Christmas: Shibuya 109 style

Freed of its weighty Christian implications (since most Japanese people are not Christian), Christmas in Japan has morphed into a high-pressure romantic extravaganza (have a date or feel pathetic and depressed) marked by expensive dates and present exchange between young couples.

Christmas illuminations (light displays), which go up as early as the end of October, play a big part in this, as one part of the Christmas date might include going to see the lights and maybe a little shopping. Catering to a moneyed (or would like to be) crowd, the displays at Tokyo’s upscale shopping malls typically endeavor to create images of sophistication and refinement. Take this Swarovski display at Omotesando Hills for example:

Meanwhile rival crystal company Baccarat does the display for Ebisu Garden Place. How would you feel if your boyfriend took you to the place that puts out the same light-up plastic Santa every year? Right, you get the point.

Teen fashion mecca Shibuya 109, though similarly intent on conveying wealth and glamour, however, wants nothing to do with refinement. Presenting Shibuya 109 “Xmas in Las Vegas!”

The ideal behind “real fashion” shopping complexes like Shibuya 109 that carry almost entirely trendy domestic labels is that they project an image of giving young shoppers what they really want, with a “by girls for girls” attitude, and thus stand in contrast to the imposing luxury malls and their unattainable foreign goods.

Linking Christmas with Sin City may seem inappropriate, however, I’m sure cynics would agree that 109 hits the mark in depicting the contemporary commercial Christmas experience.

Come on girls! Time to start looking for that perfect Christmas date dress!

Giant Crystal Cave

The Naica Mine of Chihuahua, Mexico, is a working mine that is known for its extraordinary crystals. Naica is a lead, zinc and silver mine in which large voids have been found, containing crystals of selenite (gypsum) as large as 4 feet in diameter and 50 feet long. The chamber holding these crystals is known as the Crystal Cave of Giants, and is approximately 1000 feet down in the limestone host rock of the mine. The crystals were formed by hydrothermal fluids emanating from the magma chambers below. The cavern was discovered while the miners were drilling through the Naica fault, which they were worried would flood the mine. The Cave of Swords is another chamber in the Naica Mine, containing similar large crystals.

The Naica mine was first discovered by early prospectors in 1794 south of Chihuahua City. They struck a vein of silver at the base of a range of hills called Naica by the Tarahumara Indians. The origin in the Tarahumara language seems to mean “a shady place”. Perhaps here in the small canyon there was a grove of trees tucked away by a small canyon spring.

For More Information go to NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

It’s “the Sistine Chapel of crystals,” says Juan Manuel García- Ruiz. The geologist announced this week that he and a team of researchers have unlocked the mystery of just how the minerals in Mexico’s Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) achieved their monumental forms. Buried a thousand feet (300 meters) below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for the Industrias Peñoles company in 2000. To learn how the crystals grew to such gigantic sizes, García-Ruiz studied tiny pockets of fluid trapped inside.

The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons.The crystals, he said, thrived because they were submerged in mineral-rich water with a very narrow, stable temperature range – around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius). At this temperature the mineral anhydrite, which was abundant in the water, dissolved into gypsum, a soft mineral that can take the form of the crystals in the Naica cave. (text by Discovery News and National Geographic)

Cosmic Snowglobe

Like a whirl of shiny flakes sparkling in a snow globe, Hubble catches an instantaneous glimpse of many hundreds of thousands of stars moving about in the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky. This glittering metropolis of stars is easily found in the winter sky in the constellation Hercules and can even be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

M13 is home to over 100,000 stars and located at a distance of 25,000 light-years. These stars are packed so closely together in a ball, approximately 150 light-years across, that they will spend their entire lives whirling around in the cluster.

Near the core of this cluster, the density of stars is about a hundred times greater than the density in the neighborhood of our sun. These stars are so crowded that they can, at times, slam into each other and even form a new star, called a “blue straggler.” (text by Hubble Site)

USB Air Conditioned Shirt from Kuchofuku

The USB Air Conditioned Shirt is a fantastic invention for hot days! USB- fans blowing fresh air into the shirt. Best cooling effect – Made in Japan. Featured in press and gadget blogs.

Included in delivery:
1 Eco Wear shirt, Size XL (Japanese XL)

Specifications:
Size: XL 126/45,
Fans: 1,2 W
Weight: 325 g
Material: 80% Polyester, 20% Cotton

Weekly ROBOZAK (RZ-1): Build Your Own Programmable Robot…with a Magazine?

Just announced today from publisher DeAGOSTINI, the “Weekly ROBOZAK” magazine will be available from January 9th. The concept has been tried before, is bold as hell, and will require serious commitment on the behalf of subscribers, but we can’t help but feel enthusiasm and admiration for it.

Simply put, every week for eighty weeks you get a new issue of the magazine, which includes a new part and instructions on how to apply it to your robot, dubbed the RZ-1. There will also be lots of other info and articles related to the project, its participants, and the future of it.

The first issue will be available from January 9th for 790 Yen, and you’ll be able to build the forearm of the left arm. Every following issue of ROBOZAK will be 1990 Yen. At eighty issues, that brings our grand total to 158,000 Yen, or $1,370 in today’s dollars (not eighty-four weeks from now dollars). An expensive price tag, but doing it on the installment plan like this brings perspective. It’s steep, but you’re paying for the experience as much as you are a kickass robot. Watch the video!

The RZ-1 is a completely programmable, 12-inch tall robot that can do much of what we’ve seen from the VSTONE robots we covered here, with full 360-degree action. It can walk, climb stairs, do lots of fighting moves, cartwheels, and all kinds of other things we here at CScout Japan would never try to do on our own.

RZ-1’s base is the ROBONOVA-I, and it allows the RZ-1 to be easily controlled via infrared remote. We aren’t sure yet whether mobile phones will be able to control it, but that would be cool of course. With the included CD-Rom, it’s possible to create your own moves and combinations together, and then upload them onto the RZ-1.

Specifications:
- Size: 310×180x90mm
- Weight: 1.3kg
- Torque: 7.4kg/cm
- Charge Time: 1 hour, with 40- 60 minutes of action
- Battery: Nickel Hydrogen

All in all, it seems to be great for beginners especially, but has a *bit* of a slow pace to it. It’s tough to imagine snapping two parts together and then waiting a week, and once it really gets going people are going to really want it all…like…NOW!

Nissan Dualis Powered Suit in Ginza

We finally got down to the Nissan showroom in Ginza to see the Dualis Powered Suit, and (as you you can see) it’s pretty darn cool.

According to Danny Choo, the Powered Suit was designed by Shoji Kawamori, creator of characters for the anime series’ Macross, Ghost in the Shell, Eureka Seven, Aquarion and Patlabor. Basically, it’s what the real Dualis would look like on Transformer steroids, and with really cool detail. More pics after the jump…

Now, if we can get all of the car makers to anime-up their cars, we can see what happens when a Prius battles a Pino. Fight!

– Tokyo International Robot Exhibition 2007

We headed out to the Tokyo Big Sight to check out the 2007 International Robot Exhibition this weekend, and made sure to take a bunch of photos and some video as well.

The exhibition is typically a mix of industry, lifestyle, and toy gadgetry and allows the public to see up close what they typically only see on the news. After all, robots are a source of national pride in Japan for a number of reasons we won’t go into here.

Highlights included police robots, a (kind of creepy) dental training robot, a two-wheeled gyroscope balanced table, and the Robo-One Grand Championship. Consumer offerings were light, but those typically come out at the Tokyo Toy Show anyway.

For now, check out the video and photos below, and be sure to click the jump to see more…

Be@rbrick and Fox promotion with Pepsi NEX

Pepsi NEX, the zero-calorie cola taking on Coke’s Zero offering, is now doing a collaboration with MediCom and their Be@rbrick line.

The collaboration is also with 20th Century Fox, with each figure (12 total) modeled on one of Fox’s movies or TV shows, ranging from Fight Club (I am Jack’s shameless promotion.) toPrison Break. Each one comes with a clasp, making them perfect candidates for cell phone straps. Some of the pieces are pretty tame (The Day After Tomorrow?), but several are quite cool, especially the ones for Predator, Die Hard, and Planet of the Apes.

Pepsi NEX drinkers can also enter to win the dvds for the promoted Fox items by sending in labels from Pepsi, though it’s hard to say whether the Be@rbrick for Night at the Museum is cooler than the actual movie.

You can get your own Be@rbrick Jack Bauer, Michael Scoffield, or Prada-wearing Devil attached to Pepsi NEX bottles until the end of this month.

Solar panel mobile phone strap gets you extra time

Cell phone batteries always die at the worst possible times (usually when you’re about to meet someone), but there are more and more options to give your digital leash a few extra miles.

Of course there are now back-up power packs that can be attached as a phone strap, but these need to be independently charged. The Solar Charge ec from Strap-Ya is a battery pack with an embedded solar panel that charges it during your everyday life as it dangles on your phone. Six hours of sunlight will get you about thirty-five minutes of use, which is just enough to use your GPS navigation to get home and charge it the way you forgot to do the night before.

Unless your phone is from Japan this is useless to you, but you can pick one up for about $17.

LEDUBE LED Lego-like building blocks

If you had as many Legos as I did when you were a kid, and you love LED lighting as much as I do, the LEDUBE from Sankoflex should satisfy you to no end. We came across these at the Japan Shop Expo last month and got a peek at how they work as well.

LEDUBEs are LED cubes that can be stacked on each other to create any shape that you desire, including massive structures such as the display booth Sankoflex was using at the expo. Each cube can create 2.1 million colors and, while working together, display amazing moving graphics and video.

All of the content is created on a PC with software, and then loaded into the system with an SD card. Quite simple for the effect produced, but the LEDUBE don’t come cheap either. While they aren’t available for sale yet, the entire display system shown here costs about $4,800 per day, plus $2,400 in programming costs.

Be sure to check out the LEDUBE homepage to get more info. In general we came across a great deal of very innovative LED lighting solutions for both home and retail, from floor displays that play video to incredibly thin tiles that can be used in walls. Japan has always been ahead in LEDs, but there’s a lot going on right now that will change the way we light all of our spaces.

Luxury toilet from Inax plays music, illuminates

If it is possible for a toilet to be sexy, this one just might be. The Regio from Inax, planned for a June release is designed to grace the dressing room or powder room of the most discerning consumer.

Completely silent, except for the soft relaxing music that plays when the seat lifts, this tankless toilet uses a combination of water and air power for soundless, water-saving flushing. Jazz pianist Yoshiko Kishino contributed an original compositions for the toilet, um, soundtrack.

Of course the Regio comes with all the standard washlet functions, like the bidet and bum cleaning sprays from hidden nozzles, that have made Japanese toilets world famous (and made toilets a suitable subject for the travel photo slideshow). Other premium features includea mechanism that emits germ killing ions (courtesy of Sharp), an illuminated toilet bowl, and an extra wide seat for increased comfort.

This sports car of a toilet sells for a cool ¥462,000 (brilliant white) or ¥556,500 (noble black). If you consider, however, that most Tokyoites use the toilet far more than they would a car, its not a bad choice.

HomeStar Spa planetarium from Sega Toys

UPDATE#2: JapanTrendShop now carries the Homestar Spa.

UPDATE: The even newer Homestar EX!

It’s been awhile, but we’re finally getting a nice update to the immensely popular Homestar “Home Planetarium” series from Sega Toys.

After the original Homestar became so popular, the much-improved Homestar Pro and the portable Homestar Pure hit the market. However, aside from some special editions, there hasn’t been an update in over a year.

Coming soon, the Homestar Spa is a home planetarium for your bathroom!

Homestar Spa is combining elements of popular ambient and bath toys for adults (JapanTrendShop has tons), with waterproof design and additional projection elements such as “flowers” and “kaleidoscope“.

While not yet out on the market, HomeStar Spa will be debuting at the upcoming Tokyo Toy Show, and we’ll be there as always for in-depth coverage of this year’s latest gadgets and toys, including plenty of photos and video.

Honda Super Cub 50th anniversary edition

Honda’s iconic Super Cub turns 50 this year and to celebrate the momentous birthday of the top selling motorbike of all time (over 60 million world wide), Honda is releasing a special limited anniversary edition.

The 49cc Cub has undergone numerous updates over the decades and this latest edition will feature the latest engineering and an exclusive color scheme. The Super Cub comes in graphite black with a royal brown seat and the Little Cub in pearl coral reef blue with a reed red seat; both models will feature side covers emblazoned with “50th anniversary.” Available from August 1st, the Super retails for a modest ¥204,750 (about $1,905) and the Little for ¥210,000 (about $1,954).

While Honda’s Cub is used primarily as a leisure bike in the West, in Japan it was originally designed for the service delivery industry. Thanks to its cheap maintenance, easy maneuvering, and high fuel efficiency, the Cub remains a staple of urban life in Japan, perhaps most recognizably as the official mode of transportation of the Post Service.

BBF blackbird, fly TLR camera from Superheadz

In the last few years, the Lomography movement has gained a lot of traction in Japan. First beginning in novelty shops like Village Vanguard, we started seeing pinholes, Holgas, Horizons, LCAs, and other unique cameras popping up in bookstores, cafes, and even major retailers like Yodobashi Camera. Film has become fashionable now that digital cameras have freed up cheap film cameras to be used for fun and experimenting with different films, techniques, and developing methods.

Coming soon from the film lovers at Japan’s Superheadz, the blackbird, fly is a twin-lens reflex camera that fits right into the retro film trend and has great design that would fit right in at a trendy lifestyle store in Tokyo.

Priced at less than $100 Priced at ￥12,600, these limited edition Rolleiflex lookalikes shoot square images on 35mm rather than 120 (medium format) film, making development costs (and cheap scanning at home) less of an issue.

For those interested, Japan Trend Shop now carries the Blackbird, fly camera since it’s unavailable outside of Japan.

Ply design phone from au packs projector

While some phones are making music down at the KDDI Designing Studio, the Ply concept phone from Hideo Kanbara might just be a step towards bringing the office with us.

Ply’s name is taken from the design of multilayered plywood, and each layer has its own very distinct function, ranging from a photo printer to game controller to mini digital projector.

This is of course a concept only, but in this day and age does it seem out of reach? With all the amazing games available on Japanese handsets, the controller layer is a definite plus, though it would be even better to have a wireless version to use while using the built in projector!

If you want to see Ply in person it’s on display down at the KDDI Designing Studio in Harajuku, most likely until the end of the month. If you want this in your pocket, you’ll probably have to wait a little while.

Ply design phone from au packs projector

While some phones are making music down at the KDDI Designing Studio, the Ply concept phone from Hideo Kanbara might just be a step towards bringing the office with us.

Ply’s name is taken from the design of multilayered plywood, and each layer has its own very distinct function, ranging from a photo printer to game controller to mini digital projector.

This is of course a concept only, but in this day and age does it seem out of reach? With all the amazing games available on Japanese handsets, the controller layer is a definite plus, though it would be even better to have a wireless version to use while using the built in projector!

If you want to see Ply in person it’s on display down at the KDDI Designing Studio in Harajuku, most likely until the end of the month. If you want this in your pocket, you’ll probably have to wait a little while.