Toyota Partner Robots

産業技術記念館

On a revisit to the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry & Technology, not far from Nagoya Station, we came across the Toyota Partner Robots (トヨタ・パートナーロボット).

Developed in 2004 for the 2005 Expo, the Toyota Partner Robots are humanoid robots and can walk and play the trumpet, a feat they perform on the hour with admirable skill.

Toyota Partner Robots were developed to work with the elderly, through assisting in household chores and watching over them. At present, the technology is limited to them walking and playing various musical instruments.

Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry & Technology
1-35 Noritake Shinmachi 4-chome
Nishi-ku, Nagoya
451-0051
Tel: 052 551 6115
Admission: 500 yen
Hours: 9.30am-5pm (last admission 4.30pm)
Closed on Mondays

Access

Take a local (futsu) Meitetsu train one stop north from Nagoya Station to Sako. The museum is a 3 minute walk to your right from Sako Station.

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However, of those just 21 were approved.

That is down from 39 approvals in 2010.

Source: Kyodo News


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Buttocks Washing Seat

お尻洗浄用シート

Western observers of Japan have noted since antiquity how unabashed the Japanese are regarding things about the human body that Westerners are typically squeamish - at worst prudish - about.

One example is how until relatively recently in history, bathhouses in Japan were not gender discriminatory; both sexes bathed together. Another is phallic festivals in Japan where that bogeyman of traditional Western morality, the penis, is elevated to religious significance. Another is the prevalence of erotica in Japan that is fully open to public view, for example, explicit gay manga comics and doujinshi (erotic limited-edition parodies of mainstream manga), without anyone raising an eyebrow.

So it's not so surprising to see what is called a Buttocks Washing Seat on sale at a supermarket in Tokyo's Kinshicho district, depicting a decrepit trouserless old man having his ass sprayed by a woman wearing gloves and a facial expression that is probably a smile, but could be read as a longsuffering grimace as well.

On top of that, they got the spelling wrong! The product on sale here is not a seat, but a sheet: a Buttocks Washing Sheet, visible underneath the old man's ass, with the red arrow pointing to it. This is because in Japanese pronunciation, there is no distinction between the opening consonants in "see" and "she," or in "seat" and "sheet."

The red lettering on the packet under the word "Washing Seat" says "Of a size and absorbency that you can be sure will keep things around from getting dirty."

In graying Japan, it is products like the Buttocks Washing Sheet, not the disposable nappy for babies, that will see rising sales.

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Koga Shiga Prefecture

甲賀

Last May we spent nine days in Shiga Prefecture. With Hikone as our base of operations we took the JR train to see many sights. One day we decided to go to Koga to check out the Ninja Museum. I had seen some exciting ninja activity in two Taiga Dramas in particular, "Musashi" and "Komyo Ga Tsugi."

As we waited to board the train, an elderly woman asked us where we were going. "To Koga," answered my daughter. The woman responded, "Why?" I should have paused to hear if the crows were cawing, because that woman must have known something we did not.

We arrived in Koga at a tiny station. We had to take our tickets up to a window where a lone worker sat quietly. As we made our way toward the exit, we noticed beautifully painted murals of ninjas in various action scenes. They were designed in a way so children (and American tourists) could pose as if to be included in the precarious situation. There were even instructions posted so you could get it just right.

We exited the area and saw some ninja sculptures amidst some strikingly red maple trees. As we crossed the street we walked confidently, believing we would find the Ninja Museum in no time. We strolled here and there in the warm sunshine.

We saw the ninja-themed manhole covers and the ninja public telephone. We took a long walk past beautiful farmland, looked at interesting birds, and saw a bumper sticker on a barn which said "United We Stand," a reference to the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March. We were getting pretty hot and sweaty by this time, and we were grateful to find a vending machine next to the barn. A local said hello to us as I took a drink of CC Lemon.

We never found the museum. And by this time we felt too stupid to ask anyone for help. We went back to the station, too small to have any food for sale, and rode the JR back to Hikone. These days we say the ninja were just too clever for us, and they had hidden themselves as they watched us walk aimlessly through Koga. Next time I will heed the message from the old woman!

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