[Miscellaneous] Running over “melody roads”

Casually scootering down a road for cars

Title (Japanese)	音楽が出る道路「メロディライン」は何が走っても曲が鳴るか？
Title (Translated)	Do the music-producing 「melody roads」sound when anything runs over them?
Channel	clicccar
Upload date	June 6 2014
Video link	1402031415 (5:00)
Japanese skills required?	No

Japan is home to several melody roads, which are roads with grooves cut into them so that when driven over the vibrations produce a song which can be heard from within your car. Japan is not the only country with such roads, but the road in this specific video is from Japan’s Gunma prefecture.

In the video a man tests whether or not the song can still be heard while running over the road with “vehicles” such as a scooter, a push-cart, and running barefoot with a tyre.

[Game] Challenging Mojipittan without Japanese

“Do you know Io? Io is… space.”

Title (Japanese)	日本語禁止で『ことばのパズル もじぴったん』に挑む実況！part1
Title (Translated)	Let’s play: Challenging 『Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan』without Japanese part 1
User	MOTTY
Upload date	May 31 2014
Video link	sm23671878 (15:41)
Japanese skills required?	Practically no for understanding the let’s play, but knowing your kana helps.

Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan is a game by Namco that is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Scrabble. You have tiles and your goal is to form words, with longer words scoring better. The main difference from Scrabble is that Mojipittan doesn’t treat a whole line as a word, but instead looks at all possibilities of forming words using tiles immediately adjacent in a straight line. So if you had いかう and tacked a る at the end, you’d get points for かうる and うる, but not いかうる (which is not a word).

Of course, with Japanese kana tiles most of the words you form will be Japanese words. But here the user MOTTY decided to challenge the game by not only banning himself from using Japanese words within the game (leading to words like あいす or aisu for “ice”), but by also doing his let’s play in English! It’s tough, but he manages.

[Anime] 2014 winter anime introductions

What to watch, what to watch…

Title (Japanese)	2014年 冬アニメ紹介
Title (Translated)	2014 winter anime introductions
User	ringo
Upload date	December 13 2013
Video link	sm22445192 (21:05)
Japanese skills required?	Yes for the information and trailers, though you could probably get the information around the sides by working out which anime’s which using an anime chart

Every anime season one of these videos come out on Nico. This video is a collection of trailers and information related to the (as of writing) upcoming 2014 winter anime season. It’s a good reference for figuring out what to watch.

[Miscellaneous] Tetris comedy routine

“Watch out!”… or at least that’s what I think the J block’s saying

Title (Japanese)	テトリス漫才
Title (Translated)	Tetris comedy routine
User	MIDORIKAWA
Upload date	January 17 2011
Video link	sm13331514 (2:35)
Japanese skills required?	No

Manzai is a tradition Japanese comedy routine usually involving two performers. This comedy routine is done by two Tetris pieces, and gives the unusual feeling of “I don’t get what’s happening … but I think I get what’s happening.”

[Technology] A rubbish-tracking bin

I’ve always wanted a bin on wheels!

Title (Japanese)	勝手に入るゴミ箱作った
Title (Translated)	Tried making a “throw however” bin
User	FRP
Upload date	July 19 2012
Video link	sm18391671 (3:03)
Japanese skills required?	Yes for the explanations – if you want to skip those, the test runs start from 2:25

This video showcases one very cool creation – a rubbish bin on wheels which tracks thrown rubbish using Kinect. If you’ve ever tried to play basketball with a bin and a ball of scrap paper, then this bin will practically guarantee that you won’t miss! The bin can track many different types of objects, ranging from cans to stuffed toys.

The actual bin looks like this:

The wheels are well hidden

 

[Music] Tension rises when entering FamilyMart

At 4:22 the “tenchou” arrives. (TL note: “tenchou” means both shop manager and modulation)

Title (Japanese)	【ファミマ入店音】ファミマに入ったらテンションがあがった【Remix】
Title (Translated)	【FamilyMart shop sound】Tension rises when entering FamilyMart【Remix】
User	KN
Upload date	September 4 2009
Video link	sm8129671 (5:59)
Japanese skills required?	No

This (as of writing) triple million video is a Nico classic.

FamilyMart is a chain of convenience stores in Japan and when entering the store you are greeted with a doorbell chime. KN uses the electribe (an electronic musical instrument) to remix the two bar chime into fully fledged house song by adding components such as percussion, drums and even using DJ-like effects!

KnowYourMeme has a page on FamilyMart jingle remixes here.

[Anime] au au au

（σ回ω・）σ←↖↑↗→↘↓↙←↖↑↗

Title (Japanese)	あぅ あぅ あぅ
Title (Translated)	au au au
User	２÷す
Upload date	November 9 2012
Video link	sm19310394 (1:01)
Japanese skills required?	No

In the anime Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions), the main heroine Takanashi Rikka often makes a cute “au” sound whenever she is lightly hit. This music MAD is a compilation of many of these moments.

[Music] Mousou♥Express transcription

dokidoki♥

Title (Japanese)	【囮物語OP】もうそうえくすぷれすを吹奏楽にしてみた(TVsize)
Title (Translated)	【Otorimonogatari OP】Used wind instruments to play Mousou Express (TVsize)
User	Yoshiuh
Upload date	October 6 2013
Video link	sm21981759 (1:33)
Japanese skills required?	No

Sounding much like the epic BGM of a final boss battle is this wind instrument transcription of Otorimonogatari’s OP “Mousou♥Express”. I have to say, this song is quite a turn from Renai Circulation…

[Utattemita] kemu medley

This video makes me wish I had good video editing skills

Title (Japanese)	【░合唱░】kemuメドレー【5曲】
Title (Translated)	【░Chorus░】kemu medley【5 songs】
User	jonjonjon
Upload date	November 25 2013
Video link	sm22328848 (6:27)
Japanese skills required?	No

This video mixes many utattemita videos into an epic chorus of kemu Vocaloid songs. There are 5 songs featured in the medley, and in order they are:

• Reincarnation (リンカーネイション)
• Rokuchounen to Ichiya Monogatari (六兆年と一夜物語)
• Invisible (インビジブル)
• Ikasama Life Game (イカサマライフゲイム)
• Jinsei Reset Button (人生リセットボタン)

[Anime] Super Hakase Deluxe

“Guess who!” “Koopa Troopa?”

Title (Japanese)	【日常】 スーパーはかせデラックス 【スカイハイ】
Title (Translated)	【Nichijou】 Super Hakase Deluxe 【Sky High】
User	turbo
Upload date	October 16 2011
Video link	sm15899224 (1:17)
Japanese skills required?	No

A music MAD mashing the Kirby BGM “Sky High” with Hakase (a.k.a Professor) from Nichijou. Hakase da nyan *cute head tilt*!

A bit of trivia – both Akira Kogami from Lucky Star (who shows up at 00:49) and Hakase are voiced by the same voice actress, Konno Hiromi.