So, it´s Monday and we here at Sci-Blog Japan have a severe case of Monday-itis.

Symptoms include an aversion to work, blurry vision, ADHD, coffee addiction and easily distract-.....

er, what was i saying?

Here´s a minute timewaster for you.
The Hotoku-ji monk hard at work. (Friday, April 23, 1999)

Don´t you wish a robot could take over you work and you could sit back drinking something ridiculously colourful with an umbrella by the pool?

Well guess what? Those Japanese monks are way ahead of you.
They already thought of that idea back in 1999, with a robomonk in Hotoku-ji, a temple in Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture.

The Robo monk sits still most of the time but then chants when it senses somebody approaching. Much like me pretending to type at work on a Monday.

The best part is that the creator ,Yoshihiro Motooka, a 65-year-old former railway technician, made the robot from recycled parts including an old casette recorder and a washing machine motor.

Motooka claims when Robomonk dissapears for maintenance, people are always disappointed and inevitably ask ¨Where´s he gone??¨

And,

I thought this was cool. While some countries just have your poor mans ¨Men at Work¨ sign, Tokyo has this:















ZiA