Japanese swimsuit model/former adult actress releases AI-generated photo album of herself

https://ift.tt/4HthMEs Casey Baseel

Says AI presents a new opportunity.

About a month ago, Japanese magazine publisher Shueisha released a photo collection for a newly debuting swimsuit and lingerie model named Ai Satsuki, whose name had a double meaning to it: “Ai” is a common women’s name in Japan that means “love,” but it’s spelled just like “AI,” and Ai Satsuki herself was a series of digital images created by an artificial intelligence program.

Now there’s another gravure model named Ai, Ai Uehara, who’s also released a new photo album. As with Ai Satsuki’s album, all of the images in Ai Uehara’s new album, titled Saisei (or alternatively Rebirth) are AI-generated images, but what’s different is that Ai Uehara is a real person.

▼ Ai Uehara (real person)

身体の肌もちもちスベスベって
よく腕触られるんだけど
毎日してることは
お風呂上がり全身パーフェクトワンジェル塗って
お米ちゃんと食べて、魚とかオリーブオイル系の油ちゃんと取るようにして
日焼け止め塗って
パサパサにならないよう心がけてる… pic.twitter.com/Cc40wUDnCq

— 上原亜衣 (@ai_uehara_ex) June 24, 2023

The 30-year-old Uehara entered the entertainment world as an adult film actress in 2011, eventually transitioning to sexy but non-pornographic modeling. While still active as a model, for Saisei a team of collaborators, collectively dubbed AI VERSE, used existing photos of Uehara as the basis for producing AI-generated images of her, with the best 50 or so bundled together for the digital video album.

▼ The cover of Saisei

私のファーストAI写真集「上原亜衣「再生」AI Uehara ‘Rebirth’」をKindleの電子書籍として出版しました

本作は @AI__VERSE と @ai_punchjp と一緒に制作しました！

とても素敵な作品なので、私のファンの方はもちろん、AIに興味がある方全員にぜひ見てもらいたいですhttps://t.co/nPIVdo1RIU

— 上原亜衣 (@ai_uehara_ex) June 27, 2023

Three days after its release, Saisei reached the number-one-best-seller position in Amazon Japan’s Kindle rankings for the photo collection/design/art collection category.

▼ ベストセラー１位 = Number-one bestseller

上原亜衣ファーストAI写真集「再生」が、Amazon Kindleの写真集、デザイン、絵画の3部門で1位になりました

AmazonのKindle Unlimited → https://t.co/dyFp3vVKXN に登録すると、私の写真集だけでなく対象電子書籍が無料で読み放題です♪ pic.twitter.com/uvY5b3OtDb

— 上原亜衣 (@ai_uehara_ex) June 30, 2023

By using photos of Uehara to create AI images of her, the Saisei production team appears to be trying to sidestep a potential legal pitfall of commercializing AI-generated images. With AI programs that cast a wide net in looking for existing visual reference to create new images from, the legal question arises of whether or not the owners of the referenced images have ownership claims to the AI images that stem from them. In the case of Saisei, though, images of Uehara being both the input and output of the process could, ostensibly eliminate such complications and allow the image collection to avoid the fate that befell Ai Satsuki’s album/existence.

In talking about Saisei’s release, Uehara acknowledges that she’s heard people saying that AI presents a threat to the jobs of people like her, but that she disagrees, saying “I think this technology is going to give us a boost.”

Saisei is available through Amazon Japan here, priced at 699 yen (US$5.15).

Source: Nikkan Spa via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Amazon Japan
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What happens when you cook beer with potato chips in a rice cooker?

https://ift.tt/7tqp06e Oona McGee

The lazy drinker’s guide to a good night in.

For our reporter Seiji Nakazawa, summer is synonymous with beer. And when he drinks beer, he likes to eat potato chips, saying nothing beats this duo on a hot and humid night.

In addition to liking beer and potato chips, Seiji likes cooking up weird concoctions in his rice cooker, so with the weather warming up, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a new experiment.

▼ So he went out and grabbed himself some limited-edition Summer Happiness Thick Cut Butter chips, priced at 193 yen (US$1.34)…

▼ …and a can of Nodogoshi Nama, a happoshu-style beer, for 172 yen.

With no recipe to work with, Seiji emptied the bag of chips into the rice cooker, but when he looked at it he feared it wouldn’t be enough so he added another packet, which amounted to around 132 grams (4.6 ounces) of chips in total.

Figuring he couldn’t go wrong with a 1:1 ratio between chips and liquid, he poured in around 130 millilitres of the beer. However, that didn’t look like enough either, so he added in an extra 70 millilitres for 200 millilitres in total.

Pressing the start button, Seiji left the cooking time up to the machine, which worked out to be 45 minutes, the same as white rice.

He watched it for a while, just to make sure bubbles didn’t come foaming out the top or anything, before leaving it do its thing.

At the 20-minute mark, the delicious aroma of potatoes filled the room, reminding him of a Japanese festival, where the smell of baked potatoes and butter is known to waft through the air.

When the melody on the rice cooker rang out to let Seiji know the cooking had finished, he lifted the lid to find that the potato chips had softened.

The beer appeared to have soaked into the potato chips, so he grabbed a cooking utensil to stir the mix around a bit.

As he stirred, the mixture began to clump together, forming something that resembled…

▼ …mashed potato!

Piling the mixture onto a plate, Seiji’s potato chips now resembled mashed potato, although the beer had given it a curious brown hue.

▼ Taking out a spoon, Seiji lifted a morsel to his mouth and hoped for the best.

Chewing through his first mouthful, Seiji found that it wasn’t bad at all! Every chip had been coated in the butter seasoning so that seasoning really came through when the mixture was all mashed up together. The chips also contained honey, which worked well to add some sweetness to the richness of the buttery potato.

While the sweet and buttery potato flavour was at the front of the flavours, the slight bitterness of beer followed right behind it. However, it didn’t really taste like beer, as it simply worked to add a much-needed depth to the potatoes.

It was like mashed potatoes, but from a different realm, and though Seiji thought it was delicious, he decided to check with his colleagues to get their verdict on his new concoction.

Yoshio (top left, below) was kind with his comments, saying: “It’s fine. It looks like a candy. I feel like it’s something I shouldn’t eat, but it’s not like I wouldn’t eat it.”
Mariko Ohanabatake (top, middle) said: “What is this? I’d like it without the bitterness.”
Masanuki Sunakoma (top right) said: “I don’t think it looks that bad. Maybe it’s delicious?”
Yuuichiro Wazai (bottom left): “Wow… it tastes like the mashed potatoes that accompany a steak when they’re soaked in gravy.”
Ansuzu (bottom middle): “It’s disgusting. There’s no smoothness.”
P.K. Sanjun (bottom right): “It tastes like potato chips. But they’re soggy so it feels strange. Maybe people would eat this during wartime?”

“Harumph”, thought Seiji, “These guys are useless.” What would they know about fine food, anyway? Half of them can’t even tell an expensive watermelon from a cheap one.

That’s when he realised there was one person in the office who might actually appreciate this fine delicacy…

▼ …Mr Sato!

▼ Mr Sato gave a solemn nod, looked at Seiji and said, “It tastes like Germany!”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a statement he was expecting, but hey, Seiji had to agree he had a point. Beer and potatoes are two of the most delicious things you can eat at the annual Oktoberfest in Tokyo, which is the closest thing to Germany Seiji and Mr Sato have had in recent years, so Seiji took it as a compliment.

Either way, tastes are subjective, so if you’d like to try your luck with this concoction, feel free to give it a try. It can’t be any worse than Mr Sato’s attempt at making rice in a rice cooker with only eggs.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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New Ghibli art exhibit lets you step into the studios anime posters. Sea of CorruptionPhotos

https://ift.tt/DaJ7Y2m Casey Baseel

Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition is different from studio’s past art events, Ghibli co-founder says.

In Japan, summer is the time for Ghibli movies. Not only is summer the time of year when the famed anime studio customarily release its new films in theaters, every year broadcaster Nippon TV shows a number of Ghibli works as part of its Friday Roadshow (Kinyo Roadshow in Japanese) weekly movie program during the summer months.

This year Studio Ghibli and Friday Roadshow are deepening their summertime partnership with a new event, the Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition, which opened in Tokyo on June 29.

This isn’t Ghibli’s first exhibition, but at a pre-opening ceremony the studio’s veteran producer Toshio Suzuki (pictured above, posing in front of the event’s mascot characters, caricatures of himself and Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki) said the Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition is unique in its focus. “The exhibitions we’ve done up until now have been closer in feel to art exhibitions,” Suzuki explained, “but this time…we’ve made [participatory] entertainment a major focus, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

Part of that “participatory” aspect comes in the form of giant photo spots that recreate Ghibli’s iconic movie posters, but minus the movie’s main character, so that you can step in and take a photo of yourself as the protagonist. Guests can insert themselves into the posters for Princess Mononoke (pictured above), Kiki’s Delivery Service (seen below), Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, and Ponyo (although the Ponyo photo spot will only be available until July 2).

Also amazing in scale is a walk-through section of the Sea of Corruption, the spreading poisoned environment seen in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Renowned modeling artist Takayuki Takeya has crafted not only a massive Ohm, as the giant, multi-eyed bug-like creatures are called, but also a surrounding grove of the Sea’s sinisterly sporous vegetation.

If you want to see even more Ohms, a special free-to-download AR smartphone app will fill the area with more of the creatures, and elsewhere in the exhibit is a separate AR area where you can see the world from the perspective of the miniscule heroine of Arrietty.

While Suzuki describes the Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition as being less art museum-like than the studio’s other exhibitions, the event is still showcasing an amazing treasure trove of Ghibli artwork. Guests will be able to see selected annotated storyboard (e konte, if you want to use the in-Japan industry jargon) pages for almost every feature-length anime Ghibli has made, from 1984’s Nausicaa to 2020’s Earwig and the Witch.

▼ An e konte page from Whisper of the Heart

The Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition is being held at Warehouse Terada B&C Hall venue, located in the Tennozu canal neighborhood by Tokyo Bay, between now and September 24, after which it moves to the Toyama Prefectural Art Museum in Toyama City from October 7 to January 28.

Event information
Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition / 金曜ロードショーとジブリ展
Venue: Warehouse Terada B&C Hall/E Hall /寺田倉庫 B&C HALL ／E HALL
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinagawa-ku, Higashi Shinagaw, 2-1-3
東京都品川区東品川２丁目１−３
Runs until September 24
Admission 1,800 yen (adults), 1,500 yen (high/middle school students), 1,100 yen (elementary school students)
Website

Source, images: PR Times
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Ichiran Ramens delicious new product: Fried tonkotsu noodles!

https://ift.tt/cbdUHJ9 Oona McGee

We get a taste of the famous chain’s new fried tonkotsu ramen, inspired by a dish served at food stalls in Hakata.

The other day, we received a call from a representative at Japanese ramen chain Ichiran, who told us, “We’re launching a product that’s never been seen before!”

As big fans of Ichiran ramen, we were excited to find out what it was all about, so we asked them to send us a sample of the product before it went on sale. When we received the package, we discovered that the new product was…

▼ …Yaki Ramen!

The word “yaki” means “grilled” or “fried”, and though we’ve tried yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles) before, we’d never heard of yaki ramen. What’s more, these packs contain tonkotsu yaki ramen, which really piqued our interest as Ichiran hails from Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture, the home of tonkotsu ramen, which is the style of noodles the chain specialises in.

▼ Ichiran’s tonkotsu ramen is so popular it’s even available in instant-noodle form.

According to the chain, fried ramen originated in the food stalls of Hakata, a city known for its yatai (food stall) dining scene, where it’s usually sold as a side dish. As the name suggests, yaki ramen is fried up in a frypan, so our reporter Masanuki Sunakoma got a pack out and popped it on a portable gas stove to try it out.

Opening it up, he found that each package is a two-person serving containing noodles, cooking oil, soup powder and spicy sauce. According to the instructions, this is all you need to make the meal, but you can add other ingredients like meat and vegetables to your liking. As this was Masanuki’s first time trying the product, though, he decided to keep things simple by frying it up without any extra ingredients, using only what was included in the pack.

First, he put 300 millilitres of water in the frying pan, and after bringing it to a boil, he added the cooking oil, conveniently marked “A” to mark it as the first seasoning pack that needs to be added to the mix.

▼ Then, he broke the noodles in half lengthways so they would fit in the pan, and added them to the heat.

Masanuki then left the mixture to boil for around two minutes, stirring with chopsticks to prevent the noodles from clumping together.

Now it was time to add seasoning “B” — the soup powder — and mix it in. After giving it another good stir, Masanuki waited until enough of the water had evaporated to get the broth to a thick consistency.

▼ At this point, his kitchen became filled with the tantalising aromas of an Ichiran restaurant.

Transferring the noodles onto a plate, Masanuki poured the spicy sauce on top and now he was ready to eat.

▼ Ichiran’s “secret red sauce” is so special only four people in the company know how to make it.

It certainly looked delicious on the plate, but it didn’t look like the piping-hot bowls of Ichran ramen Masanuki is used to eating. While the noodles themselves were still straight and thin, in true Hakata-style, the broth was pretty much non-existent.

The aroma of tonkotsu was certainly there, though, so Masanuki lifted a good-sized serving up to his lips and prepared himself for a mind-bending experience.

Slurping the noodles into his mouth, Masanuki swallowed and threw his head back in delight. It was absolutely delicious, and because the noodles had absorbed all the tonkotsu broth, they were packed with the umami richness of Ichiran, resulting in a delectably intense tonkotsu flavour.

Even though he’d cooked the noodles a little too long, resulting in a softer texture, they were still slippery and delicious. He couldn’t quite believe this easy-to-make meal could taste so good without the use of any additional ingredients.

In fact, Masanuki says he reckons these fried noodles taste even better than Ichiran’s instant tonkotsu noodle bowls, which is certainly saying something, given their immense popularity.

So if you’re looking to get a new taste of Ichiran at home with minimal fuss, keep an eye out for the Yaki Ramen, which went on sale at Ichiran stores nationwide and online from 26 June, priced at 580 yen (US$4.04) for a two-serving pack.

They also make an excellent souvenir for tourists to stock up on, especially if you’ve got enough cardboard back home to fashion up your own solo booth counter to enjoy them with!

Photos © SoraNews24
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