A vandalized toilet at Kitashikahama Park in Tokyo’s Adachi ward is raising questions about the effectiveness of the park’s controversial new “Mosquito” alarm — a device designed to repel teenagers by emitting an obnoxious high-frequency tone that only they can hear.

The Mosquito, which was installed at the park on May 21 to discourage teens from hanging out there after hours, now operates every night from 11:00 PM to 4:00 AM. The device produces a high-pitched tone of around 17 kHz, which is unbearable to teen ears. The sound has no effect on older people, as the ability to hear high frequencies declines naturally with age.

The broken toilet, which was discovered on the morning of June 21, appears to have been smashed with a baseball bat. Spent bottle rockets were also found at the site.

Surveillance camera footage showed what appeared to be as many as seven teenagers hanging out in the park in the early morning hours of June 21, while the Mosquito was in operation. Authorities were unable to determine whether the teens in the video were responsible for the vandalism.

According to Adachi ward officials, teen vandals inflicted 700,000 yen ($7,400) worth of damage in the park last year. Unable to solve the problem with extra patrols, the authorities began searching for new measures. They eventually turned their attention to the Mosquito, which is already in use at some Tokyo-area convenience stores plagued by loitering teens.

The prospect of using the Mosquito has been controversial, and critics question whether it is in the city’s interest to use such a device that discriminates against young people as a group, even if they are responsible for causing problems. In the end, the officials decided to test the device at the park until March 2010.

The smashed toilet is first case of vandalism at the park since the Mosquito was installed.

[Source: MBS]

Tokyo-based photographer Samuel Cockedey presents more miraculous views of the Shinjuku cityscape in his latest stop-motion video (featuring minimal beats by Kusanagi).

[Links: YouTube, Vimeo]

After sunset, Tokyo Gundam comes to life.

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Piece by piece, an 18-meter tall, 35-ton full-scale Gundam statue is being assembled in Odaiba, Tokyo to commemorate 30 years of Mobile Suit Gundam. When finished in mid-July, the enormous figure will entertain onlookers by moving its head and shooting light and mist from 50 points on its body. Until then, we have these photos of its magnificent legs and assorted parts.

More photos at Mainichi.

(Thanks, Jerome!)

Photographer heiwa4126’s “Stereographics” photoset on Flickr is an eye-bending collection of “little planet” panoramas and ultra-wide fisheye images shot mostly in Tokyo.

Tokyo Station [heiwa4126]

Ueno Station [heiwa4126]

Shin-Arakawa Bridge [heiwa4126]

Higashi-Ayase Park [heiwa4126]

Shibaura [heiwa4126]

Adachi Ward [heiwa4126]

Katsushika Ward [heiwa4126]

Ueno Station [heiwa4126]

Tokyo Dome City [heiwa4126]

Shiodome Sio-site [heiwa4126]

Check heiwa4126’s photoset for over 150 more high-resolution stereographic projections, and see gadl’s “Wee Planet” set for background information and instructions on how to make your own.

Only rarely does Shinjuku look as magical as it does here in this time-lapse video shot over the course of a year from various locations. The dreamy ambient track is from Cliff Martinez’s score for the movie Solaris (2002).

(Thanks, Sam!)

[Links: YouTube, Vimeo]

In conjunction with the upcoming release of Terminator Salvation (T4), an exhibit featuring the cyborgs from the Terminator series is now on display at Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo.

T-600 endoskeleton from Terminator Salvation [+]

Entitled “Terminator Exhibition - Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future,” the exhibit purportedly aims to inspire visitors to think about the relationship between humans and machines. Mostly, though, it offers a unique glimpse at the models and costumes used in the filming of the movies, along with details about the makeup and special effects.

T-800 endoskeleton [+]

In the first Terminator movie, which takes place in Los Angeles in 1984, a T-800 cyborg assassin is sent back in time from the year 2029 by Skynet, an artificially intelligent military computer system that rules the world under an army of cyborgs. Its mission is to erase the existence of John Connor, who in the future becomes the leader of the human resistance forces against the machines. To alter the course of history in Skynet’s favor, the T-800 must terminate Sarah Connor before she gives birth to her son John.

T-800 endoskeleton [+]

The T-800 cyborg — played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first three Terminator movies — consists of a metal endoskeleton under a layer of living human tissue. The robot has excellent learning capabilities, enabling it to understand and adopt human behavior and phrases. It can also mimic voices once it hears them. A slightly improved version of the T-800 — the T-850 — appears in Terminator 2 and Terminator 3.

T-800: Hasta la vista, baby [+]

In Terminator 2, Skynet sends the latest Terminator model — the T-1000 — to Los Angeles in 1994 to eliminate the 10-year-old John Connor. At the same time, the resistance forces send a hacked T-800 from the future to protect John. The T-1000, which is much more advanced than the T-800, has no endoskeleton and consists of a shape-shifting liquid metal. The T-1000 is not displayed in this exhibit.

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In Terminator 3, the T-800 (T-850) is again sent from the future to protect John Connor. This time it does battle with the T-X, a super-powerful Terminator that combines the exoskeleton of the T-800 with the shape-shifting liquid metal of the T-1000.

T-X (a.k.a. Terminatrix) [+]

The T-X, also called “Terminatrix,” takes the shape of a beautiful woman and incorporates a variety of weapons into its endoskeleton. In addition to conducting DNA analysis by tasting blood, the shape-shifting assassin can remotely control other machines and Terminators.

Cameron Phillips (TOK715) [+]

Other items on display include a reproduction of Cameron Philips (TOK715), a reprogrammed Terminator from the “Sarah Conner Chronicles” TV series.

The exhibit also includes a few props and movie trailers from the forthcoming film.

T-600 endoskeleton [+]

Set in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation will prominently feature the T-600, an early Terminator prototype. Unlike the T-800 portrayed by Schwarzenegger in the previous films, the more primitive T-600 features an endoskeleton covered in synthetic skin instead of living human tissue. At 8 feet tall, it is also much bulkier.

Moto-Terminator [+]

Also on display is the Moto-Terminator, a motorcycle-based death machine, as well as the Hydrobot (not pictured here), a menacing eel-like underwater robot.

The final section of the exhibit introduces a variety of Japanese robot technology, mostly in the form of text-heavy exhibits (Japanese only). However, an Actroid — smartly dressed in a skin-tight black jumpsuit — is on hand to liven things up.

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The exhibit runs until June 28, 2009.

Sculptor Kenji Yanobe’s Giant Torayan robot, a 7.2-meter (24-ft) tall mechanical baby that sings, dances and spits fire, was sighted in Tokyo’s Roppongi district last night. The fire-breathing robot spent the night on center stage at “Roppongi Art Night,” an all-night event featuring installations and performances by dozens of artists at various venues in the area.

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To promote its laptops and showcase digital signage technology capable of utilizing real-time data over the Internet, electronics giant Toshiba tested an interactive digital billboard in Tokyo last weekend that allowed YouTube users and pedestrians with mobile phones to play video games against each other. (Watch a video of the game action.)

Played on a digital billboard above the entrance to the Yodobashi Camera superstore in Akihabara, each game involved up to six players in a 90-second race to paint squares on a grid and hunt for Toshiba’s cuddly Pala-Chan mascot. Mobile phone players followed the action on the billboard and used the number keys on their handsets to control the game’s paint brushes, while YouTube players on computers used the arrow keys on their keyboards. (More video.)

To participate, pedestrians in Akihabara called a phone number displayed on the billboard before the start of each game, while YouTube users simply clicked a button on Toshiba’s toshibanotepc channel (where the game is still available).

Winners who played via mobile phone in Akihabara received Pala-Chan parkas from Toshiba representatives stationed near the billboard site.

The company plans to use similar interactive billboard games to promote other products around town in the future.

[Source: Nikkei]

“I am in danger. You are in danger. Japan is in danger. Protect yourself with yellow.”

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So reads the text on a billboard advertisement at the west exit of Shinjuku station, the latest in a series of Norton Symantec security software ads starring multi-talented otaku idol Shokotan.

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Yellow suits her well.

(Thanks, randomcommenter, for the translation tip!)