Gwen Stefani made Harajuku Girls popular and accepted outside of Japan. But Gwen’s music isn’t exactly the kind that Harajuku girls would actually listen to. These candy-colored underaged girls hanging around Tokyo’s Harajuku and Shibuya districts with their candy-colored headphones and accessories are much more in tuned with Shibuya-Kei, a kind of candy-colored electro-pop music made famous by DJ’s like Fantastic Plastic Machine (FPM, see left).

Just like our two friends below, Shibuya-Kei truly is rainbows on acid, and is gaining grounds outside of Japan. Even its less extreme, hyper flying J-Rock agents – Puffy AmiYumi have landed safely to America, bringing us music with beats averaged over 160 bpm, and girls that made us feel old and detached from reality.

FPM produced a commercial animation on behalf of Luis Vuitton (click below). The short featured a young girl eaten by a cute LV monster, and then fallen into a LV rabbit hole. The graphic movie isn’t as well-known as Takashi Murakami’s (remember the psychedelic LV inspired graphics and plastic sculptures exhibited in New York’s Brooklyn Museum), but, you get the point – LV is everywhere, even living inside a 6 year old Japanese girl’s cellphone.

If you want a true taste of Shibuya-Kei through FPM, we suggest to start with FPM’s Beautiful, (click here for Beautiful Days MV on YouTube) a 2001 classic that sweetens your ears without making them bleed.

Teragaki-Labo debuts today its new $33,000 TERRA-SP3000 (2,940,000 Yen), a pair of speakers developed from founder Teragaki Takeshi‘s 30 years of research on the Matter-Wave Theory. So what does that mean? Well, according to AV Watch Japan, the SP3000 tackled and eliminated some of the vibration issues associated with speakers panels. By minimizing internal speaker vibrations audio clarity is therefore enhanced. Audiophiles can now listen to their favorite classics just like “hearing a clock at midnight,” said AV Watch.

So it’s not completely revolutionary, but could it possibly rival a $5000 pair of Stax Electrostatic Headphones in sound clarity? We’ll have to have some other reviewers be the judge on this one. The 360 degree projection of sound and the beautifully crafted wooden housings, though, made us sweat in our New York office on this snowy day.

As a prelude to Tam’s Obama Gadget article, we are showing you a glimpse of how Obama is actually helping our economy. Indeed, as shown in The Colbert Report’s January 14th episode – P.K. Winsome Obama Collectables, the Obama craze is a prime example of Say’s Law at work and certainly creating a new market in this recession.

We know for sure, because The Abraham Obama iPod skins from Gela Skins (see above) are selling like hot cakes in our store AC Gears. And beyond the obvious Obama commemorative coins, the Big O is also made edible -Yes Pecan from Ben and Jerry’s is another example. Now if B&J can give the new ice cream away on inauguration day everywhere, we think even McCain himself or Mr. Bush could perhaps understand a tad more about the liberal agenda.

We will follow up soon with our in-depth research article on Obama related gadgets and accessories. We are glad our new President Elect is already putting his good name at work to help our economy.

We’ve been waiting and Takaratomy Japan finally delivers. Through an announcement via Robot Watch, Takaratomy will begin selling Robo-Q, the world’s smallest robot on February 28th, 2009. The little Robo-Q comes with different AI modes such as object tracking and object avoidance (sensors to allow Robo-Q recognize and then follow/avoid an object). 20-30 minute charge for a 3 minute operation. Costs about $45.

Given that there are already several hacks out there on the ever-so-popular Hex Bugs (such as making one into a little bug drawing machine), we expect to see some Robo-Q hacks by robot geeks around the world soon, too.

[ Applied Inspirations' Hex Bug Hack ]

We’ve always believed that the original Lite Brite is a form of art, made not just for children, but for adults and artists alike. It taught us to respect pixels and colors, and that, together, pixels and colors can create something completely original and tasteful.

Our friend Yosoh introduced us to Matt Bilfield’s works – painting-like graphics made with hand-cut, sanded and painted wooden dowels. Visit Matt’s website and click on the images. They will make you pixel pushers salivate.

For those interested in obtaining the original Lite Brite (for adults), Bandai Japan had released the new Luminodot HD last November, now available at AudioCubes.com for $179.99. A big peg board gives you more room for more colors and designs.

By request we are showcasing some of the other latest heavy duty robotic machines from Japan, most of them deployed for rescue and disaster relief missions.

From the top left is the new T-53 Assistant Dragon, first shown last June in the Kyushu City’s disaster relief drill. The T-53 is a dexterous manned robot that is used to pick up small debris and hazardous objects.

The yellow RoboQ is an unmanned victim rescue and transport unit, deployed in situations of extreme heat, smoke, and/or hazardous gas.

Then it’s the Dual Fighter Dragon, the unmanned half automated mini fire engine that can penetrate deeper into a scene of fire.

But obviously our favorite is Big Dog by Boston Dynamics, a military transport robot, capable of “jumping” through all kinds of rough terrains. Oh, and also its original beta human counter-part – Big Dog Beta, hilarious.

The Tokyo Fire Department debuted the world’s first “Dual-Arm Heavy Machine” (top right) by Hitachi Heavy Machinery today. Developed after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake for more efficient rescue operations, the new Dual-Arm is equiped with two claws to quickly pick up heavy objects with one arm while cutting or crashing them with the other at the same time. And so these new machines are increasingly looking more “robotic” than our traditional excavator that we see in construction sites.

And this reminded us of IZMO JUKI, a graphic illustration book of future heavy duty robotics used in our everyday life. You can see above (top left) a rendition of a patrol robot working inside a Tokyo subway. Editor’s note: the robot is fake, but the subway station is real. We wish the New York subway was also air-conditioned, clean, and equiped with vending machines.

It’s happening, people. Robots are among us.

Take a look at Robot Watch Japan’s coverage (in Japanese) of this new red monster in action.