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Why Japan is Awesome #881: New App Lets You Control Your Dreams

  • February 22, 2012 10:50 pm

Japanese ad agency Hakuhodo has released a new app that allows you to control what you dream about. 

Here’s how it works: the app gives you 8 different scenarios you can choose from including a walk in the forest or the beach, becoming rich, flying and even making a love connection with that special guy or gal you have your eye on. After selecting the type of dream you want to experience, just go to sleep while the app runs in the background, and when enough time has passed and you are in REM sleep (and most susceptible to dreaming), the app triggers a soundtrack that will encourage your subconscious mind to dream about what you want to dream about.

The app is free and you can get it here. If any of our Japanese-speaking readers want to give it a try, let us know how well it works.  Read more...

The Japanese Invent the Perfect Phone for Hannibal Lecter & Other Serial Killers

  • March 9, 2011 12:01 am

May I introduce Exhibit #34,546 in why the Japanese are freaks:

Researchers at Osaka University announced last week that they have invented a cell phone that is not only shaped like a human being, but also has an outer coating that feels just like human skin.

According to the description of this new product: “The current prototype is a bit bigger than a human hand. Shaped like a unisex doll, it has a speaker in its head and a blue/red LED light embedded in its chest, which notifies users when the phone is in use or in standby. Future iterations of the device will have image and voice recognition, so you’re phone will know what you look and sound like. Scientists hope to have a human-phone on the market within the next five years.”

And why would one want a phone that looks and feels like a human? Well, apparently, to allow you to “feel closer” to whomever you’re talking to.  Read more...

How To Survive A Phone Call From A Dead Person

  • July 21, 2010 12:05 am

Usually if I get a phone call at 7 AM, it means something is amiss. No one who knows me would call me that early because they know I probably went to bed just a couple of hours earlier and will be getting up a couple of hours later and that’s my prime sleeping time. So I knew I couldn’t ignore this call.

“Are you awake?” my friend Irene asks in a frantic voice. Well, I guess I am now.

“You have to come over right away,” she continues without waiting for a response. “I think my grandmother called me last night.” That statement wouldn’t be strange except for one fact: Irene’s grandmother had passed away a week-and-a-half ago. “Actually meet me at Alcove for breakfast. I don’t feel comfortable being in my apartment right now.”

So I meet up with Irene and she tells me what happened over a breakfast burrito and coffee. She had gone to bed at midnight as she usually does. At some point in the night, her cell phone rang. She opened her eyes for a second, decided that she was too tired to answer and went back to sleep. When Irene woke up the next morning, she checked her cell and the late night caller hadn’t left a message, but…the call had originated from her deceased grandmother’s home phone.

“Her phone was disconnected a week ago,” she said. “This is freaking me out.”  Read more...

Japanese Cellphone Ringtone Can Cure Your Allergies

  • April 2, 2010 12:08 am

If you’re like me, the coming of spring also marks the coming of hay fever and sneezing season. But once again the Japanese come to the rescue with more awesomeness. The Tokyo-based Japan Ring Tone Laboratory has a new ringtone on the market that allegedly can cure your hay fever. Yup, no need for drugs or other treatments, all you need to do is have someone call you on your phone the next time you have a sneezing attack.

Just hold your phone up to your nose and the ringtone will work its magic by releasing some sort of wave that shakes out the pollen stuck in the allergy sufferer’s nose. The company is careful to say the effectiveness of the ringtone varies from user to user but it has become one of their biggest sellers; having been downloaded three times more than their other ringtones.  Read more...