Category: Japan

Ramen In Space

I remember seeing the famous Israeli milk ad that was filmed on board of the MIR space station when I was at an airport in Japan. Talk about surreal! A little while ago I posted an article about the instant noodles that were made especially for the Japanese astronaut on board the space shuttle Discovery. Now there looks like there will be yet another out of this world noodle dish avaliable for us Earthbound consumers.

Starting next month, Nissin Food Products will shoot a promotional spot on the International Space Station for Cup Noodle, featuring a sales pitch by a hungry Russian cosmonaut.
The commercial will air in Japan in November as part of Nissin’s “Cup Noodle No Border” campaign,.
Space Films will send a high-def camera to the space station aboard a Russian rocket launch Oct. 1 and direct the filming from Russia’s Mission Control Center outside Moscow.
If you’re looking for extraterrestrial publicity, the agency will be leaving the camera at the space station in the hope of shooting more advertisements.

Ramen noodles shoots ad in space

SharpUX-MF40CL “Miracle” Series

Talk about all your eggs in one basket!

-USB or network connectivity
-Printer
-Fax
-Copier
-Scanner
-PDF creation
-Scan to emai
-Document feeder
-Cordless phone base station
-Memory card slot
-PictBridge
-Synchronizing with a mobile phone

It might only work in Japan (I think the landline phone standards are a bit different there) but still, it would be an amazing chunk of technology to have in your home office.

Sharp’s kitchen sink

Armored Gallery

I just discovered that AirSoft pistols can be be bought at my local swapmart. Now I’ve been bitten by the ‘cool plastic gun’ bug. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Japan!

“Bringing out the aggressor that’s hidden deep inside you” is the theme of the Armored Gallery. It sells the most realistic and expensive airsoft guns ever. Guns are illegal in Japan, and maybe that is part of the fascination. Entering this store is like walking into a Wal-Mart in the middle of the US with racks and racks of guns. They look so real; it is hard to believe that people only use them to play mock military-stytle games.

[via Cool Hunting]
ARMORED GALLERY

Superstar – ???????

A cool game based on the phone and photo booth technology of Japan.
The idea of the game is pretty simple:

Goal: Get points by shooting the stickers of other players and by having other players shoot your own.

I don’t think there is any other place on the planet where this game could be easily played. Oh sure, you could try it in L.A. or New York but finding the Puri Kura sticker machines might be a little tough. And then you have the problem with taking photos of the stickers, how many cell phones in the US have a macro mode?!? Not saying that it’d impossible, just harder. I hope to see someone try this her in the states.
The mechanics of the game are pretty cool, once you shoot a photo of the players sticker (the stickers have to have a star on them to show that its in the game) and automated system matches it with the right player in the database.

[via we-make-money-not-art]
superstar – ???????

The Japanese Bath

The ofuro or bathtub is an important part of Japanese culture. It’s not just about getting clean (you do that before you enter that bath) its about relaxing and contemplating the events of the day. I hope to someday have one in my home. Over at Amazon you can pick up a book on them, “The Japanese Bath” is a book by Bruce Smith and Yoshiko Yamamoto and is packed with history, color photos of the baths and even why the selection of the wood used to build them is so important. Priced at $14.95, it is an easy buy. Once you see the baths you will know why these are part of their society.

[via metaefficient]
Amazon.com: Books: The Japanese Bath