Archive for June, 2009

Emotional Robot KOBIAN

Meet KOBIAN, a creepy new Japanese robot that show “emotions” with its face:

The robot is installed with 48 “actuators” which allow its face and body to move in a variety of ways.

It shows happiness by opening its eyes and mouth wide and raising its arms, and sorrow by drooping its head and covering its eyes.

The robot’s hands are covered with a soft material which is supposed to replicate the feeling of a human hand.

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Toilet Training Anime

Behold, the newest edition of the Shimajiro toilet training cartoon for Japanese children [translated by Benjamin of Benz Babbles blog]:

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Canadian Sings Theme for a Japanese Anime

For some people, including this post’s sad-sack of an author, singing in a foreign language is easy compared to actually speaking it. It’s an interesting phenomenon. So my heart goes out to this Canadian who is working hard to become a J-pop idol.

Catherine St-Onge, stage name HIMEKA, is an incredibly good singer of Japanese songs. So much so that she recently won an Animax contest. Here is the subtitled footage:

And here is the theme song she was given the opportunity to sing as a reward for winning the contest:

If you have a dream and a mic, lots of things are possible.
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Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic, and vlogs on YouTube as well.
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Mosquito noisemaker fails to stop teen vandals

On May 21st, a park in Tokyo installed a “mosquito” noisemaker to drive away teenagers and prevent vandalism. The rare device drew some tourists to the area, but it failed to stop vandals from smashing a toilet:

The broken toilet, which was discovered on the morning of June 21, appears to have been smashed with a baseball bat. Spent bottle rockets were also found at the site.

Surveillance camera footage showed what appeared to be as many as seven teenagers hanging out in the park in the early morning hours of June 21, while the Mosquito was in operation. Authorities were unable to determine whether the teens in the video were responsible for the vandalism.

The park official shown in the video clip claims that the mosquito device, which was installed near the entrance to the men’s bathroom, may not have had the range to effectively stop vandals from hitting the women’s bathroom. He says that other security measures, such as neighborhood patrols, must also be used to protect the area.

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Japanese Car Tree

A car tree in Ageo, Saitama:

Apparently a bird dropped a seed into a junkyard 25 years ago and a Japanese hackberry tree began to grow there, eventually lifting an old car into the air. Branches of the tree grew through holes in old car doors, lifting those as well. Workers at the junkyard have built a small fence around the tree, and are protecting it as it continues to grow.

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Ordinary North Koreans know about Kim Jong-un

Reporters for FTV ask North Koreans if they know about the decision to make Kim Jong-un successor to the DPRK regime:

Both the people on the other side of a border fence and a North Korean restaurant in China are aware of Kim Jong-un’s new position. The soldier farmers at the border also know their country has nuclear weapons, and shout that anyone who starts a war with North Korea will be killed.

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