FEPY

The clione, a.k.a. sea angel, is a cute, translucent swimming sea slug that glides gracefully through icy ocean waters by flapping a pair of appendages that resemble tiny angel wings. Don’t let the innocent, angelic look fool you, though — the clione is a vicious demon come feeding time.

+ A verdadeira face

The Clione limacina species preys on its shelled cousin, the sea butterfly (Limacina helicina). When the hungry sea angel spots a suitable target, it lurches forward and rapidly unfurls a halo of six hooked tentacles from its head, locking its prey in a death grip. Slowly, the clione sucks the victim’s body out of its shell, swallowing it whole.

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has teamed up with engineers from the private sector to develop a next-generation space toilet, which they hope to complete within the next five years.

Clean and easy to use, the envisioned space toilet is designed to be worn like a diaper around the astronaut’s waist at all times. Sensors detect when the user relieves him or herself, automatically activating a rear-mounted suction unit that draws the waste away from the body through tubes into a separate container. In addition to washing and drying the wearer after each use, the next-generation space toilet will incorporate features that eliminate unwanted sound and odor.

Established last month, JAXA’s space toilet research group includes engineers from the private sector. Participants reportedly come from an assortment of toilet and chemical manufacturers, as well as from the architectural and engineering firm Shimizu Corporation. Plans are to test working prototypes of the space toilet in Japan’s Kibo lab aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The developers indicate their next-generation space toilet may also prove useful in earthbound settings — particularly in hospitals with bedridden patients.

The current ISS toilet is a Russian-built, western-style commode that sucks waste away like a vacuum cleaner. Use of that toilet requires practice before heading to space, particularly because an improperly seated user has the potential to create a messy situation.

Chiaki Mukai, head of JAXA’s Space Biomedical Research Office, is looking forward to the development of the new toilet. “Long-term stays in space place significant stress on the mind and body,” Mukai says. “The toilet plays a crucial role in maintaining good health in space.”

[Source: Yomiuri]

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Tuttuki Bako (or Tuttuki Box) is a toy unlike any other.

Made by Bandai Japan (who else but the Japanese would make such a wonderfully silly thing?), the box is a clock … until you insert your index finger into the hole on its side. Then, it’s game on: you’ll see a digital replica of your finger and you can explore a virtual world like tickling a Panda, or playing with a squishy slime ball.

Link - via sleepinginmyhead | Here’s the video clip of the Tuttuki Bako in action

Tuttuki Bako Virtual Reality Box

Originally from Neatorama

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As 2009 is the year of the ox, a cow’s characteristics apparently include being methodical along with materialistic which, at least as far as the latter is concerned, is perfectly apt for this place.

But, whatever the bovine may bring, I hope that your ride, for the most part at least, is a fun one.

Happy New Year!

The cow cometh

Originally from Tokyo Times

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Learning Japanese typically involves learning a few simple words, hiragana, katakana, kanji, moving on to grammar, and finally conversation and novels. Attempting to get comfortable with Japanese using this standard approach can be a painful process. Let’s look at another way we can tackle this problem in a more efficient manner.

A while back, I had an opportunity to check out All Japanese All the Time. This site has a unique approach to learning Japanese. Basically, it amounts to memorizing several thousand sentences.

Why memorize all these sentences? The logic behind this method is how people learn their native language as they grow up. We never really mentally consult grammar rules while we’re having a conversation in our native language. It’s all very spontaneous and casual - like flicking on a light switch.

Why not dump a ton of grammatically perfect sentences on our brain and let our mind connect the dots? I was a bit skeptical at first but after further thought, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Once you have a good handle on the Japanese writing system, you use an electronic flash-card program to memorize those thousands of Japanese sentences. The sentences you choose are the ones from your preferred sources. Manga, TV, movies, books and magazines are a rich source of commonly used sentences.

Great, but where do I get the flash-card program? Well, one app the site’s owner recommends is Mnemosyne. It’s free and there’s a version for PC, Mac and Linux. In using the Mac version, the app has its rough edges but it does the job well.

In my personal use, I prefer this method over traditional Japanese learning materials. Looking back at all those Japanese books I purchased, I think most of the authors did their best to dissuade people from actually learning Japanese.

Examples include dry text almost bordering on the level of a crappy philosophy textbook, sentences that no Japanese person would use, and the ability to put the reader to sleep in less than 10 minutes.

There are exceptions, but take a look at some of titles in the learning section of a Kinokuniya bookstore and you’ll know what I mean.

I’m close to memorizing 500 sentences. I’m not expecting an overnight miracle so early in the process but I find that I’m able to better understand the finer points of conversation while watching Japanese variety programming.

If you’re interested in learning about this method in greater detail, please check out All Japanese All the Time. It might not work for everybody, but if you’re burned out from standard methods, this is definitely a good alternative.

[Pic from The Mnemosyne Project]

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For those of you that indulge in a spot of gift giving at this time of year, I sincerely hope that Santa-san brings you a couple of sizeable sacks that will keep you suitably absorbed for some time to come.

Or failing that, a perky pair of puppies perhaps.

Merry Christmas!

Tokyo Times tidings

Originally from Tokyo Times

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The mighty Louis Vuitton may well have pulled out of building another bag-based and branded behemoth in Ginza, but on a Sunday at least, it’s still hard to see any obvious effects on the area due to the current economic climate, with a phenomenal amount of folk still flocking there from far and wide.

Yet that said, in December the district does have a genuinely festive feel, meaning even shopping hating humbugs like myself can have a good time — or at the very least a tolerable two hours or so.

The features of this famous fat fella for example making one feel right at home.

Plus, as well being the perfect place to buy preposterously priced products, it’s also pretty good for taking pictures of people who are also taking pictures,

attentively at times,

of the terrific trees with all their trimmings.

Or even of the more patient who prefer painting them.

And despite Rudolph not even being a reindeer, let alone sporting a red nose,

it’s pretty obvious, ruinous recession or not, who the Sunday saviour is,

and isn’t.

(click images for a less compressed Christmas)

Festive Ginza goodness

Originally from Tokyo Times

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As every man and his dog now has a mobile phone — the latter possibly quite literally the way canines are cared for in this country — telephone boxes in Japan are becoming fast fading features; especially as they don’t conveniently double up as lager-fuelled lavatories as they do in my native Britain.

However, there are a few still left, and possibly, if they were all as daringly designed as this one, people would be more prone to patronise them.

Perhaps.

Fancy Japanese phone

Originally from Tokyo Times

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As the year draws to a close, it’s time to look back at Pink Tentacle’s most popular stories of 2008. Here are the top ten, in case you missed them the first time:

1. Scientists extract images directly from brain: New brain analysis technology allows scientists to read minds, perhaps paving the way for the development of a dream recorder.

2. Japanese custom scooters: Links to photo galleries of radical custom bikes.

3. Styrofoam dome homes: Cheap, sturdy igloo-shaped modular home kits made of expanded polystyrene foam.

4. IKEA decks out Kobe train: Photos of an IKEA ad campaign that transformed the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom.

5. Edo-period monster paintings by Sawaki Suushi: Old-school horror.

6. Origami spaceplanes to launch from space station: Details of JAXA’s plan to throw paper airplanes toward Earth from the International Space Station (see photos). In December, the space agency canceled their plans over safety concerns.

7. Bento lunches decorated as album covers: Magnificent bento art.

8. Monster octopi with scores of extra tentacles: Extraordinary freaks of nature.

9. Decorated trains of Japan: Photos of anime and manga inspired trains.

10. Man charged with dumping silicone girlfriend: Breaking up is hard to do.

Thanks for reading! See you again in 2009.

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Despite already boasting a considerable number of traditional customs, Japan still has no problem at all in importing foreign festivities — especially financially profitable ones — and giving them an imaginative twist to make them more money meaningful.

So, Valentine’s Day now boasts obligatory gifts as well as White Day a month later, and Christmas too has been converted to make it more palatable, although the nation’s fondness for feasting on ‘festive’ fried chicken is frankly unfathomable.

As, it has to be said, is the blending of traditional Japanese bondage (link contains bare bodies) with the bearded and big-bellied bearer of Christmas gifts. An art-form that, while strangely becoming on a suitably attired siren,

somehow isn’t so sensuous on a suited,

and sadomasochistic Santa.

Santa and sadomasochism?

Originally from Tokyo Times

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