Just when we thought Japan is ready for world domination with their 1/1 scale Gundam, we have a $200,000 robot which prepares ramen at Yamanashi Eatery – Momozono Robot Ramen! The age of technology is certainly advancing. Soon we will have robots who can wash your toilets?
The ramen-making robot was built by 60-year-old shop owner Yoshihira Uchida, who spent about 20 million yen on its construction.

Customers can place their orders on a computer in the shop, choosing the various flavors they prefer. There are 40 million flavors permutations available O_O. …

Remember going to sushi restaurants/places with moving conveyor belts that deliver endless amount of food? Now you can have it right at home. Yes! Find joy in the Toy Sushi Train. XD

Epoch will officially unveil this toy sushi train later this month at the Tokyo Toy Show. Doubtfully slated for a US release (most probably because the train’s design wasn’t meant to accommodate several pounds of cow meat dipped in butter), the train is a replica of Japan’s famously fast N700 series Shinkansen.
Well this looks interesting though I don’t know …

So vending machine has cameras.. What do we have now? Vending Machines selling items to “hack” your own Nintendo DSL/DSi!
At just 8,000 yen, you can buy a R4 for your own Nintendo DS.

Check the words on the button of the vending machine(I know it’s small but..) – you can see that it’s SOLD OUT XD.
8,000 yen is expensive, I can probably get one here at half the price, that is if I ever get to find one. Haha. Shops are very secretive when selling illegal items. Because piracy is a …

Read an interesting article over at Danny Choo about how there are protests to the jury system being included in the Japanese legal system. I’m not familiar with Japanese law (or the American Legal system outside of Judge Judy and Law and Order), so I didn’t realize there wasn’t a jury system in Japan until this. And then suddenly it hit me….There’s no jury in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney!!! No wonder innocent people kept getting indicted by an old fart who you could probably bribe with cake. Instead of a …

Takuo Toda, head of the Japan Origami Airplane Association has set a new world record using his paper plane, of 27.9 seconds flight.

Toda’s record-breaking paper plane was made from one uncut sheet of paper, because he’s a pro, and professional origami airplane modelers would never stoop so far as to use scissors.
His paper plane is 10cm in length, about 4 inches long.
The plane may seem tiny, but then again, I’m no paper plane expert. I think my plane can’t even last 10 seconds for its flight XD.
Source: Gizmodo

Just when swine flu alert is going lower in Asia, Japan has been hit with the flu. A total of 283 cases(as of Thursday 21 May 2009) have been report in Japan alone. The first two cases of Swine Flu has been confirmed in Tokyo on Wednesday. Having reached Tokyo, one may wonder whether the flu would spread rapidly in Japan..
A 16-year-old girl in Hachioji, western Tokyo, was diagnosed with the new flu strain after coming back from a visit to New York from May 11 to 18, metropolitan …

Just when we thought there will be more death threats made against singers, we have the latest news – a flasher!
A man was arrested yesterday for obscenity in public after he reportedly flashed passengers aboard the JR Kagoshima Line.

Ishikawa, who told police he was unemployed and homeless, admitted to the charges, and was quoted as saying: “I got on the train with the intention of flashing someone.”
The conductors attempted to question Ishikawa about the flashing incident but he escaped at Spaceworld Station in Kitakyushu City, running for about 650 metres …

If you never knew your old stuff could be useful, think again. Odakyu department store recently had a promotion whereby customers could bring their old ladies shoes and trade in for a 1,050 yen coupon. The coupon can be used for customers to purchase new items. The department store had initially decided to hand out 20,000 coupons, but ended up giving out more than 150,000 of such coupons!
First such sales started in April 8-21 2009. Because of the huge succession of the first trade-in campaign, Odakyu decided to have another …

Another man has been arrested, this time for making death threats against Kumi Koda. He posted death threats on Koda’s record company blog using his mobile phone. The man, Yusuke Nozaki, aged 31, was arrested on a charge of blackmail. He has admitted to the allegation, saying that he wanted to kill Kumi Koda, and then himself.

‘‘I will ‘assassinate’ her on the Shinkansen platform of Kyoto Station,’’ another post by Nozaki, a company employee in Saitama Prefecture, was quoted as saying. The record company called the Shibuya Police Station …