Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Nomura teaching Harvard grads to serve tea

Hot off Gen’s tweet, here’s a quick collection of posts as the ripple begins:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124882265902988289.html (the original article – behind a pay-wall)
http://dealbreaker.com/2009/07/nomura-finding-lehman-employee.php
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=11762 (for comments)
http://www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?id=3133

Being most familiar with this exact pair of cultures – American and Japanese – I find this clash fascinating. It’s sad and depressing no doubt, and I don’t have much hope for [...]

Asian vs European Regionalism – how do they compare?

Interesting read I’m posting more for me reference than anything else, but thought it might be of interest to my Asian and European readers :)
Asian regionalism: How does it compare to Europe’s?
(h/t to Gen)

The Stormtrooper visits

Had dinner with Danny Choo last week at the Gotanda Kua Aina, and he toured our building afterwards. As part of his “Week in Tokyo” series he posted a few photos from inside our building, apartment, and a few views from our balcony. You can check them out on his “A Week in Tokyo 33“. [...]

2kurabe “Web Directions East 2008″-themed widget!

In collaboration with the folks at Web Directions East and in anticipation of their first conference in Japan, we’ve put together a 2kurabe widget with a custom “skin” (theme)!

At the moment there is only one 2kurabe, but more will appear automatically as the WDE team adds them.

[...]

Web Hosting in Japan – Unbeatable Prices!

W00t, w00t! After many months in agony of local (Japan) web-hosting prices, I have finally found a server farm worth it’s dime.
They are Tsukaeru.net, they’re located out in Nagano, and they’re run by an Aussie – which means English support! They have a massive data-center all for themselves, and their prices are comparable to what [...]

Web Directions East 2008

Web Directions East is coming to Tokyo! November 7th to 9th.

English announcement

Official Japanese site

If you’re living in Tokyo and developing for the Internet, you probably don’t want to miss this event. Keep an eye out for a partnership with [...]

Japanese Gifting

Like weddings in any other culture, weddings in Japan put a nice dent in the wallet. But Japanese weddings also put a nice dent in an attendees wallet too – through the customary practice of “money envelopes”.
It’s customary as a guest at Japanese weddings to give a special envelope of freshly minted bills. So customary [...]

Gigabits away!

Most – if not all – new apartment buildings in Tokyo come with ethernet strung throughout each apartment, but it can be difficult to obtain information about how the setup is configured. The apartment I moved into last year had at least one ethernet tap in each room, all connected to what looked like 10/100M [...]

first iTunes iPhone App bill arrives!

My first iTunes bill since purchasing the iPhone arrived today. The long list with company-name details and the final total gave me a chuckle. All this excitement – for free!

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 [...]

The best way to IKEA from Tokyo

I discovered a new way to IKEA yesterday; the best way to get to an IKEA from Tokyo. In the past I preferred the Minami Funabashi store because it was a short walk from the station. The train ride was a bit longer than to the Shin-Yokohama / Kohoku store, but the bus ride [...]