Hyper Japan 2011
This year’s Hyper Japan was in the Olympia 2 which shows the massive growth and popularity the event experienced. I went on Sunday the 24th of July early in the morning, since I heard of the overcrowding of the previous year. We started of with enjoying the ITK Robot show and a demonstration of their latest developments. One was a robot hand (handroid) which in future can be operated via electric nerve impulses of the brain and has a lot of potential. The other product they showed was shinsukesan – a retractable walking stick. Amazing for me, since I have a grandpa who depends on a walking stick and this is such a cool idea. Unfortunately they do not sell anything outside of Japan and just make us want all their stuff.
Here is a little demonstration of the handroid:
The crowd was very versatile.
We had some delicious Japanese Food for breakfast, yumm!
Later there was a performance by gothloli J-pop artist Kanon Wakeshima (I have to admit it was the first time I heard (of) her) and I don’t want to be rude, but I sing better under the shower than her and the songs sounded pretty random. She constantly missed high notes or notes in general, which made me feel a bit sorry for her. Strangely listening back to my video recordings, she sounds alright on them. Maybe her voice was made for electronic recording. She definitely was a talented cellist and I liked that she combined that into her songs and performance. Get your own picture:
There was also a maid cafe, which was pretty authentic (was in on in Akihabara last year), down to the ridiculous prices ^^ They even had games you could play and the waiters were kneeling for you when serving. Pretty fun ^^
They did a promo dance outside to get customers.
As always there were many stores that sold weird and wonderful things. I got myself some toe running sock and a set of bowls. The oddest thing I saw were bamboo pots with little figurines in them, some more naughty than others.
Oh yes and there was the UK Kawaii Star of the year, were 5 young women dress up as babies and or innocent young girls and wanted people’s vote to become the kawaii ambassador for the UK. There even was a X-Factor style jury. I quite like that concept with Japanese girls, since they do look cute, small and innocent, but 18/19 year old British girls with Cockney accent… well.. Anyhow, here is the award ceremony and the emotions run high:
This year they also had a Sushi Championship with 5 contestants from the best sushi places in London. Each created a unique sushi and (if you had a ticket) you got to taste them all and vote your favourite. I liked the “Water please!” roll by Thomas Nam, which was supposed to be spicy. It wasn’t spicy at all (being used to Indian food), but very tasty. The results were announced in a creative way. The chefs each got a box with a number of plastic balls relating to how many votes they got. They had to throw them out one by one and the last one standing was the winner. It was a sushi that goes well with red wine… I don’t remember it’s flavour though :(
Asuka Kobayashi with her “trophy”
All in all a very enjoyable day ^^
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