japan

Photos: A stroll through Akihabara, gadget center of the world

While waiting for the doors to open at the Tokyo auto show this week, senior editor Wayne Cunningham hit the legendary gadget district of Akihabara in search of weird and wonderful electronics. He wasn't disappointed, finding a trove of tech toys from the Sony Roly to lipstick-shaped MP3 players. Check out his photo gallery here.

Photos: Kappabashi: Tokyo's food district

When computer geeks come to Japan, they head toward the electronics neighborhood called Akihabara. But when food freaks visit Tokyo, their destination is Kappabashi-dori, a mile-plus-long street sporting several dozen stores that carry all manner of kitchenware and food.

Here you can find coffee cups half a storey tall, a thousand kinds of bowls, plastic sushi, restaurant ware, and more bento boxes than you can shake a whisk at.

CNET's sister sites CHOW and Reviews have joined their mighty forces to bring you "Cooking up a high-tech kitchen," an in-depth look at several kitchens' worth of cooking … Read more

This Tokyo relocation guide will make you want to move

Traveling in Japan, I have come across a Tokyo relocation guide so good it almost makes me want to move here. Tokyo: Here and How was produced by the Tokyo American Club Women's Group. This brand-new guide solves many of the mysteries confronting a Western family who is moving to Japan. From culture, to schools, to obtaining medical care, the guide leads families through each step of the process. As a visitor I found it an intriguing read. As a transplant it would be an indispensable 350-page resource.… Read more

From Japan comes the virtual copy repair man

CHIBA, Japan--Canon wants to take you into a virtual world so you can learn how to change toner cartridges better.

The headgear you see in the photo, along with the cube with the squiggles, is part of a "Mixed Reality Technology" prototype coined by Canon, which showed it off over the weekend during a special future-tech exhibit at Ceatec, the large Japanese trade show here.

It's called mixed reality because virtual and real-world images are mixed into one frame. When you put the goggles on and stare at the cube, you don't see squiggles. Instead, you … Read more

Kiii-YAAA! Norton 360... to the rescue?

I can't remember the last time I saw a TV ad for a piece of software. Not watching much TV doesn't really play into this. TV ads are just too expensive for the average software publisher to purchase. The market in Japan is different, though. It'll support just about anything with folks in weird costumes doing even weirder things.

So it's my pleasure--no, really, I feel good about this--to introduce you to Symantec's Norton 360 ads. Called CM's in the local parlance, they feature a yellow Power Ranger-style superhero called Norton Fighter getting attacked by a gang of mostly black-clad ninja-type characters who're supposed to resemble viruses and other malware.

… Read more

Hot trend in Japan: Gesture recognition

CHIBA, Japan--The finger is the new mouse in Japan.

At the Ceatec show here this week, a whole raft of Japanese companies are showing off prototypes or upcoming products that users operate by making gestures or moving their fingers.

Toshiba showed off a PC that you operate with hand gestures. Hitachi Metals had a product in their booth called "Magic Waters." You wave a wand and point it at a fountain and the waters jump, sort of like the fountain at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

Sharp has a screen that will let phone manufacturers put on … Read more

TV convergence: It's happening in Japan

CHIBA, Japan--Remember convergence? The idea that the TV and conventional technologies would merge? It came out about the same time as that series ER and has aged about as well in North America.

In Japan, it's another story. Watching TV on your PC is actually quite common. A huge number of desktops and notebooks come with TV tuners and people actually use them, according to several residents.

"There are a lot of ads for TV PCs," he said Yasutoshi Magara, managing director of Microsoft Japan. Sharp Electronics, he noted, just came out with a PC-TV combo with … Read more

Robot report: i-Sobot, ElmoSapien, and robo-boredom

It's only Monday, but the robot news has been coming fast and furious of late. Fast like turbo robot.

Tomy launches U.S. version of i-Sobot site: The English version of the Web site for Tomy's $300 robot is now live, just in time for its late October launch. According to Waziwazi, i-Sobot will hit the shelves of Sharper Image and Toys R Us on Halloween day. Waziwazi also has a hands-on review of the robot, along with some good video footage. Tomy and the Guinness Book of World Records claim i-Sobot is the world's smallest commercial … Read more

Japan gets new ToughBooks

Panasonic has added four new laptops to its Let's Note line in Japan. Though they're sold under the ToughBook brand here in the States, the shiny portables aren't exactly what we'd call rugged. They are engineered to survive a drop from 30 inches--about desk height--and incorporate a spill-resistant keyboard, but we've always felt the greatest strength of the Let's Note line has been the laptops' remarkably light weight. These new models are no exception: The lightest laptop of the bunch, the 10.4-inch R7, weighs just 2.1 pounds. The 12.1-inch W7 weighs … Read more