Shiinaneko-san has found an original way of using your iPad to improve your eating experience. iDish is the name of the revolutionary application. Somebody dares to make the same but with dishes from their country?
The other day Carlos, Alain, Mayo and I went to visit a temporary exhibition that showed some inventions that Fujiko Fujio, Doraemon author, imagined decades ago while drawing his manga.
Most of the exhibition is centered around robotics advances in recent years that have allowed the creation of humanoid robots that can walk like Doraemon, who is a robot that came from the future.
The two main inventions in the exhibition are: the “Takecopter”, that although is much bigger than in the manga, is quite an achievement, as it’s the smallest helicopter in the world; and the “Invisibility cloak” that works quite well thanks to the “fixed” background that was set up.
Many of Doraemon inventions have become a reality but there’s still much work to do. The Doraemon invention that I would like to have the most is “どこでもドア” (the magic door) that allows you to teleport to any place in the world. Any Doraemon inventions that you would like to see become real?
If you are coming to Japan this summer, the exhibition will be open until the 27th of September in Miraikan, (Map).
Doraemon and Nobita flying with takecopters.
This is the closest thing to a takecopter we have been able to achieve. It is the smallest helicopter in the world, a GEN H4.
More information about the Gen H4 helicopter in the official website of Gen Corporation.
If you want to buy it, you can do it here. It costs 67,000 euros/85,000 dollars.
Invisibility cloak.
I tried for the first time a machine that can read my brain waves. Quite interesting to see how they change depending of what you’re thinking about or what you are doing. For example, I tried reading Japanese with the sensors attached to my head and immediately the frequency of beta and gamma waves went up.
This kid is playing with artificial plants that react to environment changes.
Alain testing a mysterious chair.
Trying to look like Doraemon.
Categories
474,048 restaurants in Japan
474,048 is the number of restaurants and cafeterias in Japan. It is the country in the world with the highest density of restaurants/cafeterias in the world with one restaurant for each 266 people. The second place is for United States with 566,020 and a density of one restaurant for each 547 people. Notice that in Japan there’s almost twice as much restaurants per person than in United States.
474,048 restaurants and cafeterias in Japan.
In Japan it is very common to eat outside a lot, as it is relatively cheap. For example, in Europe the price difference between cooking at home or eating out in a decent restaurant can be quite big. However, in Japan the difference is not so big, supermarket products are in general a little bit more expensive than in Europe but the food in restaurants is usually quite cheaper (even taking into account the current exchange rates). This causes that many people, mostly in big cities, don’t bother cooking (supermarket stuff is quite expensive) and almost always eat out. Because of this, restaurants are easily busy and more and more of them are opening; however I guess that their profit margin is lower than in other countries.
Another common characteristic of Japanese restaurants is their specialization. There are restaurants specialized in practically any kind of dish and in some of them only their specialty is served. For example, only takoyaki, or only gyoza. Clients love this because to their eyes sushi prepared in a restaurant that ONLY serves sushi has to be better than sushi in a restaurant that serves many different dishes.
To conclude, another characteristic of Japanese restaurants is that they are not designed to stay there for a long time. The most characteristic example are ramen restaurants; in some of them they start to give you the evil eye if you stay more than 20 minutes. They are usually very small restaurants for only 10-15 people, so their business is based on serving the highest number of people in the least time possible. Clients have to be fast so that the business is successful.
Ramen restaurant. If there is people lining up, you have to rush!
Sources: Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Japan data), National Restaurant Association (USA data).