Great news for all you lovers of wacky Japanese products out there with the announcement that Thanko has added an English portal to their Rare Mono Shop.

Via Akiba Today

The Apple iPhone seems to be experiencing a cooler reception in Japan than it did in other countries around the world.

According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the one million units that they previously thought Apple could sell. One big challenge is that Japanese users already have access to some of the most advanced mobile-phone technologies in the world. Models currently sold by Japanese cellphone makers typically contain a high-end color display, digital TV-viewing capability, satellite navigation service, music player and digital camera. Many models also include chips that let owners use their phones as debit cards or train passes. Noriko Tanaka, a 34-year-old Softbank customer in Tokyo, said she likes the iPhone’s touch screen, but would prefer a phone with digital television capability. “The touch screen looks fun, but I’m not sure I could get used to it,” said Ms. Tanaka.

Here’s a video of a guy who figure out how to get his Wii Balance Board to control the movements of his Roomba.

Of course, the next question is why anyone would want to, but. . .

Via The Raw Feed

Like most countries, the keitai (mobile phone) has become a huge part of life in Japan, and for the younger generation, cell phones seem to be supplanting the personal computer as the primary Internet device of choice.

The newest trend is young people using their phones to access sites called purofu ( “prof,” from the English word profile, which looks very similar to “blog” when rendered in katakana), centralized services that allow people to create profiles for themselves showing their pictures, specifying their age and location, and listing their favorite music, movies or food.

These purofu services are sort of like guestbooks optimized to display on cell phones, where people can search for keywords then leave comments or links and have random, meandering discussions, creating a way for lonely Japanese young people to make friends.

No one knows exactly how many users of these services there are in Japan, but conservative estimates start at 1 million or more.

The new Internet services aren’t without problems, however, some of which came to light last week when a 17-year-old student attacked a 14-year-old in Chiba Prefecture with a metal baseball bat for writing insults on his profile page.

Well, the International Day of the iPhone is here, when Apple’s new 3G iPhone launches around the world.

In Japan, the line outside Softbank’s flagship store in Omotesando, Tokyo reached 1500 people and over a kilometer in length, as Japanese fans lined up to get their hands on the device for the first time. Masayoshi Son, the enigmatic president of Softbank and the mind behind the success of Google-trouncing Yahoo Japan, was beaming as he watched the lines of iPhone buyers, most of whom were switching from competing cellphone companies au/KDDI and NTT Docomo.

Being a maverick has helped make the UC Berkeley-educated Son, a third-generation Japanese of Korean descent, the richest man in Japan, and his ability to “think different” probably helped him win the contract for the iPhone from Steve Jobs.

While I’m still not sure if the iPhone will bowl over Japanese keitai users, who are extremely hidebound and love their flip-fones with the fancy styling and easy-to-type (for them) numeric keypads, I do love the coming havoc the iPhone will wreak in the Japanese cellphone marketplace as users realize they don’t have to give cellular providers power to dictate everything about their phone, from what music formats they can listen to to what applications they can run — they can just stick anything in iTunes and sync it over.

Today I updated my (first-gen) iPhone to the updated 2.0 firmware and downloaded the app I’ve always wanted, a light saber sound simulator (iTunes link). Any phone platform that can bring that kind of awesomeness to its users will certainly find a niche in Japan.

The New York Times has a nice bio piece on Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Nintendo’s Wii game system as well as Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, and Zelda! The latter 3 games have sold more than 350 million copies while the new Wii system has sold 25 million units.

• He lives near Kyoto with his wife and two school-age children.
• This past spring, he was voted the most influential person in the world in an online Time 100 poll.
• He has been an instrumental part of Nintendo gaining a net worth of $8 billion and making Nintendo’s former chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi the richest man in Japan.

Japan’s oldest “modern” robot — the 10-foot, 6-inch GakuTenSoku — has been awakened in Japan. Gone are the inflatable rubber tubes of the original 1928 android build by biologist Makoto Nishimura. The bot now tilts its head, moves his eyes, smiles, and puffs out his cheeks thanks to a $200,000, computer-controlled, pneumatic-servo makeover. While nothing compared to his modern offspring, GakuTenSoku still manages to creep us the hell out. On display at the renovated Osaka Science Museum starting July 18th.

japanese robot nostalgia from engadget.

I’m currently in love with this watch by LA based designer Tokidoki. The designer, Simone Legno, is actually from Italy, but with a keen eye, and a sense of humor (not to mention a Japanese girlfriend), he’s created a world of charming characters that remind one of the playful sensibility pervading the world of anime. No wonder he has a devoted cult following.

This summer is supposed to see the launch of several new Tokidoki products, including a special bag for Sportsac and a collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger. I’m really curious to see what the items will look like!

If there is a way to make something cute and fuzzy, when it is an everyday, mundane item, Japan finds the way.

These elephant trunk doorstops would make anyone’s day brighter.

3,570 yen each, purchase via Rinkya Stores

Someone seems to think so. . .