This is an exciting partnership for myGengo, as it moves us a step closer in a direction we’ve been targeting for a long time. As you surf the web, start keeping an eye out for something like this:

and you’ll know myGengo has been helping out. Stay tuned for some more good news!

You are:
• A college student or recent graduate
• Fluent in either Chinese or Japanese
• Punctual, reliable, confident, positive, proactive and organized
• Excited about a career in the web

You have:
• Good attention to detail and a good writing style in Japanese or Chinese
• Good computer skills (but you don’t need to be a programmer)

You’ll do this:
• Help us grow our worldwide team of translators
• Spread the word about myGengo online and in the real world
• Edit and create new website and blog content
• Give amazing customer support

You’ll get:
• Expenses paid (up to Y1000/day)
• A foot in the door at a company that’s going places
• Something on your CV that will be important
• The opportunity to learn a lot – we are interested in helping you too!

You’ll get way more than an internship at a big corporation:
• A sense of achievement as you be a part of myGengo growing
• You’ll do much more interesting work (no photocopying! no coffee runs!)
• You’ll learn a lot more, because you’ll be on the front line
• You don’t need to wear a suit
• You won’t be playing Minesweeper, you’ll be working damn hard

You’ll learn:
The basics of being a brilliant person to work with
(Trust us, if you’re still in college or fresh out, you’ve still got things to learn!)
• Good teamwork
• Communication skills
• Presentation skills

Design
If you’re interested in the design side of things, you’ll get expert coaching from a creative director with 7 years experience in web design and branding.
• UI Design, IA, Graphic Design
• Flash/Actionscript (3.0)
• Branding
• Help & advice with any personal/portfolio projects

Web Development
If you’re more on the technical side, you can be taught by two top developers both with 16 years combined experience building high-end web apps.
• HTML & CSS
• SEO
• PHP/MySQL
• Server Administration, Web-Services Deployment
• Help & advice with any personal/portfolio projects

Research & Support
If you’re more the academic type and your interests are in language, you will be integral to our content creation and translator-support efforts
• Language and cultural research
• Translation Market / Industry research
• Help & advice with career path choices

Where?
Tokyo (Ichigaya / Hanzomon station)

Commitment
Minimum 4 weeks, 3 days per week
If you are available for a longer period, part time, that’s great!

Please fill out our application

I hope to keep the momentum going with a few more tweaks and enhancements over the coming month. Enjoy!

1-hour in the kitchen.

7-hours of full stomach (these were big burgers).

eternal cuteness.

Credit to Instructibles.

fully 2.0, as should be expected at this point. Found it down one of the side-streets doing a fire-sale of sorts. I also found a bluetooth dongle that claims to reach a 100m range; go to T-zone if you need something like that.

So far my favorite apps have been Exposure, Bloomberg, and Midomi. Exposure’s “Near Me” feature of showing photos taken in your current vicinity is great; Bloomberg’s slick black interface is cool and easy to read; Midomi’s incredible accuracy is fun to say the least (has not been very successful with J-tunes though). Of course, I use Twitterrific regularly, but the lag between button presses is getting annoying. Rotary Dialer is a fun party favor, and Tap Tap Revenge is entertaining when killing time.

Overall I have been quite satisfied with the iPhone purchase. The battery and occasional lag are the most annoying insufficiencies, but can or should be compensated for in due time (there are plenty of 3rd party battery-pack options if you include iPod battery packs; lag I suspect are memory / coding bugs that will be fixed on updates). MobileMe / push of email, contacts, and calendar have been working pretty well for me. Props to the team for extending an extra month for free after the initial hiccups!

So, am I missing any apps you’re enjoying?

But now, there is an ideal way. IKEA started offering a free shuttle bus in one of those nice, “luxury” tour-buses from Den-en-chofu. Den-en-chofu is a 15 min. ride from Shibuya. From there you walk less than 100m to the bus stop, and then you sit comfortably in plush seats with plenty of leg-room for 20 minutes before being dropped off right in front of the IKEA store. The only caveat is timing. Weekdays, the shuttle runs approximately every 90 minutes. On weekends, every hour. This is Japan, so the bus leaves on time. You can check the timetable as a PDF download here.

Faster, cheaper, quieter, and more comfortable. Just the way I like to travel!

For fine Italian cuisine in a very quiet, “personal” atmosphere, do yourself a favor and check out Beccaccia. The portions are good and the price is reasonable (just south of expensive – but this is Tokyo, and for the food + environment, hard to beat). Corkage fee is 3,000yen, if that’s your thing.

Beccaccia has only 4 tables, 3 for parties of 4 and one for a party of 2, so reserve early.

Most recently, I’ve moved house!  To a swanky new pad in West Gotanda :)  People, Gotanda is where it’s at – it’s the new hip and happening place to be!

I’m of course half-joking, but the building I’m now in is an anomaly to the neighborhood.  6-months new, 30 floors high, 140+ apartments.  The next tallest building is somewhere in Osaki I think.  Fudomae is just around the corner, Gotanda station and vicinity is getting a major facelift, the Tokyo American Club is “temporarily” (for two years, anyways) moving within walking distance (not that I have a membership to use), and there’s a rent-a-dog shop across the street!  No joke, you can rent a dog by the hour (and even for multiple nights) to see if life with dog is compatible with the family (or for picking up girls to start a family with; though what happens when the truth comes out is anyone’s guess!).

We’re right alongside the Meguro river, which apparently has a tendency to flood.  But we’re up 18 floors so hopefully even the stink won’t reach us :)

Newer apartments in Tokyo seem to be catching on w.r.t. amenities and services.  Free gym on the 1st floor, lounge space on the 30th floor, and a concierge service for basic needs are all wrapped into rent.  But the pitch that sealed the deal?  100Mb (and potentially +) Internet speeds from each and every room, free of charge.  And here’s proof:

Bit-torrent, here I …

After the big appliances – fridge, washing machine, TV, etc. – arrive next week, stay tuned for your chance to enjoy the view!