voila pourquoi nous adorons le japon

How cute. Japanese company Wire Orange is offering "Diaper Sushi" ("omutsu zushi" or おむつ寿司) as a present for new mothers.

The gift set is designed to look like sushi. Often in Japan, sushi is used in celebrations and special dinners, whether that's going out to eat, ordering sushi for home delivery, or making it at home.

So how does this diaper sushi work? Well, for example, the tamago (egg) is actually a sponge on top of a diaper.

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That's awesome! And ebi (shrimp) is a bib and a clothes pin on a diaper.




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And one more: Ikura (salmon roe) is a gel pack on a diaper. The diaper serves as the rice in diaper sushi. The gel pack can be frozen to, for example, be used in bringing down a baby's fever or baby milk.






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So, so clever. No wonder many of the diaper sushi sets, which cost between ¥5,000 and ¥10,000 (US$56 ~ $111), are already sold out.



Just remember that the smelly diaper sushi is not part of the gift set. Very important!

Behold, a coat. That will hug you. And whisper into your ear.

Some Japanese students at the University of Tsukuba
decided they'd put their effort into creating a coat that could give
the sensation of being hugged from behind by their girlfriend. Make
that, their imaginary anime sounding girlfriend.

The result
is called the Riajyuu Coat (リア充コート). The Japanese slang "riajyuu" (リア充)
means someone who is pleased with their life outside the internet. It's a
mash-up of the words "riaru" (リアル), which is the loan word for "real",
and "jyuujitsu" (充実), which can mean "satisfactory" or "complete".

The above video recently showed up on Japanese site NicoNico Douga. It seems somewhat tongue-in-cheek and not entirely serious! And no, you cannot buy this coat in stores.
Among college students and researchers in Japan, there appear to a
handful of them who enjoy creating devices and machines that serve no
real purpose, such as last year's robot butt. Well, maybe these things do have a purpose...

From robotic vocal chords to robotic lips, Japan has made a variety of robotic body parts over the years. But one body part has always been noticeably overlooked: robot ass.


Not anymore! Enter Shiri. In Japanese, "shiri" (尻) means "buttocks", and
this robot is a "buttocks humanoid that represents emotions with visual
and tactual transformation of the muscles."

The goal of
Shiri is supposed to express the "various emotions with organic
movement of the artificial muscles". That's fancy talk for butt
movement.

Shiri is above to tense up like butts are supposed to, and it is able to detect your touch, stroke, and, um, slap.
The project
is the work of research Nobuhiro Takahashi and the University of
Electro-Communications. Takahashi is also working on "self-hugging" rigs as well as some sort of kissing simulator

The above video, courtesy of sister site Gizmodo Japan, gives a breakdown of Shiri. Skip ahead to 2:30 for the hot butt slapping action. Boy, sometimes science sure is cheeky.

It's called Sense-Roid. It's a hug simulator.

Hugging the
mannequin creates corresponding pressure in the Sense-Roid vest. Here's
how it works: on the mannequin there are force sensors that release
corresponding pressure via air pressure valves in a vest worn in the
video by brilliant, but possibly lonely scientists.

"When
people frist try out Sense-Roid, they think it's creepy," said
researcher Nobuhiro Takahashi. "But gradually, they start feeling safe
and secure."

Sense-Roid
isn't quite ready for production. Researchers hope to use the Sense-Roid
for therapy or even for massage. A Sense-Roid user could massage the
mannequin, and then the corresponding area in the vest would be
"massaged".
Japanese netizens, however, are humorously saying this would be perfect for adult video games and dating sims. There's already an "hands free", ahem, pump. Hugging seems like a natural, if not overdue, evolution.

If Nobuhiro Takahashi looks familiar, that's because he's also developed a kissing simulator that could simulate kissing between lovers—or even between an idol and fans. What's more, it could also creep you out.