Some Pictures, in no particular theme or order

Robots in the Tokyo Institute of Technology (there's a crude initialism in there somewhere I'll find it some day...) museum. Apparently Japan is researching robots with which to make the nightmares of small children come true...

Walking things don't scare you? How about snakes? (Hi Mom)

But enough scary things, how'd you like an owl, this guy was on sale for the bargain price of
¥380,000 ($3,800).

He does the dignified Owl look too:

More nightmare creature robots, this one can climb sheer walls, good luck convincing your 5 year old it's not going to come in through the open window...

And if the little snake isn't scary enough, it has a big brother:

Can anyone Guess where this Picture was taken? (looking for a type of location, not gps coordinates)

The Studio Ghibli Museum is really cool, they have stuff like this on their roof:

Seeing all that beautiful artwork made me feel artistic, so I rolled up my sleeves and twiddled two sliders to make this slightly more artsy-fartsy version:

And while riding back in a Limited express car, I had lots of time to reflect on my surroundings (or was that, have my surroundings reflect onto me?):

-CMD

Electric Vehicles

So, I was in Akihabara last week, and there was some sort of public exhibition of a few Electric Vehicles (EV's) and Everyone was looking at these two and talking.

And over on the side, with no one near them except a few people who seemed to be related to the exhibit, were these, much cooler cars. WHY WAS NO ONE INTERESTED IN THESE??

Now that's an EV, think of the launch torque!

-CMD

God Damnit Japan!

Maid Cafe's are pretty high on my list of things that are just a bit too creepy in real life.

-CMD

ボルト

On my way to Machida to pick up some parts for work yesterday, I rode in a truly terrifying bit of commercialism. This car had every single advertising slot in it purchased by the same organization, the Disney Corporation, to publicize the imminent (today) theatrical release of their film "Bolt" in Japan.

This is only topped in my experience by seeing a Yamanote-line train a while ago that had every external advertising slot, ON THE ENTIRE TRAIN covered by posters advertising the, already released, "Ponyo" DVD release. That was rather impressive. I'm confused why they feel they need to put effort into pushing "Ponyo" though, I mean the tiny box of convenience store even has a big poster and DVDs on prominent display.

-CMD

Powerlines, redux

In case you thought I was exaggerating the Japanese love of powerlines, here's another poignant example:

and if you're still not getting it, here's a crop of the above picture:

-CMD

Japan doesn't need street performers...

...it has street performing groups!

I wasn't interested enough to stick around for them to finish setting up, so I don't know what they sounded like, but they certainly had more equipment than your typical street musician.

-CMD

lucky opportunities

Are rarely so convenient:

-CMD

P.S. Bugeye, heck yeah!