by Schnobe
pink tentacle
- Snow sculptures at Sapporo Snow Festival 2010This year’s Sapporo Snow Festival kicked off last weekend, bringing hundreds of massive snow sculptures into the streets of Japan’s northern capital. Here’s a look at some of the works on display at the event, which runs until February 11. + Video Hatsune Miku [Photo by kamemaruk] Michael Jackson [Photo by tmaeda_japan] Frauenkirche (The Church of Our [...]
- Monster illustrations from ‘Yokai Jiten’Here’s a peek at a few creatures profiled in Yōkai Jiten (“Yōkai Encyclopedia”), an informative guide to 100 of Japan’s traditional monsters, written and illustrated by manga artist Shigeru Mizuki in 1981. Suiko [+] The suiko (lit. “water tiger”) is a king-sized variety of kappa living in and around the Chikugo River (Kyushu), Lake Biwa (Shiga [...]
- Video: Star Wars disco sea chickenHagoromo canned tuna (a.k.a. “sea chicken”) commercial, circa 1978. + Video [Via MetaFilter]
- Now hiring part-time cadaver cleanersWant to earn 50,000 yen ($550) a day? If you have a strong stomach, you might consider a part-time job washing cadavers in Japan. Strapped for cash? Rumors about the existence of lucrative cadaver-washing jobs have circulated on Japanese college campuses for over 50 years. For the most part, these stories are regarded as urban legends, and [...]
- ‘Bad Apple!!’ stop-motion animation“Bad Apple!!” is a magical piece of stop-motion animation made from 6,566 still photos of printed bitmaps. + Video The creator, Nico Nico Douga user “shige-ruuu,” says he made the video without using photo-editing software. The images were captured with a webcam, and the effects were achieved by changing the camera position and adjusting the focus, brightness, [...]
- Illustrations of future robots (1969)“Robot Age,” a series of illustrations published by Shōnen Sunday magazine in 1969, offers a glimpse into a utopian future populated by sophisticated robots. Robot workers [View full image] In the coming Robot Age, assembly lines will be manned by tireless robot workers. Once the robots start building newer and better versions of themselves, the need [...]
- Secrets of the Tokyo undergroundA vast subway system, extensive subterranean shopping arcades and miles of pedestrian tunnels make Tokyo’s underground city a hotbed of human activity — and a fertile source of mystery and intrigue. Here is a look at six of the most persistent rumors to emerge from beneath the city’s streets. * * * * * Rumor #1: Government [...]
- ‘Desert Eyeball’ manga by Maki Sasaki (1970)“Desert Eyeball” (砂漠の眼玉 – Sabaku no Medama), a deliciously nonsensical one-shot manga by Maki Sasaki, appeared in the August 1970 issue of Garo magazine. [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [See also: 'A Dream To Have In Heaven' by Maki Sasaki (1967)]
- ‘Ririkan’ fast-food mystery meatWhether it’s genetically-modified mutant chickens or burgers made of eyeballs, tales of tainted fast food are favorite fodder for urban legends. In Japan, one juicy rumor claims that a popular gyūdon (beef on rice) restaurant chain secretly substitutes its beef with the meat of the ririkan, a type of giant rat from Australia. Where’s the beef? Considering [...]
- Diego-san humanoid robot babyResearchers from the Machine Perception Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego have teamed up with Japanese robotics firm Kokoro Co., Ltd. to create a sophisticated humanoid robot modeled after a 1-year-old child. The baby robot — named “Diego-san” — is designed to help researchers study how infants develop motor skills during the [...]