providing white light are a waste of electricity.

Yikes. Now ain’t it a Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Pink Polka-Dot keitai?

Kyodo News—Apr. 08 TOKYO, Japan….one of the new mobile phones KDDI Corp. rolled out on April 7 under its new ''iida'' brand name. The handbag-shaped handset is …designed by internationally renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama…more...

In case you were wondering, the phone’s brandname “iida” is an acyronmn for innovation imagination design and art. Official pricing and English info may be found on http://iida.jp/ on the 17th of April. And just so you can have sweet dreams tonight, enjoy this photo of the artist Yayoi Kusama posing with her Pink Polka-Dot brainfart iida creations, which she describes as:
…”mobile telephones don’t have to be stuck in the world square things…the mysterious appearance of strength that it is filled up by pokadots–pretty in form and color with friendliness that wants you to take it out as a wasteful handbag to display”…


Also be sure to check out this other artsy-fartsy cellphone of the artist, the “My Doggie Ring-Ring“, in the comments…

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I have previously posted about Yayoi Kusama in Japanese ‘Happening’ 1965 and her receiving the award from the Emperor, the Japanese Praemium Imperiale.

Although “EAT ME!” is more like what would be said by The Big Lebowski …

Well, dude, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. But why d’ya have to use so many cuss words along they way?

Anyway, here’s the “GREAT BEAR” sleeping bag cum sculpture from the online portfolio of Japanese artist, Eiko Ishizawa, (eikoishizawa.com)…

Link idea from Boing² via Juergen

Inochi means life or spirit in Japanese made by the professional creep–cum–artist Takashi Murakami. He first made an Inochi sculpture in 2004. Later he decided to shoot this TV commercial for the back-story of sculpture of the boy/robot/alien as if it were any other Japanese product.

Read more about Takashi Murakami in my previous 3Yen stories:
–Kick my flower balls
–‘Little Boy’ Japan’s Exploding Otaku