Obama Bows to a Tokyo Robot, Plays Soccer With it

Obama finds Japanese robots ‘a little scary’ (The Washington Post)

TOKYO -- President Obama played soccer Thursday with a Japanese robot -- and came away a bit scared.

Obama's visit to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, or Mirikan, aimed to highlight both Japan's technological  prowess and the renewal of a 10-year scientific collaboration agreement between the two countries. While the event had plenty of examples of how the two countries are working together -- including a pre-recorded message from the International Space Station's Japanese commander and two American flight engineers serving alongside him -- the real stars of the show were a couple of robots.

Honda's humanoid robot ASIMO, which was dressed in an astronaut suit and is about the height of a 10 year-old child, went through a series of exercises for the president.