Danny Choo

"Eri Otoguro" is the romanization of her Japanese name [乙黒えり] but she writes her English name as "Elly."
First blogged about Elly back in 2006 when she appeared in the tokusatsu Ryukendo and have always thought she was fwoargh.

This is Mai. I worked with her for a bit as she was involved on the Vitamin Water side for the Tokyo Figure Show. Mai mentioned at the time how her room mate was called Otoguro...
Danny: Elly Otoguro? *asks jokingly*
Mai: Yeah!
Danny: ZOMG @.@!!!Mai works in Tokyo as a producer of all sorts and knows just about *everybody* in the media, entertainment and production field. Check out her blog for more of what she gets up to. She was at the Miss Universe Japan Finals yesterday ^^

Have been meaning to get together for lunch since last August but never got round to it due to our clashing schedules.

As previously mentioned, Elly speaks quite a bit of Chinese and is currently studying hard at learning more of the lingo. This is a page from her note book. We talked about how important it was to actually speak and write newly learned grammar patterns and words.

I know of many folks out there who just stuff their brains with grammar patterns and words but when spoken to, they throw a blank because they are not used to speaking and need to rummage through their brain through all the words that they have been learning. Its like learning how to program PHP and not actually writing any code. Its also like learning about how to drive from a book but not actually drive.

By actually writing or speaking a language, the brain is able to process new words/grammar and slot them into areas for easy access the next time you encounter those terms. Folks who are learning Japanese for example could be writing a blog in hiragana at least. When learning Japanese back in London, I put a classified ad in the Japan Center looking for language exchange folks - made a few Japanese friends who I could speak to and in return I teach em a bit of English.

For folks who took up a second language to learn, how long did it take you to get to a comfortable level? Will talk more in depth of how I learned the lingo.

Today I'm being followed by NHK for the entire day. Lunch with Elly was no exception and the came along to get a few shots and interview Elly too. They've been filming me for two days now and need another two @.@

As Elly mentioned on her burogu, we will be working together on a few products in the very near future. dannychoo.com image girl?! @.@
Shes currently the image girl for Aeon and you can see a collection of her 2009 commercials below.

More kawaii Elly-chan below.

Ken read that I was going to meet Elly for lunch and he asked me to get a signature for him ^^;
Thought I'd invite him so that he could ask for the signature himself. I believe he is a happy man. Check out his blog for more pics of the afternoon.

Before heading off to the next appointment, took a load of photos on the terrace.

NHK continues to follow me for the rest of the day and will be filming you and I for the Tokyo Tour Package later this month.

Leaving you with more photos of Elly. She's so photogenic and looks gorgeous in all the shots - which is why I'm including them all ^^;
More photos at Mai's blog too.

Photos of tonight's snow in Tokyo. Its freeeezing! Very strange weather we are having of late. Started to get rather warm and then all of a sudden very cold with snow. I hear from folks back in the UK that its freezing over there too.

Been a wee bit nervous after setting up lunch with Eri Otoguro ^^;
Am having lunch with her tomorrow afternoon in Daikanyama. Anything you want me to ask her?

Eri was born in 1982 in Bangkok Thailand and grew up in the Kanagawa prefecture back in Japan. Her Wikipedia says shes half Thai, British and Japanese - will get the nitty gritty details from her tomorrow.

Eri made her debut In 2001 where she was chosen out of an audition of 4000 to appear in a Hong Kong movie called "The Stewardess." Since then shes been commercials and in films including Shaolin Shojo and Onechanbara.

Eri's specialties include Kung Fu and speaking English and Chinese (Mandarin).
Keep up with Eri's shenanigans at her blog > http://ameblo.jp/elly-go-round/

Please forgive me as I head into some radio silence for most of tomorrow. In the morning at 09:30 NHK are coming over to film for the whole day and follow me around as they seem to really want to make a documentary on me even after I've been avoiding them due to lack of time ^^;
At 10:00 I got some folks coming around who have asked me to be the producer of a cafe in Akihabara ^^; Lets make it a combination of stuff I love? Moe + Iron Man = Moe Man? Not planning on making it into a maid cafe though.

After lunch with Eri, its off to Focal Point Computer who are also in Daikanyama - they is being the biggest manufacturer of Apple related goods in Japan. Will be working on something berry exciting with the boss Francis.

Then its back to the office to meet some folks from Ascii who have been working on some interesting Evangelion stuff.
In the evening I need to get my shoe design samples to my dads studio in the UK and then catch up with your mail and comments.
Just before I sleep, NHK will stop filming and hopefully go home ^^;

Oh and we are working on Tsubuyaku.fm and a complete renewal of the figure.fm this week too.

Eri photos from Google Image search.

Thought I'd gather some info on prepaid SIM cards in Japan seeing as I would also like to ask you the same ^^

SoftbankThe most popular option seems to be Softbank where you rent a SIM card for 105 yen per day and then pay 105 yen per minute. Free incoming calls. You need to return the SIM though which is inconvenient. They do have data plans but you have to use the 703SHf phone which they rent out for 250 yen per day. The data then costs 0.32 yen per packet - have no idea what that means ^^; The phone has a PC browser so that you can check your GMail or whatever. Unlikely that you can tether the phone to your laptop though.

Softbank do have a prepaid service for folks who are staying in Japan for a bit longer and are available to those who have more than 90 days on their visa > http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/

AUAU have pre paid plans which they list up here but you have to use them in an AU phone... Hello?

DocomoDocomo is the national carrier belonging to NTT. They recently announced that they are getting out of the prepaid market and will end their current prepaid services in 2012. They sold their last prepaid phones in 2005. No prepaid SIMS available either.

EMobileEmobile do have some phones but they are more specialized in data services and if you are to use any of their prepaid plans then you also need one of their devices.

ConclusionSo, if you need to be able to keep in touch with folks via the phone then go for Softbank. If you need data too and prefer to use your own mobile device then sign up for a HotSpot account as they seem to have quite a few spots around Tokyo including on the subway.
If you don't mind what you check your mail on then get the Softbank 703SHf mobile mentioned above.

Long termIf you are staying long term in Japan then I would personally recommend Softbank who are the official carrier for the iPhone. Most of my comrades have an iPhone which means that we can call each other for free between 1AM and 9PM! The data plan is reasonable too and costs 4,410 yen per month for unlimited usage.

I started off with Docomo and then switched to AU as I wanted a more functional device. Then jumped ship on AU for Softbank as I wanted an iPhone.

I'll be traveling to Hong Kong, France and the UK soon and was hoping that maybe some of you could advise me on what prepaid SIMs I should go for - me need voice and unlimited data. Will be using my accidentally jailbroken phone. And while we are at it, I thought it would be useful for folks around the world to chip in with info regarding prepaid SIMs in your neck of the woods too.

Found this for the UK > http://threestore.three.co.uk/sim/default.aspx Unlimited Internets for 15 pounds a month? @.@
For Hong Kong I found this for 78$ which is supposedly unlimited data > http://www.hk.chinamobile.com/p_prepaid_mobiledatasim_en.jsp
Couldn't find anything for France and just read about how somebody was paying 30 euros per megabyte @.@

Wondering about folks who have visited Japan. What did you do for prepaid solutions? Did you just use your roaming service with your mobile?

Located in Tsukiji [築地] is the Tsukiji Fish Market which is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. The market opens at 3 am for trading where over 400 different types of seafood exchange hands.
Tuna auctions take place at about 05:20 and end at 07:00-ish. Many gaijin tourists used to come to watch the auctions but due to a few lame individuals who cause trouble, tourists were banned from watching the auctions. I think they do allow tourists to go in depending on the season under supervision by security guards though.

The traders at Tsukiji welcome foreigners to come to learn about the Japanese food culture but there are some gaijin who just take the pi**. Below is a video of some gaijin licking and touching the tuna as well as riding on small trucks used for transporting the foodstufs.

More reports about gaijin being banned from the auction area.

You wont see any photos of the market in this post because Tsukiji Fish Market is closed on a Sunday and I would not have come on any other day - personally would feel that I'd be way of the traders who are working hard to make a living.

Even though the fish market is closed on a Sunday, the area around Tsukiji makes a lovely day out for a stroll. Here we are grabbing some grub before walking around for the rest of the afternoon.

Need to eat sushi at least once a week.

Kawa Ebi - deep fried prawns. Being brought up on food back in the UK, when I first came to Japan it took me a while to eat a whole prawn including its gooey bits inside - took the dive over time and can now eat Uni ^^;

Nothing better than a relaxing Sunday afternoon with some sushi and some Japanese green tea.

The cheaper stuff goes for 103 yen for 1 piece while the more expensive stuff like Awabi goes for 418 yen per piece. How much does sushi cost in your neck of the woods?

Tsukiji has some lovely architecture - the old rubbing along with the new.

The pylons and telecommunication wires add to the character of Tsukiji.

The cloth that hangs from the window is called Noren [暖簾]. They are usually hung from windows and doorways. They have slits in them to allow easy passage or viewing. Traditionally they have been used to keep out the sun, wind and dust. I remember buying some when I first came to Japan and put it up in my kitchen doorway back in London - its still there ^^;

Map of the Tsukiji Fish Market area.

About a 10 minute walk away from Tsukiji are the Hamarikyu Gardens [浜離宮恩賜庭園] where you can enjoy a lazy stroll while looking at many of the traditionally landscaped greenery.

If you want to get to Tsukiji then you can do so by getting off the Tsukiji Shijo station. Please do follow the rules that they provide and remember that the folks in the market have been up early trying to make a living ^^

As for the Hamarikyu Gardens, you can get off at Shiodome station.

Before you enter the park, you can pick up a portable terminal which contains voice and video that you can watch as you walk around the gardens. Depending on your location, you will be read or shown some history of the gardens.
The loan of the terminal is free and they have 50 sets available.

Wifey and I are going to relax for a bit now while we let you explore the rest of the gardens. Cheerio!

Quick catch up with whats been going on of late. First up is site tuning. Been tweaking the Nginx, PHP and MYSQL server settings over the week and have noticed a nice boost in performance. The main things we have done is increase the amount of Nginx workers and PHP processes. Have also given the MYSQL query cache a boost too. Currently at 512MB but will increase to 1GB on Monday. Will push the servers to their limits to see how much more juice we can squeeze out of them. If you are running applications on a similar setup, what sort of configurations do you use?

Also, a handful of folks seem to either have a problem logging in or are seeing a 400 Nginx error page. If you are having any of these probs then mail me at support at dannychoo dot com.

So much has been happening of late that its been difficult to spend time with the community and do apologize. Need to strike a balance with running the business and what have you. Since we last spoke, I set up an anime production studio called "Mirai Fusion" and we are already working on two titles! One of the titles has Mirai-chan in the story but its from a completely different timeline with a new set of girls. We are working on the PV now and very much look forward to showing it to you soon.

Folks in Singapore can now get along to KKnM at the Sunshine Plaza to pick up some Mirai and Haruka-chan pokens which include the dannychoo.com lanyards. KKnM also ship overseas and you can find the order form here. Folks in Japan can get them from Parco City.

Speaking of Singapore, the Tokyo Tour Package is a go and I will be seeing you on day 4 of the tour. If you are still interested then they are still accepting bookings.

Meanwhile in nearby Malaysia, comrade May'n will be playing for the first time in Kuala Lumpur at the KL Live. Tickets still available from her official Asia site.

I've set up a form for folks who would like to register to try out beta applications that we make for the web and iPhone > http://bit.ly/b3alN1
Folks who sign up will also be asked for feedback about usability, UI and design issues too.

About to launch Featured Feeds for Tokyo.JapanTimes but I need to take screenshots of a site that has their RSS feed already registered. If you want to participate, register their feed and leave a note in the comments - I will choose one of the sites and use screenshots in the instructions that I will post on Tokyo.JapanTimes.

In another interesting turn of events, I'm designing shoes and accessories. Have registered my trademark and will make an announcement about where all this is going soon.

My fave figma girls of late.

Have also been spending a lot of time developing Tsubuyaku.fm which is a service where you can post images with an existing Twitter account. The service is aimed at the Japanese market and has been developed with the feedback of many Japanese users. Anybody is welcome to use the service but there are no plans to have an English UI.

Have also been busy recruiting sponsors for Danny Choo Network TV which I still need to get round to announcing ^^;

As mentioned the other day in the Cosplay Costumes post, I asked Kotobukiya to remove me from the cover of Otacool 2 and you can see the new cover here. I think you will agree that Saber deserves to be on the cover instead of me ^^;

I think that's it for now. Am preparing for a trip to Hong Kong, France, UK and also in the middle of applying to set a record for the Guinness World Records. Its already been a few weeks so should expect an answer on whether they accepted the application within the next month. If all is a go then we will shoot for May.

Going to leave you in the office for a while as I need to nip out to get some groceries. BRB.

Ah, nearly forgot to mention that I'm on TBS Radio tonight from 12:30 > http://weekly.ascii.jp/elem/000/000/016/16378/

One reason why I enjoy trooping is that I get to meet so many different people who I would not normally meet - have made so many friends in Tokyo just from meeting them in the streets ^^; On the way home on the train, I always seem to be chatting to an elderly lady or man who starts talking to me curious about this "robot" outfit ^^;
Met these great bunch of school students on the way to TBS for some recording the other day.

All these students are in high school and most of the high schools get their students to wear uniforms.
After the Meiji Restoration, there wasn't any school uniform policy. A need for some sort of uniform became evident from the fact that students would attend school dressed up in garments based on their family background. Male students who were from a samurai family would bring their swords to class while those from a trading family would come in their trading gear. Females at the time wore kimono.

During the end of the Meiji period and throughout the Taisho period, western style school uniforms were introduced because they were more functional and practical than the traditional garments. It was mostly the male students who were in uniform at the beginning. Depending on the school, females at the time either wore a suit top with skirt, kimono or sailor uniform. If you remember from the most awesome Taisho Yakyuu Musume, some of the female students wore kimono while some sailor uniform. Sailor uniform was introduced in Taisho 9 (1920's).

Read more about the Taisho period at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taish%C5%8D_period

Back in the UK, none of the schools I went to required school uniforms so didn't get to experience what it was like to wear one. Did you or do you wear a school uniform? Does it look good as well as functional or?
Would be love to see what school uniforms look like in your region - post links to images/articles in the comments ^o^
I think Thai have cute uniforms for the ladies but not sure if the photos I saw were really school uniforms ^^;;

About 20 years ago back in London where there were no Internets. My passion back then was a singer/actress called Kylie Minogue ( http://www.kylie.com/home )

My choice of apparel back then was jeans - the jacket was made up of ripped jeans too. Also wore studded belts with huge eagle buckles. You cant really notice them but I used to also wear chains around the waist too ^^;
The holes in the photos are there because we kept our pics in our PDA's (Filofax) back then ^^; At this moment in time I hadn't found what I wanted to do in life yet. Then I discovered Japanese culture and knew that I wanted to live and work in Japan. Back then without a job or information like the Internets, it felt much like saying "I want to travel to the Pluto."

Photo from comrade Martin who found me through FaceBook. Owe a lot to Facebook for helping me get in touch with so many people who I lost contact with over the years.

More pics of me and Kylie (and her younger sister Danni) in the Kylie Minogue photo article.

Pre-order details just released over at Good Smile Company - the nicest figure of Seena I've clapped by beady eyes on so far.
Seena is 1/7 scale and due out in July. Retail price is 6,800 yen.

If shes your cuppa tea then check out the following trusted online retailers.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
http://toylet.net
http://hlj.com
http://archonia.com
http://www.amiami.com/shop?set=english
http://hobbystock.jp
http://kidnemo.com
http://jlist.com

Warning - reading this photo article on an empty stomach may cause some damage ^^;
Been stashing away some of the food photos for this post. Does contain a couple of photos that you may have seen before though.

This man is about to buy a food ticket for some ramen. But eating at this place is not so simple...

First you need to how thin, fat, hard, soft you want yer noodles and how oily you want your soup and whether you want a strong or thin taste. Some of these items have 5 different levels which you need to circle and hand over before you are served.

Tasted surprisingly good though!

The title of this post should probably be "Food to be found in Japan" as not all of it is strictly Japanese. Does give you a good indication of what sort of food you may eat if you lived here though.
The video I threw together below contains a years worth of food ^^;

When still living back in the UK, the only chance I would get to eat Japanese food was when I went to China Town in London or the Asian shopping center in North London.
What is the Japanese food selection like in your neck of the woods and how often do you eat it? Where do folks usually go to get some of that grub?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

My most fave dishes are Sushi, Tenpura (deep fried prawns n veg in batter) and Katsu (deep fried mince meat or fillet in bread crumbs). Whats your fave dish from the land of the rising sun?

Going to leave you eating while I go to work a bit on something my anime studio is producing ^^;

"Google Suggestions" is a feature which suggests keywords based on the past popular search terms - they appear as you type into the search field.
Gadget Tsushin (via @stevenagata) discovered that when you type "Husband" [夫] in Japanese and then hit space, the suggestions turn out to be rather interesting...
We have...

• 夫 嫌い (hates husband)
  
• 夫 小遣い 平均 (husbands average pocket money)
  
• 夫 死亡 手続き (husbands death procedures)
  
• 夫 言葉の暴力 (husbands abusive language)
  
• 夫 しんでほしい (wants (my) husband to die)
  
• 夫 スペース (husband space)
  
• 夫婦別姓 ((system of) husband and wife retaining separate family names)
  
• 夫婦関係 (husband and wife relationship)
  
• 夫婦生活 ハナ (Not too sure what the katakana "Hana" means here)
  
• 夫婦円満 (Husband and wife living happily together)

Looks like there are quite a few unhappy Japanese wives out there who hate their husband and want them dead so that they can carry out his death procedures!
Regarding the pocket money, in Japanese culture, its the wife that usually manages all the money. They take some of the husbands earnings and then allocates him some pocket money every month.
The latest data I could find was at Diamond Online which reports that the average pocket money for Japanese husbands was 39,400 yen per month.

A survey in Biz Makoto has a survey on how much on average a wife gives to her husband after he has received a bonus. In Japan, some companies give out bonuses which are usually 2 months salary.
Out of an average bonus of 655,000 yen, the average given to the husband was about 98,000 yen. 60.8% of wives in their twenties didn't give their hubby any allowance of his hard earned bonus at all.

"Hesokuri" [へそくり] is usually used to describe money that the wife hides from the husband and keeps it unaccounted for. The same survey discovers that the average amount of money that the wife hides from her husband is 3,372,000 yen!@.@ 10% of the women who have Hesokuri hide over 10,000,000 yen !! @.@;;;

Who manages the moolah in your house? Do you have any monies stashed away to adopt an expensive Dollfie or Nissan Fairlady Z?

Questions for folks with partnersThere is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Recently discovered that when you type "Danny" [ダニー] in Japanese that "Danny Choo.Com" appears in the Japanese suggestions ^^;

Its time for another giveaway! And not just any giveaway but a most-sought-after Mio and Yui Figma double whammy!
Figure collectors will know how rare Mio is in particular - AkibaBlog covers how Mio Figma is being resold for up to 9,800 yen (about 110 USD) ^^;
Not only will you be getting Mio for 0 yen - we are going to give you Yui-chan too so that you can indulge in some DDDDD (Delightful Deluxe Dastardly Double Docking).

This giveaway is being made possible thanks to comrades at AmiAmi who are running a 50% Off International Shipping campaign until the end of March.

The campaign applies to everybody around the world but if for example you is being living in North/Central America and Oceania and order a figma sized product, the shipping is going to cost only 750 yen - 800 yen by EMS or 640 yen - 690 yen by Registered SAL Small Packet.

Want to have a variety of giveaway formats - we've done many guessing games and wot not but I want to involve more aspects of social media so this time round its going to be a Twitter giveaway.
To enter this giveaway for the two delicious girls, all you have to do is have a Twitter account and be following @dannychoo. Then go ahead and tweet the following:-
RT @dannychoo Figma Mio &Yui Giveaway http://bit.ly/bgdyNQ #FigmaGet (or retweet from here)

or if you are tweeting in Japanese then its:-

RT @dannychoo Figma澪と唯当たる http://bit.ly/9KPLRF #FigmaGet (or retweet from here)
I will choose a tweet at random within a week and @reply to the winner who would then send me their name, address and phone number to support at dannychoo dot com. Dont forget to use the #FigmaGet tag when you tweet as that's what I will use to choose the lucky winner.

Folks who are not familiar with Twitter can read why I use it and how it enables me to connect and meet comrades from all over the world. Then get along and sign up for a Twitter account. New releases of Mirai Gaia require a Twitter account for some of the features so if you don't have an account then now may be a good time to start - you may win these lovely lasses at the same time ^o^.
I believe arms installation is complete - good luck!

Oh, While we are at it, what else would you like in the future as a giveaway from AmiAmi? Have a gander at Their site and paste in the URL to the product of your desire in the comments. If you see somebody else post something that you would like then add a "+1" reply.
If there are many of you who want a particular product for a giveaway, I'll negotiate with AmiAmi to give it to you in the next round.

Ah, and if you are participating in the giveaway then feel free to leave your twitter url in the comments.

6th daughter who was adopted today - the previous owner said he was too busy to look after his youngest daughter and asked me to take care of her. What should I call her? ^^;

The last part of the Wonfes 2010 Winter coverage that I nearly forgot to upload. The last part is costumes worn by humans, dolls and pillows ^^;
All wonfes posts have been tagged "wonfes" and live here.

As you may have read in the Japanese Pets and Japanese Beetles posts, many children over here are brought up playing with insects. To help prevent kids who choose to eat them from falling sick, the folks who brought us the Queens Blade series of figures (Mega House) recently brought out a product called Gummix where kids can now make their own edible insects. J-List have recently stocked them too. Check out the CM below.

"Gummi" [グミ] is a gelatin based sweet which originally comes from the German Gummy Bear.
Gummix contains a set which enables one to mix the gelatin with liquids like coke or milk coffee to make yummy looking insects.

15 mins later in the refrigerator and out pops a delicious puni puni looking kabuto beetle. Mmmmmm!
I'd prefer a kit that makes puni puni gummi oppai though.

This Kabuto is made with coke...

How about a grape juice flavored beetle?

How about a plate of black sesame flavored termites?

Why eat em alone...

When you can enjoy them with yer friends.

This is the standard Gummix kit.

There are 3 different Gummix sets including ones that make frogs, tadpoles and a more realistic looking beetle. Check out all the sets at the official site.

The Gummix insects can be enjoyed with every day meals. How about some Rice n Beetle?

Beetle Pizza?

Beetle Bento?

Termite dessert?
If munching on some insects during work seems like your cuppa tea then you can pick them up from J-List. Would probably make a good gift for the boss or teacher too.

I don't recall ever playing with insects as a kid although I do remember squishing the occasional ant. Any of you played with insects (or still do)?

Went along with Kotobukiya to Cospatio to take some shots for OTACOOL 2. Cospatio is a COSPA run company which does a load of cosplay costumes and related goods. For example they do some shimapan which you can see me trying to stuff into my pocket.

The chap on my left is Yoshikawa-san who is responsible for the production of OTACOOL 2 - its his team who does the selection for the book and cover. They also recently chose the OTACOOL 2 mascot too. Everything is finalized and the data is being sent off to the printers. I managed to request that I be removed from the cover just in time ^^; Me being on the cover was causing too much dorama in the cosplay community. Even though all I do is to provide the Mirai Gaia platform to Kotobukiya, cosplayers think that I made the selection, do the DTP, print the book in my house and distribute it worldwide - all on my own!

The latest dorama was a few photographers who submitted photos (without telling the cosplayer) demanding a share of any profit the book makes.

Today we are in the Cospatio Shibuya Branch. They sell a load of ready-to-wear costumes and other bits n pieces including stuff to make your oppai bigger or smaller too.

Am wondering if I should get some of the shimapan for you for the next giveaway?

How many of you cosplay or are considering cosplay. And are there some of you who have retired from cosplay?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

From the question in the previous giveaway, you had to guess the characters behind the cards. Looks like many of you sussed out the clues ^^;

We has a load of correct answers! But unfortunately there can only be 5 winners so am going to choose them at random. As you can see from the line up of girls in the photo, the answer I was expecting was:-
[Haruhi][Eila][Lucchini][Haruka][Konata][Estel]
About 28 of you guessed correctly!

Out of the pool of 28, winners chosen at random are...
Raptor.

Paul.

Denki Koiji.

GXD.

Yunamon.

Congrats to all who won! Please send me your mailing address, phone number and real name to support at dannychoo dot com within a week to claim your goodies!

Thanks again to Bushi Road who are offering up a load of goodies outlined in the previous post. If you didn't win anything this round then you can still check out their online card gaming.

The 2010 Tokyo Marathon takes place tomorrow and if you want to see it live then there is no better place than from the forehead of Joseph Tame who will be running tomorrow. Joseph will be streaming his run from an iPhone strapped to his head and from the miniature cameras implanted in Nendoroid Mio.

All the details you need about Josephs run lives here and you should keep an eye on Joseph's and Steve Nagata's Twitter for the location of the broadcast.

Anything that you tweet with the tag #tm2010 will be automatically read into Josephs ear as he runs so if you see him struggling then you should inject some energy into him by chanting " Oppai Oppai Oppai!"
Online TV Shows by Ustream

James may also have my AR.Drone streaming from the built in camera?!

This ad on the train is advertising a mobile site where folks can look for marriage partners.

Konkatsu [婚活] is a relatively new word used to refer to "looking for a marriage partner." Many folks of late are having difficulty in finding their eternal partner. The clip below talks about some of the Konkatsu trends including events where men and women get to meet each other for *one minute* before they move on to meet the next "candidate." Deciding on a marriage partner in 60 seconds. Hmmm.

The video below also talks about how the Japanese population will decrease *by a third* within the next 90 years. Folks need to find their partners so that they have have ecchi and make babies to save Japan.
The report also shows how the average age of marriage has gone up from 20 to 30 since the 1970's. I got married when I was about 25. Was a poor student back then and my wife paid for the rings.

If you is being married, at what age did you take the vow to be faithful to your partner forever?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

But then there are folks who cant be bothered to get married due to the costs involved. I know a few people who have spent over 2,000,000 yen just for the one day. Wifey and I had a registration job at the town hall and decided that we would rather save for our future rather than blow a huge amount of moolah in one day.
Did you have an expensive white wedding or a town hall registration job?

Following on from A Week in Tokyo 51 part 1. Am quite behind in posts but hope to catch up on a few this weekend. Trying to keep most of next week free of meetings but its slowly starting to fill up again ToT.

Out n about in Roppongi. Whenever I see that rock thing I always walk through the hole ^^;

On the subway heading to external meeting in Bunkyo-ku.

Picked up a 2TB Hitachi HDD to back up my NAS. Was about 12,000 yen found on Kakaku.com.

Needed to format the 2TB drive and was worried about the NAS deciding to format the wrong drive. Turned off the NAS and pulled out the drives to perform the 2TB format. When I was done, I shoved back the original drives back into the NAS to discover that everything seemed to have been deleted!
What happened was that for some reason, the RAID decided that it had enough and kicked the bucket. The remaining drive should have still been fine but decided to create a another shared folder called Shana and renamed my old shared folder to Shana-1 which made it seem like my precious Shana folder was wiped. It was not a fun day!

Kotobukiya Lynette Bishop get.

In some parts of Tokyo where restaurants are a bit far to reach from the office, some folks would set up food vans to cater for the starving employees out n about seeking lunch. Not much difference in price though with lunch averaging 800 yen - 1,000 yen.

Having some of wifeys yummy spicy noodle dishes at home.

Not only do merchandise samples arrive at the office but food samples too ^^; Daifuku is usually a puni puni dough type sweets filled with something or other. These ones are filled with caramel and cream.

Which would you eat first?

On the way to Akihabara for meetup with Bandai.

The evening trains is being crowded.

Many folks who commit suicide usually do it at either end of the platform. Blue lights at the end of the platforms are said to reduce the amount of suicides at train stations. I remember seeing somebody being mopped off the tracks at Akihabara. T'was horrible. Was literally a sea of blood.

Interestingly enough. Blue lights in dark alleys are said to reduce the burglary rate - the news clip below talks about how the crime rate has been reduced in areas where blue lights have been set up.

We get Alice in Wonderland a month later than the US release. Was talking to somebody in the industry who gave me one of the reasons why Japan gets films so late - because there just are not enough theaters to go around.

Had a great Wonfes the other week. All coverage tagged Wonfes.

Some onigiri rice balls for brekkie.

Testing out a new lens for the GF1 which I will cover in a separate post.

"Handle Keepers" are folks who don't drink and are responsible for taking their drunk mates home rather than let them drink and drive.

The redesigned area around Nishikoyama station.

Picking up some veggies.

Today's lunch set comprises of a small don. A Don is usually a bowl of rice with a topping of something or other.

And the other half of the lunch set is some yummy yakisoba.

Been streaming from the office from time to time - need to practice my presentational skills for the new show ^^; Folks who would like to catch the location of the broadcast should keep an eye on my Twitter.

Messy table during the last live broadcast.

Thanks to Steve Nagata for the loan of the Microsoft cam. Its way too bright though. Not sure if they have software to adjust the brightness for a Mac.

A load of utensils and wot not to keep your teeth in tip top shape.

Office gets messy quickly just after samples arrive. Still need to post the latest loot.

Had a most most awesome Tokyo CGM Night in collaboration with the Japanese Red Cross Society. Hope to post up my coverage soon.

Business is always booming for Mc Donalds Japan.

Taking a look at Steve's latest acquisition - the VAIO that's supposed to fit in your jean back pocket.

Inspecting Pietro's imaging armory.

At Warner Brothers Japan going over some stuff.

Figma Yui-chan takes a rest after running around the table.

Like that sign!

This job gets more and more interesting with the most unexpected opportunities.

Lunch done, off to next meeting.

Do you know what line this is?

Launch of the Tokyo.JapanTimes portal in collaboration with the Japan Times.

South exit at Shibuya station on the way to a photoshoot.

Taking the bus in Tokyo is always an interesting experience. Because bus routes are run by different companies, the buses are different too meaning that the way you pay for the ride differs. Sometimes you pay before you get on and sometimes just before you get off.

Grabbing lunch before heading back to base.

Out n about in Shibuya.

Still need to make a point of trying out the latest Pachinko machines. Gave it a whirl when I first visited Japan and lasted a few mins on 500 yen. Have you tried Pachinko before?

Hachiko crossing. Will be back in the UK this April and will be rummaging through the photos stashed away at my mums place. Got a load of photos that I took about 17 (?) years ago from this very spot. Will upload when I get back to Japan.

Scoffing down the Valentines iPhone.

Out n about in Togoshi Ginza.

I'll take em all please.

Shogayaki for lunch.

Some of the second hand stores occasionally have some rare vintage figures hidden inside.

Plum meat katsu is the current seasons special at Saboten.

Took this photo to remind me to check out this restaurant next week.

This place does fried hormones which I'm not a big fan of.

I'll take the Iro-iro Bento (Assorted Bento).

From the collection of stamps on the stamp cards, Have had quite a few free lunches n dinners.

Nishikoyama by night.

Katsu unboxed and ready for consumption.

Have I mentioned what this was? Tis a bowl of charcoal which is said to clean the air of smelly stuff and also absorb electric waves or something.

46 inch display for 130,000 yen discounted from 248,000 yen - costs less than my Apple Cinema display!

Having constant meetings with Tokyo MX TV for Danny Choo Network TV. Will document the start up of a Japanese TV program when the show gets off the ground.

Aoi-chan kawaii.

On the move again.

This mornings desk. Lots of business cards to follow up and and shoes to design...