Japan Robot Restaurant: Totally Over-the-Top!

"The Robot Restaurant" in Tokyo is probably the craziest restaurant in the entire world

We've wrote about dazzling "Decotora" electric light truck decoration, and today Juergen Horn and Michael Powell from Tokyo for 91 Days show us another totally over-the-top thing happening in Japan:

Japan at its most absurd and entertaining...

Giant robots dancing to electronic music? Laser shows and flashing LEDs? Lovely, shark-riding ladies fighting killer aliens? Bento boxes? It's hard to imagine that anything can offer a more uniquely Tokyo experience than the Robot Restaurant in East Shinjuku. With a stage show that stretches the definition of terms like “elaborate” and “bizarre”, the restaurant has quickly become one of the most popular venues in the city.

"It’s like the world’s most outrageous interior designers were given crayons, glue sticks, glitter and mescalin, and told to go crazy"

From the moment you enter the Robot Restaurant, you are going to be entertained... or perhaps fall into an epileptic fit. It's just sensory overload. No expense was spared, and no design idea was too crazy. Show up early enough to grab a pre-show drink in the upstairs lounge... because you've never seen a lounge like this. It’s like the world’s most outrageous interior designers were given crayons, glue sticks, glitter and mescalin, and told to go crazy. Everything is mirrored and shining:

The History of Hydrofoils

"Gliding over all, through all... as a ship on the waters advancing" -- Walt Whitman (speaking of a human soul)

We are concluding our "Fascinating Hydrofoils" series (don't miss highly popular Soviet "Raketa" Hydrofoils) with this overview of hydrofoil development - with some truly interesting historic vessels that you might not have seen before.

"Hayate" is a streamlined Japanese hydrofoil concept, currently located at Kobe Maritime Museum (and another Japanese beautiful "gliding" vessel showcased nearby: magneto-hydro-dynamic "Yamato"):

Most stylish hydroplane boat ever? Also, the world's first regular hydrofoil passenger service

Baron von Schertel was the designer of many concept Nazi hydrofoil boats (read further in this article). After the war, he moved to Switzerland and in 1952 came up with Supramar PT-10, which was also called Golden Arrow, Freccia D'Oro:

"Meteor III was brought to Queenstown from England by pioneering tourism operator Frank Howarth in 1966. The 10m boat carries 17 passengers, has a top speed of 70kmh, cruises at 55kmh and is renowned for its smooth ride on the water.

"In the Beginning...

A hydrofoil is a very distinctive type of watercraft that has been around in one form or another for over a century. The first hydrofoil boat was designed and built in 1906 by Enrico Forlanini. It had a classic Ladder type construction with multiple struts coming down with multiple wings between each of them. The 60 hp engine operated two counter-rotating air props and the craft reached a breathtaking top speed of 42.5 mph during tests.

"The idea is that when the boat gets up speed the front of the skis will be raised, causing the boat to come to the surface. When wind gets under the wing it is supposed to furnish enough lift to permit the boat to skip over the waves."

The Lantern (HC-4), built in 1953 by the Hydrofoil Corporation in USA, was quite unusual in its shape and hydrofoil configuration (it also featured the earliest hydrofoils to use electronic controls):

"Designated the TR-5b, the futuristic Tragfluügelboot concept called for the addition of twin turbojets to be added to a VS- type hydrofoil to create a high-speed, heavily-armed hydrofoil fast attack craft. The turbojets (two Jumo 004s or He S 011s) were to be mated to the hydrofoil to allow a drastic increase of speed during the final attack phase and disengagement of enemy vessels."

The 1950s concept of a fast hydrofoil "Wendell Schnellschiff" was built based on reduced-scale TR-5b idea; the vessel is preserved in the Deutsches Schiffahrtmuseum in Bremerhaven, Germany:

Japanese Vintage Ads

Industrial Design with a Deliciously Cute Factor

Some of you might remember these gems of industrial design. Others would just wait for weird, outlandish commercials. Both appetites will be duly satisfied in this article, as we leaf through the pages of 1960s-1980s Japanese product catalogues and consider their consumer culture artifacts.

Here is an absolutely beautiful egg-shaped 1960s TV set (want!!!) and some "starry virgins" advertising shiny things:

Round shapes in consumer electronics, for example these early 1970s music centers, seem to have been produced my multiple companies in Japan: