Make: Online: Made in Japan Archives

Archive: Made in Japan

February 4, 2010

Hello Kitty chainsaw

This may be the end of civilization as we know it. [via Neatorama]

February 2, 2010

Gorgeous little needle-felted skull

From Japanese crafter うろね, who is also Flickr user urone317. [via CRAFT]

January 28, 2010

Hydrogel is mostly water, but strong as silicone rubber

I am always on the lookout for cool cutting-edge chemistry for my Make: Projects series. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally there's a breakthrough that's both interesting and important, and yet easy enough that even non-professionals can replicate it in their kitchens. It's one of my dreams to someday present a home chemistry project based on science just published, within the preceding week, in one of the major journals.

January 15, 2010

Japanese wooden humidifier has no moving parts

I have no idea how well it works, but I'm loving the minimalist zen-garden aesthetics of this Mast Humidifier from Masuza. The wood, supposedly, is naturally rot-resistant and imparts a lemony smell to the air. [via Gizmodo]

January 4, 2010

Paper airplane flight time record achieved

Yesterday, engineer Takuo Toda, president of the Japan origami aeroplane association, set a world flight record for a traditional-origami paper plane of 26.1 seconds. He's had longer flights, but they involved the use of scissors, tape, or other non-traditional materials. [via Neatorama]

December 16, 2009

158-lens camera

Built by Associate Professor Yojiro Ishino of the Nagoya Institute of Technology, this giant camera took six months to build and has reportedly been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the camera with the record-holding highest number of lenses. It's about 3 inches high and 18.5 inches across, and was built to study flames by capturing them simultaneously from ~~as many angles as possible~~ a large number of angles. [via Neatorama]

December 2, 2009

Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Made in Japan

The Maker Shed is the exclusive US distributor of Gakken products, allowing shoppers to get high-quality kits from Japan without paying out the nose for shipping costs. Gakken's kits provide the perfect mix of DIY, science, and history as they entertain as well as educate. Gakken's popularity is certainly not limited to Japan, as their following has spawned tributes such as the Gakken Flickr pool where users are eager to show off what they've done with their kits. In addition to MAKE's relationship with Gakken, MAKE has a Japanese version of the magazine as well as a very active Japanese version of Make: Online. Make: Japan has also been very proactive in their own version of the Maker Faire (the successful Make: Tokyo Meeting series), having just recently completed the fourth round of this lively event. For your gift-giving guidance, here are a few of my favorite Gakken items for the Maker Shed, as well as a few other items I've found in my travels.

New Edison-Style Cup Phonograph Kit ($36.99)
This cup phonograph sits proudly on display in my home, and pretty much everyone who sees it wants to give it a try. This replica kit uses the same technology that Thomas Edison used, replacing Edison's waxed pipe and stylus with a plastic cup and a needle, but the end results are the same: You record your own voice on a plastic cup -- and play it back! Here's how it works, your voice vibrates the air minutely when it gets into the horn. Then the vibration is conducted to the needle and is translated into a wavy movement of the needle and carves a groove onto the cup. When replaying, the reverse is true, the waves of the carved groove vibrate the needle and the vibration is conducted to the horn and the sound is produced from the horn.

November 22, 2009

Mystery iPhone musical instrument - World's most expensive ocarina

Pt 2337
MAKE Japan is having a meet up, check out this iPhone instrument! It looks like 3 iPhones mounted to a laser cut body and the player "blows" to produce music!

November 12, 2009

Making UPC barcodes less boring

I always assumed messing around with your product's barcode for marketing purposes was, like, a violation of the Geneva Convention or something. Like if you tried to turn your packaging's boring rectangular barcode into a zebra, or whatever, you'd start to get late-night phone calls from Brussels: "Nice supply chain you have there. Be a shame if something were to, you know, happen to it." Turns out nobody really cares, so long as it scans, and there's now a Japanese firm that specializes in barcode funification (although it seems like any competent graphic designer could probably do it just as well). [via Neatorama]

November 8, 2009

Lisp Manga...

Pt 2272
Firs it was "The Manga Guide to Statistics" then it was "The Manga Guide to Electricity" ...and now, Lisp Manga.

Lisp (or LISP) is a family of computer programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized syntax. Originally specified in 1958, Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language in widespread use today; only Fortran is older.

October 20, 2009

Pop-up Lego Zen temple is itself wonderfully Zen

It's like a pop-up book, kind of, except way more complicated and expensive and made of Lego elements by YouTube user talapz. Words fail me, too. [via The Brothers Brick]

September 29, 2009

Crawling wooden automaton

A newly posted work from Japanese kinetic sculptor Osamu Kanda, whose elegant praying mantis automaton I blogged two weeks ago. This one is called Crawl. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]

September 15, 2009

The impossible rose

To produce a naturally blue rose has been a dream of horticulturalists for almost as long as people have been breeding flowers. It turns out to be essentially impossible to do by traditional plant husbandry, and attempts have proved futile for so long that the blue rose itself has become a symbol of the impossible or the seemingly impossible, and only the rarest achievements call for their presentation as gifts. And until recently, even those rare occasions had to be served by artificially blue roses made by growing white roses in tinted water. Now, however, the Japanese company Suntory, in partnership with Australia's Florigene, have created a transgenic rose which incorporates a petunia gene to achieve a pale lilac color which is really only barely blue. It took them 13 years of work to do it, however, so I guess they've decided pale lilac is close enough.

September 14, 2009

Lovely praying mantis automaton

Japanese toymaker Osamu Kanda made this elegant machine. His YouTube channel has oodles of wooden mechanical goodies.

September 9, 2009

Traditional Japanese wood puzzles

Kumiki puzzles, as they're known, have been manufactured in the Ashigarashimo district of central Japan since the late 19th century, but the traditional fastenerless joinery techniques from which their intricate designs are derived are truly ancient. Kumiki puzzles are commonly representative, prototypically taking the form of traditional Japanese buildings, but more often, today, of animals or vehicles. Abstract kumiki are only slightly less common, the so-called "Great Pagoda," a commonly known type of octahedral burr puzzle, being a prime example.

The top photo is taken from this Japanese site. A wide selection of kumiki are available in the US through Cleverwood.

January 17, 2009

Made in Japan - 1/16/09

MIJ.2009.2.png
This week:
"One-Chip" Arduino, Making Dot Paintings w/ Bubble Wrap, More Decochari, Recotana's
AVR-based OSC Server, Gundam Bento, Life Preservers Replaced With Recycled DIY Flotation Devices, Making Glasses From the Bottoms of Bottles.

January 9, 2009

Made in Japan - 1/9/09

MIJ1.9.09.png
This week:
Ardunio-based Anime Sound Glove, World's Smallest Flapping Wing Flyer?, Rubber Band Gatling Gun, IAMAS Gangu Project, A Picture That Changes Depending on the Source of Light, VR Panorama Shots of Make Tokyo Meeting 02, Arduino PS2 Command Sequencer, Arduino Wrist Watch, Carving a QR Code Into Stone, Art Made w/ 5-Yen Coins, After Hours Magazine's Cross-Stitched Cover

December 29, 2008

Manhole covers of Japan...

Make Pt1518
New mashup Web site reveals the hole story behind Japan's manhole covers / Ittemia（イッテミア）前線

While not the oddest fetish in Japan by a long way, there are some who travel the length of Japan enticed by the prospect of a compellingly designed manhole. But while even the most ardent manhole cover buffs come up against the problem of too many manholes, not enough time, they now have a powerful ally: a new community Web site called Ittemia Zensen, started in August this year and featuring pictures of manhole covers from various regions of Japan and details on their locations.
Contributors can add photos of manhole covers directly from their mobile phones, along with global positioning system (GPS) data to mark its location on the map. While the site features pictures primarily of manhole covers from the Kanto region, those from other regions are also available, and many manhole covers feature locals sights and scenes, such as lanterns from the Kanto Festival in Akita; "gassho-zukuri" (thatched gable roof) farmhouses of Shirakawa in Gifu Prefecture, and scenes from the port city of Kobe.

December 14, 2008

Build: The Gakken Karakuri Tea Serving Robot

The Gakken Tea Serving Robot is designed to be a replication of the karakuri zui, an illustrated manual written in the Edo period (1603-1868). This mechanical doll has a tray that holds a cup of tea, and it is designed to approach the guest with the tea, bow his head, and then carry the empty teacup away. Using only springs as power, the term "robot" might at first seem a little strange, as there is no electricity used to make this doll do what it does, nevertheless, this doll has been called one of the original forms of the modern robot, in that it does follow (rudimentary) programmed instructions relating to variables such as if, then, and when. Check it out:

You don't have to be thirsty for a small cup of tea to see the appeal in this kit. Making the karakuri gives you a chance to experience what it was like for innovators and dreamers before the flood of modern technology, to see the trouble they went to as they carved their "code" into pieces wood, metal and other materials instead of uploading it onto microcontrollers like many makers do now. The karakuri is, by definition, a robot, but it is a robot that uses no electricity, and instead of using code as its instructions, it uses a series of mechanical processes to react to its physical environment.

View the Gakken Karakuri Tea Serving Robot in the Maker Shed.

December 12, 2008

Ballparks by Major League Models...

Yankee61-58
9776
Ballparks by Major League Models via BoJ.

Major League Models creates the world's finest "made-to-order" replicas of your favorite ballparks. Our incredible scale sizes yield museum-grade showpieces that consistently turn heads and bring favorite memories to the foreground. Ballparks begin with meticulous research utilizing blueprints, photos, and drawings. Ballparks are hand-crafted by renowned ballpark artist Steve Wolf with contributions from specialty artists to yield a unique three-dimensional art treasure. Over 1,800 hours of artistry are required to produce a single, one-of-a-kind gem.

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