Hello Kitty Netbook Windows 7 Powered... The Ultimate Powerful PC?
Akihabaranews.com — I became a Mac user the first day Microsoft sent me a copy of Vista Ultimate... and while I admit that I could have stayed with XP, I welcomed the OS change (to OSX) and still can't understand how Microsoft screwed up things THAT bad with Vista... 
 Seriously, if you ...

Manga rental
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — In Japan you can rent manga in some places, for example in some Tsutaya shops. It is interesting the Tsutaya strategy, they showcase manga in shelves looking like DVDs. Look at the pictures, it looks like it is all full of rental DVDs but it is not, it is manga! One volume, three days (70 yen). One volume, during one week (90 yen). If you rent more than 10 volumes the prices are even lower. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan ...

No fear of robbers
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — One of the things I love about Japan is how secure I feel. Here I don’t have to worry too much about being robbed. For example, look at this video, it is amazing how people leave their staff in their bicycles when they go inside the shops. Look, this guy left his bicycle parked with a new PS3 on it! Picture by Flapy Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment ...

Why is my girlfriend mad?
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Via Noob Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Chocolate beer
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Strictly talking it is not beer, it is an alcoholic beverage that it looks like black beer but it tastes like chocolate! I’ve never seen it yet, but if I find it somewhere I’ll give it a try. I guess it has to taste really weird! Japanese beverage companies like to invent new drinks continually, almost every week new drinks can be seen in supermarkets and convenience stores. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment ...

Sony Vaio P… Performance Has a Price - The Review
Akihabaranews.com — UPDATE : YES this Vaio P is Dual Core (Hyper threading), please check photos in the gallery... NO This unit is not faulty... Vista gave us a 2.7 mark while Windows 7 gave us a 1.9 mark, check gallery The Vaio P is by far sexiest Netbook ...

Human washing machine
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Wow, this invention is awesome! It is a human washing machine prototype created by Sanyo and presented in the 1970 Osaka Word Expo. It takes 15 minutes to wash your body with this machine, and it includes a massage and ultrasound cleaning. Almost 40 years later we are still waiting for mass produced human washing machines, what happened? Found at Pinktentacle. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan ...

Japanese facades
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — In Japan architects think a lot about how to build spaces where it is easy to live, they concentrate on making outstanding interiors. In western countries sometimes we just build to impress, we build houses with simetric and beautiful facades, we build houses thinking about how it is going to match the other houses around. But many times, in Europe, I’ve felt disappointed when entering inside a house with a beautiful facade and finding out a that the interior is horrible. On the other side, in Japan I always expect a worse interior than what I thought from seeing just the exterior of the house. In western ...

Bizarre Japanese commercial
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — They are advertising a liquid to deal with athletes foot (A problem suffered by many Japanese because of their public bath culture). I think the octopus represents the “athletes foot” fungus and the girls is trying to get rid off it. Furthermore, giant octopus have an erotic meaning in Japanese culture Do you have any other theories about the hidden meaning of this commercial? Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) ...

A year of Japanese food
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Because Japan is not only about Sushi Video made by Dannychoo Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Nikon Media Port UP300x Head-Mounted Display PMP: Review
Akihabaranews.com — Last October ( 2008 ), Nikon surprised the world with their UP300x, a Head-Mounted Display PMP wonder with nothing in common with the usual camera stuff we see coming out of Nikon. Produced in a limited quantity, the UP300x is now available in Japan and we ...

Biological roomba
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Another crazy Japanese invention. Name of this post “inspired” by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Oldest hotel-company in the world
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — The Hoshi Ryokan (A traditional Japanese hotel) is the oldest hotel in the world since many years ago. It was not the oldest business in the World, it was the second oldest. But since Kongogumi was absorbed by another company, the Hoshi Ryokan became the oldest company in the world. The Hoshi Ryokan was founded in 717 and it has been operated by members of the same family for more than 46 generations! One night in Hoshi Ryokan costs around 350 USD per person with breakfast and dinner included. They also offer activities like tea ceremony or guided ...

Special abilities with nunchaku
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — I think these guys could be a Japanese with superpowers. Found at Japanprobe. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

¿Doom map?
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — I was in a seminar in the Sumitomo building in Shinjuku the other day and after a while I realized that the building had a pretty interesting structure. I could easily walk around and always come back to the initial position very easily, I though that was smart and I felt like being inside a first-person shooter video-game. I fact, when I found a map of my floor this is how it looked like! It reminds me Doom, Quake or Unreal series maps so much! Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) ...

Robo-Q by Takara Tomy in DA House! Video and Micro Test
Akihabaranews.com — Robo-Q by Takara Tomy in DA House! Video and Micro Test Here's a micro test of a micro product, the Takara Tomy Robo-Q. Just 3.4 cm tall (1.3"), this little robot is a tiny toy, the world's smallest remote controlled walking robot. Takara Tomy made things ...

Catching butterflies
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Kaikun and Otosan
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Japanese mobile phone company Softbank mascot character is a real dog, the dog’s name is Otosan. But the dog has become so famous that even the real dog (The one that acts as Otosan in Softbank’s commercials) is acquiring more and more popularity. In the real world, the dog’s name is Kaikun. Kaikun has published some books filled with pictures of himself walking around Tokyo. Four of those books are all Kaikun’s pictures. Yes, those are all books featuring famous dogs! The most popular of them is our beloved Kaikun. And if we look inside one of those ...

Buy-rent ratio over time
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Marc shares this interesting chart plotted using OCDE data. Evolution of the ratio between “house prices” vs “house rental prices” from 1991 until two years ago. Marc Garrigasait explains: This chart compares house prices in countries in relation to the cost of renting them. If this ratio is huge, like it was in Spain in 2007, then it is indicating that maybe too many people is buying instead of renting. Look at how around the year 2000 this ratio was pretty normal and uniform all over the world. I notices how from 91 until ...

Eco green building in Fukuoka
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Josecrem found this fabulous building in Fukuoka. Inside the building there is a cultural center called Acros, and the main facade is full of greenery. By the way, the architect of this building is from Argentine and his name is Ambasz. Pictures by Josecrem There is even a waterfall: What do you think about the idea? Would you live in a similar building? From this website I extracted these images that caught my attention: Can you imagine this picture if not only one but all the buildings in the city were covered by ...

Dragon Ball and Lawson
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — During the last month Lawson convenience stores are selling Dragon Ball products, goodies and food. I find it amazing how Dragon Ball is still so popular and is still making tons of money as a “brand” for many businesses. These are some pictures I took in the nearest Lawson to my home: Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Crows ecosystem in Tokyo
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — I while ago a ranted about how annoying it is to have so many crows in Tokyo. Latest data shows that there are between 40.000 and 50.000 crows living in Tokyo, they are noisy in the morning, they move rubbish around and sometimes they even attack people (It happened to me more than once). But this time I’m going to give them a little bit of support, I’m starting to like them… a little One of the biggest advantages of having so many crows is that they like to eat rats. Yes, in Tokyo there are rats but there are not as many as in other big cities because crows are eating them all the time. ...

Tiger Mask
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — It looks like the guy on the pictures I showed you the other day is pretty popular and well known in the Shinjuku area. I had no idea but Roy who has been living in Japan for ages knew about this guy who’s nickname is Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask has been wandering around Shinjuku always wearing a tiger mask since more than 20 years ago. Maybe he loved the manga Tiger Mask. His accessories and clothing changes a little bit depending on the occasion but he always wears the same tiger mask. In fact Roy says that once Tiger Mask sit in the same row as him in the cinema and he watched the ...

Hopping Road from Taito, Let’s “Hop” Together! Video Review
Akihabaranews.com — The AOU was held in Tokyo this week-end. AOU stands for All “Nippon Amusement Machine Operator’s Union” and we were kindly invited by Taito to test their latest arcade game, "Hopping Road"… They had a huge booth with a lot of cool other stuff that we'll cover later, but I ...

Sanyo Xacti HD2000, An Evolution Rather Than a Revolution: The Review
Akihabaranews.com — A couple of weeks ago Sanyo Japan was kind enough to send us a test sample of their latest high-end HD camera, the Xacti HD2000. We've already talked about the HD2000, but let’s refresh your memory. The HD2000 feature a 8Mpix censor for still pictures and 5.31Mpix for ...

MPJ-101: LCOS Pico LED Projector With PMP Features, a Mini Review
Akihabaranews.com — Last January we announced the MPJ-101, a Pico LED projector with basic PMP features. Last week we finally got a sample to play with for your greatest pleasure. First let’s refresh your memory. The MPJ-101 is a 3M like LED compact projector with an average 640x480 ...

Lego Space Shuttle
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — These two Japanese guys have built this amazing Space Shuttle using 65000 lego bricks and 1590 hours (Two persons). Amazing! It seems that the guys who made this Space Shuttle are going to join an event that is going to try to beat the world tallest Lego tower ever built. If you want to see the Lego Tower it is a little big far north of Tokyo and it will be completed by the 3rd of March. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and ...

Fuculty
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Another example of japanglish. I love this one because I took the picture inside the Tokyo University, it is supposed to be one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. I can totally understand people making mistakes when they are not using their mother tongue (I do it all the time), but if I have to write something VERY IMPORTANT in English or Japanese I ALWAYS ask a native I trust to review what I wrote. Fuculty of education! Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan ...

Best places for hanami in Tokyo
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Hanami means in Japanese “to see flowers”, “to enjoy flower viewing”. It is a very important tradition celebrated when trees blossom. The most important hanami of the year starts this week in Tokyo with the blossom of sakura trees (Japanese cherry trees). The first time I saw sakura blossomed trees it was four years ago at the Izu peninsula, I was not impressed at all, there were not many trees around the area I visited. But during the next years I started appreciating the beauty of Japanese sakura blossom and the importance of hanami in Japanese society. I visited many parks ...

Expanding our merchandising business lines
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Last year Danny and me, after lots of thought we decided to move from the old Internet business and start licensing our mascot character Mirai-chan creating an eroge videogame. It was a great decision, Miracle Mirai sales have been doing quite well during this last fiscal year and we are reinvesting that money into expanding our Mirai-chan business. Furthermore, we don’t have to care any more about programming and servers and all that stuff, all we need to care in our new fruitful business is about how cute is Mirai-chan going to be in our next products. This time we have started to produce some cool otaku goodies ...

Oden restaurant
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Moving Oden restaurants on the streets are pretty common in Japan. I found this one pretty funny, all of them with black suits and a suitcases. Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Asimo controlled by a human mind
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — I met Asimo five years ago and he became my favorite robot. Asimo is not new, what is new is an BMI (Brain Machine Interface) made by Honda and Shimazu Corporation that allows humans to control the robots movements just by thinking about it. Vídeo que muestra el sistema en funcionamiento. BMI (Brain Machine Interface) are not new, de in fact there are already some “affordable” products on sale that facilitate the control of certain computer functions just by thinking about them. What is new ...

Red Bull strategy in Japan
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Red Bull entered the Japanese market pretty late, it was 2006. Coming from Spain and Switzerland to Japan in 2004 where people drinks tons of Red Bull and finding that there was no Red Bull in Japan was quite shocking to me. After a while I understood that Japan is a very different market and they already have their own particular energetic drinks market. When Red Bull arrived to Japan I was wondering what would happen, if they would success or fail, if they would use the same marketing techniques as they used in Europe or not. At the beginning Red Bull Japan used exactly the same strategy as in other countries, ...

Melonpan
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Melonpan pan is one of my favorite Japanese sweets. Melopan are sweet bread with the shape of half melon, the texture inside is like bread and on the surface it is crispy. Originally melopan did not have melon flavor, the name came just from the shape and the wrinkled surface that reminds that of a melon. But the concept evolved and now many melonpan have melon flavor. It sounds like a bad combination, but for me the more it tastes like melon the more I like it! If you come for travel to Japan try it, you can find it almost in any convenience store or bakery. It can also be found in some places in China or ...

Amazing stop motion
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Made by a Japanese with tons of free time, tons of creativity and tons of patience, watch it until the end, it is worth it! Akihabara News - Gadgetry from Japan and Asia (Subscribe) dannychoo.com - Your portal to Japan (Subscribe) Japan Probe - Japan news and entertainment (Subscribe)

Cowon O2, Unboxing and Quick Review
Akihabaranews.com — Last October we announced the soon to be released in Korea and Japan Cowon O2, a new PMP that's arguably the most powerful compact PMP yet available. What's so special about this new PMP? The most impressive thing is its capacity to accept almost ...

QNAP TS-439 and TS-639 Pro Turbo Quick Review
Akihabaranews.com — In our digital age we all require more and more storage, well actually I do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about average storage dedicated to porn collections, but really fast, secure, and powerful storage systems that only a NAS can provide. (NAS = Network Attached ...

Matt Harding on Japanese TV
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — I was watching TV this weekend and I found it amazing to see this VISA commercial featuring Matt Harding together with some historical Japanese whose faces are in the Japanese yen bills: If you don’t know Matt Harding yet, you must! He became famous after he left his daily job as a developer, traveled all around the world and uploaded this video: After the previous video became an Internet phenomenon he managed to be financed to travel more and make more videos. I think that his first ...

Canon's PowerShot SX1: Quick Review
Akihabaranews.com — A little over two weeks ago Canon Japan was kind enough to lend us their latest high-end 20x wide-angle optical zoom, 10Mpix PowerShot with 1080P video recording, the SX1. Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Specs - 20x wide-angle ( 28mm, f/2.8 ) optical zoom ...