Posts Tagged ‘otaku’

Kiss Transmission Device

Diginfo shows us a “kiss transmission device” that is being developed by the Kajimoto Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications:

“This device is for communications within the mouth, in other words, the goal is to obtain the feeling of kissing.”

“If you take one device in your mouth and turn it with your tongue, the other device turns in the same way. If you turn it back the other way, then your partner’s turns back the same way, so your partner’s device turns whichever way your own device turns.”

[...]

“For example, if you have a popular entertainer use this device and record it, that could be hugely popular if you offer it to fans.”

“The elements of a kiss include the sense of taste, the manner of breathing, and the moistness of the tongue. If we can recreate all of those I think it will be a really powerful device.”

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Tiger Mask Hero Helps Japanese Orphanages

Something very cool has been happening in Japan in the last few weeks. Someone, or several people, have been making donations of toys and school supplies to orphanages in the name of Naoto Date, the main character of “Tiger Mask,” an anime series that aired in the 1960′s:

In the popular animation, Naoto Date was an orphan who grew up in a welfare facility and donated money to the facility after becoming a professional wrestler.

“I suspect that someone around his 50s or so, had similar experience with Tiger Mask and sent the gifts for us. We don’t plan to search for him, out of respect for his feelings,” Matsuba said.

After the gifts were reported in December, child welfare facilities in Kanagawa, Nagano, Gifu, Okinawa Prefectures have received school bags or donations from “Naoto Date,” one after another.

The latest donation, a set of 7 pricey randoseru school packs, was made to an orphanage in Nagasaki. A note attached to the donation said it was from “Nagasaki’s Naoto Date (hibakusha).” The person who left the boxes was apparently an older woman:

The geographic spread of the donations seems to indicate that there are several people acting in the name of Naoto Date. All the press coverage given to the donations is probably helping inspire copycats.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the “Tiger Mask” anime, here’s it’s opening sequence:

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Michael Moore visits a maid cafe in Akihabara

Shinichi Karube of “Mezamashi TV” takes American director Michael Moore on a tour of Akihabara:

Part 1

Michael Moore is amused with the crowd of onlookers taking photos of himself and Karube. He borrows a camera from one onlooker so he can take the onlooker’s photo. He then asks to call the guy’s dad, who is a reporter for the Sankei Shimbun (FTV is part of the same media group). The father cannot speak English, but Moore attempts a conversation anyway.

Upon seeing a man wearing a mask, Moore decides to give a lecture on why it is good for us as humans to breath in germs and get a stronger immune system. The lecture doesn’t seem to have much effect.

They move on to a figure shop. Moore ignores the figures and buys some wire instead.

Next, they interview a Japanese gyaru. She had never heard of Michael Moore, which gives the show an opportunity to air some clips further introducing Moore’s achievements to the audience at home. The gyaru and her friend had just come from a maid cafe….

Part 2 (The maid cafe)

Moore and Karube go to Akihabara’s famous @home maid cafe. Moore does not seem to enjoy the servility of the maids and fears that it is some sort of pedo business that will soon be raided by the police.

Before leaving, Moore apparently comments on his opposition to Obama’s Afghanistan policy. He then reminds Karube that masks are bad and germs are good. Teenage girls are to be avoided.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Street Computing

Supposedly there is a small community of Japanese computer enthusiasts who like to carry around their notebook computers so they can get some “street computing” done while walking (or even riding bicycles!):

Some people say they are programming, while others are blogging. Two guys say that Twitter is responsible for turning them on to street computing.

If you think this sounds too ridiculous to be true, you’re not alone. A lot of the comments left by Japanese netizens on this YouTube video are calling this out as staged (yarase) news reporting.

[via Watashi to Tokyo]

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Cute military anime girl cookies

A feature on some of the cool things for sale at the gift shop of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force PR Center in Asaka:

The most popular product appears to be cute anime SDF girl cookies. They come in three flavors: cheese for the GSDF, milk for the MSDF, and honey for the ASDF. There are also cute moe girl figures representing each branch of service.

Those looking for a more manly souvenir can buy a box of dangerous snacks. Mixed among the normal snacks in each box is one single extremely spicy snack.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Otaku Rooms

An NTV “Zoom In” news report about the popularity of anime in the United States visits the home of an American otaku to see his treasures:

It’s John Patterson, a 42-year-old employee of Media Blasters. Patterson has a collection of some 8,000 items, totaling close to 50 million yen in value.

Similarly impressive otaku rooms can be found in the Otacool database on Figure.fm (which has been released as a bilingual book).

—
The rest of the news report, showing some fans at the NY Anime Festival:

The clip shows Americans learning manga drawing techniques, and representative from Del Rey Manga mentions how many new American comic books are heavily influenced by Japanese anime and manga. They also interview a few fans and find out about how they find the themes of friendship and loyalty present in anime stories to be very appealing. A few cosplayers also say they want to live in Japan.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)