Category Archives: Uncategorized

This one just sits there until you rub its head and then it opens its eyes and wiggles happily. Sounds silly, but I really wanted to take it home with me.

This one got some press in the US as well.  It’s for training dental assistants — it groans if you mis-aim the drill.   Brought to you by the makers of Hello Kitty.  Make of that what you will.  

Many of the wheeled robots came across as essentially remote-controlled forklifts with faces drawn on the front. It’s possible that they were autonomous and smart, but this wasn’t obvious from the sterile demonstrations. A laundry basket full of tennis balls … Continue reading →

About a third of the exhibit hall was devoted to giant manufacturing robots. Most of them were turned on, waving around, assembling cars and appliances that only they could see, so I appreciated watching these guys in action on an … Continue reading →

Say, is that a Swiss Alphorn Trio on its way into the robot exhibition?

I went to the convention center this morning. The convention center is on a weird, square, artificial island in Tokyo Bay filled with giant structures (malls, amusement parks, a scale model of Hong Kong, etc.) connected by monorail.   From … Continue reading →

I don’t know what this is an add for, but I love these eggs!

Back behind the shrines and things there was a stand of giant, old cedar trees.  As I was taking pictures of the trees a stranger offered to take a shot of me, which is above.   The reason I was … Continue reading →

Yesterday I visited Nikko, which is a tourist town a few hours outside of Tokyo full of shrines, reliquaries and the like. This photo is of the train cleaning crew who hovered by the door waiting for the last passengers … Continue reading →