Saturday, December 10, 2011

Geeksville - Tokyo Robot Exhibition

A few weekends ago Kept Ninja and I ventured to the Tokyo International Exhibition Centre to see the iRex Robot Exhibition.


There was a mix of industrial robots (for manufacturing); healthcare robots (robotic legs) and leisure robots (toys!).


Few videos and pics below :)


Tokyo International Exhibition Centre

Umm...art?

iRobot

Pinky

Storm trooper wannabe

... more than meets the eye

Robot artwork

Robot artwork

Robot artwork


Robot wars - Take I

Robot Teddy Bear


Giddy up!


Robot Wars - take II


Robot Wars - take III
xoxo

Karate Kate

Friday, December 9, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... in Japan

The weather has changed and the Christmas season is setting in to Tokyo. All the pumpkins are gone and the twinkle lights are in full flight. Despite being predominantly Buddhist and Shinto, the country appears to embrace Christmas, like one of Santa's hugs.
Our tree... at our apartments
I'd love to know what percentage of people's incomes they spend on shopping here - the typical weekend for a couple involves a few hours of shopping - the lady buys, the man carries... if they have a bub on board then the shopping goes in the pram and the man carries the bub... if they have a dog... it will definitely have it's own pram and an outfit on! 
Bulldogs in sweater vests


Few pics from around Tokyo and Yokohama of the Christmas decorations...
Strange Christmas bear tree

The blue signs say "Birth & Glitter"... of course?

SOGO Christmas Tree

Even the escalators get decorated!

Nissan's Winter Wonderland

Even the Marino's soccer shop is decorated!

Dean & Deluca goodies

D&D
We did a spot of Christmas shopping in Kappabashi today, so we stopped at Tokyo Station and grabbed lunch at Dean & Deluca. The trees in the area are stunning!



Imperial Palace up ahead



Kappabashi is the area that has the plastic food, kitchenwares and restaurant goodies. We bought a few gifts and got a few keepsakes for ourselves...

Our fav knife shop

Bits and bobs for entertaining

Garden Bugs bake tin
"Zoo Friends" bake tin - we couldn't resist
Happy Holidays all - two weeks til New York, Washington and Boston!!!


xoxo
Karate Kate