Decorated trains in Japan

Of the countless trains running on Japan’s 20,000-kilometer (12,000-mile) rail network, a few are decorated with images of anime and manga characters, colorful ads, and designs by notable artists. Here is a small sample. Pikachu on Seto line, Aichi prefecture * * * * * Galaxy Express 999 train, Furusato-Ginga line, Hokkaido [Photo] Characters from Leiji Matsumoto’s “Galaxy Express [...]

Motoman industrial robot cooks okonomiyaki

The multi-talented Motoman SDA10, a dexterous dual-arm industrial robot manufactured by Yaskawa Electric, is demonstrating its ability to cook okonomiyaki at the International Next-Generation Robot Fair now underway in Osaka. Designed to operate independently alongside humans in the workplace, the 135-centimeter (4.5 ft) tall, 220-kilogram (480 lb) industrial robot has 15 joints — 7 in each [...]

Video: Pulsar +

+ Pulsar (1990) Milky white blockheads, lizardmen and assorted geometrical objects get their wiggle on in this quirky stop-motion animation short by Katsushi Bowda. For an extra dose, see Bowda’s surreal sequence from Winter Days, a 2003 collaborative animated film based on a renku (collaborative poem) by 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō. + Winter Days / Fuyu no [...]

Japanese blood mascots

They may be cute, but they thirst for blood. These official mascot characters are tasked with recruiting blood donors in Japan. Japan’s most well-known blood donation mascot is Kenketsu-chan (”blood donation girl”), a little pixie with big shiny drops of blood for ears. Kenketsu-chan is the official blood donation mascot of the Ministry of Health, [...]

1,000 Paro robots migrating to Denmark

The largest-ever migration of baby harp seal robots from Japan is about to begin, following an agreement by Denmark to purchase 1,000 of them for use in health care facilities. Paro, a human-interactive robotic seal developed by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), has scientifically demonstrated the ability to elicit emotions, [...]