Nothing says "long distance relationship" like waiting months on end just to hold your partner's hand. Miserable, right? Enter the Taion Heart, a Japanese handheld gadget that mimics the sensation of holding hands by sending your pressure squeeze, pulse and hand temperature to your partner's matching device.
Japan, as you might know, has not been reproducing at a replacement rate (2.1 births per woman), and that has a number of social scientists on edge. And so, a robotic baby that cries and interacts somewhat like a real baby -- but looks a little like a giant Tamagotchi -- has been created to convince childless couples to have a kid. The hope is that Yotaro will charm the pants off these couples, and get that birthrate going back north. There are likely skeptics.
In Japan, a fellow named Hiroki Terai has decided that there's not enough pomp and circumstance in the divorce world. So he's pioneered the divorce ceremony.
Before the next logical step of humans "romancing" and eventually marrying robots, we'll have them perform other jobs in and around love and relationship to become accustomed to human emotions and the nature of romance. Those jobs will initially include wedding cake icer, flower girl and priest. Our friends at The Frisky have it on good authority (including a video) that a Japanese couple has been married by a robot. Evidently, through hook or crook (but most likely articulated robo-arm) the robot actually brought the two together in the first place.
Like most technology, they get the really great stuff in Japan and then it filters to us Yanks. We followed their auto design (until they started moving a little too fast for us, hi-ooo Toyota joke!). They got Dance Dance Revolution first. They all had smart phones first. They have ubiquitous WiFi and I still have to sit within four feet of my wireless router. The latest import from the land of falling birthrate is the girlfriend pillow for shut-ins.
Sometimes weird news comes out of Japan. And in this case the news is about penis festivals. Springtime in many places means a renewal and a time for fertility and the Japanese seem to believe that the phallic symbol should cover the gamut of fertility. Strange love from the land of the rising sun.
America's golden age—that is, its sexy stewardess era—of aviation might be over, but Asian airlines still uphold a reputation for hiring beautiful female flight attendants. Over in Japan, Japan Airlines is struggling to curb the smuggling of flight attendant uniforms to the country's sex clubs. Since announcing bankruptcy in January, JAL has worked to prevent former employees (among others) from selling their uniforms to the black market, which drop major bank for outfits that come with a polaroid of their previous owner.
Love bytes: 10 must-click love and relationship links: overlooked romantic comedies, Mr. Right is a no-go, embracing your inner gay man, sex dreams, advice on texting from a single guy, Christina Hendricks, approachability, lady journalists.
If there's one holiday that's become a worldwide hit, it's Valentine's Day. What can we say, love is a universal theme, but not everyone chooses to celebrate it with roses and boxes of chocolate. After doing a little research, we found plenty of traditions that we wish we could import into our own Valentine's Day practices. See, love—not Hallmark—really does make the world go 'round!
You know how relationships are "hard?" And you more or less can't live with women (or men) AND can't live without them? Well, per BoingBoing, a man has decided to quit the old "human" romance rat race. A fella called Sal9000 isn't giving up on love, just love with things that are three-dimensional. The phenomenon of love and infatuation with animated characters is called Otaku and a dude has taken it to the extreme by marrying a video game character named Nene Anegasaki from a Nintendo DS* game called Love Plus.
The Prime Minister of Japan, Taro Aso, firmly jammed his foot in his mouth this week when he essentially told young, poor Japanese not to get married. As his Liberal Democratic Party struggles to salvage anything in the run-up to their elections, the PM said, "Young people had better not get married with little money."
