Where on earth these things are sold I don’t know. But wherever it is, this homeowner has been and bought one.
And inexplicably put it on prominent display too.
Photographs from a small group of islands
Where on earth these things are sold I don’t know. But wherever it is, this homeowner has been and bought one.
And inexplicably put it on prominent display too.
Bored with your iPod, Sony PSP, and email equipped mobile phone? Well fear not, Japanese medical technology company Scalar has produced some video sunglasses. And as an added bonus they aren’t especially unfashionable either.
Appropriately named Teleglass, the sunglasses can be connected to a portable DVD player, digital camera, and perhaps most importantly with 3G handsets becoming commonplace, a mobile phone.
Using a combination of technology, including the magnifiers utilised by dentists and the hands-free displays used by helicopter pilots, a picture is projected onto the left lens of the glasses. With the manufacturer claiming it’s like watching a 14-inch television from about a metre away. And with the right eye free, the wearer will still be aware of his or her surroundings.
When the product goes on sale, its rumoured price is somewhere around the 50,000 yen (250 pound) mark. And with an early batch of the Teleglass selling out almost immediately from the company’s website, it looks like sunglasses will be the fashion accessory for gadget loving commuters this summer.
However personally I think I’ll still stick with my trusty newspaper for now.
Advancements in digital technology has meant smaller and smaller cameras, which in turn has resulted in sleazier and more surreptitious shooting. With arguably the best-known use of such equipment being upskirt photography. But whereas this particular art form is generally practiced by lone deviants, in other areas of furtive filming, whole industries have developed.
In a recent newspaper report, the DVD “Hidden Camera: Kansai Women’s Bath†was used as a prime example. Secretly filmed, appropriately enough in a women’s bath in Kansai, the voyeuristic video is now widely available for anybody with 8,000 yen (40 pound) to spare. And on the same shelf will be countless other films of a similar nature, the sales of which generate somewhere in the region of 5 billion yen (25 million pound) a year.
But with so much money at stake, filmmakers it seems are prepared to stoop ever lower to get their desired images. With the actions of a consortium in Wakayama Prefecture a couple of years ago amply proving this. As on a piece of vacant land the group built a public toilet, which needless to say wasn’t a benevolent gift to the weak bladdered citizens of Wakayama. No, the public convenience was constructed with only one thing in mind, and as such it was equipped with all the latest digital technology. And in a matter of months, they had enough material for a staggering 60 videos. Netting the organization a cool 50 million yen (250,000 pound).
Whatever next?
Ginza’s famous brands, fancy restaurants, and fashionable boutiques may appeal to many adults. But for a gang of young boys, none of them can hold a torch to the trusty old Game Boy Advance.
Tochigi Prefecture Government official Takayuki Oka took the afternoon off work on April 19th. But it wasn’t to visit his doctor or meet up with friends. No, the 35-year-old cross dresser thought his time was best spent loitering outside a local launderette.
Obviously this in itself is no crime, but dressed entirely in women’s clothes, Oka-san unwisely decided to show more than a bit of leg. As when a 25-year-old woman entered the building, he demurely lifted the hem of his itsy-bitsy miniskirt and exposed his decidedly un-ladylike member.
During questioning the accused admitted to the allegations, but in his defence a Government official said (with or without a cheeky grin in reference to their double entendre) that, ahem, Oka had always been “a hard worker.â€
Since the last mention on Tokyo Times of the decidedly relaxed approach to smoking in Japan and the emphasis on manners more than anything else, things have actually changed. A little bit. Many restaurants, coffee shops, and fast-food eateries have actively embraced no-smoking areas, with some of them (well, I’ve seen one) even going smoke-free.
But thankfully this hasn’t stopped Japan Tobacco from continuing its (unintentionally) funny and often-unfathomable smoking manner campaign. And as the nation’s biggest cigarette manufacturer is partly owned by the government, this presumably isn’t about to change anytime soon either.
Yet I shouldn’t let such cynicism get in the way of the smoking related gems below. With the promotion of portable ashtrays being a particularly popular topic of late.
And then there’s this offering, which I’m guessing alludes to the same thing. Or there again, maybe not.
And the last one also seems to be along the same lines. But it is of such a surreal nature that I can’t be completely sure.
In fact you could argue it’s even Zen-like in its approach. The sound of one hand clapping however pales into insignificance when compared to the sound of children scolding adults with paintbrushes. A mystery that would surely challenge even the greatest of minds.