The long wait is over, the Kindle has finally arrived in Japan.
Or has it?
As soon as I heard that a new Kindle model with an international roaming would be avail, my pre-order went in. I've been an avid eBook user since my Rocket eBook many moons ago. As a heavy traveler, the ability to carry a library around with me is a must have.
Since that first book I have used Sony and iRex readers of varying sizes and capabilities, but the Kindle has always taunted me with the holy grail of mobile readers: wireless updates.
Well, I have had my new Kindle2 International Edition now for over 24 hours, so I guess it's time to see how it matches up.
Yes. I have been in Akiba a lot lately. I hope to be able to say more soon, but I've been working on a project that will hopefully get moving in ernest soon. That may just be an excuse, but it has lead to me doing lots of research in the area.
But is certainly comes in handy. My good friend and one of my top Social Media mentors Paul Papadimitriou is back in Tokyo for a few days after having left the Big Mikan for Manila a few months back. We took the opportunity to go on an Akiba Hunting tour to see the latest and greatest in Tokyo's Electric Town.
Actually this all started last night with the invitation from the #1 servant of the Empire in Tokyo, Mr. Danny Choo, to attend the launch party of the Otaku Encyclopedia at a maid cafe in Akiba. Such an amazing book and I had a great time there. The author, Patrick Galbraith, has done years of research and it all came together into a great new resource on the Otaku/Anime/Akiba subculture. He also looks really familiar, but I can't quite place him. Maybe it's the hair. The book won't be available in the US for a few months, but there might be a way to get it sooner for a few lucky people if my plans go well.
Click the picture below to see some shots of the party and lots of pictures of Stormtroopers with sexy models.
So getting back to Akiba, my first great find is the pay toilet near the Chuo (Central) exit of Akihabara Station. Yes, I said Pay Toilet.
Seriously. I was impressed. The most geeky toilet I have ever seen. For 100 yen, you can enter. But while you can pay with boring, outdated things like "coins", you can also use high-tech RFID enabled cards or cellphones. If you use a Suica or Pasmo trainpass or electric wallet enables cellphone, simply pass it over the scanner, and the door magically opens up. Check it out in the video below.
So putting toilets aside, what else does Akiba have to offer? How bout Cosplay?
Along the way, Paul and I ran into Yui & Mio from the anime K-On!, a favorite of Danny Choo. So I snapped off a few shots for him. What do you think? Mio was very embarrassed by the attention (of course), and begged us to check out the cookies on sale behind her as she was doing her part time job trying to sell them. If you stop by Asobit City in Akiba, please buy some maid cookies to support you local Otaku. Yui seemed to be there just for moral support and to promote her website on Ameblo. Click the pic below to see more of Mio and Yui.
More of my Akiba adventures to come, but in the meantime, check out the video I made with Joseph Tame at Japan PodShow in Akiba.
Had a one-in-a-million chance today to follow Danny Choo around Akihabara today while he was shooting for his next YouTube video. Also along for the show was Setsuko Harada with Jonny Li manning the videocamera.
Akihabara is one of the best places in Tokyo to get interesting, visually stunning, and socially confusing photos, and watching Danny do his thing is a sight to behold. I can't believe the energy he has. We spent the afternoon dodging the fuzz, blocking traffic, harassing maids, and chasing high school students around town. Can't remember the last time I had so much fun.
Can't wait to see the finished video. If you want to see some of his previous vids, check out his page on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/tokyostormtrooper . Highly recommended!
A strange temporal anomaly was spotted in the most unlikely of locations, namely the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Wales.
The Telegraph reports of what appears to be a woman dressed in dated clothing appearing to phase halfway through the photo capture. The internet is abuzz with rumors of time-travelers and other theories for the odd phenomenon.
Update: I've located the location the street view was from, but it seems as though some strange virus has destroyed the data for just this photograph. See the next one available below.
Breaking News: Cargo plane crashes at Narita Airport. No reports about the crew yet. Hopefully they all got out ok. One runway out of commission at Narita. Expect delays if you are traveling through Tokyo today.
Well if the privacy advocates weren't nervous before, they gotta be chain smoking paranoid now.
Google Latitude is a new
service that will allow people to easily update and send their GPS location data to a person or group. Basically a twitter for location information.
Is a completely opt-in system, so no one should get information that you aren't comfortable giving out, but I'm sure that won't keep privacy groups around the globe from freaking out about it. I actually find the idea quite intriguing. It's avail for WinMo now and will soon have an iPhone app available which I will surely install. Anyone want to stalk me virtually?
Saw these manju (Japanese confections made with red bean paste) in Akasaka yesterday. Kind of speechless.
Text reads "Obama-city (the town with a name that is pronounced the same as Obama's last name) self proclaimed support manju.
In the lower left corner is a picture of Japanese PM Aso, a well known and disliked neo-fascist who may soon join the ballooning ranks of Japanese unemployed.
This time of year is great for taking pictures of Mt. Fuji. The air is clear and the sun sets behind the mountain giving it great definition. I need to set a good day to take advantage of this.
あけおめ！ Decided to stop by Meji Shrine and see how mad the crowd is. Not too bad really. About a 20 min wait to the shrine. Over the three formal days of Japanese New Year this shrine will see well over three million visitors (most at midnight on new years eve). First time I've tried Meiji.
I tend to bunch things up into year groupings (like wine I guess). I've had good years and bad years. 2008 was definitely not one of my best. Not to say that everything that happened was bad, but I had more setbacks, both personally and professionally. than I would care for. So I for one am quite happy to see this year drawing its final breath.
Last year started out with a stumble. I started 2008 without focus or direction and I knew it. I think for 2009 it is important to try and get things back on track. I have some ideas on how to do that and have already started pushing to my new agenda. Keeping up to date with this blog will be one thing.
Another, more superstitious, step will be to visit a Japanese shrine this new years to observe Hatsumoude. (for more details see this link) I'd like to stop by one of the larger shrines. I went to Sensouji a few years back, and that was pretty good.
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