A Week in Tokyo 53 Part 2

POSTED BY DANNY CHOO On Thu 2010/04/29 15:50 JST in A Week in Tokyo
Writing up this A Week in Tokyo 53 part 2 on the plane back to Tokyo. Starting off with a glimpse of a Tokyo 2.0 event hosted by Steve Nagata which I'll cover later on in the post.
One of the many pharmacies at our local shopping arcade. These are called "Yakkyoku" . There has been a lot of research done into the layout of the chemists and what colors are effective at increasing sales. Prices are printed on yellow in bold red and are effective at giving the customer an immediate understanding of the price. Through many weblabs that we done at Amazon, we made the same discovery online too which is why you will find the price to be in bold red across all the Amazon sites.
Recently started to read Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu - also backlogging the anime at the same time. Do you generally read manga and watch the anime series at the same time or finish the manga first or?
Changing trains at Osaki.
Arrival at Kokusai Tenjijyo - the station for Tokyo Big Sight.
Tokyo Big Sight. I dont think I've ever been to the top before - not even sure if they allow folks up there.
At Big Sight for the Tokyo Anime Fair - all coverage tagged TAF.
I think this was the last of the NHK filming ^^;
The Tokyo Anime Fair has a press room with power outlets and LAN to enable the journalists to write about breaking news such as another oppai pantsu anime series.
Late afternoon at Tokyo Big Sight on the way home.
"Perversion is a crime." The act of perversion is called "Chikan" . Been seeing posters like this more often on the trains and in the stations.
Gift from some comrades in the form of a box of sweet red rice.
Time to replace the watch batteries - been wearing this trusty partner for about 10 years now.
Goodies from Puppy52Dolls arrive!
First up is a hat for Nendoroids.
And a spare for when the other is in the wash.
And a pair of yummy Mirai-chan maid cosplay high socks!
Mmmmmmm. Zettai Ryoiki desu.
This week saw the mysterious adoption of my 6th daughter Sasara-chan. Photos in the Sasara Kusugawa photo article.
Dinner at Matsuya the beef bowl place.
Matsuya do a load of other dishes other than beef bowls - today was some eggplant and minced beef - about 500 yen.
Playing with the Xperia. Tis Android based and my first time to play about with it. Found it to be more flexible than the iPhone OS. For example, on the iPhone when you click on a link in mail, mail closes and Safari opens. If you want to go back to mail then you need to close Safari and then open mail again!
The Android that I was playing with on the Xperia had something called layers - a click on a link in mail would bring up the browser on top of mail - close the browser to continue to read mail. Would love to get my hands on an unlocked Android phone.
For those of you who have experience using Android and iPhone OS, which do you prefer?
Xperia CM below.
The Xperia has a lifestream thingy which would aggregate tweets and facebook updates from friends which was cool. The Xperia is about the same thickness as the iPhone but the camera kicks 7 shades of poop out of the iPhone camera.
At the Ascii offices which you read about in this article.
Skating around Shunjuku early evening taking some snaps.
At the Tocho buldings. You can go up one of the towers and take photos - a few snaps that I took before in the Shinjuku photo article.
Was nostalgic visiting the Ascii as they are located near the Microsoft offices where I used to work before moving to the Akasaka.
Area map of Shinjuku.
Steve Nagata held an iPhone event in Roppongi called "Mobile App Star" - an event where popular iPhone app developers would show off their app and be judged by a panel and audience.
More photos of the event at Japan Times.
IT Journalist Nobi was a panelist for the night. Nobi has published load of books and writes for a load of magazines too. He also consults for many companies including Apple and Softbank. He is the man.
Nobi has with him one of the new Xacti models. I went though 4 generations of Xacti and finally decided to stick to the video recording capabilities of the Lumix GF1.
The Xacti's that I had would always conk out after a while.
Francis was the MC for the night.
Yui was on the panel too.
Appliya boss Shiiya-san thinks about whether he wants to vote for professor App who submitted a few apps to be judged.
The event was held at Super Deluxe where I previously gave a talk at Pecha Kucha Night - covered in A Week in Tokyo 37.
The lovely New York Times writer Hiroko Tabuchi was the other panelist.
This is Akamatsu-san - the boss of Twitcasting which is a service that gives you the ability to broadcast live from your iPhone with only a Twitter account - he won the iPad!
T'was a busy day and moving around Tokyo on blades saves a *lot* of time ^^;
The latest from the "Please do it at home" manner posters from Tokyo Metro.
Many sushi places serve dishes like this - bowl O rice topped with raw fish.
Aoki-san visits the office during his short stay in Tokyo. He has developed a load of operating systems for various game and mobile devices which you are likely to have used.
Gift from Aoki-san - camera with built in flash for the girls.
Tis is the flowery season in Tokyo.
Discovered that Sasara likes sweet stuff. Here she is about to munch on a chocolate strawberry eclaire.
Sasara about to munch on my fave Giant icecream.
Dindins at the Izakaya. "Izakaya" is like a pub where one can order drinks and light/medium dishes.
This is a particular fave of mine - Ochazuke. Tis rice in flavored light soup with various toppings.
Wifey kept quiet and gave me some of this to eat - I wasnt paying attention and then realized it was natto!
I think this was crab korokke - love the deep fried breadcrumbs.
Grabbing some bento to eat at the park.
Many bento places you walk into will have some ready to eat bento boxes like these which may be cold depending on when they made them. If you ask for one at the counter, they will prepare a hot one for you on the spot but may take 5 mins or so.
Trying to improve workflow starting off with re-arranging stuff on the desk. Tried this layout for a few mins but really didn't like the wires all over the desk.
This is the layout I ended up with - moving the MacBook over to the right side which is where it was a while ago ^^;
New layout makes it easier for the girls to gather in the corner.
Trying to get you more prizes which is why submissions for OTACOOL3 will be delayed for a wee bit.