I think the main thing about Honda Motor's new Robot ASIMO is how well he walks. Two legs, bipedal, just like a human being. Not only can he walk, he can run, brace himself if he falls, get up, kick things, balance on teeter-totters, climb stairs and so on.

ASIMO has actually been around now in one version or another for about four years. But his most recent versions are pretty remarkable. Good enough, anyway, that South Park parodied him in an episode called AWESOM-O.

Bipedal mobility (or something better if you can think of it) is necessary if robots are ever to really become a part of our everyday lives, in our homes and on our streets, accompanying their human siblings in natural and urban environments.

There are some excellent videos demonstrating ASIMO here: http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/ And there's more information here: http://asimo.honda.com/

Okay, I'll admit, this isn't the most important thing going on in Japan (although sales are at $933 million after just four years of existence, which does make it somewhat intersting) ...

But I have to tell you about my favorite brand of purses and handbags there: Samantha Thavasa. They are so cute, I can't resist buying one almost every time I go to Tokyo.

A friend told me the name of the company came from the TV show Bewitched where Elizabeth Montgomery played the perfectly 50's housewife Samantha (who was secretly a witch) and her daughter (also magic) was named Tabitha. Thavasa is sort of like the way we pronounce Tabitha.

Anyway, the purses are to die for! They all have really cute colors and designs, are high quality materials and stitching, and use fake fur, jewels, ribbons and other things that make them very different from the mostly leather Daniel Boone style purses they sell here in San Francisco department stores.

In Japan, we like to change our purse almost every day to suit our mood and outfit. We don't really tend to stick to one old faithful all purpose bag. They've been around in Tokyo for a couple of years now (where they were invented), and I've heard they're going to go on sale in New York sometime later this Spring (2006).

I think American women would love them. I'm not sure why they're not here yet. It gets so dull only using leather and plastic. Sometimes a girl wants to look like a girl ...

Here's Samantha Thavasa's website: http://www.samantha.co.jp/