Japan is the world’s premiere source of both off-the-wall ideas and weirdly catchy dance tunes. That being the case, it comes as no surprise that Japan is the source of an upbeat disco tune extoling the virtues of Calorie Shaper, a $32 pair of undergarments that claim to increase the calories burned by walking. Apparently, they achieve this effect by having a resin coating that makes them stiff, and the resulting resistance adds up; a 140 pound man walking 90 minutes a day can burn calories equivalent to about half a liter of beer every week. Of course, that assumes he has a week’s worth of this rather expensive underwear, or poor hygiene. Either one, I guess.

Crazy-awesome disco commercial that will totally get stuck in your head after the jump.

Japanese manufacturer NSK has been working on robot dogs for a while now. Why? Why not. The most recent addition to there newest model of the robo-pet is, you guessed it, a Kinect. By having the Kinect mounted on its head, the robo-dog improves on previous versions built in conjunction with the University of Electro-Communications and can recognize (and climb) things like stairs, no small feat for a robot.

There’s a really strong trend for modeling robots after insects (and mollusks!) for good reason. Those creepy-crawly guys have adaptable mobility down to a science. Thousands of years of evolution have resulted in mechanisms of locomotion that just make sense, so what better idea is there than to totally rip them off for robot designs? The Slug Crawler Vehicle from the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan sort of mimics the way a slug moves, and as a bonus, is completely covered in a waterproof, tread-skin to give it an extra edge.

Burger King does weird things every now and then. The recent, fairly popular ad campaign featuring the extremely creeping King mascot comes to mind, and how there were multiple $5 video games made for the Xbox and Xbox 360 featuring said mascot. Now, Burger King Japan is continuing the weirdness with a Whopper the size of a pizza.

The latest music video from former mixed martial artist Genki Sudo and his musical project WORLD ORDER is as visually surreal as it is catchy. In it, a troupe of seven well-dressed Japanese men dance their away across Mexico. Though, “dancing” really doesn’t give credit to the tightly choreographed moves and the physical endurance of the men involved. Together, the group creates a series of strange, wonderful images — without, it appears, the aid of CGI.

Watch it, you won’t regret it.

The end is near: the Japanese Ministry of Magic Defense have designed a spherical flying drone. It’s only a matter of time before manhacks and scanners and countless sci-fi references by all the bloggers in the world. Well, that last one already happened. Still, you can’t deny that it’s pretty futuristic. The drone, about the size of a beach-ball, has an upward-facing propeller that allows it to hover, but also wings that allow it to turn that propellor forward for horizontal movement. It also has 3 gyroscopes so it can always tell which way is up, something any sphere will tell you is important.

The idea apparently grew out of an attempt to create devices that could fly horizontally, but take off and land vertically. Harrier jets, basically, except more reliable and cheaper. The sphere reportedly cost about $1,400. The sphere shape came up as a natural extention of that idea and can effectively take off and land anywhere. There are all kinds of applications for this technology, but I’m sure you can figure them out yourself, so I won’t bore you. If you can’t figure any out, go watch any sci-fi movie.

Video of the little guy in action after the jump.

When it comes to a lot of things, simpler is usually better. Computer programming, UI design, trying to write like Ernest Hemmingway. But you might not think the same thing applies to robotics, especially when you’re trying to mimic something like complex human motion. Well, you’d be wrong.

Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan have been working on a “robot” called BlueBiped that walks without needing a power source or any sort of electronics; it kind of challenges your definition of “robot.” BlueBiped functions entirely from momentum, similarly to how people walk, in part, by using momentum (except people don’t use momentum exclusively). With a small push and a slight downward slope, BlueBiped can walk until there’s no walking left to do.

Have you ever been taking a picture of your mouse embryo collection and gotten frustrated because the darn things just weren’t transparent enough? Like a lot of other bizarrely specific issues, scientists have actually had this one before. In order to solve it, scientists at RIKEN in Japan have published a special “recipe” that will let you transpar-ify all of your mouse embryos in two weeks or less!

They accomplish this effect by soaking the embryos in something called Scale (italics are theirs) for around two weeks, the main ingredients of which are urea (yes, that stuff from urine), Triton-X, which is a kind of flesh-softening detergent, and Glycerol from antifreeze. That’s it. There are already similar products on the market called clearing agents, but this one takes the cake in terms of effectiveness. While others can help you only see so deep, with Scale, the only limitation is the strength of your microscope.

Generally, when I run out of milk, I let my cereal go dry and stale for a week or two until I can muster up the muster to mosey the eight blocks to the grocery store and buy some milk to moisten my stale cereal, which I then throw away because it is too stale. This, in turn, causes my milk to go bad because I didn’t have any cereal in which to put it, and, oh, that grocery store. That grocery store is so far away. It’s a vicious cycle of waste, shame, milk anxiety, and regret. It seems when you run out of milk in Japan, the Milkless go through another kind of vicious cycle — a kind that must be seen to be believed.

Beware the cows, my Japanese friends. Not all milk is enriched.

(via WTF Japan Seriously!?)

Though this video a couple of years old, Viral Viral Videos claims it has only recently become popular. The above segment is from a video series where songs and dances are used to teach Japanese people how to speak English. Not only does the video repeat “I have a bad case of diarrhea” in the most serious tone imaginable, but three women in aerobic outfits dance to and sing the “I have a bad case of diarrhea” song. You know, so people can learn to speak English.

(via Viral Viral Videos)