Awesome Japan

During Japan’s RoboCon 2018, high school students presented their designs for single-purpose robots made specifically to toss bottles filled with liquid, and land them perfectly with way more consistency than most humans could. There’s bottle-flipping action here.

This mirror-image video made from footage along one of Tokyo’s rail lines is more than a little reminiscent of Darwinfish105’s HyperDrive and the Tokyo Sky Drive series, but its slower and more relaxed pace lets us check out more detail of the surrounding environment.

Nowhere are KitKat candy bars more popular than they are in Japan. So we can think of no better place to see how the treats are made, then at the Nestlé Japan Kasumigaura factory. After viewing the whole playlist, we wondered if we just watched a Wes Anderson movie.

Drivetribe shares the mythical story of Japan’s most infamous street racing group, the Mid Night Club. Founded in 1987, the club was allegedly composed of rich businessmen and had strict requirements and rules about speed, skill, and safety.

The Atlantic shares Edwin Lee’s beautiful documentary, Wasabia Japonica. It’s about Shigeo Iida, a 75-year-old who’s an eighth generation wasabi farmer. Most “wasabi” is actually dyed horseradish. Iida’s crop is the real deal, and fetches up to $250/kg.

This robot kit from Japanese toymaker Tamiya lets you build a creepy crawly insect inspired by real-life giant centipedes. This 15″ long critter isn’t quite as indimidating as the real deal thanks to its blue body, but anything with this many legs creeps us out.

Tokyo-based shoe cleaning and repair shop The Way Things Go claims that its employee Naoki Terashima is “the winner of all Japan shoeshine championship 2019.” Watch him do his thing in this relaxing video. We await his anime biopic.

Japan has done it again. If you’re looking for a backpack that will easily break your back, check out the Backpacker’s Closet. This bag is so large it’s better to think of it as a beanbag in the form of a backpack. Believe it or not, it’s sold out.

Bandai Namco’s Jump Force is a 3D fighting game that feature’s some of the most famous anime heroes and villains from Weekly Shonen Jump. The characters include Goku, Luffy, Naruto, Gon, Deku, Ichigo, Yusuke and more. It also has a robust character creator.

From pickle tubs to washing machines, there are lots of unusual ways to create percussive sounds. But this clip from Japan’s Open Reel Ensemble is definitely the first time we’ve seen someone using magnetic reel-to-reel tape as a drum kit. More here.

Screen Junkies jumped into the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hype train in the best way. Presenting Toei’s officially-licensed take on Spider-Man in the 1970’s. He shoots guns, he summons giant robots, he says he’s from hell. Japan has weird spiders.

After renting himself a new family in Japan, Conan O’Brien explored the contents of some of its famed vending machines, then checked out Toyko’s colorful Harajuku neighborhood, where he got himself a flamboyant Kawaii makeover.

(PG-13: Language) “Oh… hugging, shaking hands, but no kissing. So just like my current marriage.” Conan O’Brien went to an agency that rents out fake families for lonely people. That’s some dark stuff right there. Thankfully, Conan managed to make it awkward instead.

Filmmaker Spike Jonze collaborated with The North Face’s Japan-only sub-brand Purple Label to make two wonderful bags – a shuttle roller and The North Face’s classic 3Way Bag. Both bags are made of Italian wool and come in two plaid color schemes.

Being the land of vending machines, it’s no surprise that Japan loves frozen meals and snacks as well. Life Where I’m From shows us some of the frozen noodles, soups, vegetables, fried rice, pasta, and traditional dishes that you can buy in a Japanese grocery store.

Tokyo has experienced explosive population growth. To help cram more people into limited space, a famed Japanese architecture firm came up with the idea to build an enormous pyramid to house a million residents. Kento Bento explains their unusual idea and its challenges.

Hong Kong toy designer Lock Lai creates vintage-style robot toys which will look awesome on your shelf. Their articulated body parts are held on by magnets and can be stored inside of their metal bodies. Find more TinBot designs, including a DIY blank one on Storenvy.

Great Big Story’s short profile of master blacksmith Yasuhiro Hirakawa, “the only traditional scissor maker left in Japan.” It takes him one week – working 10 hours a day – to make his bonsai scissors, which can sell for as much as $32,000.

Developed by engineers from Keio University, this wearable exosuit allows a remote operator to control its arm movements in order to provide guidance to its wearer. The instructor wears a VR headset so they can see the same thing as their student.

When we were in Tokyo, we were fascinated that when we wanted some “vanilla ice cream,” we had to ask for “Baniraaisukurīmu.” Double Yolk looks at how Japan incorporates English words and deeper meanings into their language in some truly wonderful ways.

Yoyoka Soma may be just 8 years old, but she already knows more about drumming than most musicians three times her age. Listen and enjoy as she rocks out a cover of John Bonham’s rhythms from Led Zeppelin’s Good Times and Bad Times.

(Loud) Engineers from Japan’s Tohoku University and National Institute of Technology are developing a truly unusual firefighting device. The machine self-balances on its water stream and can snake its way into difficult to reach locations as it sprays water on flames.

Kento Bento shares five different robberies in Japan that remain unsolved to this day, including a movie-style caper involving a single perpetrator and on the other end, a massive nationwide heist across 14,000 7-11 ATMs in just 2 hours.