Neighbourhood tour part 2 - Robot Museum!!

If you ask people to name some things Japan is famous for, they'll no doubt say "robots". Actually first, they'll probably say "sushi", then "those weird comics with the schoolgirls showing their pants", and then many many other things - but if you punch them a couple of times and tell them to stop ruining the introduction to your blog entry, they'll probably say "robots".

With that in mind - Nagoya has a robot museum! Now, don't get too excited - it's actually more of a shop that sells robot related toys and gadgets rather than a place you can buy a second hand Johnny-5, but still it's pretty cool, especially with the Transformers movie coming out here soon.

This is what is looks like:

Here's a couple of close ups of the various robots they sell:

If you know your robots, you can pick out some Gundams, and also a couple of Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion I think. If you're not interested in such geeky information - well, you've probably already stopped reading.

Some more, older fashioned robots. Oh yeah, it's not ageist the robot museum - all robots of every age, creed and colour are welcome. Except Chinese ones of course .

This is Paro, the World's Most Therapeutic Robot (fact!). It's really really cute and cooes and looks at you with it's big eyes when you stroke it - kawaiiiii!

I wonder if when Josef Capek (thanks Wikipedia) first coined the word "robot" in 1920, he ever imagine in his wildest dreams that one day such a thing as this would exist, and that Japanese people would pay a frickin' bundle to own one.

While we're dealing with all things kawaii, check out super deformed Darth Vader!


The only thing he uses the Dark Side of the Force for is making sure his enormous head doesn't cause him to topple over like a chump. "Apology accepted, Captain Nee-oof, I've done taken a spill, so I have". [Wow, this is the turning into an extraordinarily geeky post].

Strangely, whilst the most powerful Sith Lord in the galaxy looks pretty cute here, the renowned bundle of fur that is Hello Kitty looks rather sinister as a robot:

Look at it's blank, dead eyes - almost certainly plotting the destruction of the human race. Creepy.

I liked this big silver one, even though he didn't do anything except look a bit gay:

This one is also cool - I'm not sure if it's from Astro-Boy or another Osamu Tezuka manga, but with his steel companion above, he ups the gayness of the Robot Museum by a considerable degree. I think it's the wrist bands.


Here's some more Gundmans - at first, there's not much that catches the eye.
But look closer.....who's that in the back....?



Wow, it's a sexy girl Gundman. Phwoar! Actually, because it's very hard to fully emasculate what is essentially a hundred foot tall killing machine, this looks more like a cross dressing Gundam. What a diverse shop this is.

This is my friend Jacqui who I went to the Robot Museum with. Now, I know she might be a bit annoyed at me for saying this, but I think if you squint a little she looks just like Optimus Prime. I know I shouldn't say it, but it's true:

And finally, and not very interestingly, I had to take a photo of this:

OFFICIAL yo-yo strings. Wouldn't want to unofficial strings on our yoyos now would we? It's probably make them explode into a fiery ball of death if we tried to do a Round-the-world.

That's all for now, but just in case you were dying of curiosity - the shop in England that's name is "selfish" in Japanese is.....Wagamama! Cool huh?