TOKYOMANGO

Buy Urawaza on Amazon (It's my Book)

My friend Steven just IM-ed me to say that my book is available on Amazon. Official release date is April 2, so if you order it now, you can be one of the first people in the world to ever read it. Also, I'm looking for people who will make videos of them trying out tricks from the book—there are over a hundred to choose from, and if you send me the file or link, I'll upload it on YouTube and post it on my blog. And maybe someone famous will link to it, and you can become a web celeb. So buy the book, take out your camcorder, and start shooting!

Click here to see videos my friends and I made.

Wings of Defeat: A Documentary About Living Kamikaze Pilots

We've all heard of kamikaze pilots. They're the infamous troop of martyr pilots involved in a last-ditch effort by Japan's Imperial Army to save face in World War 2. About 5,000 Tokkotai—their official name—died, but what's less known is the fact that some survived. In an excellent new documentary by Risa Morimoto, whose uncle was trained as a kamikaze pilot but never dispatched, explores the experience and psyche of these brave and controversial soldiers of a badly defeated nation.

This documentary was really, really good. It showed many perspectives—those of the pilots themselves, those of American soldiers who survived kamikaze attacks, and expert opinions from people like John Dower—an MIT historian who wrote an amazingly interesting account of post-war Japan in his book Embracing Defeat. Morimoto herself went out and did all the interviews, and she's in a lot of the footage, sitting next to interviewees as they share experiences with her. She manages to extract conflicting emotions from all sides—the kamikaze pilots share their fear and doubt, while American soldiers tell her that they would have done the same thing had they been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Trailer and screening info after the jump.

Cute Bug-Like Bot Works Remote Controls

This cute little bug-like robot is actually a universal remote control controller. In development by Toshiba, the 8-inch tall ApriPoco communicates with IR signals from your remote—and, of course, with you—to save you from fumbling with complicated buttons on the various control devices scattered around your living room. It's similar in tech to voice-activated gadgets like GPS, except you can give it your own commands without having to memorize the preset ones.

The cuteness is intentional, too. Researchers are hoping it will stave off frustration of people who are otherwise impatient with dumb machines. Think Furby with a function. It's like having a pet!
Link (Thanks, Sam!)

Robot Teaches Dentists How to Drill, Not Molest, Female Patients

Japanese dentists are infamous for being playboys and not necessarily very good at fixing teeth. So it's natural that roboticists would create something like Itagirl (literally means Pain Girl), a pretty(?) robot woman who is designed to simulate a typical dental patient. She has pain sensors that trigger over 30 responses, from verbal ones like "ouch" to a slight raise of the hand to indicate discomfort. Her skin is made of silicone, and she's pneumatically powered. She also has sensors in her chest so that the perv dentist can't rest his elbow on her boobies while he's sucking saliva out of her mouth.
via Pink Tentacle

What's Hot Now: Dog Rental by the Hour

When I was in Tokyo last month, my mom and I took our dogs to Odaiba, where we stumbled upon this strange store called Puppy the World.

Puppy the World is a dog rental store. You can choose small, medium, or large breeds and rent them for $19/hr, or $100 a night. They have everything from chihuahuas to labs to border collies to papillons—and you get a 5% discount at the cafe if you rent one! You can't lose.

By the time my mom and I got there, registration for rentals for the day were over. Besides, they said, you can't rent one if you already own a dog. I couldn't help but wonder how they treated the dogs in a place like this. So I asked. Here's what I found out: