Sure, watching the most impressive athletes in the world sprint a 500M is probably the most entertaining thing you’ve see in a long while, save for these racing robots from the the annual Robot Athletic Meet in Tokyo’s Akihabara district.

Check out the robot on the left. He’s playing for keeps. It might appear as if it’s falling over due to his unstable infrastructure but, in actuality, it is ready to bulldoze Mr. Goody-two-shoes over on the right. And don’t think he won’t be able to topple him over, either. He’s got those bitchin’ tonfas on his robot arms. Could he be a ninja robot? Inconceivable.

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Editor’s Note: The one on the right looks like Ryan.

French design house Louis Vuitton has a reputation for ostentatious urban displays and Tokyo is a hotbed of over-the-top luxury consumption, so it should come as no surprise that Vuitton’s planned Tokyo flagship store is going to have an innovative design.

Vuitton is being tight-lipped about when their Tokyo store will open and where in the city it will be located. Created by architecture firm UNstudio the building is based around a “leaf shape” that’s supposed to evoke the legendary Louis Vuitton monogram. Another prominent feature of the LV store are large window banks, which according to UNstudio, comply “with the necessity for discreetness [sic] with respect to visibility from the outside.” I guess with all their fancy design software the UNstudio architects don’t have any room on their computers for spellcheck.

After the jump, check out more pics of high-tech Japanese retail madness.

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Earlier this morning, the most luxurious movie theater ever had it’s grand opening in Tokyo Japan. Shinjuku Piccadilly is a cinema complex featuring a sleek “brilliant white” design and the world’s largest LCD monitor, a 108 inch behemoth from Sharp that’s the largest they can make with a single piece of 8th-generation glass substrate. Picture quality on this thing must be mind-blowing compared to a standard old school projector. God damn, those movie industry folks in Tokyo sure know how to put on an impressive show.

Shinjuku Piccadilly boasts private screening rooms that are available for rent. It costs a 30,000 yen (around $278) to watch a flick in one of these luxury boxes. You can rent one for a whole year for 30 million yen ($278,200). Shinjuku’s “platinum” VIP screening rooms come equipped with customized Italian leather sofas, surround sound systems, and champagne. Good luck trying to impress the ladies with your puny $30,000 DIY home-entertainment system now.

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Over in Japan, people do crazy shit. I’d use different terminology for sure if we were talking about, say, Las Vegas. But Japan is always changing the game with new technology and wacky ideology. The latest craze to hit the land of the rising sun is Drop-in IV Drip Therapy, a service offered through TenTeki10, a company I don’t have a clue about because I don’t read or speak Japanese.

TenTeki10 claims that through 10 minute drip sessions involving supplements, home remedies and energy injections (methamphetamine?), customers can relax and release the stress they experience in having to work and deal with the City of Tokyo day in and day out. Seems a little grandiose to me. Costs about $20 and is way cooler than an oxygen bar at the Excalibur in Vegas.

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If you are sick of looking our your window, only to see directly across an alley into your neighbors window (who happens to be a curtain-fearing hairy man who loves dancing with only underwear on), wouldn’t you say it’s time for a better view? (more…)

In an effort to promote the new flick, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, a spectacle effect is being played at Tokyo Harbor. Using a system based around water projection screen techniques and some water fountains, the water of Tokyo Harbor has been turned into one big promotional device for the film.

The Water Horse film itself revolves around the legend of the Loch Ness monster. If I was the real Loch Ness monster I’d be pissed. I’d get me an agent and earn my royalties out right. (more…)

My lovely Vietnamese house boy might give a decent facial massage, but I don’t think he would quite compare to this robotic massager. Researchers at the Waseda University in Tokyo have developed the WAO-1 Face Massaging Robot, hoping for its use in the medical field.

The movement of the robot’s arms is programmed using a complex set of algorithms made to emulate the movement for a perfect massage, with six sensors measuring the degree of pressure being issued. No news yet if a home version will ever be available, though seeing as these cost a whopping $70,000, we would think home use isn’t ready quite yet. — Andrew Dobrow

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