Japan

Every two weeks JPCMHD creates a compilation of Japanese TV commercials. Which one is your favorite?

This coming November, Japanese fragrance startup Scentee will unveil Hana Yakiniku ("Nose Grilled Meat"), an add-on device for smartphones designed to upgrade your dining experience by giving off the aroma of a delicious Yakiniku BBQ dinner. Basically, it's a BBQ-scented air refresher, although we're not sure whether it will be an enhancement or a really cruel tease for those who can't afford that every night. The scent cartridge is priced at 3,480 yen ($35.57 USD) and comes in three scents (short ribs, beef tongue and buttered potato) along with a free smartphone app.

With this weekend's official announcement that Toyko won the bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the internet has been talking about who predicted this 30 years ago. the cyberpunk manga from the 1980s, set in 2019 against the backdrop of the upcoming 2020 Neo-Tokyo Olympics, what we call the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Is this a horse racing game or a collection of everything WTF ever?

Japan's robotics research collective Bravo Robotics unveiled a preview of its latest prototype model for a remote-controlled sports car that transforms into a bipedal robot, which will be presented during the upcoming Maker Faire in Tokyo. The 1/12 scale model is operated by a modified PS3 controller and comes equipped with a missile launcher on each arm and a wireless camera that feeds into mobile devices like iPad.

A zoo worker at the Maruyama Zoo in Hokkaido, Japan, scares the bejesus out of a a twin baby red panda.

Omote 3D Shashin Kan is the world's first 3D portrait studio that uses a handheld scanner to produce a three-dimensional scale model of your entire body, which is then sculpted into a intricate plastic figurine. Created by Japanese advertising and branding company PARTY and located in Tokyo's youthful Harajuku neighborhood, the studio offers three different sizes for your luxurious mini-me sculpture: 3.9 inches (¥21,000 / $258), 5.9-inches (

Japanese LEGO brick artist Talapz showcases his super intricate pop-up model of Kinkaku-ji, a famous Zen Buddhist temple located in Kyoto, Japan.

Japanese gizmo maker Takara Tomy Arts unveils its line of batterly-run, lifelike Robofish toys (￥2,980 / $37 per fish) at the 2012 Tokyo Toy Fair.

Check out this gameplay footage from Japan World Cup 3, not your average horse race betting game.

The G-Cans Project, formally known as the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, is the world's largest flood water drain facility located 50 meters below ground in the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. Built between 1992 and 2009, the massive underground tunnel system is equipped with four jet-powered turbines and five gargantuan water silos that can drain floodwaters at an impressive rate

Here we have a video of two Japanese girls diving into a mud pit head first. 2 Girls 1 Mud Pit, you say? Well actually, this is a video clip from a Japanese game show called "Jump Into Mud Puddle" (泥の水たまりに飛び込む), in which the contestant who stays submerged in the pit the longest wins ¥8 million Yen, which is around $100,000 USD.

One year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's Sendai region, Japanese news network ANN has released a video showing the clean-up and rebuilding of the coastal towns of Minamisanriku, Ishinomaki, Rikuzentakata and Miyako.

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