Via Watashi to Tokyo.

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Plans start at 13,600 yen ($142) with twin bed and breakfast, a 30th Anniversary Gundam plastic model and pamphlet, and a view of Giant Gundam from your bathroom. Those with views from the bedroom and/or balcony go as high as 43,400 yen ($455) depending on the day of the week. Some packages are reportedly fully booked already.

Speaking of views of Gundam, here are 10 remarkable photos by Gundam fans for you out there who are too far away to see the real thing. Click on the photos to the see bigger versions; the horizontal pics are especially good for desktop wallpapers.

{Photo by hirorico}

{Photo by Tokyo Night Landscapes}

{Photo by sinkdd}

{Photo by Kumawo}

{Photo by A-GARAGE (Blog: Psychedelic Nostalgic Town pntown.exblog.jp)}

{Photo by mechanics}

{Photo by Pink Tentacle}

{Photo by Yo! shizawh@t!}

{Photo by 工場長 (Kojocho)}

{Photo by beef.200%}

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After being fully assembled last week, technicians are now testing its arsenal of lights, smoke and sound before the official “unveiling” two weeks from now.

Awesomeness just got set a notch higher.

Videos of Gundam’s light-up dress rehearsal at Odaiba, Tokyo

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Loud and dynamic, Shohei’s artworks are illustrative of Japan’s manga-influenced style of drawing.

Many of his illustrations (four of which are shown below) are displayed at Hakuchi Land; many are NSFW. He lives in Tokyo and blogs at Hakuchitare (where one can find videos of him working on his illustrations).

Retaliation

Sayako’s Rage (”Die!!! Iyaaaaa!”)

Onsen Pingpong Geisha

Hyaaaaa!

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It turned out that not only did they talk; ozma2x also was able to control and monitor the robot in real time with the iPhone using Wi-Fi.

It’s pretty impressive that a standard cellphone that one can buy at the nearest K’s Denki has the necessary functions to control an industrial robotic arm. And that Denso machine is not bad either, performing everything it’s told fast and without fail.

iPhone and Denso robotic arm play nice

From ozma2x:

The other day, I bought an iPhone. I was amazed at its high performance. So I tried to connect it to a robot I use in my job.

This is a “6-axis VS robot”. Very fast.

An ethernet port is standard, so I can easily connect it via Wi-Fi. Maybe I can use it for the iPhone. According to the robot manual, the robot can be controlled via TCP/IP. Transmitting and receiving packet through b-CAP seems to be enough.

Let’s just start with a compile of a sample program made by the manufacturer.

Compile has succeeded. And let’s check the connection on the iPhone. The connection succeeded.

I made a remote monitor by 3D display function of the iPhone. Send the b-CAP packet for the robot, then…

You can monitor the robot in real time. You can also control the 3D display with multi-touch. Within the range of Wi-Fi you can monitor the robot everywhere.

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Incidentally, a “mansion” in Japan is usually a cramped communal housing complex, not the grand dwelling that it is known in the West. And if you’ve tried riding those crazy trains where passengers are pushed inside by station staff, you know that Japan is not for the claustrophobic.

Possibly the most claustrophobic restroom on the planet

Here is the hallway to the toilet of a pub in Japan. The reasoning probably goes: if you’re drunk enough, you will forget your dread of narrow spaces. Not quite surprisingly, that usually works with Tokyoites.

If you’ve been wondering why the Japanese (and especially Japanese women) are so slender, now you know why.

{Photos by seiten4go.com}

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As a side show, there was also the Import Anime Car (Itasha) Show in SiS which featured imported foreign cars painted with popular characters from anime and manga in a special space near the exhibition hall.

The photos below are three samples from Mainichi’s online gallery. Visit the site for more.

Import car desktop wallpapers

The exhibition website also has a gallery of wallpaper-sized photos of selected “normal” cars from the show for downloading, like the photos below.

Click on an image (in the gallery) and click on the “ダウンロード” word on the lower-left hand corner to download a zip file of the image.

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which supervised the mission, just released Kaguya’s final motion picture shots of the Moon’s surface taken by its Terrain Camera just prior to its maneuvered crash landing.

The 1-minute video below shows the lunar probe cruising very low on the moon’s surface 12 minutes before impact; its final footage just before impact were pitch dark because it landed on the darkened part of the near right side of the moon near Gill Crater.

Kaguya’s low-altitude cruise on the lunar surface before impact

Last high-definition still photos before impact

JAXA also released still images taken by Kaguya’s onboard High-Definition Television (HDTV) at one-minute intervals while it decreased its altitude from 27km to 14km before impact. Higher quality photos are available at JAXA’s website.

Hina, a little humanoid robot, is the creation of mujaki (Blog), and is based on Kondo’s KHR-2HV, with modified parts around the joints and especially the head. mujaki says it took 3 months to complete the mods to make the robot more human-like.

Below is the newly uploaded Youtube video.

“Hina-chan, no sugar please, oh, and a little bit of milk…”

Although its gait seems rough, its movements when grinding the coffee and pouring water is especially human-like, like something a little girl would do.

A nice addition at the end is the clip where Hina spilled the coffee on the table and made a mess. ^_^;;

“Hina” means a young chick in Japanese. mujaki himself has written on his blog:

Hina:
1. A newly hatched chick
2. A young girl’s little doll
3. A word that suggests “small” and “pretty”
4. Our black-and-white kitten

By the way, “Hina” is not the robot’s name; it’s the model or series name. I don’t have a name yet for the robot.

Specifications of little Hina, the robot:

Height: 36 centimeters
Weight: 1.1 kilograms
Freedom of movement: legs 6×2, arms 4×2, neck 1, total=21
Servo: KRS-788HV×20、GWS-PICO-STD×1 (neck only)
Power: 12v hobby robot battery, wired power
Control board: RCB-3J
Posture control: gyro x2, acceleration sensor

{via IT Media}

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Set in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear war, it tells the story of a damaged robot found by futuristic soldiers investigating a devastated area.

The humanoid appeared to be household robot, reminiscent of Asimo, and when the soldiers booted it up, they were able to see what was left of videos recorded inside its memory as seen by the robot throughout the years.

Yamamoto says:

I wanted to show how ephemeral, yet precious, our everyday lives are, that is why I made this film.

Yamamoto employed 3D computer graphics and actual camera shots to compose the film, which took a year to make and involved a number of co-collaborators.

In just under seven minutes and with no dialogue, the film poignantly reminds us that all our experiences, the things that we hold dear in our lives, are in constant threat from nuclear annihilation that can happen at an instant. A timely film in view of recent events in East Asia.

memory, a film by Junichi Yamamoto (山GEん)

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