If you’re visiting Japan and wanting to visit the artificial island of Odaiba お台場 for amusement and shopping, one scenic way to get there is via the New Transit Yurikamome Line 新交通ゆりかもめ, (formally known as the Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Waterfront Line 東京臨海新交通臨海線,) . The Yurikamomoe Line is named after the black-headed seagull (yurikamome in Japanese) that is common in Tokyo Bay. For all the train otaku, the Yurikamome Line is Tokyo’s first fully automated transit system, controlled entirely by computers with no drivers on board.

Connecting Shimbashi station 新橋駅 ,to Toyosu 豊洲駅 through Odaiba お台場, this automated guideway transit service is often incorrectly called a monorail, but the trains run with rubber-tyred wheels on elevated concrete track guided by the side walls. The line carries over 100,000 passengers a day and has become an attraction in itself. To raise itself from ground level to the Rainbow Bridge, the Yurikamome makes a 270-degree loop, providing panoramic views of both mainland Tokyo and Odaiba. Easily accessible and comfortable, most island goers opt for the Yurikamome despite its high price, with the fares of 180 to 370 yen being nearly twice that of a normal subway.

For those living in Japan, over the last 2 years, the Yurikamone Line has had a very special once a year train service. They have the Tokyo NightView Train ゆりかもめ線、夜景列車、お台場 which this year was held on March 22nd. When the train departs from the station, the lights are turned off which makes for spectacular views of Odaiba, Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow Bridge. Some guys have taken their Japanese girlfriends on this night train ride because it is very romantic. To obtain a seat on this train you need to send a postcard to the rail company saying why you want to ride the special train and winners and picked by random draw.

Shimbase to Toyosu through the Yurikamome Line

View on route

Special once a year Night train

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

Japanese manufacturer Morito last month introduced a cool waterproof headphone called the Audio Bone Aqua.  So even when its raining or your relaxing in the pool, the Audio Bone Aqua can play your music without fear of getting your headphones wet.

The headphone uses bone conduction in which sound is transmitted to the brain through vibrations in the bones and skin tissues and not through the eardrum. The sound vibrations are sent directly to the cochlea through the skull.

Currently the Audio Bone Aqua headphone connects to your music player or mobile phone via wires though the company is working on a bluetooth edition that will allow users more freedom.  Cost of the headphone is about US$80.

Source: K-tai Impress 

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

The powerhouse sister gravure act of Junne and Mayuko Okada continues to grow in popularity. In the following videos found on youtube, we find Junne and Mayuka in the kitchen but they are not cooking.  Wonder which sister can actually cook?

Junne Okada and Mayuka Okada Videos

Mayuka in the kitchen

Junne in a white apron in the kitchen

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

In the 1980s Michael Jackson promoted Suzuki scooters in Japan while British pop group Wham promoted Maxell audio cassette tapes. Another British super band Duran Duran promoted Suntory’s Whiskey Q through a series of bizarre bobblehead TV commercials.

Wham Commercials for Suntory Whiskey Q. 

“is there something I should know”

“Reflex” Commercial for Suntory Whiskey Q.

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

Nana Eikura 榮倉奈々is a pretty 20 year Japanese model and actress from Kagoshima prefecture. Nana was scouted as a model in her second year of junior high school while she was in Shibuya and has been an exclusive model for Japanese fashion magazine Seventeen.

In 2004, she started a acting career acting which has seen her in 7 TV dramas and 4 movies. Last year after starring in TV drama Proposal Daisakusen, she received the Best Supporting Actress award from Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix awards. This year she has appeared in NHK’s Asadora NHK朝の連続テレビ小説 Hitomi. Like actress Yui Ichikawa 市川由衣 , she is also a spokes model for the Japanese Red Cross

Nana has also released 2 photobooks and DVDs and has been a DJ for radio station Tokyo FM.

Nana Eikura Videos

Preparing for a photoshoot

Lemonwater TV commercial

Press event for book EBD16

Singing theme song from Nada Sou Sou

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

We all know of  Japan’s aging population and the predicted population decline within Japan. One of the consequences is that tens of thousands of villages in rural Japan are threatened with extinction.

According to a Japanese government survey last year, a whopping 62,000 communities are listed as “on the edge”, where mass migration to urban areas had robbed them of the young, leaving behind only the old and the very old. These are places where parents in their nineties are cared for by their children who are in their seventies and where schools have closed because there are no more young kids.

More on this story at the Timesonline.

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

Japansugoi readers requested, so we went to youtube to find more videos of sexy Japanese gravure idol Mizuho Hata 秦みずほ. This year, Mizuho has appeared on episodes of TV Tokyo’s Keitai Investigator and TBS’s Maguro マグロ情熱紀行　海のダイヤに迫れ！

Mizuho Hata Bikini Videos

sexy photo shoot

green bikini at the beach

on bed

Like Mizuho Hata’s videos? We do! See more or purchase here.

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

Japanese Brazilian girls just love to dance and they dance very differently from girls in Japan. We found some video clips of a party in Nagoya with well known samba dancer Yuka dos santos Libanio (also known as Yuka Sugiura,  Yuka-chan) and her friends posted on youtube from the folks at LEG Radio and TV Brazil. Looks like so much fun especially when they change into their samba costumes!

More about Yuka here and here (in Portuguese)

Yuka and friends dancing at party

Yuka in samba costume

Yuka and friends in samba costumes

yuka in Brazil

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

The first gaijin featured is American ramen owner Ivan Orkin who travels around his neighborhood every day to greet local shopkeepers. Next is a Russian lady Jenya, a tour guide in anime in geek capital Akihabara, who writes mobile emails in Japanese. The third gaijin featured is a Brazilian man who has lived in Japan for 9 years and knows a lot Japanese language, more so that most ordinary Japanese.

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi:

Next time you are eating in a restaurant in Japan with your Japanese girlfriend, don’t be surprised if you area asked to order you food by using a wireless pen and plastic menu.  The restaurant is probably using Teraoka Seiko’s DeliTouch デリタッチ automated ordering system which was introduced last year.

To reduce staff time of taking food orders ( normally about 35% percent of their time),  a customer uses the wireless pen to tap on and select an entree from the menu.  The pen verbally repeats the selection for confirmation and then the orders are immediately sent to the kitchen through a wireless system.

The DeliTouch pen weighs only 78 grams and is the industry’s first stylus pen type self-ordering handset with verbal confirmation. Because the system makes it so easy to order additional items, many restaurants that have incorporated this system have reported a 10% increase in profit.

---
Related Articles at JapanSugoi: