In order to promote their rather tidy trainers, Onitsuka have made a bizarre website, where the shoe is represented in mosaic format, and each of the tiles in the mosaic is a snapshot of a website which focuses on some aspect of Japan. Even better - you can mouseover to see the snapshot enlarged, and then visit the site. (It opens in a new window.)

I have already spent far too much time on this.

Link.

As seen in Fujisawa, Kanagawa. Reports that the driver had no mouth and a boyfriend called Daniel were unconfirmed at time of writing.

Well, the name of the seishun ju-hachi kippu assumes you’re a young ‘un, but you don’t have to be a high school student or even a university student to obtain and use one - my trip to Akita was entirely done on one of these budget tickets, although coming back in one day as I did took me about eighteen hours on local trains, which was not pretty.

Still, buying one of these super budget tickets is a cheap way to get around Japan, and if you think trains are the bomb, then you won’t mind so much - especially seeing as the tickets allow unlimited travel for a 24 hour period (on only local JR trains, natch) for the bargain price of 11,500 yen.

w00t.

More in-depth info available at The Budget East

I hate small dogs. They’re horrible, yappy kickable things. Dachshunds are just about OK, but chihuahuas and poodles must die.

What better way to exorcise my demons than to buy a castle for my target dog, and then attack it with cannon? Wonderful.

Yes. Really. You can get a castle for your rat dog. The mind boggles.

via Tokyoahead

Full mind-melting running dog flash site here.

Snow. Love it or hate it, can be pretty annoying at times (from what I’d imagine). It collects in your driveway and you have to shovel it, which is just extra work. Some Japanese researchers have developed the “Yuki Taro” - a machine that rolls over snow, collecting it and then compressing it into hard ice bricks that it then leaves behind. The ice bricks then can be used for refrigeration in warmer months. The machine has video cameras and GPS installed so it can “see” where it is going.

It’s a funny looking robot and has a very cutesy appearance. It can all be yours for about 1 million yen - or around $USD8000. The designers are working on reducing the size and weight but come on - who wouldn’t want one?

The Mainichi reports that the Sofitel Tokyo hotel, long a subject of divided opinion, is to be moved to a new site.

It’s quite an impressive looking piece of architecture - in a WTF kind of way.

original picture taken by Nemo’s Great Uncle - more @ Flickr