As expected, there are not many places in the world that take more of a jaw-dropping turn than Japan when it comes to disturbing toys. That being said, here are my top ten most disturbing Japanese toys that I would seriously hesitate giving to any child.

10. Poop and Pee Plushies

Japan has a strange relationship with poop. I can’t tell you how many potty-training and poop related children’s toys I’ve come across, but it’s more than I could have ever imagined. Sure, poop jokes are always funny, but somehow the idea of teaching your child to snuggle with their own excrement via plushies just doesn’t sound healthy to me. Please, prove me wrong.

9. H-Bouya USB Toy

The H-Bouya is a plug in USB toy in the form of a small boy. I’m not sure what twisted tween-age mind came up with this one, but the H-Bouya’s main trick is giggling and blushing every time you press the letter “h” on your keyboard. In Japanese “h” stands for “etchi,” meaning sex, erotic, or pervert (oh my god, she said “h” hehehehe). The H-bouya also reacts to other love related words like suki (like/love), deeto (date), and much more.

I guess it’s kinda funny, but I’m not sure if the H-bouya is supposed to be amusing for kids or adults. It seems like it would get old faster than the new Ferby which lasted only about 30 seconds after I turned it on.

8. Virus Plush

In the past few years, plushies in the shape of diseases have become pretty common in the States, but that’s not the only place. This Japanese plush for babies is modeled after a virus for maximum fun time! Above left is the Japanese virus plush. Below, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). And above right, a small child that appears to be contracting AIDS.

Am I the only one that sees the resemblance? No? Well, this is sure to be a happy ending. I can’t see how anything could go wrong here.

7. Face Bank

My parents have always taught me the importance of saving money, but honestly, I’ve never really been any good at it. But you know, It’s really a shame that a bank like this one didn’t exist when I was a kid because I’m sure I would have saved money in fear that Satan would devour my soul if I didn’t offer it my lunch money as tribute.

As shown, the Face Bank comes in solid colors and is rather plain – that is, expect for the soulless, haunting eyes and subhuman face protruding from the front of it. The Face Bank will stare you down with its lifeless, chimpanzee face until you appease it with your pocket change. It will then proceed to devour said change with its robotic jaws and then let out a satisfied belch.

There is something truly terrifying about a robotic creature mimicking human-like functions in such a lifeless manner. Seriously, this thing is pure nightmare fuel.

6.Road Kill Cat

“Mommy? What happened to Mittens?” Don’t even bother conjuring up some BS story about Mittens running  away or going off to play with the neighbors. Just throw your kid this thing and they’ll eventually get the idea. Or, at least it will give them something to do with all those extra Hot Wheels cars laying around the house. I’m sure they’ll be just as happy as the kid on the package- all smiles! :D

5. Rubber Lips

Do you remember those old “candy” lips that looked really tasty but actually tasted like freshly waxed baboon butt (and were about the same color)? That’s what these Japanese toy rubber lips reminded me of when I first saw them, only somehow much more disturbing (not at all in a suggestive way). Japanese rubber lips are mobile, so you can preform a range of activities while wearing them including talking, eating hoagies, or even scaring the Milk of Magnesia out of your aged neighbors! Honestly, I’m not sure what the purpose of these things is, but I really don’t want to know.

4. Russian Roulette Toy Gun

“Hey guys! I’ve got a great idea!” Let’s play with guns!” That’s basically what this Japanese Russian Roulette game says to me. The game includes a toy gun similar to a Nerf gun that “fires” randomly. Young children put the toy gun to their heads and pull the trigger to test their luck. Somehow making the gun shoot out hippopotamus legs instead of bullets is supposed to make this so much more acceptable.

Sounds like a roaring good time to me. In expert mode kids use a real gun!

3. Japanese Pregnant Doll

All this time I’ve been deluded into thinking Japan has been coming out with a steadily more shocking line of toys every year, but I was wrong. This 19th century doll showing the stages of pregnancy is on my list of the top 3 most disturbing toys ever. It’s only saving grace is the fact that this doll was originally made as a medical model. However, evidence suggests that it was later used for entertaining children.

This, however, raises more disturbing questions. Call me culturally ignorant, but who decided a pregnancy doll was a great thing to use as a child’s play thing? My money is on a doctor giving whatever he had on hand that wasn’t pointy to his children in order to make them shut up, and it happened to be this.

2. You Can Shave the Baby!

This toy has become a sort of myth on the internet and among Japanese toy enthusiasts. However, after doing some research, I found that this toy was originally designed by the Polish artist Zbigniew Libera. Even though this discovery was slightly disappointing, I still think “You Can Shave the Baby” qualifies as one of the disturbing toys ever in Japan.

As you can see, this baby doll comes with hair on all sorts of exciting regions of the body. And you know what the best part is? You can shave it! Unfortunately, it doesn’t grown back, but nothing beats the joy one gets from a good, clean shave. Am I right?

In all seriousness though, I wouldn’t touch this thing with a ten foot pole. Just look at its death glare (it must be unhappy from all that hair). And from the looks of things on the internet, I would say people tend to agree on this subject.

Warning: This video is PG-13

I sincerely hope I’m not the only one here who thinks there is something exceedingly unnerving about having your child shave an infant’s pelvic hair. This is psychopath-making material, right here.

1. Baby in the Microwave Toy

It both encourages me and horrifies me to know that, no matter how desensitized I think I am to ludicrous Japanese inventions, there is always something new to prove me wrong. The baby in the microwave toy is, sadly, exactly what it sounds like: the model of a small child who has been blown up in a microwave. I’m not sure if things could get any more deranged even if I tried.

Honestly, I would have loved to be there to see the sales pitch for this one. The man who pitched this must have been a genius (or a great comedian) to convince someone to market this “gem” of a toy.

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This is just a small sampling of the number of disturbing toys in the world. Unfortunately, there are many, many more both inside and outside of Japan. What is the creepiest toy you’ve ever seen or heard of? Let us know! Share your story with us in the comments section below!

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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Ergo Proxy

After the atmosphere explodes, the remaining members of mankind are forced to live in isolated domed cities scattered across an arid and inhospitable landscape. In a hasty attempt to preserve humanity, a secret human regeneration project is started. The story takes place in one of the domed cities where humans coexist with androids known as AutoReivs. But the AutoReivs get infected with a virus that causes them to become self-aware, and they start murdering people.

All the while, the government is conducting secret experiments on a mysterious human life form called a “Proxy” which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind. The humans in the city are grown in artificial wombs and are only grown to fulfill a particular purpose, ensuring that everyone has a place in society.

The future in Ergo Proxy does not seem like the kind of future I’d want to live in. Sure, it’s cool to coexist with androids, but not when they’re wanting to kill you. Plus you’ve got these weird Proxy things running around (terrifying) and you can’t travel with any sort of ease as the planet is pretty much screwed over. This future is really interesting to read about and watch, but I would definitely not want to live in it.

Chobits

In the world of Chobits, personal computers are now personal companions, looking and acting like most anyone else. The main character can’t afford his own Persocom, but he finds an abandoned one (named Chi since that’s all she can say in the beginning) which he later discovers might be a “Chobit”, an advanced type of Persocom rumored to have independent thought.

The story explores Chi’s origins and human/Persocom relations. Chi starts to develop feelings for her owner, and her owner struggles with his feelings for her all while teaching her how to speak and act like a normal human/Persocom.

The future imagined in Chobits sounds like a fairly safe, decently realistic near future. Like Kirobo, the robots in Chobits are designed to help humans and be personal companions. That’s great. None of them are killing people, and nothing bad is happening. It does seem a bit unnatural for humans and androids to develop feelings for one another, but perhaps this will become a normal thing one day in the future.

Psycho-Pass

In the not so distant future of Psycho Pass, we see a world without stress. But without stress comes a surprising amount of stress about not being stressed out. Maybe it’s due to the devices which can instantly measure a person’s mental state, personality, and the probability that they’ll commit a crime? If your Psycho-Pass (ha! That’s where the name comes from) Crime Coefficient Index is deemed too high by the Sibyl System (a “computer” system that makes decisions on these things), someone will come and get you for some much needed psycho-therapy (or much needed psycho-death, depending on how high your Index is).

This is all well and good, but some people in this society are secretly  not fans of the Sibyl System. They’re told what they should do for work, they aren’t allowed to do anything that’s stressful, and nobody has any ambition since the Sibyl system decides where you should work and what you should do. Since it wasn’t too long since the Sibyl System was put in place, there are those who remember nostalgic / stressful things like older literature, theater, and philosophy.

In this series there’s a group of people who figure out how to get around the Sibyl System, and that causes all kinds of chaos, because the Dominators (weapons that can only shoot people with a high Crime Coefficient Index) used by the police are unable to do anything. During this period the anime has you question whether it’s good for society to live without stress or not. I’ll let you watch the anime so you can decide for yourself. I wouldn’t want to give too much away.

This series reminds me a little bit of Minority Report, though a somewhat more realistic version of it. Instead of predicting  crimes, they’re just removing the “bad” elements of society while reducing stress to zero. Crime is at an all time low, but you really have to wonder if that’s actually a good thing or not. I could see a time in our future when scientists are finally able to get an idea of what a “healthy” brain looks like. Then, everyone who doesn’t fit within that “healthy” brain range will… well… hopefully not anything too bad.

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is set in the year 2071 and the entire solar system has been made accessible through hyperspace gates. In 2022, the explosion of an experimental hyperspace gateway messes up the moon pretty bad, resulting in a debris ring and meteor bombardments that end up killing a lot of Earthlings. Many survivors abandon Earth to colonize the inner planets, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter.

Mars has become the new central hub of human civilization, and interplanetary crime syndicates have their claws in the government and the Inter-Solar System Police (ISSP), limiting their effectiveness. To combat this, a bounty system similar to that in the Old West is established. These bounty hunters deal with fugitives, terrorists, and other criminals. They are often known as “cowboys”, hence the name of the show.

The future imagined in Cowboy Bebop is really cool. I think space westerns such as Firefly are great, and Cowboy Bebop is no exception. Exploring the frontiers of space and bounty hunting sounds pretty appealing. In reality I might not be so keen on experiencing all this danger and excitement firsthand, but it sure is a joy to watch.

Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online takes place in the near future and focuses on virtual reality MMOs. In the year 2022, Sword Art Online is released. With a virtual reality helmet known as Nerve Gear, players can experience and control their game characters with their minds.

Nerve Gear is hooked up to the user in such a way so that everything experienced in the game feels like it is actually happening. The first half of the series focuses on a group that is trapped inside Sword Art Online and if they die in the game, they die in real life too.

This future sounds amazing. I love a good MMO, and a VR MMO sounds like something I would enjoy immensely. We’re already headed in this direction with the Oculus Rift (can’t wait to get one of these once good games start being developed for it), and this seems like something that could happen in the not too distant future. As long as I don’t get trapped in a game (scary!) this future sounds absolutely fantastic.

Robotics;Notes

The year is 2019 and the location is Tanegashima, an island in Southern Japan. Like many Japanese futures (heck, even presents!) robots are involved. In this series, a group of high schoolers in the robotics club at Central Tanegashima High School decide to see if they can put together and build a giant robot. Small robots are pretty easy to do in 2019, but big ones? That’s still a large challenge, especially for a group of kids.

As the series progresses, you get to see what it takes to build a giant robot in the year 2019. You also get to see some battling miniature robots… kind of a futuristic Battlebots. If stuff like this exists in the future you can bet I’ll be watching it on my Occulus Rift. On top of the big and small robots is also a conspiracy that I won’t get into. You should watch the series if you want to know more about that.

All in all, the life of someone in 2019 as portrayed by this anime seems somewhat realistic to me. Building giant robots isn’t particularly easy, but it’s getting there (you know it will someday if Japan has any say in the issue). There’s a lot more augmented reality going on, and high schoolers still play fighting games on their handhelds. I liked this series because it had a somewhat believable (but not always) view of the future… a future with giant robots appearing sometime in my lifetime. I can dream, anyways.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

In 2000 a global cataclysm destroys most of Antarctica and leads to the deaths of half of all humanity. Thought by the public to have been a meteor impact, the event causes tsunamis, global climate changes, geopolitical unrest, general economic distress, and nuclear war.

Over the next ten years, the organizations known as GEHIRN, SEELE, and NERV achieve a number of impressive scientific achievements, including the creation of giant humanoids known as Evangelions in preparation for the arrival of alien beings known as Angels (which turn out to be responsible for the 2000 incident).

This future sounds terrifying. For the most part, it’s pretty normal (once things settle down post Impact), unless you are one of the characters actually on the show, then your life is pretty messed up. For most of the population, life is relatively unchanged until an Angel shows up, then everything goes to hell.

Living in constant fear of that, plus the huge Evas running around and the collateral damage from them sounds dreadful. Even being one of the kid pilots sounds terrible given the psychological damage they all experience. Don’t get me wrong though – this show is fantastic and I love it to death. I just wouldn’t want to live in it.

Paprika

In the near future, a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment called dream therapy has been invented. This is made possible thanks to a device called the “DC Mini”. The DC Mini allows the user to view other people’s dreams. The head of the team working on this treatment begins using the machine illegally to help psychiatric patients outside the research facility, using her alter-ego known as Paprika.

The world in Paprika is pretty similar to that imagined in the movie Inception. You’ve got people diving into other people’s dreams, influencing and messing with them. The device can be used for fun, but it can also be used for therapy. Once it gets into the wrong hands – then you’ve got trouble. And that’s what happens in this anime.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this technology. I mean, it would be awesome to have my dreams recorded so I could watch them later and really remember what happened, and I’m sure this information could be used to help people struggling with nightmares or people with deep seeded psychological issues.

On the other hand, it sounds terrifying for someone to be able to invade my dreams without my consent or be somehow manipulated by this process. Also, my dreams are my dreams and I wouldn’t want anyone I didn’t trust just eavesdropping on them either.

Steins;Gate

This series doesn’t actually take place in the future at all! In fact, it’s set in the past: Summer, 2010. So how did this series make the “future” list? Time travel. In the series, Rintarou Okabe, “the mad scientist,” discovers that the microwave they’ve been working on is actually a time machine with the ability to send text messages to the past.

A group called SERN (yeah, suspiciously similar to CERN) has been researching time travel as well. In fact, they have tried to send people back in time from the future already, though this has resulted in a lot of blobby, disfigured, and very dead time-traveler messes. More on SERN in a minute. Later, Kurisu (another member of this very casual mad scientist group) figures out how to change their time machine to send someone’s memories back in time, which would allow someone to time travel without dying. Smart girl!

But wait, this post is about the future! Throughout the series, we get glimpses and hints of the future from people in the future who either come to visit or send messages back in time. The actions that Okabe and friends take have a great affect on what happens in the future. If xyz dies, the world will be ruled by SERN due to their time travel abilities. If zyx dies, then World War III will start because someone will have stolen the information needed to build a time machine (and then have sold it to the Russians). Every little action, even ones that seemed inconsequential in the beginning of the series had bigger and bigger future results, especially as Okabe kept traveling back, changing things a little at a time.

While the future in this series is very important, they don’t show much of it. It’s just hints, for the most part. Still, I thought they did a really good job with time travel. It didn’t feel too ridiculous, and I found myself thinking how little actions could affect the future in a big way. A butterfly effect, essentially. The lesson here: if you have a time machine, please don’t mess up the future and keep hopping around until you fix it, okay? Also make sure you can send text messages through time. It’s very helpful if your future self can let you know when you screwed up. Let’s hope future cell carriers don’t charge too much for inter-time texts.

Ghost in the Shell

In the year 2029, the world has become interconnected via a vast electronic network. It’s the internet on steroids. That same network also becomes a battlefield for Tokyo’s Section Nine security force, which has been charged with apprehending a dangerous hacker known only as the Puppet Master.

Computer technology has advanced to the point that many members of the public possess “cyberbrains”. This technology allows them to connect their biological brain with various networks. The level of cyberization ranges from simple interfaces to almost complete replacement of the brain with cybernetic parts, such as in cases of severe trauma.

This can also be combined with various levels of prostheses, with a fully prosthetic body allowing a person to become a cyborg. On the downside, this opens up the brain to attacks from hackers. These hackers can then affect the actions of the person which is really, really scary.

This is another future that sounds like it has the potential to be very cool, other than the fact I would be afraid of getting my brain hacked. Today, it’s not very common to get your computer hacked, but even if that does happen, you just reinstall everything or get a new computer or whatever.

But in this case, it would be your brain getting hacked and that can do a lot more damage to you and your life than getting your computer hacked. You can’t exactly reinstall your brain or get a new one, and who knows how much damage a hacker could do controlling you before you could fix the problem? I dunno, this future, if done right, could be cool – but the potential risks to your brain would make me a bit uneasy I think.

Which Future Do You Choose?

So anime has predicted our futures. Some are more realistic than others, but it’s hard to say that none of them are totally impossible. Personally, a VR MMO world sounds pretty fun to me (Blizzard, get working on that, would you?), though the ability to travel through time seems to have its benefits (and pitfalls)… how about you, though? Which one of these (or combination) would you choose for your own life? Let me know in the comments below.

Bonus: Koichi actually wrote about 3 out of the 10 animes above. Can you guess which ones?

Header Image by vagoverto

I’ve stood at the base of Mt. Fuji and visited many of Japan’s most famous temples, and throughout this time I’ve experienced some of my life’s most breathtaking moments. Many of these trips however required me to save a lot of money and put in a ton of effort in planning each visit. So I can’t tell you how amazing it is that we can live in a time where you can easily access many of this incredibly locations right from your own home.

In this post I’ll go through nine of Japan’s most famous locations that you can explore right from home. To see more of Japan’s cities and neighborhoods from Google Street View, simply go to Google Maps and type in the location you’d like to check out. On the map’s zoom controls, you’ll see a yellow pegman. Drag and drop the pegman to any location on the map to see it from ground level. If you don’t see this, it means there’s no Street View available at the moment. That being said, Google is constantly updating its database and will eventually cover most (if not all) of Japan’s major areas.

I chose many of the locations in this post based on two criteria: historical significance and cultural impact. Not to mention they’re just plain cool! Each of them is ordered in terms of their overall popularity, my own personal love for them, and the detail which Google Street View gives you. I hope you like the list I’ve put together for you. Be sure to let me know which one of these was your favorite spot in the comments!

1. Mount Fuji

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I know. It’s not really the same. Sure, the strong feeling of achievement you get when you reach the top of Fuji-san won’t parallel anything that Google dishes out. But with this view, you’re guaranteed no crowds, perfect weather, and none of the painful after effects from climbing more than two miles up.

“The Street View collection covers the highly popular Yoshida trail that takes hikers up the mountain, the full walk around the crater at the top, and the quick zigzag descent,” said Setsuo Murai, representative director of Geo Partnerships for Google Japan, on Google’s official blog post. ”We hope these 14,000 panos of new imagery will give climbers a sense of the terrain to expect under their feet — especially all the night-time climbers who shuffle up in the dark to see the sunrise at the crack of dawn.”

Fuji-san was awarded the honor of becoming a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) back in June 2013. This recent achievement spiked tourist’s interest in the site, attracting thousands of people to its slopes this year. Google Street View allows you to avoid all the heavy traffic from hikers crowding Fuji-san’s various climbing paths. Definitely check this one out!

2. Sensoji Temple

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Sensōji is a Japanese Shinto Temple located in the heart of Asakusa, Tokyo. Don’t even bother trying to come here around new years. The crowds number in the thousands and getting anywhere near the main building is next to impossible. Google Street View is the perfect alternative.

When you first arrive at Sensōji, you’ll be greeted by the Kaminarimon, which means “thunder entrance” or “thunder gate”. This is considered one of Tokyo’s most iconic landmarks. A small traditional shopping district known as Nakamise connects the Kaminarimon to Sensōji’s second gate, the Hozomon. Beyond that you’ll find the temple’s main building for offerings and a five storied pagoda.

3. Itsukushima Shinto Shrine

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Itsukushima Shrine is located on Miyajima Island. “Miyajima” itself means “shrine island”, hinting at the city’s most recognizable landmark. Itsukushima was built in a small inlet along the coast of Miyajima. Its famous torii gate is placed just outside the shrine right on the Seto inland sea. During a low tide, visitors can walk out to the torii gate and see it up close. The high tide offers a more photogenic scene (especially around sunset).

Google Street View took the opportunity to capture Itsukushima Shrine’s torii gate during a low tide, so you’re offered a rare glimpse of one of Japan’s most iconic landmarks up close.

4. Himeji Castle

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Himeji-jō is one of Japan’s oldest and most famous castles from Japan’s feudal period. For over 400 years the castle has remained completely unharmed, surviving numerous WWII bombings and severe natural disasters such as the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

Himeji-jō is home to many famous Japanese legends, folklore, and other great tales from the past. It is one of Japan’s most important historical landmarks and was also granted status as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO back in 1993.

5. Kiyomizu-dera Temple

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Kiyomizu-dera is one of Japan’s most famous Buddhist temples. Its name means “pure water” which comes from the Otowa Waterfall upon which the temple is built. Located in forests of east Kyoto, the landmark was originally associated with the Hosso school of Japanese Buddhism, but formed its own branch in 1965.

The temple is known for its traditional wooden construction and an open stage which allows visitors to see the beautiful cherry trees that run along the hills of Kyoto. Kiyomizu-dera was also added to the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in 1994.

6. Great Buddha of Kamakura

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The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue which rests on the grounds of the Kotokuin Temple in Nara, Japan. Standing at a height of more than 13 meters, the Great Buddha of Kamakura is considered the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan. This landmark was built in 1252 and was originally located near the main temple hall.

The Buddha statue is actually completely hollow, and tourists can go inside the structure to view its interior. According to Wikipedia, the notice at the entrance to the grounds reads, “Stranger, whosoever thou art and whatsoever be thy creed, when thou enterest this sanctuary remember thou treadest upon ground hallowed by the worship of ages. This is the Temple of Bhudda and the gate of the eternal, and should therefore be entered with reverence.”

7. Yakushi-ji Temple

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Yakushi-ji is one of Japan’s oldest Buddhist temples. It was built by Emperor Tenmu in the late 7th century as a monument to his late wife. If you take a look at the main building of Genjo-sanzoin Garan located slightly north of the main temple complex, you’ll notice that the structure’s shape is a completely symmetrical octagon. Built in 1981, the complex is a memorial to the Chinese monk Genjo-sanzo, who lived in the 7th century and was famous for his extensive study in Buddhism and travels to India and Central Asia.

Behind this structure you’ll find a building displaying some of the most famous works of artist Hirayama Ikuo, one of Japan’s most celebrated painters who recently passed away in 2009. Google Street View goes into detail here. I can’t imagine how many hours of walking that poor Google mapper had to put in to accomplish this, so definitely take a look at this one.

8. Ogasawara Islands

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The Ogasawara Islands are a chain of volcanic islands that run 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, Japan. Also known as the Bonin Islands, the chain attracts thousands of tourists each year for its warm subtropical climates, crystal clear beaches, and local resorts. The islands were discovered by Ogasawara Sadayori in 1593, who claimed them in the name of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The islands were officially recognized as Japanese territory in 1875. After WWII, the Ogasawara islands were occupied by the United States until 1968 when they were finally returned to the Japanese government. Currently, the only way for regular visitors to reach the islands is by boat. A ferry runs from Tokyo to the Ogasawara Islands regularly, taking around 25 hours to reach the islands. Because the trip to the islands takes so long by boat, whenever tourists or inhabitants have a medical emergency, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force sends a helicopter to retrieve them.

9. Gunkanjima

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Hashima is known by the Japanese as Gunkanjima, meaning “Battleship island.” You might also recognize this island as one of the locations from the very popular 2012 film, Skyfall, where Agent 007 was held captive by the evil Raoul Silva in his secret hideout. The scene was actually filmed on a small island off the coast of Macau, and the production crew ended up using 3D models of Gunkanjima to recreate the look of the island using special effects and elaborate set pieces.

Located off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, Gunkanjima served as a coal mine and a home to more than 5,000 people. With the island measuring only 480 meters by 150 meters wide, Gunkanjima became the most densely populated area in history. To help accommodate so many people in such a small area, the city constructed tall buildings that took up most of the land, making the island look a lot like a battleship.

The mine closed in 1974, and residents were forced to move back to Nagasaki, leaving the island with all its building and equipment behind. Over the next few decades, typhoons and natural weather erosion has caused the remaining structures to look rundown and desolated, giving the island a very spooky atmosphere. Due to the danger of collapsing buildings, Gunkanjima was closed to the public, until 2009, when small guided tour boats allow participants to view the island from selected observation decks.

Google Street View offers a rare opportunity to explore one of the most deserted locations in the world, seeing just how time and weather have affected the surrounding structures. Here’s a cool video of the “making of” of the Street View photos:

Certainly a remarkable looking place, and now you can visit it too! Well, kind of, at least.

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Google Street View offers everyday people the opportunity to visit some of the world’s most fascinating places. Japan is something that has always interested me, so I can’t tell you how glad I am to have this feature as a resource for my own studies and research. One of the biggest setbacks from traditional media like video and photography is that it only offers you a set rectangular view of things. With a 360 panoramic view, you can see what you want when you want and travel along as if you were really there. There’s nothing better than actually getting to see a place first hand, but this is definitely the closest thing to it.

So what did you think? Were you surprised with how some of these places look in real life? Did you discover anything cool from surfing through Google Street View in Japan? Share screenshots in the comments below if you see any people in horse masks walking around.

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Hector is a copywriter and blogger for usb memory direct. In his spare time he runs a Japanese reference site called Japan Finds where he discusses regional, cultural, and historical facts about Japan. Hector is particularly interested in the Edo period, a time where honorable samurai, beautiful geisha, and powerful shoguns roamed the islands of Japan.

Kirobo

Derived from the Japanese words for “hope” and “robot”, Kirobo was launched into space by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) along with literally tons of other supplies and machinery just last week. Kirobo was designed as a companion for International Space Station astronaut Koichi Wakata. Kirobo will also help in relaying information from Koichi to another robot on Earth.

The biggest challenge in making this robot was designing it so it could function in zero gravity. The robot talks, and can also recognize different faces and voices. It’s part of a program that aims to provide companionship for the elderly and/or lonely. For anyone who’s seen Robot & Frank (video clip further below), this is a pretty cool step in the direction of a future rife with sci-fi excitement.

Kirobo should spend about 18 months on the space station under the care of Koichi. I’m sure the other astronauts will get to play with him too, depending on how selfish Koichi is feeling. Too bad for them Kirobo only speaks Japanese.

The robot is a product of a collaboration between Dentsu, The University of Tokyo, Robo Garage, and Toyota. The overall goal of their Kibo Robot Project is to “help solve the problems brought about by a society that has become more individualized and less communicative. Nowadays, more and more people are living alone.” They hope a conversational robot such as Kirobo would help these people feel less lonely.

Japan, Robots, and the Future

Kirobo is the first of many robots that could improve the health and wellbeing of many people just by being there to talk and interact with. When humans are isolated, psychological and cognitive damage can occur.

Writing in Psychology Today, Hara Estroff Marano noted that “unmet social needs take a serious toll on health, eroding our arteries, creating high blood pressure, and even undermining learning and memory.” This is especially important for those living in Japan, because, as we all know, Japanese people live forever.

Being in space can get pretty lonely at times, and this is where Kirobo comes in. At least the people on the space station have their crew, but not all of them speak the same language as it is an international space station. Plus, this is just kind of a test to see how a robot like Kirobo would function if somewhere down the road we start sending lone astronauts on trips to the Moon, Mars, or beyond. Those people would get pretty lonely, and having a little buddy like Kirobo around would make things a little bit more bearable. Anyone seen the movie Moon?

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Also, the technology developed and refined here might one day improve your car (if it’s a Toyota, that is). Toyota is responsible for the voice recognition tech in Kirobo, so what they learn from this experiment will be applied in future car models with voice activated controls.

Kirobo arrives at the station this month, but won’t actually get set up and start speaking until later in the month or early September. Apparently Koichi isn’t even getting to the space station until November, but he’s going to be the first Japanese Commander of the International Space Station, so that’s pretty cool.

Koichi will start getting into serious tests and experiments with Kirobo come December. Why they sent Kirobo separate from Koichi and spread so far apart, I’m not quite sure.

How Did We Get Here? Where Will We Go?

If you’ve been keeping up with Japanese tech and/or Tofugu, you’ll know that Japan has been at the forefront of humanoid robot technology. Everything from sex dolls to retail store models has already been done (all of which secretly want to kill you). Kirobo is one of many steps towards getting robot companions to those that need them.

I think this is one of the coolest, but also scariest, directions robot tech can head in. How many movies and TV shows have we seen where robot companions go berserk, become self-aware, or cause some sort of harm to their fleshy overlords? I mean, we joked about it before when we were talking about Vocaloids, but actual physical robots like Kirobo pose a much larger potential threat.

Even more than the robots acting on their own, what about hackers and viruses for something to worry about? What if someone found a way to hack into your robot companion and used an Xbox controller to make the robot flush your cat down the toilet and rack up tons of expenses on pay-per-view? The horror! But no, seriously, how terrible would it be to get strangled in your sleep by your robot “friend”? That would be just dreadful.

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On the other hand, how awesome would it be to have a fully capable companion robot? It would be super awesome. Think of how much more productive (or lazy) you could be. The robot could cook and clean for you, freeing up lots of time for you to do whatever.

And while these kinds of robots could help extreme introverts and the elderly, people who don’t get enough social interaction for whatever reason – these robots might also encourage some to not seek social interaction from real people. Why go out into the real work when you have a customizable robot that can do and be whatever you want it to? These are all things to consider as we head down this road.

Let’s Take a Few Steps Back

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But anyway, let’s get back to Kirobo and space. I think it’s a pretty cool idea. Right now it might seem like kind of like a novelty, and not really all that serious. But everything has to start somewhere, and Kirobo is already getting plenty of publicity since the space station he is going to is an international one, and lots of people care about space and stuff.

Will Kirobo be the catalyst that sparks the world into developing more robot companions like him? Perhaps. Will it happen anytime soon? Hopefully.

So tell me, would you want a companion robot like Kirobo or any other sort of robot like you’ve seen in fiction? Why or why wouldn’t you want one? Share your thoughts about the future and let us know in the comments!

Sites Referenced:
Forbes

The Superiority of Japanese Toilets

I’ve written a bit about these insane Japanese toilets before, and with good reason – they’re awesome. They can talk to you, wash you, and even play music for you (both to relax and mask) while you do your business.

But probably the biggest reservation Americans (and others) would have with a Japanese toilet like the Toto Washlet (pictured above), is the bidet (and having a toilet that could potentially become self-aware). Below we have an animated video explaining how the standalone bidets work.

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A traditional bidet is just a low oval basin designed for washing your privates. Most Japanese toilets have the bidet feature built in. Many Americans are not fond of the idea of either method. Is there a reason for this? Why yes, yes there is.

Why Americans Think Bidets Are Stupid

Poop goes WHERE!?!

First, we must travel back in time to the origin of the bidet. These things first showed up in France in the early 1700s. Since then, the bidet has spread far and wide, becoming standard in many European countries, South America, the Middle East, and Asia. An estimated 80% of bathrooms in those areas have bidets in them. America, on the other hand, pretty much has none.

Never in my years have I seen a bidet in America. The reasons for this are shrouded in mystery, but there are some theories. Since it was invented by the French, some believe that the concept was then rejected by the British, and that feeling of rejection carried over to the settlers in America. Some think that American soldiers most often saw bidets in European brothels, and erroneously associated them with immorality.

Stinking European brothels and their bidets!

A reason that stand-alone bidets might not have caught on is that many American bathrooms are not made large enough to house them. Then again, bathrooms could always be made larger, and current Japanese toilets have the bidet built in, so take from this what you will.

In the 1960s, a guy named Arnold Cohen tried to market a bidet in America, but soon realized that 99% of Americans had never even heard of a bidet before. This made people wary of purchasing this strange newfangled butt fountain. In the 1980s, the Japanese company Toto started pushing their toilet/bidet hybrid, and met largely the same issues that Arnold saw twenty years earlier.

Kitty, NO!

Also, interestingly enough, most people who grew up with bidets believe the toilet paper only method to be unsanitary whereas those brought up on TP only believe bidets to be inferior. Unfortunately I’ve never used the bidet feature on the Japanese toilets I’ve encountered, but Koichi has, and he loves them almost as much as full body pillows. I figure I would probably use both the bidet feature in conjunction with TP, but I can definitely recognize the benefits of using a bidet.

Japanese Toilets in America

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Fancy Japanese toilets are also pretty expensive. The Toto Washlet add-on lids (see above) currently go for anywhere from $300 to over $1000 on Amazon. And that’s just like, your basic model. These forego the separate bidet and just integrate it into the toilet which takes care of any space issues.

But still, these toilets are by no means cheap. Additionally, people tend to be pretty stuck in their ways when it comes to bathroom issues, so there’s not too many people looking to “upgrade” their toilets. Check out this quote from the president of a recent toilet start-up company.

For Americans here in the US, the biggest issues are personal experience with these products and a major reluctance to discuss bathroom issues or change ingrained habits. You wouldn’t imagine how many people giggle nervously or say “gross” when we try to educate them about the advantages of the bidet seat, yet these are the same people that are still using paper – a much inferior way to cleanse oneself.

-Steve Scheer

The reviews for Toto Washlets and other toilets are stellar. The people who actually have them love them. But efforts to spread this enthusiasm to the rest of America have been utterly unsuccessful. Toto has been working hard to push their toilets on Americans but have pretty much gotten nowhere.

Another issue involving expense is that you need a three pronged grounded outlet to plug your Toto Washlet into. Depending on where your bathroom outlets are, this can be pretty inconvenient, and getting a new one installed can cost around $500 or so. Not cheap. There are also cheap bidet attachments that are just bidet only, but those aren’t Japanese so I won’t get into them here.

The people who have actually given Japanese toilets a chance love them. The rest of America just needs to be convinced how awesome they are. They need to be marketed well. However, marketing toilets and toilet accessories probably isn’t the easiest thing to do, but maybe someone will figure out a good way to do this.

It really just seems that people are reluctant to change their toilets because their current ones work just fine and are perfectly sanitary in their eyes. So why spend more time and money upgrading a toilet when their current one works just fine? That’s the argument that bidet marketers need to conquer in the US. Will they eventually succeed? Only time will tell.

So tell me, have you ever experienced a Japanese toilet or a bidet before? Which method (TP or bidet) do you believe is superior? If you don’t have a fancy Toto toilet, what’s holding you back from getting one? Share your thoughts in the comments!

And also, here’s a link to the Toto Washlet website in case you were interested.

Sites Referenced:
Mental Floss
Priceonomics

LINE is a chat-based app that has become the highest-grossing social networking application in the world (mostly through the sale of emoticon-like stickers). LINE has gained popularity in Japan due to already mentioned (but very cute) stickers, chat-centered format, and picky friend-adding system that encourages privacy. So long as you have a cell phone you can join this rich and fruitful social land.

A long time ago Koichi wrote a post about Mixi and using it to study Japanese. One of the problems was that Mixi is a closed social network. You also had to have a Japanese cell phone email to join, making it hard to get in without jumping through the ever-changing loopholes. LINE is a much better social network for real Japanese study, and we’ll get into that in a minute. First, let’s open our history (e-)books.

How LINE Lined Up From Lines

After the Tohoku earthquake, the Japanese phone services were not working very well. I myself was in Japan at the time and remember trying to call my host family from school, but the phone lines (haha) were so clogged that I and countless others couldn’t get a dial tone for hours, even days after the incident. To make post-disaster communication easier, the Japanese branch of the Korean NHN corporation instigated a mobile application where people could use data or wifi to make free calls and texts. They named it LINE because during natural disasters, pay phones have been the most reliant way to contact your loved ones, where there are always long lines outside of them. It looks like LINE took some inspiration from the Japanese pay phone as well. Notice the bright green? The coincidence is a little too blinding to ignore.

Fast forward a couple of years. LINE now has 160 million users worldwide and is the number one free app in Japan and many other Asian countries. To put this in perspective, Instagram announced last Thursday that they have 130 million users, yet they launched in October 2010, which is two years before LINE came into existence. That’s incredibly fast growth.

So what is it that makes LINE so popular? Why do they have so many users if it’s just a chat application?

How LINE Works

The pink is just one of many soon-to-come customizable themes!

Line is chat-based, so you don’t have to worry about other people seeing those long, strange conversations that you have with your friend on your status like on Facebook. You can only register with a smartphone, ipod, or tablet, and you can have one account per device. However, once you register on your phone, you can download the app onto your Mac or Windows computer and access your account through there as well. You can add friends by user ID, scanning a qr code, or a shake function if you’re with the person irl (that’s “in real life” for those of you who don’t know). From there, chats, free calls through data or wifi, and fun downloadable related apps that connect with your LINE account await you!

One distinguishing chat feature is the group chat option. Once you create a group (of up to 100 people), you can communicate either through chat or through the chat group’s bulletin board. I’m included in groups for friends, classes, clubs, and even one where we just send each other pictures of what we’re eating. Once someone has read your message, a “read by” and “time” message pops up to let you know that your message has been seen. Now you can actually know whether someone is ignoring you or not! (′ʘ⌄ʘ‵)

You can also customize the chat background wallpapers for each individual chat! (Challenge mode- for each friend, change the wallpaper to the most unflattering picture of them that you can find.)

LINE’S Fun (And Addicting) Features – There’s Something for Everyone!

All that being said, it’s just a chat application with friends, right? How did something so simple and boring become such a huge phenomenon?

Those of you who use LINE will know that it’s not just chat, it’s so much more. They are feeding you crack under the table, slowly making you dependent and addicted to the service. It’s actually quite a lot of fun and has grown a great deal since its post-earthquake days. Sometimes, it’s those are little features within the chat, like being able to see when a message was read, and the ability to send audio messages, videos, and Japanese-style emoticons that get you. ❤(◕‿◕✿)  (ʘ‿ʘ )ノ✿

Here are some other extra-special in-chat and out-of-chat features. If the little features didn’t get you, at least one of these will cater to your individual personality needs.

For the Bad With Words

Say you’re chatting with your friend. After searching deep within yourself to identify your emotions, you just can’t find the words to express your feelings.

Don’t worry! LINE has you covered! Just look through your stickers (basically huge emoticons that send one at a time instead of text) and send one of those. Sometimes whole conversations can be comprised of just stickers (although they usually don’t make much sense).

When you join LINE, you get 3 packs of default stickers for free. These are your essentials, and feature the LINE-original characters who are becoming iconic in Japan. Those stickers are great, but if you are yearning for more, there are tons more stickers that you can buy in the shop. Some are LINE originals and some are characters that you already know and love, like Hello Kitty, Stitch, Nameko, and Ojarumaru. New ones come out every week too (I’m holding out for a Kobitodukan set)! If you live in Japan, limited edition free sticker sets come out every once in a while, but not in most other parts of the world.

For the Gamer

If you’re less of a chatterer and more of a gamer, you can still be social and play games with your friends on LINE. From the “more” section on the app, you can find a jumble of fun/addicting games that fit whatever kind of game preference you have. Most of the games are one-play arcade type games that have a certain amount of plays every few hours. When you run out, you can use in-game or out-of-game money to buy new plays, or you can receive and gift free plays to and from friends within the game. I hear this is the future of WaniKani, where you’ll have to pay for more reviews and your Crabigator friends can give you free review sessions (I’m just kidding, of course).

For the Narcissist

A LINE app for the creative narcissistic is the LINE Camera. LINE camera acts as your basic photo editing app, plus purikura-like extras. There are stamps, effects, and brushes available for free and for sale. Make yourself cute, or just make yourself strange like my example above. Your choice.

For the Rest

In addition to Camera are apps like LINE Card (which sends greeting cards) and LINE brush, which is just a fun drawing app. LINE seems to be getting their fingers into everything, but why not when you’re making oodles of yen from your enthusiastic and novelty-hungry userbase.

But What About My Japanese Studies?

Since there’s no way to look for people by real name or look at friends of friends, things may be kind of lonely for those of you without friends on LINE already. One particular LINE-affiliated app, LINE Cafe, is here to rescue you! It can rescue you from your solitude, plus, you can use it to practice your Japanese. How? Well, LINE Cafe is a forum and message board app, where you can meet people from all over who have the same interests as you.

Much like using Twitter to study Japanese by following Japanese tweeters, you can join boards in LINE Cafe to practice both reading and writing. Not to mention that some of these boards are specifically for language study, so people will be a little more forgiving there.

From there, you can meet Japanese LINE users and exchange IDs! Or just ask any young person in Japan- they probably have a LINE account.

If you’re a fan of Japanese musicians, TV shows, or brands (so many brands), you can also follow official accounts which will send you direct messages with information and updates, kind of like fan newsletters. Also, when they decide to turn their incoming messages on, you can actually talk to the famous person on the other end, or so I’ve heard (I’ve yet to actually see this happen).

After you’ve found your group or person to practice your Japanese with, it’s just a matter of doing it. Whether this is taking part in conversations, reading, or grabbing things to study for later in Evernote, iKnow, or something else, it’s up to you. Mainly, though, LINE is going to be a great way to get interested enough to force yourself to read and practice. It’s all a matter of finding what interests you, though.

Where LINE Is Heading

(Apparently it’s heading down a railroad track in Taiwan)

In July of 2012, a timeline function was introduced to LINE, turning the app into a real Facebook lookalike, and possibly a competitor. In fact, active Japanese Facebook users went from 17 million to 13 million in the past six months, many of them making the switch to LINE and its more simple platform. I don’t think that LINE will replace Facebook globally, as Americans love their Facebook, but it has definitely taken over Japan in a very short period of time. Because most people in Japan use the internet through their phones rather than computers, an app-based SNS just seems to make more sense than a web-based one!

Most Japanese people who I asked said that they liked LINE because mostly because of the sticker function. So, in a final plead to get Japanese users back, Facebook also released stickers to use on their mobile app. But Japanese users still use LINE.

Do I think that the Japanese facebook users will go back, or will LINE take over? I don’t know. But, the numbers aren’t very pleasant for the Zuckerburger. I’ve already mentioned how active users are declining for Facebook in Japan, but it’s more telling to see how fast LINE has been growing. LINE currently has 160 million users. Compare that to Instagram, which came out a year before LINE, which has 130 million users.  LINE is also very popular outside of Japan too, something that Mixi could never accomplish. 60% of LINE’s users exist outside of Japan. Taiwan has 16 million LINE users and Indonesia has over 23 million. Just from my own experience, I think that the only Japanese people who continue to use Facebook are those who have friends outside of Japan, or are people who are particularly interested in English.

That being said, LINE is mostly just popular in Asia though I hear it’s picking up in Spanish-speaking countries as well. How well it does in the English speaking world remains to be seen. If it keeps growing this fast, it’ll be hard to not feel its grip around social media’s neck sooner rather than later. In fact, out of the 160 million on LINE, 50 million of those joined within a 3-month period, making it the fastest-growing social network ever. That’s a lot of people in not very much time!

So what will the future bring? No one knows! I will however say that it isn’t LINE down and being quiet.

If you have a LINE account or have been inspired to create one, post your ID’s in the comments! We’ll add you to our cool new Tofugu group so you can talk about your favorite tofu and fugu dishes.

EDIT: Add the user “tofugu” to be added to the tofugu group!