A Week in Tokyo 39
Didn't leave it as late as last time but still two weeks behind for this episode of A Week in Tokyo. About 80 photos to go through so this article will probably balk as usual with Google Reader and Firefox - click through to the article or read this post in your inbox.
First photo was taken last night at Shiodome outside the Softbank offices just after Appliya Night who I'm working with to release some applications for the iPod Touch/iPhone. What sort of apps would you like to see from Mirai and Haruka?
Lovely evening sky. Lumix LX3 shot.
At the Apple store where I like to set the HP to dannychoo.com and watch how users navigate the site when they first see it ^^; They usually end up clicking on something moe.
Andrew Shuttleworth and I was to present at the Apple Store in Ginza today talking about Consumer Generated Media.
But first off its a meeting with Kotobukiya, Apple, Andrew and I. Hmmmmmmm. What could be in store for you? ^^;
Andrew setting up his gear who just recently switched to Mac.
I've been a Mac user since about 2005 when I decided to give OSX a whirl with a Mac Mini - fell in love with it and got myself a PowerBook. Up until then I used to be one of those Mac haters. I couldn't understand how people got things done on a Mac ^^;
The main reason I switched was because I had to give back a HP laptop to Amazon when I left - I used it as my main machine too. Was friendly with the IT department who have me permissions to install what I wanted - other employees who were not so friendly with IT had stick with the Amazon default install packages.
Anyway, I was looking for a replacement Windows machine and couldn't find any decent ones which is why I decided to try Mac and have never looked back since.
Currently only use Windows running in Parallels for QA on IE 6&7.
dannychoo.com currently has roughly 9% Mac users. Are you a Mac switcher and if so why did you jump boat on Windows?
Tried their head mic but it felt like a vice so ditched it...
...and used a pin mic instead.
Gadget Otaku Steven Nagata brings along is portable wifi point. All you do is plug any data stick like the E-Mobile and it turns into a portable wifi access point for anybody in the area to use - brilliant! The iPod Touch is the new slimmer iPhone with this cradlepoint - just leave the main unit in your bag. Costs about 18,000 yen.
Also comes with a web interface so you can filter by Mac Address, add password logins and so on.
Cant wait - another few weeks before ROTF is out. A clip below of the ROFT cars in cruise below.
And some behind the scenes filming below.
After the presentation at the Apple store its off for some German food with Kotobukiya and Steven. Need a bit more time before I can make an announcement.
My lovely new daughter Nanoha arrived this week too! Thanks to Japan To Door for the most bodacious gift. Promise to take good care of her.
Her eyes are actually dark blue but is difficult to bring out the shade in them. Member FatB said in a comment that Nanoha looks like Maya from Heroes because of her dark eyes!
Love Heroes but completely missed the last few seasons. Dont even know what the current season is. Some folks said they are getting tired of it. How is it of late?
But I do find that Nanoha eats more than my other daughters - here she is with her fave Jumbo Choco Monaka.
Now UFO catchers come with live Kabuto beetles.
At the local library.
Discovered another shrine nearby on a lovely warm sunny evening.
New house to be built that will cost 63,000,000 yen - about the same price and size as our house. I don't really notice any change in the total cost of a house+land but the price of land alone in this area seems to be going up. What are house/land prices like in your kingdom? I hear the US is having a tough time?
Veggies stuffed with minced meat. About 700 yen.
There is something amusing about this salad.
When visiting folks in Japan, one would usually bring over some sort of food stuffs as a courtesy. Here somebody got us some yummy pastry filled with chocolate and covered in nuts.
This reminds me when I told a visitor that I would introduce my daughters to him > Mai Musume ^^;
Apparently eating food thats red is particularly good at keeping your organs young - does hot Korean food count?
Maguro Don at Sukiya with a Mega Don CM below.
Rica chan is a celebrity doll who does a lot of CM work. Here she is promoting apartments. Cant remember if I showed the below video to you before.
As you can see from the Mr Donuts Rica chan CM below - she can move on her own.
Poor crabs trapped in ice as part of some festivities.
Being brought up in the UK, I ate potatoes a lot and still love em. The first thing I want to eat when I'm back in the UK is saveloy, pickles n chips. Whats your fave national dish?
Some more local festivities to celebrate the new development construction around the station.
You buy food tickets for you meal at this vending machine before you eat. If you are finding that nothing happens when you press the buttons then its probably because you didn't choose "eat in" or "take out" first. Do they have these food vending machines in your neck of the woods too? I've only seen them in Japan.
Nothing beats a beef bowl with a raw egg - give it a whip and pour it over the meat.
Back outside to see the festivities going on.
Our morning walk.
More Korean style food - Neng Myon (냉면) at Johnathans.
Some traditional Japanese desert - Green tea youkan.
Picking up some fruits.
For those who wants to eat Kamen Rider Decades fish sausage.
My fave Kamen Rider to date is still Kabuto - which is yours? I actually bidded for a Kamen Rider Kabuto costume a while ago but lost. I remember there was a dannychoo.com reader who got hold of one but cant remember who - wonder if he wants to sell it.
At the 100 yen store looking for containers to hold my figure bits n pieces.
A Hello Kitty corner at the 100 yen shop. I used to be frugal with gifts when I came to Japan as a wee lad. I obviously wanted to spend all my hard earned moolah on my own goodies and spent a couple of thousand yen at the 100 shop getting stuff for folks back home ^^;
I notice that many of you post your Japan loot but do you also buy stuff for folks at home too and if so what sort of stuff?
Me lips crack a lot so picked up another Mentholatum.
Seiya do good tasting ramen for 500 yen a bowl.
Love the ads for AG's deodorant.
And a trap for the ladies.
Egg shaped toilet deodorants.
Forgot what fish this is - probably Saba.
Tebasaki - grilled chicken wings. Speaking of chickens - can you do this with your head?
All these bicycles are illegally parked!
After a while, these bikes will be removed and the owner will have a letter sent to them asking them to pay a fine of about 3,000 yen-ish. The authorities have your address because most people register their bikes in the event that they ever get stolen.
If one decides not to pick up their bike, the authorities would either recycle and sell or dispose of it.
Do you have to pay a hefty fine in your kingdom when your bike is impounded?
In Japan, many places have an open kitchen where you can watch the chef preparing your grub.
Also very interesting that the laws in the UK were that cigarette smoke and food must never get in contact with each other but over here you will occasionally see the chefs smoking while prepping your meal.
Love this dish - tempura on ochazuke and you read about ochazuke in the Furikake article.
Haruhi occasionally takes photos for me.
Rearranging shelves and retiring some figures. With samples arriving each week, the place does get pretty crowded at times - so many nice figures and want to keep them all on display but its not going to be possible - not until we get our next bigger house anyway.
Figures that I still want to keep then start to spill out into other parts of the house ^^;
Are all your figures in your room or do you have some out n about the house?
This is the worst bit about samples that arrive - dealing with the boxes ^^;
Chinese dish for lunch.
Lunch with Ken Lee and Yang Yang from Appliya. Ken is studying a PHD over at Keio University and also writes some iPhone apps available in the app store.
Back at the office with Chris Gaunt on the far right and Hector on the far left.
On the way to Yokosuka which you read about earlier this week.
At the newly discovered swimming pool. 300 yen for 2 hours. There was no deep end and 1.1 meters on both sides.
One has to wear a cap and remove all jewelry/watches/firearms before they jump in
After swimming its time to check the blood pressure on the machine by the entrance - is free to use.
Japan is in earthquake territory and in the event of a disaster folks will seek refuge at areas designated by the local ward. The 1995 Kobe earthquake - you may not have seen modern day Japan like this before.
I stayed in Seattle for a while but didn't experience any earthquakes while I was there. There was a major one just before I arrived though - was in 2003 or 4? Are you in earthquake ridden land?
Out n about seeking some dindins.
Calbi set at Matsuya.
With the Influenza panic still on in Japan, some supermarkets are offering some spray at the entrance to sterilize yer hands or feet. Swine flu panic still on where you are or has died down?
Looking for some yummy Sunday afternoon cakes. Mmmmmmm!
I love Japanese service. Japan post has a service called "Shuka" [集荷] or "parcel collection" where you make a single call and they come to collect any packages that you want to send domestically or internationally.
They even print parcel labels with your sender address on them. They don't charge extra for this service and saves you from going to the post office to queue up and log parcels around. Similar service where you are?
Nagazaki Chanpon for lunch. Huge plate for about 500 yen.
At Kaldi picking up some Chai Tea.
Chicken dish for dindins.
At Togoshi Ginza for our after dindins stroll.
Its not only the ero mags are that are tied up - game mags or anything that kids will spend hours reading at the book store may be wrapped up too. Generally however mags are unbound. Haven't bought a magazine in ages though. If I do pick up mags then its usually Mac related, anime or eroge.
What sort of mags do you pick up and how often?
At a newly discovered local hot spring - where folks get naked and share the bath with the same gender. I know of quite a few gaijin folks who were not keen on sharing the sight of their dangly bits with others and wanted to go in with shorts or pants - this is a no no and one should not do it. You often would see an illustration of a gaijin trying to get into the onsen with shorts on and a Japanese person saying "NO!"
More Chinese food - which alas does not taste Chinese at all. Misses food in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Folks from Niwango (who do work with Dwango (NicoNico)) and Traffic Gate - they also go home with free figures.
Oyako Don and Takunki Soba set.
Another wooden house goes up - only to be probably torn down again in about 25 years which is the average lifespan of Japanese houses these days - you may have read about in the Tokyo Property Purchase article.
LOL at this technique to scare off the crows - first time I've seen these plastic dead crows.
At Appliya Night last night which was held at the Softbank headquarters. Softbank is the only carrier of the iPhone.
I kinda had a giggle with this.
Please put this card on your breast, or other conspicuous body parts.^^;;;;
Steven Nagata and Japan Podshow at the lobby of the Softbank headquarters.
Johnny Lee and Ken Lee at the lobby talking about all the nice girls who were at the networking party.
The strangest samples arrive from time to time - Rakuwa Neck X50 which are supposed to help the blood circulate better around the body - its worn around the neck and the fabric is produced with some sort of metal in it. Heard a few people saying that their muscles pains have gone away after using this.
Looks like they will be going into the to-be-retired cabinet and given to the next guest to the office ^^;
A new display - the BENQ G2220HD 22" which I picked up from Amazon for 16,980 yen. Decent sized monitors are getting rather cheap these days. Not too bothered about brand names - as long as they perform well at prices that make sense.
The G222HD with the Dell Mini 9 attached. The color is well decent. The base looks a bit tacky but for the price I cant complain. Are you using a HD display too? If so which brand and do you recommend it?
The current setup on this side of the office. Hmmmm. Looks like the new employee likes Mio too ^^; Will announce who it is soon.
