TOKYOMANGO

Actors Arrested for Filming Porn at McDonalds

A porn film crew was arrested at a McDonalds in Saitama Prefecture recently. Apparently, the director and three actors strolled in and just started filming in the restaurant. A suspicious customer followed them to their corner and then called the cops. The cops arrested the foursome for indecent exposure and obstruction of business.

I know it sounds strange, but I actually believe this story. When I was 18, I was walking home from driving school and I passed by a film crew shooting dirty school girl photos by the train tracks. I was like, hmmm. Interesting. But not surprised.

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Oldest Robot in History Resurrected

80 years ago, someone made this giant Buddha-like humanoid robot that can change its expression and move its head with surprising ease in order to commemorate the new Showa emperor. Some consider it the oldest robot in history—at the time, people called it a "manmade human." The robot was refurbished in Osaka last week after years of collecting dust.

Link (Japanese)

iPod Case Looks Like Kalbi

This new iPod cover from Solid Alliance not only looks like a slice of high-grade kalbi meat, but it is even packaged like one. If I had this, it would constantly make me crave Korean BBQ.

Rakuten via The Raw Feed

Soccer Star Arrested for Stealing Women's Panties

A member of J-League soccer team Kashiwa Reysol was arrested this week for sneaking into a 21-year old woman's home and stealing her panties seven years ago. Why now? DNA results just came in.

On September 11, 2001, he snuck into the woman's house in Kobe and stole her panties and cell phone. He was 19 at the time—a minor in Japan—so his name hasn't been disclosed to the press.

Why a soccer superstar would need to steal panties is a big mystery. Kashiwa's male fans, at least, seem willing to strip down even without being asked to.

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Fred Schodt on MangoBot

I wrote about Fred Schodt, Tezuka's long-time interpreter and predictor of Japan's humanoid robot craze, on io9 last week:

In the spring of 1988, Japanese publisher Kodansha released a revealing English-language book titled Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia. The book predicted a new era when humanoid robots would dominate Japanese society in the same way that industrial robots were then dominating behind-the-scenes manufacturing in the country. It was a topic that nobody in the Western world knew much about at all.

Continue reading...

Caught on Tape: Angry Salaryman Lashes Out at Tulips

When hundreds of tulips in flower beds along the street were found headless in Gunma prefecture earlier this month, police looked back at surveillance tapes from the crime scenes. Today, they released these images of a middle-aged salaryman hacking at the flowers with his umbrella in front of a government building.

We don't know who he is yet, but I can make two immediate predictions about his motive: he was angry, or he hates tulips. Or both. At least he wasn't beheading dogs or little children.

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If Doraemon was a Real Cat...

If Doraemon was a real cat and not a robot, he'd look like this. What happened to this cat's ears?

The Little Japanese Kid Who Jumped Over a Car

Check out this video from Japan Probe of a little Japanese kid jumping over a car. Not as cool as Kobe Bryant jumping over a moving Aston Martin, but pretty damn ergonomic nonetheless.

Candid Photos of Godzilla with his Friends

This rare snapshot of Godzilla circa 1955 shows the not-so-giant monster getting ready for a shoot.

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Electric Boiler Makes Eggs to Order, 7 at a Time

This funny-looking chrome machine is an automatic egg boiler with easy settings and attachments for breakfast made to order. It's easy to set up—on/off, 10 minutes for soft boiled, 15 for hard-boiled—and a special tray for making three perfect poached eggs. (Continue reading for a picture.)

Odd Fetishist Sprays Bleach Marks on Women's Bottoms

Okay, I know people have weird obsessions, but this one's a first. In Sapporo, a mystery man has been spraying liquid bleach onto women's crotch areas in subways and shopping centers, leaving them befuddled with embarrassed in public. In the last month, there have been 15 attacks--last year around this time, there were several dozen which came to an abrupt halt when the media started reporting on it.

One woman noticed a strange guy putting a spray can into his pocket at the train station, then discovered a white stain on her pants minutes later. Yet another was at a department store when the store clerk said to her, "Your pants changed color." She didn't see anyone suspicious, but maybe that's because she was busy shopping.

Nobody knows who has been doing this, but perhaps more importantly, we have no idea why.

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Giant Subterranean Bicycle Parking Lot (Video)

Check out this amazing new bicycle parking lot near Kasai Station in Tokyo. It houses up to 9,400 bicycles in a giant subterranean vault 15 meters deep. You put your bike on a platform; seconds later, an elevator opens up and a robotic arm jumps out and pulls your bicycle in, taking it down into the lot's cylindrical dungeon. It looks like it would be a hassle and a total waste of time, but the reporter timed the whole operation, and it took only 23 seconds for the machine to identify, collect, and return his bicycle.

via Treehugger

My Below-the-Belt Prank Tutorial

I can't emphasize how much significance below-the-belt jokes play in Japanese humor. In America, they are often perceived as unnecessarily vulgar, or as a cheap way to spice up an otherwise stale joke. Not in Japan. Shimoneta are an integral part of the culture, without which the country will probably be overrun by robots.

Another critical element of interpersonal relationships in Japan is the below-the-belt PRANK. (No, not pantsing. That's way too simple and benign.) Today, let me introduce you to two of the most popular variations, one of which is displayed in the Doritos bag on your right.

Crocs Blamed for Escalator Accidents

Crocs + escalators = bad news.

Reports of over sixty instances of feet getting stuck on escalator grids since last summer led to an investigation into the safety of Crocs on escalators. Crocs are made of resin; they're soft, stretchy, and not very slippery on non-lubricated surfaces, like many escalators. And they're still relatively popular in Japan. One five year old girl broke her toe trying to get off of one when her foot got stuck in the side of it. Ouch.

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American Girl Goes to Japan to Commit Suicide

Skye Lynn Budnick is an American college student from Connecticut with dark brown hair and a pretty bad case of depression. When she disappeared on April 1st, family member checked her email inbox and found evidence that she had bought a one-way ticket to Hokkaido. They also found a suicide note addressed to one of her friends, saved as a draft. They're pretty sure she went to Japan to die, because she had told her sister in the past that that was what she wanted to do.

Her parents and sister flew to Hokkaido, got the US embassy involved, held a press conference, and are launching a full-scale search.

I wonder why Skye chose Japan as her final destination. Maybe she's heard stories of all the various ways that people commit suicide there, and was intrigued. Or maybe she just wanted to see the cherry blossoms, which bloom later this month in Hokkaido. Maybe she just likes manga and anime and Japanese men. Who knows? I hope they find her.

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Lunch Boxes Featuring Popular Album Covers

Check out these crazy, intricately made lunch boxes that mimic popular album covers from the US. Here's a replica of Public Enemy's Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age, made of seaweed, fish cakes, sour plum, and rice. Continue reading for a couple more pics.

Mario Theme Song With R/C Car and a Lot of Bottles

The Mario piano guy's blindfolded piano-playing skills are pretty amazing, but the Remote Control Mario Bottle guys are pretty damn talented, too. I want to know how these guys found such an empty parking lot to do this in.

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Johnny Bunko, A Career Guide in Manga Format by Dan Pink

Last month, I worked briefly with journalist Dan Pink on his book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. It's a fun, insightful career guide written in manga format authored by the guy who wrote the manga feature in Wired a few months ago. (I just wrote the sound f/x that are scattered throughout.) I recommend it even if you already have a cushy job you like, because the illustrations are fantastic and the advice is indispensable. Well, that, and Dan Pink is an awesome writer (he was Al Gore's speech writer a decade ago!) and if you can't get through a magazine article to save your life then you can at least read this manga.

Get your copy here.

60s Sci-Fi Anime by Tezuka Osamu

When Osamu Tezuka, the father of manga, died in 1989, nobody had a full archive of his works—at least not in English. But his genius was certainly recognized. Back in 1965, Stanley Kubrick even asked him to art direct 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Tezuka, a known workaholic, turned down the opportunity because he couldn't leave his studio for too long.) What was so important that he couldn't leave his studio for Kubrick?

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The Annual Stupid Robot Contest

The Stupid Robot Contest is an annual show held by Meiwa Electronics to determine whose robot is the silliest. There are just three criteria that a robot must meet in order to be entered in this contest:

1. It must be mechanical
2. It must be completely useless from a societal point of view.
3. It must make people laugh.

Pictured above is Papa Robopucho, a disfigured little box bot that plays the red-flag-white-flag game by himself, and then occasionally topples over and cries for help.

Some of the other contestants last year were a chorus of pregnant wife robots, a child robot that did push-ups, and and a "moe" robot dressed like a maid from a maid cafe.

Bacarobo.com via Impress Watch (Japanese)

Butt Pillow Promises to Make You Ass Tighter

This is the Easy Beautiful Butt Cushion made by a Japanese company called Cogit. It promises to turn your butt from flabby to tight—all you have to do is sit on it. I don't know why there is a hole in the middle, but apparently the cushioning is engineered to maximize butt beauty. Apparently it also helps posture and is pretty comfortable to sit on.

Cogit main page via Impress Watch (Japanese)

War Documentary Causes Controversy, Angers Protagonist

Last month, I blogged about Yasukuni, a powerful documentary about war memory by Chinese director Li Ying. It's a heated, opinionated look at the controversy surrounding ex-prime minister Koizumi's visit to the shrine that holds the ashes of WW2 criminals. It caused a stir when several Japanese movie theaters refused to air it, and again made headlines when several other Japanese movie theaters agreed to air it. Now, one of the main subjects in the film is demanding that he be taken out of the footage completely.

90-year old Naoji Kariya, who makes multiple appearances in the film as a talented sword maker who made WW2 weapons, feels he was deceived by Li and misrepresented in the movie. Kariya told Mainichi:

I was told that the film was a documentary about sword making. I cannot trust director Li Ying any more. I want my scenes deleted from the film.

Li says:

I gained Kariya's approval. If I cut his scenes, the film will be undercut and cannot be screened.

The jury's still out as to whether Li really tricked Kariya into being interviewed, and whether the film will be edited or removed entirely from theaters. One thing's for sure though—all this controversy has put Li on the map.

New Cell Phones Will Emit Fragrances

Japanese cell phones already do stuff like play crazy ring tones and double as wallets, but now they're also going to be giving off signature scents.

The new phones by NTT DoCoMo will be equipped with fragrance cartridges that are accessed by IR when you download a fragrance playlist onto your handset. The company hopes to partner with mobile content providers so that you can pair a scent with your horoscope, the weather report, your favorite web video, or some romantical music.

NTT Communications Press Release

Create Your Own QR Code With an Army of Little Robots

A company called Cross Borders Inc created a fun little program that lets you generate your own QR codes—a 3-dimensional bar code common that can be read by cell phone camera. All you have to do is enter a URL, and the service dispatches an army of little robots that start off standing at random but quickly start hopping into position until they make sense together and can be scanned by IR.

2008 Miss Universe Japan Dancing in a Bikini

Hiroko Mima, a 21-year old university student, won the Miss Universe Japan contest last week in Vietnam. Japan's been tearing up the contest over the past couple of years—Riyo Mori won first place last year, and Kurara Chibana (a national favorite) was the first runner up the year before. Let's see how Miss Mima does this summer.

When Riyo Mori was chosen to represent Japan last year, a lot of people weren't happy because she didn't exude the image of the quiet, beautiful, intelligent Japanese woman. In fact, the outgoing, stern-faced beauty proved herself to be a blatant airhead when she forgot to bring her passport on a trip during her stint in a beauty queen reality show.

Judging from this provocative performance, it doesn't look like Mima is exactly demure, either.

Photo gallery (via Mainichi)

Handheld Gadget Predicts Your Future

Ever wonder what your future holds? This little gadget, called the Futurescope, will tell you. Released by Asovision last week, the machine crosses a detailed personality analysis test with a measurement of your biorhythm and then spits out predictions about love, finance, career, etc.

It's a similar concept to the Human Player, which creates a mini-digital you based on personality tests.

 

Asovision main page

Garbagemen Find $100K, Turn it in to Cops

This is what an honest country Japan can be: garbage collectors found 10 million yen ($100K) in a discarded pot. Instead of keeping it for themselves, they contacted police and are now conducting a public search for its rightful owner.

Actually, they don't know it yet, but that cash was mine.

Mangobot: Japan Gears Up to Become A Full-On Robot Nation

On this week's Mangobot, I have a story about Japan's national plan to become a robot nation by 2010:

If you've noticed an unusually large number of utilitarian humanoids hailing from Japan in the last few years, then you probably won't be surprised to hear about the country's official robot initiative. Right now, Japan is in the midst of executing a grand plan to make robots an integrated part of everyday life. To compensate for the shortage of young workers willing to do menial tasks, the Japan Robot Association, the government, and several technology institutions drafted a formal plan to create a society in which robots live side by side with humans by the year 2010. Since 2010 is just a couple years away, I called up a roboticist at the forefront of this movement to find out how it's going.

Continue reading Japan Gears Up to Become a Full-On Robot Nation

Functional, Creative Barcode Drawings

Design company D-Barcode came up with these creative alternatives to the conventional bar code. These actually work, and are currently being used on products sold in grocery stores across the country. It's a great example of the attention to detail and intricacy that the Japanese are known for—even for things that ordinarily don't have any artistic value. More pics after the jump.

 

Praying Chihuahua Wants Food

Conan the chihuahua lives at an Okinawan temple and prays alongside its monks that he'll get lots of cookies for dinner.

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What Afghanistan Looks Like as a Cute Anime Girl

There's a wonderfully cute new manga series called Afganisu-tan featuring Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries as animated characters hanging out. Each strip comes with a quick explanation educating readers about the countries. Cute and educational—the best combo ever.

Afganisu-tan main page via Boing Boing

Yuko Shimizu Draws Colorful, Dramatic, Crazy Chicks

Yuko Shimizu is a cool Japanese artist who does these dramatic, colorful illustrations for hot shot clients like MTV, Pepsi, Playboy, and M.A.C. Cosmetics.