Top Stories - Gadgets

Check out this video demonstration of Vazu, a foldaway plastic flower vase.

Meet Yoshi Akai who uses wireless waves to create various music tunes by the works of an analog synthesizer that taps WiFi activity

While folding bicycles have been around for a while now, this new variation can be folded with a swiftness and elegance never seen before. The 2-second slide-folding bicycle was designed to be folded quickly while you are walking. Once folded, the rider can push the bicycle along with ease much like one would push a wheel-barrow.

If you're a dedicated learner of Japanese, you're probably used to hauling around all sorts of study materials with you — your electronic dictionary, flashcards, Japanese journal, a Japanese children's book you're trying to read, iPod with Japanese podcasts, etc. Now imagine one gadget can replace all these things. That's the potential of Apple's new iPad.

If you thought diapers were only for little babies then you could be wrong, think again! We have just discovered “Aipad,” one of the craziest products ever. It is a high-tech sensor-ready adult absorbent brief product by a Japanese company called Awajitec. In another word, it is an adult-diaper. Only Japan could think of such cool and yet bizarre products.

You always figured that a rodent who drives his own car would be able to withstand the recession, right? As retailers ramp up for the all-important holiday shopping season, at least the toy stores know that have a hit on their hands. Fuzzy, electronic toy hamsters called Zhu Zhu Pets are flying off the shelves at major outlets

Get it at Japan Trend Shop.

Price: US$575

These are Japan Self-Defense Force Sunglasses, and apparently they’re officially endorsed by Japan’s military. Maybe it’s because the JSDF just likes the way they look, or perhaps it’s the strong lenses. Each one is boasts the ability to withstand an impact from an object 0.3 inches (or 6.55mm) traveling at 106 miles per hour.

Editor of AlmostJapanese.com in Kiddyland store in Harajuku finds pimp USB sticks.

Popular gadgets in Japan often just need a little time to start popping up in the U.S. For instance, most Japanese were using LCD monitors years before they were common stateside. But the rule doesn’t hold for every gadget. Every now and then Japan produces a consumer technology that’s incompatible with the American populace.

From the fantastic public transportation system to the exploding Toyota Prius sales to the eco sex clubs and streets without a lick of trash, Japan is a formidable force on the green front. But after a 20-day trip, four social norms stuck out that made me go WTF? And wonder if pledges for extremely ambitious greenhouse gas emission cuts are realistic.

Yumemi Sugiko (no, that's not him above) runs Ichimu-An, a gay bar in the Shibuya district of Tokyo.

If you've always wanted a Japanese maid cafe girl for your very own - or just certain parts of one - now you can have the next best thing: a sexy plush cellphone charm or mouse wrist rest that looks like a maid's lower half.

This is a totally cool reactive T-shirt from Japan.

There is a sound bar on a placard on the T-shirt that reacts to sounds, music, and noise. The sound bar is hooked up to a sensor that contains 4 AA batteries and is stored within an inside pocket.

well it certainly isnt the inflight help and hospitality I can assure you of that - go to Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airlines if thats what your after...no I'm talking about the "on-the-ground-wizardry" like this wonderful little Gizmo at the Northwest WorldClub lounge at Narita where I had the "misfortune" to be stranded for 6 hours...(think Tom Hanks stateless and stuck in a First Class Lounge)