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J A P A N O R A M A

Ahh, Japan... land of the rising sun, rising sin, and rice with nearly every meal. In Japan everything is possible and possibly everything is available - often with a unique and unexpected twist. Vending machines dispensing whisky, frozen meat, live rhinoceros beetles or schoolgirl panties? Where else but in Japan, where urban legends live and die on streets that have no names.

As the Japanese Innovations Writer for InventorSpot.com and an unabashed Japanophile, I take great joy in channeling the relentless tsunami of on-the-edge Japanese ideas and products, each wondrous one revisiting and reinventing 1950s Japanese Transistor Radio Syndrome for the post-atomic age!

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Indoor Fireworks From Sega Toys Light Up Your Living Room


Indoor Fireworks Make Celebrations Sizzle, Rain Or Shine
Sega Toys introduces the Uchiage Hanabi, a modified planetarium with speakers that brings fireworks indoors to spark up any celebration, no matter what the weather.

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Japan's NTT DoCoMo Updates the 'Pay Phone'


Japan's NTT DoCoMo Updates the 'Pay Phone'
Hauled into jail by some rural deputy sheriff and need to pay a fine? If you're in Japan, you can use that one phone call to make an instant cash transfer. Finally, a pay phone that actually pays!

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Dental Plaque Detection Camera Puts Your Teeth On TV


Dental Plaque Detection Camera Puts Your Teeth On TV
Dental-ivision? It's the ultimate reality show, and besides, what would you rather watch: oral hygiene or Oral Roberts? Thanks to the Miharu Dental Intraoral Plaque Detection Camera, you CAN handle the tooth, right in your own living room.

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Japanese TV Dusts Off the Competition With Maid Detective


Japanese TV Dusts Off the Competition With Maid Detective
"Maid Detective" takes the bizarrely popular Maid concept from Akihabara cafes to the silver screen. Actress & singer Saki Fukuda cleans up crime scenes every week on Japan's TV Asahi.

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Talk About Timing - Michael Jackson 'Live In Japan' DVD Released June 23


Amazon Releases Michael Jackson DVD Just 2 Days Before His Death
Timing is everything when you're a performer and nobody knew it better than the late Michael Jackson. Timing is also essential in business, as Amazon.com is surely realizing - the new "Michael Jackson: Live In Japan" DVD was posted on the Amazon website a mere 2 days before MJ's untimely death.

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Feeling Blue? Japan's Got a Beer for That


Feeling Blue? Japan's Got a Beer for That
Feeling blue? Japan's got a beer for that: Okhotsk Blue to be exact, a foamy brew made with water sourced from icebergs, tinted icy blue with seaweed.

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Life Preserver Pill Box Could Be a Life Saver


Life Preserver Pill Box Could Be a Life Saver
Pills, spills and thrills - that's what pill boxes and life preservers have in common. Now Troika combines the best features of both in a miniature life preserver travel case that holds all your life preserving pills and vitamins.

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Prius Hearse Makes Your Last Road Trip a Green Ride


Prius Hearse Makes Your Last Road Trip a Green Ride
Think "hearse" and a long black Cadillac is what usually comes to mind. Toyota has a better, greener idea however: the Prius Hearse.

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Japanese Replica Taxi Meter Shames Free-Riding Freeloaders


Japanese Replica Taxi Meter Shames Free-Riding Freeloaders
Freeloading friends making you feel like a taken-advantage taxi driver? Spoiled teenage kids too lazy to take the bus? Don't be a crabby cabby, get even - and get a fake (but oh-so-real-looking) taxi meter!

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The Top Ten Bizarre, Radical & Cool Nintendo Wii Case Mods


The Top Ten Bizarre, Radical & Cool Nintendo Wii Case Mods
Nintendo's popular Wii home video game console just might be the biggest hit Japan has had since the Prius. The Wii has sold so well, it's only now that customers are being offered the Wii in black as opposed to bland old white. Not everyone has been patient, however, as these ten wild & wacky Wii mods illustrate.

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April 2009

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