Tokyo Shift

The future is now in the land of the rising sun

Japan tops Robot Density List (why do I still have to vacuum?)

Jan 7, 2009 16:56

It's official. Japan has the most robots of them all, and rumor has it, all your base are belong to them.
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The Yasukuni Shrine has long been the target of angry young Chinese netizens. This past week it seems a few Chinese hackers attacked the Shrine's Web site and posted the following message along with a Chinese flag:
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Making maps of Tokyo's odors

Dec 28, 2008 16:04

Google Maps are way powerful. A while back me and some friends completely mapped out Dalian, China using Google's API. Well, Alex did anyway... But it's amazing to see people taking something like Google Maps, and building... well... just about anything you can think of with it.

Take Nioibu.com. This strange new site aims to map out all the smelliest, most odorific spots in Japan.
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I'm Type O Negative. Who wants to know?

Dec 22, 2008 14:44

Well, it seems a heck of a lot of Japanese people want to know, that's who:

There is a popular belief in Japan that a person's ABO blood type or ketsueki-gata is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others, similar to the Western world's astrology. Wikipedia

Chalk another one up on the ever-growing Japanese-stuff-that-blows-my-mind list. Read more »

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How the in-laws stole my iPhone

Dec 13, 2008 14:02

Ok. So two weeks into my Tokyo Shift I finally picked up a mobile phone. My original intent, and the recommendation of all my friends, was (surprise surprise) to get an iPhone. I was eyeing the Nokia N95 as well, as I liked the thoughts of Seesmiccin' from various corners of Tokyo. Both the iPhone and the N95 are carried by Softbank, which is unfortunate, as my wife and in-laws are all on Docomo. Why does that matter? As the in-laws explained (and I'm paraphrasing here), "If you're on the same network as us, that means you can call us for essentially nothing. Go with another network, and you'll be paying much higher."

Zombie-like chants rang in my ears, "One of us! One of us! Do-co-mo! One of us!" Read more »

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About Rick Martin

After a few years in China studying Mandarin and watching the Chinese Tech scene, Rick Martin has escaped to Japan and is loving every minute of it. When he's not working on his pet project, 2JPN, he can usually be found exploring all things tech in the land of the rising sun. Drop him a line on Twitter, Facebook, or contact him via Email.