Included in the photo is Joi Ito (CEO of Creative Commons and board member of a zillion other web properties - check his LinkedIn), Andrew Huang (Vice President Hardware Engineering at Chumby), Ellen Levy (Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy LinkedIn), Jean-Marie Hullot (responsible for core parts of Mac OSX and CEO of Fotonauts), Loic Le Meur (CEO of Seesmic), Matt Flannery (CEO of Kiva), Fumi Yamazaki (Internet Journalist), Hector Garcia (Chief Technologist of Mirai Inc) and Danny Choo (Representative Director of Mirai Inc).

Hector and I geared up in armor and met up with a few reporters and TV crew to take the Silicon Valley crew around Akihabara for the evening.

The SV folks are running a bit late from a day of meetings and will have the next two days packed with talks at the New Context Conference which I will cover soon.

My makeshift sandtrooper binoculars - does anybody know where I can easily get hold of one?

Vader: "Where are those stolen plans?"
Cameraman: "?......"

The dangers of wearing armor - the boys like to touch your booty from time to time and you don't realize because you cant feel anything.

The usual photo sessions with citizens before heading off.

Geass n Oppai.

NDS Avalon Code.

Escape in the Imperial Shuttle for a while.

Meeting up with the SV team who arrive.

Take them around to a few spots including the electronics passages by the station.

Enough electronics to build 4 C3P0's.

Then its back out on the streets and we head off to the Akiba live house.

Trying to sell a PS3 which nobody seems to want.

Meet up with a maid handing out fliers.

Filming in the streets.

Andrew and Danny discussing an interesting project.

A brief break in the backstreets of Akiba.

The live house is in sight.

Through the window we see a load of Otagei masters.

One has some nekomimi. Wondering if my armor needs some too.

The SV team head inside.

Dear Stage is run by some comrades - the place was supposed to be closed that day but opened up for a few hours to entertain us.

Mmmmm. Angelic.

Crowded and very lively inside.

They serve drinks and food too.

Vader peeks through the side of his helmet.

A few photos before the performance begins.

We need another trooper to be on the other side.

A few more pics in a previous article.

The filming was for a major net broadcast. The site will probably be brought down with the incoming traffic ^^;

Hmmm. This project sounds interesting.

The girls start to sing n dance.

Its the first time for the SV team to see stuff like this - must have been a great experience for them - it was my first time too and I loved it.

The Otagei masters are whipped into a frenzy.

The guy at the back is jumping with joy.

Cameras all over the floor.

The girls drag me on stage.

Vader cools off with some beverage.

The girls teach me Otagei which is an Otaku form of dance - see video below.

Still remember the moves but not sure when they are supposed to be done.

Photo time.

More photos at Nikkei BP.

The Dark Lord cant resist the force of the ladies and joins us.

Our prisoner Loic Le Meur.

A few hours later and we are knackered - need to get up early for the conference the next day.

Tiring but a load of fun - just love working in the internet. Tokyo has legions of talented Internet folks and meeting up with them is always inspiring.
Didnt expect to be working in the Internet though - especially considering that I was brought up without it. It all started when I was at Japan Airlines working as a Computer Engineer - spent free time at work learning HTML to build the company website. I wasn't asked by anybody and took the initiative to learn for myself and contribute to the company at the same time.

At Amazon, we rewarded employees who "just do it" - folks who just went ahead and done something that contributed a great deal to the company in terms of cost or efficiency savings.
The thing is, when you are doing something good for the company, you are actually doing a lot of good for yourself at the same time. If you are working for others, take the initiative to make the most out of your position - not just for the company but for yourself too.

And if you feel that you have accomplished all then its probably time that you move on.

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Tis the lovely season of Autumn and there be many "Autumn Festivals" taking place around Japan right now. Went to one last week around the corner which had many games n goodies for the kids.

Here we see folks crowded around a (name-of-thingy-goes-here-because-I-forgot) which has a handle on the side - you turn the handle and a ball will drop out of it. Depending on the color of the ball, the player gets a certain prize. If the color of the ball is brown, the player will get a slap in the face.

Watching my neighbor play in her band with the rest of her class.

Grabbing some Okonomi Yaki for lunch. Kind of like a pancake - its got egg, octopus and dried fish.

Free popcorn given out.

In this game, one places the ball at the top of the sloping table. The ball falls down hitting the pins and changing trajectory. Depending on where the ball falls, one gets a prize or a slap in the face.
However, no matter where the ball falls, everybody wins because the young lady attendant was bery bery bery bery cute.

In this game, one has to tilt the board with the steering wheel to get the ball onto the other side without it falling through one of the holes. Prize for the winners and a club to the kneecaps for the losers.

In this game, one has a small hoop at the end of a piece of string which the player has to use to get bottle to stand on end. Prizes for the winners and a fork through the eye for the losers.

Grabbing some onigiri with Nendoroid Yako.

Make an excuse to take another pic of that girl - I need pics of the prizes of course.

A pharmacy with its goods spilling out onto the pavement - unmanned and very common in Japan to have this sort of display. Probably would not work in Hackney London.

The Okonomiyaki place that I talked about a few months ago - looks like they did quite well and are still around.

Free Tako Yaki - octopus balls.

Bet you didn't know octopus had balls eh?
How many times have I used that ^^;

Standard shoot-object-with-lethal-bow-n-arrow. Prizes for the winners and a whack in the forehead with a nail studded plank of wood for the losers.

The winners...

The throw-ring-and-get-it-to-land-on-prize game. Prizes for the winners and a stab with sharp pencil in the ear for losers.

Always find myself saying how peaceful and harmonious it is in Japan.

Kids with their bags of winnings.

Mega retro TV spotted - still works.

Dont expect the toy shops over here to sell any figures - most of them stock cheap mainstream stuff like Anpan Man, Kamen Rider, Puri Cure and the like.

In this game, one jumps on the yellow board to stop the ball which is just about to roll down the slope.
Prizes for the winners, a mouth full of camel droppings for the losers.

Free Shiu Mai up for grabs.

Mmmm. Shiu Mai desu. Cant wait to eat some good food in Singapore next week.

The most popular free food up for grabs was the ice cream.

Traditional Japanese drink Ramune - its got a glass ball in the bottle.

More food - not all of it free though.

Through some of your blog posts, I notice that Japan type festivals are held in different regions. Noticed some in Brazil, Malaysia and Singapore so far. I don't recall of any back in the UK though. Japan type festivals in your neck of the woods?

Many people ask me about Japanese alcohol but I don't drink which makes me the worst person to ask about the subject.

Folks over here are good at cleaning up after they are done and separate rubbish into their respective combustible/non combustible bins.

Yako seems quite happy.

Is Japan the only place where they can get away selling these chocolate bananas without being arrested?

This game is called Kingyo Sukui...

Players are given a small hoop covered in thin paper which they use to scoop up a gold fish from the water.

When the hoop has been in the water for too long, it goes poof like this.

I see this all the time but never pay attention to it. Folks carving something out of something.

Yakitori - grilled chicken on a stick.

A girl attempts to stop the ball from rolling away but kept jumping even before the ball was released ^^;

In this game, folks have to guess the weight of the pumpkin. Prizes for the winners, head force dipped in a bucket of ice water for the losers.

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Starting off this weeks installment in the morning at Shinagawa station. Didn't know that there were so many hotels around here. Good location though. Easy to get to Akiba and not too bad for getting to Shinjuku/Shibuya.

For folks who have been to Tokyo, which area did you stay? I hear many folks stay in Ikebukuro because the accommodation is cheap. I hear horror stories about the service/quality though. Any places which your fellow comrade to stay at or avoid?

Somewhere in Shinagawa. Building full of IT folks. Many floors occupied by Sony.

One of the companies is Netprice.com ( English profile here ) where we are having a meeting.

Netprice specialize in areas like global logistics, e-commerce and have many web properties. Today we further talks we have been having to work on something together.

A small part of their business is producing idol DVD's. Which reminds me - about time I attend an Idol event - any particular requests of which idol? I'm thinking Hitomi Kitamura.

The folks at Netprice are really young compared to the average age at many other IT companies in Japan. They seem to be early or mid twenties while I know one IT company where the youngest folks were 45-ish ^^;
The folks in the meeting were project planners and not folks who just started to climb the corporate ladder meaning that they have been doing quite well for themselves.

At what age do you plan to look for a full time job? I was 25-ish when I got my first full time job at Japan Airlines. I considered that late as I previously spent time working for my dad and also spent a certain amount of time not knowing what I wanted to do in life - will talk this in a future article.

And for those who are already working - at what age did you get your first full time job?

Some more of the office.

View from the CEO's office. The CEO Teruhide Sato has done extremely well for himself and is still only 32. He will be speaking at the New Context Conference which I will be attending too.

Sato-san likes to hire cute staff ^^;

Egg on rice for lunch.

Out n about in the huge Shinagawa station.

The before...

..and the after. I only get one prawn with this dish. Are you the "save the best for last" type too? ^^;

Meeting at Shibuya Starbucks.

Playing with my new SAFS.

Sushi for din dins.

Tenpura for din dins.

Mikuru burner for lunch.

Fly Lice for dinner.

Playing with the Haruhi girls on the Mac.

Chinese for lunch.

Mc Dee's Mc Flurry - looks like bird poo but tastes great. Its ice cream with crushed Oreo. Have in your neck of the woods too?

Mabo Nasu Don for lunch - about 560 yen.

Familiar face advertising Honda's new car.

Deep fried shrimp n shana.

Didnt get a chance to go to Okinawa this year so making up for it by stocking up on a load of Sheekuasa juice.

Playing Pachinko is a day time job for many folks.

How many others (like me) who didn't get into Evangelion?

Grabbing some health food for a change.

Out n about in Shibuya.

Pre-paying for some ramen using the ticket machine at the entrance. I was so confused when I first came to Japan and saw these.

Ramen with fried chicken rested on the top.

Man handing out "free computers" leaflets. Speaking of free stuff I've finally started to give away figures to members. All giveaways from now will only be open to folks who have been registered for longer than 2 weeks - active members.

Many maps in popular areas have English on them and are usually marked with the "you are here."
I've been to so many countries where they don't bother to put the "you are here" mark - I'm guessing its to save on production cost.

Past this Singaporean seafood place and forgot to go back for lunch after. If I was in Singapore, where should I go for good food?

Tantan Men (noodles) for lunch.

Buildings over Shinagawa.

My camera automatically takes aim at the over 18 section at the convenience store.

Traditional Japanese lunch time.

Back in Shinagawa again.

This weeks office.

Closeup of this lovely girl at Good Smile.

Today we are going to look at some useful terms to know when looking for a place to rent in Japan.

This is a pic of a board outside an estate agents full of info on nearby apartments to rent.
If you are looking for a place to rent, I recommend going to the station situated in the area where you want to live and check out the estate agents there.
The agent will usually take you by car and show you whats available.

And before I continue, I'd like to recommend (as I always do) that you learn to speak Japanese if you are planning on living here. While many foreigners do get by living here with hand and feet gestures, folks who have a good command of Japanese will not only find it easier (and more fascinating) going about daily life, they will also find that it will create more opportunities in their career too.

Anyway, the red large kanji you see here is "Chikuasa"　[築浅[ちくあさ]] which means that its only been a few years since this building was built - many Japanese factor this into deciding whether to rent a place. For 133,000 yen per month, you get 47.59 square meters to play with.

The kanji in red this time says "Shinchiku" [新築[しんちく]] which means "newly built." In the case of this apartment, you get to pay more (149,000 yen) for less space at 39.50 square meters.

The kanji here says "Reikin Zero En" [礼金0円[れいきん0えん]] which means "Gratuity fee 0 yen."
Since the dark ages, citizens have been paying the landlord a gratuity fee for letting them live in the landlords apartment. This gratuity fee can be up to 2.5 times the monthly rent and to make the situation even more amusing - you don't get this money back - none of it, Sweet FA, absolute squat.

This one room mansion will cost 84,000 yen per month.

The kanji here says "Shiki Ichi, Rei Ichi" [敷1礼1]. The "Rei" is short for "Reikin" that we saw earlier on - the gratuity fee and the "Ichi" means "One." This means that you have to thank the landlord with only a months rent.

"Shiki" is short for "Shiki kin" [敷金[しききん]] which is "Key money" - this can be up to 3 times the monthly rent and is used as a deposit which the landlord uses to clean up the place when you leave. S/he usually tries to use as much of it as possible so when you move out so its like "thanks for staying with us for the years, here is a slap in the face and get out of here you stinking rat."

So with up to 2.5 months gratuity fee, an additional sum of key money (up to 3 months rent) *and* an additional two months rent up front to the landlord, you can see that it costs more than a few limbs to move in Japan. Ah, I forgot that you also need to pay the estate agent a months rent for introducing the place to you.
Lets say you find a place for 100 yen rent per month, in the worst case you need to pay 850 yen. The average Key money is 2 months while the gratuity fee is 2 months.

To make looking for apartments more fun, foreigners in Japan have to go through the humiliation of the estate agent calling up the landlord in front of you - the conversation in my previous experiences have been...

Hi, My name is Taro from Eiburu Estate agents. We have a foreigner interested in your apartments, do you allow foreigners?

I've been turned down a few times this way and its a horrible feeling - especially just after arriving in Japan.

After my first few experiences, I learned to ask the estate agent to call the landlord *before* we wasted time looking on and deciding on a place.

Do citizens have to go through grief to rent a place in your neck of the woods? Anyway, looks like this one room mansion is equipped with a B-Flets 100Mbps Internet connection. The rent here is 86,000 yen for the month.

Speaking of B-Flets optic fiber (which we use at home), NTT are having a "get your first 4 months free" campaign. Many moons ago, when I signed up I got 3 months free. I canceled and signed up again to see if I would get another free months free and sure enough I got it - but they had to disconnect me for a week