REUTERS - Yahoo! News Photos - June 14, 2008.
Japanese actress Narumi Konno (L) reacts after Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda deftly removes her anti-drug campaign undershirt at the PM’s official residence in Tokyo June 13.
Now check out a close-up of that anti-drug undershirt that PM Fukuda managed to magically snatch from beneath Narumi Konno’s dress, ha, ha ;-)
Yes, this really is 2004 Olympics photo of Mizuki Noguchi sniffing her “rice-tech” shoes after she won the gold medal in the women’s marathon in Athens.
Ready to run in Beijing with rice on her feet - Olympics
ESPN - AP - June 13, 2008, TOKYO . . . Japanese marathoner Mizuki Noguchi won the Olympic gold medal four years ago in Athens… now will head to Beijing with an updated version of the rice-tech shoes that helped her win in Athens. Developed by Japanese sportswear maker Asics, the soles of the shoes are made of polyester and ground-up rice husks that absorb water faster. According to the company, they provide up to 10 percent better traction than the competition...more...
According to the The Daily Yomiuri newspaper, “The top contenders for marathon gold in Beijing, Mizuki Noguchi and Paula Radcliffe, have been playing psychological games with each other, Noguchi telling the world she has a pair of ‘magic’ shoes made of rice husks and Radcliffe trialing a hi-tech antipollution mask.”
Meet E.M.A. chan.
Eternal.
Maiden.
Actualization.
New kissing robot from Japan
CrunchGear — Sega Toys today announced [PDF] they will start selling a new humanoid robot in Japan, E.M.A., on September 26th…Sega says E.M.A. is especially remarkable because of its “glamorous body”and high level of interactivity. The robot is able to hand out business cards, it can sing and dance and walk “like a lady.” …If your head comes close to the robot, its love mode kicks in and your will receive a kiss…more…
Actually Sega has just rebranded the “FemiSapien” fem-bot from WowWee Toys of the U.S. Ema cha’s body has nine power-articulated motion points to provide a feminine, graceful, two-legged robo-girl in high heels (below).
Somehow I can just imagine these junkie Japanese lab rats feeling the tingle of coffee aroma…. 
Aroma of coffee may be enough to wake you up
ANI - London, June 13: No doubt sipping a strong cup of coffee can help do away with drowsiness, but can the aroma of the beverage also perform the same task? Well, Japanese scientists say yes, it may. Dr Yoshinori Masuo of the National Institute of Industrial Science in Japan carried out tests on sleep-starved rats, and found the aroma-boosted genes that produce chemicals in the brain to fight fatigue and sleep deprivation. He said that the aroma of coffee also boosted genes that control anxiety, and made the rats less stressed…more…
Since Japan has outlawed humans under the age of 15 and the number of puppies adopted into households exceeds the Japanese birthrate, it was only a matter of time before there was a pressing national need for a doggie microbubble generator jacuzzi with “GALF”!
Microbubble Generator Washes Dog w/o Shampoo
June 13, 2008 12:37 - Nikkei, Tech-On! — IDEC Corp will release a microbubble generator for a dog bath … the generator “Wan Love Yu,” which is externally attached to the dog bath, by applying the company’s microbubble generation technology “GALF”… to continuously and stably generate microbubbles without using a compressor. It can stably produce bubbles whose diameter is 20um on average and density is 600,000 bubbles/cm3…more...
UPDATE: A much better description of the Wan Love Yu (Dog Love Bath) can be found on PinkTentacle.com.
Yikes! I stumble across so many fun Japanese things on the Internet such as these prints of ‘Coon balls. The tanuki— racoon-dog of Japan is considered in legends as a mischievous, jolly master of disguise and shape-shifting. In folk tales, the tanuki voluntarily enlarge their scrotums such as this traditional print. View full-size on Paper-Cuts
.
Patrick, my neighbor up the hill was so inspired by these prints and the legend that he created and posted on his own tanuki interpretation on his PaperCuts artblog of his cut-paper creation, Kintama Parachute.
Click to view the full-size photo of Kintama Parachute on PaperCuts.
Note: Kintama means
balls in Japanese.
Tsuyu 
, the Japanese rainy season has started and Beyonce on tour can’t do a thing with her hair.
Ministers get “buddy” humanoids
AFP - June 10 2008 7:55AM AOMORI, Japan—Cabinet ministers from the world’s biggest economies who gathered in Japan for grim talks on energy security have one tiny thing to celebrate –“i-Sobot”– the world’s smallest humanoid robot.
The Japanese hosts plan to send all 11 ministers special editions of the 16.5-centimetre robot after wowing them with the toy at a dinner on Saturday.
….according to an official from the robot’s maker Tomy Co. Ltd…”We think this represents the unique Japanese culture of cartoons and animated films that consider robots to be a ‘buddy’ …. Rather than being a machine showcasing cool technology, it is a comical character that lies down and scratches its bottom“….more…
Besides scratching it’s butt, the i-SOBOT can play drums, dance along with music, and do push-ups. It’s small enough to fit in a glovebox— the 165-mm tall robot weighs in just 350 grams—And its price tag is small too, about $240 USD, so you don’t have to be a cabinet minister to afford one.
Japan has been mulling over implanting all their school kids with chips for some time now using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Now they are going one better to sensor tagging sleepy salarymen to squeeze more work out of them beyond their 14-hour work days with “service” [unpaid] overtime.
Hitachi, Osaka Gas Use Wearable Sensors to Raise White-collar Productivity
June 9, 2008 18:55 — NIKKEI Tech-On!
…The analysis and assessment technology combines Hitachi’s “Business Microscope,” a system that visualizes activities in an organization using Hitachi’s proprietary sensor technology incorporating infrared and acceleration sensors, and Osaka Gas’ action monitoring technology… action data is analyzed using knowledge such as human engineering, environmental psychology and gesture and expression analysis….
… the test, in which 30 workers engaged in the information and communication department wore the sensors…. revealed realities concerning how long the employees concentrated on doing the same task and factors that interrupted their concentration...more…
Time to put on my tin-foil hat and mylar underwear too. I can imagine that conspiracy theorists are saying, “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear The Mark Of The Beast” and that major corporations and governments plan to track our every move with these sensors and action monitoring technology, hee, hee.
REVELATIONS 13–16, 17 :
“The Beast also forced everyone,
small and great, rich and poor, free and slave,
to receive a mark on his right hand or
on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell
unless he had the Mark, which is
the name of the Beast or the number of His name.”
And you thought Starbucks was overpriced….
UCC introduces famous coffee fit for royalty
Mainichi Daily News - June 8, 2008— A legendary coffee patronized by French nobles during the 18th and 19th centuries has been revived by a Japanese coffee company… “Bourbon Pointu,” at Salon de Cafe Boissier in the Daimaru Tokyo department store…The high-quality coffee is served along with chocolates and a glass of champagne and is priced at 5,250 yen per set...more…
Ok, ok, the above Mainichi news report is full of beans…abet coffee beans.
According to the press release of the Salon de Cafe Boissier serves croque-monsieur sandwiches and some kind of puree with their “legendary” Bourbon Pointu coffee along with chocolates and Mailly Brut Rose champagne, the favorite of Victor Hugo.
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