Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Electraglide 2003!

YES! Electraglide is happening once again, and Underworld is coming to town! I’m starting to think Underworld’s largest fan base must be in Japan — not only were they here for a tour concert of their own, but they headlined at the Fuji Rock festival as well.

Matt-radamus

With all the talk of tourism industry expansion and hotel growth, I now submit my Olympic prediction which I formulated a few months back. Witness the history:

2012 – NYC
2008 – Beijing
2004 – Athens
2000 – Sydney
1996 – Atlanta
1992 – Barcelona
1988 – Seoul
1984 – Los Angeles
1980 – Moscow
1976 – Montreal
1972 – Munich
1968 – Mexico
1964 – Tokyo
1960 [...]

Fixing Japan

The Economist has an iteresting article titled Fixing Japan – Kill or Cure. It’s perhaps not as negative as past columns, and as usual hits the nail on the head:
…policymakers themselves are more inclined to avoid problems than address them; would rather win bureaucratic feuds than co-operate; and base most of their decisions on [...]

Cow Parade Tokyo

Took a stroll this afternoon with Gen and his friend after scoring some nice items at the annual(?) Addidas Family Sale. We hit the Cow Parade around the Marunouchi district. Seems the cows have visited other areas as well, with more trips planned. Didn’t get a chance to see them all, but [...]

Tokyo Game Show 2003

As a celebration of my one-year anniversary with Sony, I checked out this year’s Tokyo Game Show in Makuhari. I didn’t have a digital camera when I went last year — it was less than a week on the job — but after what I experienced, I vowed never to forget ever again :) [...]

100 Comments!

My buddy Chris gets the winning recognition for posting M@Blog’s 100th comment!. It took me a while to join the blogging brigade, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to hit this mark in less than 6 months. Thanks Chris! (This of course does not include the numerous and annoying penis-enlargement and flame/bashing comments [...]

6 IPOs on Friday

Steve and Peter, this one’s for you (also from Terrie.com):
Maintaining a surprisingly robust momentum, 6 companies did IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) on Friday — a record for same-day IPOs. Market pundits have been worried that IPO quality may be diluting, however, it looks like demand is still strong for new stock issues, and all 6 [...]

Ikea hits Japan, 2005

From Terrie.com:
Ikea International, the Swedish furniture retailer, has announced that it will open its first store on the old SSAWS indoor ski drome site, in September of 2005. Ikea will buy the 42,500 sq. m. of land from Mitsui Fudosan, and build a massive store on the site. The location, just down the road from [...]

A wonderful office

Joel Spolsky has an interesting writeup of his company’s new office. Some interesting architectural design choices with otherwise underappreciated decisions for the programmer in mind. During my internships at U.S. companies, I always had a private desk, and it definitely made for productive output. Now I’m starting to think the Japanese communal [...]

Tokyo Flash Mob

Seems someone finally decided to organize a Tokyo flashmob (with English instructions at least); details here, courtesy of a belated post on Gen’s blog. I like the ‘cow’ theme, though I’m not sure where the actual “mobbing” will be. I’ve got no serious plans for Friday evening yet, though I’ll probably be entertaining [...]