Hasta La Gadget!

As if expensive fruit-filled vending machines weren’t enough, now I come across a report from Bloomberg that tells of Makishi Rokugawa and his schemes to install vending machines selling gold and silver.

Surely only in a nation so obsessed with vending machines — and relatively free of theft and crime — could this even be imagined! With growing consumer fears over deflation and lower salaries, Rokugawa believes people will be keen to get their hands on “something they can touch”.

[Gold bar image source]

The products on offer will be precious metal items like coins and ingots, from a gram up to a quarter of an once. Cost will vary according to the current market value and with price updates daily.

After putting one in the Tokyo office building, Rokugawa and his bizarrely-named company Space International Ltd. now plans to install a gold vendor in the capital’s Imperial Hotel. What next? Apparently taking the plans nationwide and even abroad to Hong Kong.

It might appear to be another example of “wacky Japan” but actually the Arabs and Germans got there first, with gold bar and coin vending machines installed in Frankfurt airport and the Emirates Palace Hotel last year.

Kirin has launched a new limited edition drink that has the look of a canned coffee drink but the kick of good ol’ alcohol.

On sale only at Tokyo area convenience stores from Wednesday January 19th, the “Yoru Cafe” (Night Café) comes in two flavors: “caffe latte liquor” and “tea liquor”.

Kirin is likely trying to imitate the success Suntory has had with their Horoyoi brand, a series of chuhai beverages aimed at younger drinkers who shy away from the typical salaryman activity of gulping beer at home. Since younger consumers prefer to hang out in a coffee shop or café as much as a traditional izakaya, Kirin will hope to capture some of that atmosphere through this new concept.

Blending low price (148 JPY, about $1.80) and modesty in volume (just 190ml) with original coffee beans, tea leaves and whiskey, the drink looks at first glance more like a canned coffee product. They’ve certainly gone for sweet tooth too: expect plenty of milk and “original caramel syrup”.

The Yoru Cafe drinks have a 4% alcohol strength (just more than Suntory’s Horoyoi) and the makers are also hoping to tap the market potential by throwing everything they’ve got at all the major SNS channels. This all gets dispatched from the special campaign night café website, which will also feature ustreamed content every Wednesday (see below).

While beer sales fall except for happoushu and ersatz beers, the major manufacturers appear to be discovering new financial heartlands here. Suntory’s sales estimates for Horoyoi in fiscal 2010 were raised to 6 million cases (initially they had expected just half that amount). Other successful beverages like Strong Zero (sales up 57% for January to November 2010 compared to last year) and Asahi’s limited edition Sparks chuhai (600 thousand cases in three months) also all indicate this is an area that will surely continue to develop.

For all those fans of mecha anime Gundam who can’t live without their favorite franchise even when they are driving, Seiwa has come up with a solution for you.

A new series of Gundam-themed car merchandise includes cup-holders, ashtrays and even phone charger units. The eight items all come in the shape of the head of one of three characters familiar from the anime: the MS-06S Zaku II, MS-07B GOUF, and iconic RX-78-2 Gundam itself.

The cup-holder no doubt is very useful for those PET bottles of water in the summer and clips neatly on to the air blower vents. The phone charger’s cord actually connects to the Zaku’s nose, while the ashtrays even light up so you won’t be dropping your butts. The accessories cost locally from 1,980 to 2,480 JPY (about $23.75 to $29.75) each.

Some might joke that jewelry is the key to unlocking a girl’s heart. Perhaps people can take this literally, given how much coverage there has been for a new series of elaborated decorated keys.

Costing around 2,100 yen ($25) for the key head, plus from 900 yen ($11) for the joining process, the “Jewelry Key” is a new product from chain Mister Mint, whose booths can often be seen in Tokyo stations. The idea is that you make the keys you handle and take around with you every day that little bit more special by adding a unique heart or cross head.

After all, a necklace is also made of mental and your keys are just as important as a wallet or purse, which of course are treated as fashion accessories as much — if not more than — as practical tools. Why not make them original and stylish? Though primarily known as a place to get your shoes repaired or a key cut, Mister Mint clearly thinks there is a market for these “extras” too and is initially offering twenty-one designs.

These kinds of key decorations aren’t new, of course, but we still think it’s pretty forward-thinking of Mister Mint to be aiming for female fashion consumers with this new range. You can check out the Jewelry Keys at their branches at the Sony Building in Ginza, Shibuya, JR Shinbashi and currently eight others around Tokyo.

Fujitsu has teamed up with designboom for the Design Award 2011, which they call “a new international design competition challenging people to create new lifestyles from next-generation computing”.

There are two categories for entries: LIFEBOOK, examining the state of the PC in 2013, and LIFE-DESIGN, showcasing ideas for what ICT computing will have become in 2020.

Top prize is €30,000 (about $39,000), so it does pay to have foresight, and there are plenty of runner-up awards too. The judging panel includes top Fujitsu design people, the designer Ross Lovegrove, architects Ma Yansong and Gwenael Nicolas, and IT innovator Toshiyuki Inoko.

Since we are seeing so many more and more integrated devices, it will be really interesting to see the LIFE-DESIGN category entries and the kind of handsets-that-do-everything ideas people propose.

Anyone is eligible, including groups. Go to designboom for how to enter but be sure to register by January 31.