Meeting Award-Winning Founder of ROBO GARAGE Tomotaka Takahashi and his robots, Evolta and Robi

Because of the ‘New Arrivals From Japan’ Press Conference today, I got to meet Mr Tomotaka Takahashi, the founder and CEO of ROBO GARAGE. Mr Takahashi’s works have won him awards like the Coolest Inventions 2004 (TIME magazine), 33 Persons Changing The Future (Popular Science magazine), and the Guinness World Record for the longest distance covered by a battery-operated remote-controlled model car.

Mr Takahashi is also the Research Associate Professor of The University of Tokyo, Visiting Professor of Fukuyama University and Osaka Electro-Communication University.

Tomotaka Takahashi and Robi:

Robi can understand 200 Japanese words and has 20 joints which allow it to walk, dance and move. It can also get up from a sitting position, and sit itself back down again too!

One of his robots, Kirobo, was the first communication robot in space (Aug 2013)!

Evolta (17cm tall) did a 530m cliff climb at the Grand Canyon. It was powered by just 2 AA batteries during the climb which was for a Panasonic battery promotion video.

Demo of Evolta climbing up the rope:

Here’s Evolta setting a world record:

Evolta climbing up the Grand Canyon:

Award-winning Robots:

And here’s something very interesting: A ‘female’ robot

He had been asked if he could create a Barbie-like robot. But he couldn’t as Barbie’s thin frame meant that there was not enough space for all the various parts required.

A Japanese magazine actually came with Robi parts every week so subscribers could build their own Robi after 70 issues! Each issue cost 1990 Japanese yen, or about US$25. The total cost was about US$1750 for subscribers to build Robi! Read more on gizmag. Takahashi-san told us that over 100,000 Robi units were sold in Japan, and next month, Robi will be available in Italy, and then Taiwan after. He also said that unlike robots portrayed in Hollywood movies, Japanese robots are usually “friends” and do not try to take over the world – think Doraemon.

*I have a Robi collectible and stickers for giveaway. Watch out for the blogpost coming soon! 😀

Doraemon Exhibition in Hong Kong – Dreams Come True

Read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Dreams

This trip to Hong Kong for the Doraemon Exhibition is indeed a dream come true. On top of a relaxing stay at the Marco Polo Gateway Hotel which is linked to Harbour City, us bloggers got to check out what the mega-mall has to offer in terms of shopping and dining options!

Before Marco Polo Gateway Hotel, I’ve yet to stay in such spacious accommodation in a Hong Kong hotel! I loved the huge bathrooms and sleeping on a big bed with 4 pillows all to myself (4 pillows!!!). Talk about sweet dreams! And waking up to an international buffet breakfast spread was just icing on the cake!

As you can see above, I had no complaints whatsoever about the food available. In fact, I looked forward to the yummy omelettes every morning! At the omelette station, you can choose the ingredients you want to include in your omelette and the chef will cook it for you. I define pure bliss as biting into an omelette with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and salmon (YES, SALMON!), with some cheese in-between too! YUMMY! There’s also capsicum, bacon, ham, etc which you can choose to add into your omelette. 😀

And the staff, especially Ms Katie in my picture, were professional and also friendly. Katie actually brought over a map of Hong Kong for us when we asked her for recommendations about places we should visit. She really went the extra mile in service (all she had to do, really, was serve us tea/coffee and remove the used plates) and I hope her boss reads this! 🙂

The fact that our hotel was linked to Harbour City meant also that we could shop till the stores closed, and just lug our purchases back to the hotel lobby. 😀 How convenient!

The mall is so big that I won’t be able to introduce all the stores to you but here are some that we went into on the first day:

Faces for cosmetics & PageOne for stationery and gifts!

And where food is concerned, Harbour City definitely delights!

I loved that they have Agnès B Cafes! I thought these could only be found in Taiwan! Their cakes are pure delish! And so pretty too, don’t you think?

The amazing part about this mega-mall is that there are not only many directories available, plus information counters, but also special stations where you can touch the screen to speak with their service staff who will show you, on the screen, where your current location is and how to get to the place you want to go to. Where the use of technology is concerned, our local malls pale in comparison with Harbour City.

And some other fun things we did:

At night, you can also board a ferry nearby- I guarantee you’ll love the ride:

Right now, I’m sure you want to head over to Hong Kong for the fantastic Doraemon Exhibition and to check out the mega-mall that is Harbour City. You deserve the vacation! Besides, getting there, as they say, is a piece of cake!

To find out more about the Exhibition and Harbour City:

http://www.harbourcity.com.hk

http://www.facebook.com/harbourcity

http://twitter.com/hkharbourcity

Doraemon Exhibition in Hong Kong – Friends from the Future

<- Read Chapter 1 here

Chapter 2: Future

Doraemon is a robot cat from the future and his actual date of birth is 3rd Sept, 2112 – this year is the start of the 100 year countdown to his birthday! 🙂

From 14 Aug to 16 Sept 2012, Harbour City (Hong Kong) will be hosting the “100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon” Exhibition.

Charmaine and I got to visit the Bo-logne Cafe, the Gallery and the Exhibition – all of which blew us away.

Join us and step in through the famous “Anywhere Door”…

Right into the transformed BO-LO’GNE Cafe…

Fill your tummy with food then check out the Gallery by the Harbour where you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over various gadgets, and take many pictures!

Before you view the Exhibition, take in a deep breath of air first. Because the arresting sight will take your breath away!

100 Doraemon figures are available for your photography and viewing pleasure!

And here’s the crowd streaming in for the opening ceremony on 14 Aug, 2012:

I’m so glad we got a media preview first! 😀

And here I am with my Doraemon bag. A couple actually stopped me in Zara to ask me where I’d bought my bag from. When I said “Singapore”, they looked disappointed. Seems the people in Hong Kong really love Doraemon A LOT!

And at the opening ceremony…

A photo with the pretty ladies:

The party continues all the way till nighttime! Can you believe it?!

Ask me where I’ll go if I have the Anywhere Door before me!

The exhibition again, of course! 😀

Hurry and book your tickets to Hong Kong now! The Doraemon figures won’t be here forever. You can catch them from now till 16th September only! And no, they are not for sale. I asked! 😀

The final blogpost about the awesome mega-mall that is Harbour City: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-dreams-come-true/

Doraemon Exhibition in Hong Kong – Friendships Forged

Who knew that one blogpost would put me on a plane to Hong Kong for a 4D3N sponsored trip in celebration of Doraemon’s birth – 100 years early? 😀 I’m attaching the cartoon from that particular blogpost and you can click here to view the entire winning blogpost… Lots of thanks to Harbour City for the kind sponsorship and Omy.sg for organizing the contest! 🙂 The campaign theme for the entire celebration is ‘Friendship, Future & Dreams‘. So the first in this series of blogposts is entitled ‘Friendship‘!

Chapter 1: Friendship

I had never met the blogger who was supposed to go to Hong Kong with me prior to the trip. Thankfully, she turned out to be a great shopping buddy and oh-so-funny to photograph. You can read her winning blogpost here. She is 22, works at a maid cafe and has 3 names: Charmaine, Kiyo and Jae. <- She doesn’t have split personalities, though, and I simply call her Charmaine. 😀

It was great going shopping with Charmaine ‘cos she NEVER gets tired and squeals in delight at every shop or brand name she recognizes (and she does know a lot of them, especially the Japanese brands)!

And if you visit Hong Kong, you definitely have to go to Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui (just a 5 minute walk from the MTR station!)

Harbour City certainly lives up to its reputation as a shopping paradise located on over 2 million square feet of prime real estate, with a wide variety of over 450 shops! We had to consult directories every so often to find out where we were within the mega mall – the largest in Hong Kong!

And even before us new shopping buddies managed to hit the stores and walk away with our first shopping bag, our new friends from Harbour City gave us fantastic goodie bags…

Us bloggers were made to feel really welcome indeed and we have to thank Ms Season Chan (the Assistant Promotions and Advertising Officer) for making us feel really at home with her tips on which stores and cafes to visit, and in general, for being an awesome host. She also brought us out for a fantastic dinner the evening before our return flight to Singapore too! 🙂

Season also helped us take this jump shot, in front of many curious onlookers… (>_<)

It was such a fun trip – I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

Read on for the next 2 blogposts – about the futuristic “100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon” Exhibition and the dream shopping and leisure destination that is Harbour City! 😀 Enjoy!

Blogpost 2: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-friends-from-the-future/

Blogpost 3: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-dreams-come-true/

*This trip was made possible because of the good people from Harbour City, Hong Kong (thank you Karen and Season) and Omy.sg (thanks, Alvin!) 😀

[Winning Blog Post!] 3 Reasons Why I Love Doraemon and How to Celebrate Doraemon’s Birth – 100 Years Early

Did you know that we’ll soon be celebrating Doraemon’s birthday (albeit 100 years early)? 😀 Doraemon’s date of birth is 3rd Sept, 2112 and a special celebration in the form of a “100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon” exhibition will be held at Harbour City in Hong Kong! In this blogpost, I’ll tell you why I’ve been a fan of the Doraemon anime since I was a kid, and why you should join in the celebrations too. 🙂

Top Three Reasons Why I Love Doraemon:

(1) Doraemon has gadgets to help with homework!

Doraemon has lots of gadgets within his 4-dimensional pocket and some are extra memorable. As a student, I wished I had Doraemon living with me and helping me out with all those mind-numbing homework so I could go out and play! 😀 Also useful would have been those gadgets which could be used against those nasty school bullies. Heh heh.

(2) Doraemon loves dorayaki, just like me 😀

Believe it or not, I used to have dorayaki for breakfast just about every morning when I was in Junior College! It’s my happy food! And I recently found a Dorayaki outlet in Nex which sells dorayaki with all sorts of fillings – from the usual red bean to durian cream and even ice cream!

(3) You can’t help but smile when you see his face…

And he bears an uncanny resemblance to my boyfriend too. LOL! 😀

Join in the celebrations at Harbour City in Hong Kong for:

(1) A visually arresting sight of 100 unique Doraemon figures and 100 of Doraemon’s secret gadgets outside Harbour City’s Ocean Terminal! How awesome is that?!

(2) Three picture-worthy installations. Based on the celebrations’ theme of friendship, future and dreams, there will be three installations – “The Night Before Nobita’s wedding”, “Goodbye, Doraemon!” and “Memories of Grandma”.

(3) The Doraemon themed pop-up cafe including new menu items such as Doraemon spaghetti, hamburger set, dessert set, special themed drinks, BO-LO’GNE buns, etc

I’ve taken pictures with Hello Kitty themed dessert items and am looking forward to seeing (& photographing) Doraemon ones! 🙂

And of course, there will be workshops for children (and their parents) to create and decorate their own personalized Doraemon figures. Limited edition premiums will also be made available during the Exhibition.

It’s also an Exhibition that is going to be difficult to miss as it’s held at Harbour City in Hong Kong – where shopping, dining and happening events all come together under one (mega)roof. I love that besides visiting the Exhibition, visitors can also check out the stores – from agnès b. all the way to ZARA! And there are some fine restaurants there too!

Start booking your tickets now and fly over just in time to be a part of the grand celebrations – there is going to be something for everyone! *wink*

“100 Years Before the Birth of Doraemon” Official Facebook Page
http://facebook.com/100doraemon

Exhibition Details
Organizer: Harbour City and Animation International Ltd.,
Curator: AllRightsReserved Ltd.
Date: 12 August – 16 September, 2012
Time: 11:00 – 21:00 (Monday – Sunday)
Venue: Gallery by the Harbour- Shop 207, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsimshatsui (next to Fendi)
Harbour City Hotline: (852) 2118 8666  Website:www.harbourcity.com.hk

Update: This blogpost was picked as a winner in a contest organized by Hong Kong’s Harbour City and Omy.sg. Grace gets to attend the Doraemon exhibition in Hong Kong with airfare and accommodation fully sponsored! 😀

Read about the trip here:

Blogpost 1: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-friendships/

Blogpost 2: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-friends-from-the-future/

Blogpost 3: https://workingwithgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/doraemon-exhibition-in-hong-kong-dreams-come-true/