Remember the digital pet game Tamagotchi? Well, Japan now has the next step in virtual relationship, a Nintedo DS video game called Love Plus where nerdy males can have their very own anime girlfriends.

Lisa Katayama, Boing Boing’s contributing editor, reports that a man who calls himself "Sal9000" has taken the next logical step:

On Sunday, a man named Sal9000 married the love of his life. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, and she lives inside of a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus. The wedding took place during a Make: Japan meet-up held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In attendance were a live audience, an MC, the bride’s virtual video game girlfriend — who made a speech — and a real human priest.

A wife with an on/off switch! I don’t know if this is crazy or genius – maybe both: Link (with embedded YouTube clip) – Thanks Xeni!

To celebrate the anime Mobile Suit Gundam’s 30th anniversary, Japan is building a life-size RX-78-2 Gundam in Odaiba, Tokyo. From Anime News Network:

The statue will be free for viewing, but it will only stay up for two months. It will be built with fiberglass-reinforced plastic over a steel frame so it can be disassembled later. The head unit will move and the body will have 50 points that will emit light. Mist can shoot forth from 14 locations on the body. The park is just four trains stops from Tokyo Big Sight, the home of the Comic Market dojinshi convention and the Gundam Big Expo convention that will be held from August 21 to August 23. Bandai NAMCO Group is still determining what to do with the statue after its allotted two months in the park are over.

As you can see, the mecha is almost done. Just in time to deal with the shenanigans over at North Korea, too! Moé passion blog has more pics: Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Frau.

Japan has painted a number of their trains with some really amazing anime art, including Pikachu, Doraemon  and the Anpanman one above.

Link