JapanSugoi

Japanese company March Development Corporation of Fukuoka has created an automated rocking baby crib for new parents who are tired of getting up every few hours to rock their baby back to sleep. The 420,000 Yen Suima 電動ベビーベッドsuima(スイマ)  which has the slogan”Happy Child Care Life”does the rocking for you.

The 946 × 619 × 885mm 60kg bed has a built-in sensor to detect specifically a baby’s cry and the bed automatically starts swaying left and right to a width of about10cm. At first the bed does quick-paced rocking, then slowly settles into the pace of the mother’s heartbeat and eventually, it rocks slower and slower to a more sleep-inducing pace. If all goes according to plan, the baby should be asleep again within 15 minutes.

The bed was made in collaboration with Kyushu University and is for babies aged 2 weeks to 10 months old.  If you’re in Japan, the bed can be purchased for 420,000 yen or rented for for 10,000 yen per month.

Last month fans of anime Evanglion in Japan were excited to get their limited “Eva Phones” from Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo. The Sharp SH-06A NERV handset was developed in conjunction with Studio Khara, NTT DoCoMo and director Hideaki Anno.

The limited edition phone (30,000 units) features a 3.3 inch WVGA resolution display, a dedicated Evangelion GUI, various ring tones, wallpapers, triband HSDPA support for international use, 10 megappixel main CCD camera, front-mounted VGA camera and a microSDHC expansion slot. The phone comes with various bonus items like a carrying case, special artwork box, a Nerv booklet and mini Bearbrick.

Wonder if Sharp will ever produce a handset for overseas fans?

Hello Kitty stuff is everywhere! Released in March earlier this year, the Hello Kitty fan is designed to be compact and fight the heat and humidity during the Japanese summer.  The fan is 166 × 114 × 150mm (width × height × depth) and weighs about 270g.  It comes with a AC100V power supply and the fan has 4 speeds.  The fan is sold at   Sanrio stores and the Sanrio website.

Japanese custom robot manufacturer Little Island displayed its new Look Alike Wedding Robot at the recent exhibited 2009 Tokyo International Gift Show.   The robot doll is a follow up from their last year’s Look Alike Talking Robot.

The robot dolls are essentially just a plush PC itself (complete with a 500MHz Geode processor) with sensors that greet people when they detect someone nearby and can respond to voices and carry on a conversation.  That is not new.  What is new is these robot doll looks like you (created from your photograph image) and converse using your voice using prerecorded voice data which is enough to freak out any family relatives.

If you like robots and are thinking of marrying your Japanese girlfriend, the Look Alike Wedding Robots are about 80cm high, weigh 4kg  and can be used in place of the traditional welcome boards seen at Japanese weddings.

Look Alike Wedding Robots

Look Alike Talking Robots

Japanese mom’s try to make sure their kids fit into society and this includes good eating etiquette and manners.  So no matter whether you’re eating sushi, okonomiyaki or Megamacs, kids need to learn to chew their food the right number of times.

This is where Nitto Kagaku’s Kami Kami sensor comes in.  If your child is a lazy counter,  just strap this to your child’s face to make sure they chew a specified amount of times. The Kami Kami (kami means chew) sensor beeps after every 30 bites taken.  A melody even  starts playing every 1,000 bites as kind of a reward!

There are two sizes for the 40g Kami Kami sensor -  small for junior students and medium size one for senior students at elementary school level. The Kami Kami sensor costs about 11,550 Yen.

OK, let’s get one thing straight, there is nothing sexy about door locks at all.  What is eye catching is Japanese seller of “spy and security products” Spy Plaza’s promotional ads to sell their anti-theft “fake locks” called “keyhole of life” using Angela アンジェラ the sexy security guard.

Though living in Japan is very safe compared to other countries, there will always be property crime such as burglary. The idea behind the fake keyhole is to deter and confuse a would be thief with multiple locks making the thief believe he/she does not have all or the right keys to enter.  Alternately, this could save your Gaijin bacon in case your Japanese girlfriend is suspicious about your claims to dating another Japanese girl and wants the keys to your apartment.

Look carefully at the above photos, the fake locks look just like real locks don’t they?! Cost of the fake locks is just 880 Yen so a good deterrent investment.  We’re not quite sure which building sexy Angela is a security guard, but we’re sure the male tenants are happy.

For many Japanese women, snoring male family members is a real challenge especially considering living in tiny apartments.  An estimated 20 million people in Japan suffer from snoring problems.

One smart anti snoring device is the V1 Snore reduction vibrating pillow developed by Japanese interior design company Francebed who make goods for homes and hotels. Their technology packed V1 Snore reduction pillow is equipped with sensors which when they pick up the sound of 3 successive snores,  starts to vibrate making the snorer change position and stop snoring.

The pillow even has a microphone jack to record the effectiveness of the pillow. It is battery operated and priced at 29,800 yen, or around $300.