Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo has an impressive commercial for their Touch Wood SH-08C cell phone. The ad was produced by a Japanese agency Drill, Inc.

Watch it here:

We like! If you’re wondering how they filmed this, don’t miss this video showing the making of the commercial:

All the wood for the xylophone was made from trees already fallen and the phone itself is made from the surplus wood of trees from a “more trees” reforestation project founded by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and others.

According to the ad agency, there were no visual or sound effects used at all. The tune that plays as the wooden ball plunks down the hill is Bach’s Cantata 147. The giant xylophone is 44 meters long (144 ft), constructed at a 12-degree angle and uses 413 wooden planks. To create the perfect ending, they filmed the last part of the video 49 times. The creators visited 64 places before they finally found the right location in a forest in Kyushu.

The video for the ad — which won a Golden Lion at Cannas — was released on the same day as the big earthquake hit Japan on March 11 of this year. Docomo had no choice but to cancel the whole promotional campaign. The video went viral on YouTube.

Believe it or not, these neatly sliced apples and pears are actually notepads! Delicious Kudamemo notepads, designed by Masashi Tentaku and produced by D-Bros, look very much like real fruit, but if you look closer, you’ll see they’re made of 150 sheets of note paper.

Kudamemo notepads — a wordplay on kudamono (fruit in Japanese) and memo — even have the stems made from actual tree branches.

To make things look as realistic as possible, each sheet even has a seed printed on it!

You can buy those notepads individually as apples or pears, or as a set of six notepads that come in a box, much like fruit you’d buy in a supermarket.

Tired of cooling your drink with old school square ice cubes? Here’s something cuter! Japanese manufacturer Monos recently started selling a new product named Polar Ice, which is a set of two silicon molds that make ice cubes in the shape of a polar bear and a pair of penguins.

Polar Ice can be purchased in a few select stores in Japan or online via Sempre.jp.

A crack 3218 meters under water, about 20 cm wide and several tens of meters long.


A massive crack 5351 meters under water, over 80 meters long, 1 meter wide and 1 meter deep.

Peniagone diaphana sea cucumbers on sea bottom 5350 meters under the surface. Very few of them were found in this area before the earthquake.

A gelatin-like substance 5349 meters under the surface, believed to have been formed by the bacteria proliferated by methane from cracks on the ocean floor.

Photos by Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Pitagora Suicchi (ピタゴラスイッチ or simply Pythagora Switch) is a 15 minute educational television program for kids that has been running on Japanese TV since 2002. There is also a 5 minute format called Pitagora Suicchi Mini.

The show encourages augmenting children’s way of thinking while introducing world phenomena, principles, characteristics and alike in an entertaining way.

Part of the show is the famous “algorithm march” song. Watch it on the videos below:

Movie watching time! Today we are featuring a collection of five pretty awesome Japan time lapse videos that were shared by users on YouTube.

1. Tokyo time lapse (by SamuelCockedey.com):

2. Tokyo time lapse in rush hour (by dige62)

3. Osaka time lapse (by roadragebunny):

4. Japan in autumn (by SamuelCockedey.com):

5. Another Tokyo time lapse (by SamuelCockedey.com):

Kokuri… Kokuriko… Koku… Kokurikozaka Kara (コクリコ坂から) is a new animated feature film by Studio Ghibli, released in Japan on July 16, 2011.

Screenplay for the story set in 1963 was written by Hayao Miyazaki and the film was directed by his son, Goro Miyazaki. The theme song for the anime is sung by Aoi Teshima.

Kokurikozaka Kara is based on the 1980 two-volume manga series of the same title.

You can check out the official web site here.

Watch the trailer:

Japanese anti-nuclear protesters apologizing to the world for the nuclear accident. Photo: ShootTokyo.com

Japan’s revised energy policy is moving forward. On Friday, Japanese government released an interim report that vows to reduce reliance on atomic energy, officially shifting its energy policy away from nuclear power.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has previously pronounced that the country should reduce its dependence on nuclear energy and focus on alternative sources. As the public disapproval of atomic power grew after the Fukushima accident, the government has been carrying out a complete revision of its energy policy. A basic outline of new policy is expected by the end of this year.

During a government meeting on energy and environmental issues, Kan said that the current energy plan will be reviewed from scratch and expressed his belief that the core of the government’s strategy on innovative energy has been established.

The interim report also included a list of preventive measures that will deal with the threat of power shortages, including a two-tier system of power distribution that would end today’s regional monopolies by power companies. While such system would likely trigger strong disapproval from utilities, electricity prices would be expected to drop if new companies are allowed to enter the market.

Following the Fukushima accident, thousands of people have been joining anti-nuclear protests in cities across Japan. Photos: REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao, AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno, SetYouFreeNews.com, ShootTokyo.com

Perhaps the solution is in acupuncture — for dogs! In Japan, dog acupuncture has become a popular trend in recent years, along with other services available for dogs (and cats). This comes as no surprise in a country where pet owners tend to treat their pets as human members of the family.

Japanese acupuncturists offer treatment for neurological diseases, chronic pain, various allergies, gastrointestinal diseases, problems with skin, muscles and other health problems.

A study published in 2006 suggests that better health care, a more balanced diet, and overall care that dogs are receiving from their owners in Japan, have contributed to longer lives of dogs. But increase in longevity has also led to illnesses rarely seen before in pets in Japan, such as cancer and heart disease. According to the study, dog longevity has surged from 8.6 to 11.9 years between 1991 and 2003.