Silicon Valley in Tokyo
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.
