TOKYOMANGO

Carnimals—Alien Vehicles that Run for 100 Light Years

Let me introduce you to the world of Carnimals. This is a new line of toys from Megahouse, and—like most great products created for pure entertainment—has a fun backstory. Carnimals are actually alien life forms from a planet called Sua. On Sua, Carnimals coexist happily and peacefully with spacemen. They're actually living vehicles, not animals, and they're fueled by the mysterious Anima spirit that lives in the Sua Forest. They have a lifespan of 100 light years.

Product page (Japanese)

New Nissan Rogue Ad

Check out this new Nissan Rogue ad from Chiat Day (ad agency in LA). Apparently they spent 8-months—which included a photo shoot in Mexico—to perfect it. You've probably seen it already if you're a Heroes fanatic like me.

Do you guys remember this tilting marble game? It's really hard for a marble, imagine what it's like for a SUV maneuvering through crowded city streets.

Anyway, the ad is awesome and you should watch it.

Watch the ad

Dumped Bicycles Reimagined for Free Commute

Looks like Nagoya's gotten one step closer to becoming an awesome city like Amsterdam. No, not coffee shops with good weed. Bicycles! A professor at a local university's environmental studies department is setting up three bicycle stations throughout the city for people to dump their wheels, or to pick one up when needed.

This kind of arrangement would never work in a city like San Francisco, where bicycles are stolen left and right, but the project's planners are optimistic about its success in Japan.

Link

New DIY Kit Makes Little Car Run on Windpower

Tamiya and Loopwing's DIY wind power generator set lets you create your very own clean energy at home for just $30. It takes about a half hour to assemble the parts—2 gears, a capacitor, the steering, etc. on the little car, and the windmill charging station. Once that's done, you just have to stick the thing outside your window and let it charge up. It's also small and portable enough that you could even go for a jog with it, expediting the charge process.

5 minutes of exposure to 5mi/sec winds will give you 3.5 hours of running time. It's a cool little toy, the concept could lead to much more useful/diverse uses of wind power in the near future.

Product page (via Impress Watch, in Japanese)

China Airlines Update: They Repainted the Plane

Look! They painted the plane! Embarrassed and shamed by the negative media coverage that has been bombarding the brand since the post-landing explosion yesterday, China Airlines hired some painters to paint over the plane's logo to make it a generic white aircraft. I don't know why it makes a difference, since pics of the original wreckage are all over the news already anyway. But whatever. The airline's official stance is this: "We followed international procedures. We do not have detailed information."

Smart.

Link
Related article: China Airlines Plane Explodes in Okinawa

China Airlines Plane Explodes in Okinawa

Note to self: China Airlines planes sometimes explode upon arrival. This one, which arrived into Okinawa's Naha airport this morning around 10:30, burst into flames just minutes after its 157 passengers had disembarked. They think that maybe fuel leaked from the engine and caught on fire.

One more pic after the jump.

Fastest Bullet Train Ever Unveiled

The new bullet train Type N700, which goes from Tokyo to Osaka in 2 hours and 25 minutes, was unveiled today at Shinagawa Station. That's five minutes faster than the previous record holder, and probably the fastest train in the whole world.

POP QUIZ:
Does anyone know how many miles it is from Tokyo to Osaka?

First person to find out, calculate the speed of this train, and leave it in the comments will get a prize from the Mango stash! (I'm just too lazy to do the math right now!) Don't forget to leave a source so I can fact-check you.

Toyota's New Hybrid X Concept Car

Toyota just unveiled its new Hybrid X concept car. It looks like a Prius from the future, and has an internal interface that controls lighting, music and smell. Yep, smell. It has a perfume diffuser so you don't have to hang those silly tree-shaped smelly things from your rear-view mirror. Read more about it here.

 

New Panasonic Hipster Electric Bike

Panasonic's Cycle Web Studio is releasing a new electric bicycle that combines hipster street fashion with motocross style. For this project, Panasonic teamed up with Harajuku fashion brand Beams to release just 200 limited edition units, in orange and green, purchasable only from their "bikes are cool and so are we" Cycle Studio Web site. The bikes are 22x63 inches and weigh 44lbs. They run on nickel metal hydride batteries which last almost 2 hours--that'll take you approximately 20 miles.

Five Birds' Eggs in a Spare Tire

When government officials in Shizuoka headed over to their RV to monitor the beaches earlier this weekend, they found a white wagtail nest had been built inside the spare tire. The Japanese value nature as much as they love their cell phones, so the municipal government there decided to put this vehicle out of commission until after the eggs have hatched and the babies have left the nest. Cute huh! Well, plus I think this is a pretty cool photo.

Link

The Bullet Train Twins Get To Work

Hikari and Nozomi are 20-year old Japanese twins who just graduated from a technical college in Tokyo and started working for Japan Railways in the Tokai long distance train division.

By pure coincidence or destiny, these two girls are named after two of the fastest express trains in the world. The Hikari and Nozomi Express are both bullet trains on the Tokai line that take you from Tokyo to places like Osaka, Nagoya, and Hiroshima. (Actually, the Nozomi is the super express train, and the Hikari makes more stops along the way, so it's not as fast.)

Nozomi claims she wanted to be a Nozomi driver since kindergarten, and Hikari plans to become a Hikari ticket-seller and then, eventually, a Hikari driver.

Link