On Tuesday, NYC's SOHO-headquartered blog network on researching global trends and insights PSFK hosted the first Good Ideas Salon conference in Tokyo.   More than 90 people came together to hear the panel discussions with innovation experts and pure living evangelists from Tokyo and the world.

Peter Rojas (founder of gdgt, Engadget and Gizmodo), Marc Alt (green visionary), Mark Dytham (creative catalyst), Rie Azuma (lifestyle architect), Danny Choo (Japan sub-culture authority), Hiromi Matsubara (green media activist) and Piers Fawkes (trend expert, founder of PSFK) had two discussions on what we can do to make things and our lives better by using innovative technologies.

Peter Rojas suggested an idea of car mileage system that allows EV (electric vehicle) owners to pay an electricity fee to charge battery for driving it on monthly subscription basis just like cellphone charges. (refer to this Wired's article for car mileage system)

Mark Alt pointed out automakers including Nissan who sponsored this event had introduced a number of eco-friendly vehicles.   Now is the time to redefine what an automobile is, because the automakers is about to redefine what the social system is, he says.

At the final segment of the event, the panelists accepted Q&As from an audience, and a female of them questioned the panelists what kind of items they had experienced to share with someone to avoid waste and to save our environment.   Rie Azuma says, Japanese have a custom of sharing a bathtub water with their families to save consuming, but she didn't want to do with her father, and she thought most females could agree with her despite avoiding waste is so important.

Tags: Event Report, Japan by Masaru IKEDA
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Google started a promotion campaign that encourages corporate users to switch their BI (business intelligence) tool platform to Google Apps, which is called Go Google[J].

Go Google is the worldwide campaign, and the company displays a billboard ad at a location for each one of major cities around the world.   Here in Japan, a 6.6 feet high and 19.7 feet wide message board is being displayed at the concourse of JR Shinagawa station, an interchange to Tokaido Shinkansen.   The message is changed every weekday, and its scene is also being reported on Twitter[J].

Day 2:  It says, "Understood.  Changing to Google means changing my using apps to Google Apps."

Tags: Company, Japan, News by Masaru IKEDA
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On Monday, Kyoto-based catalog and mail-order clothing retail giant Nissen[J] launched a new promotion business using a digital signage display in partnership with the country's second largest wholesaler in book and magazine distribution Nippan which has a nationwide dealership of 12,000 book retailers.

Nissen will put the displays at the storefronts of 50 selected bookstores in Japan, and it shows passer-byes videos promoting new line-ups of magazines and books.   The display has a feature to transfer information to FeliCa-enabled cellphone handsets by touching a signal transmitting point, it can be used for giving away discount coupons to potential customers.   The videos displayed are carried automatically online.

Nissen has used bookstores as a channel to acquire new mail-order customers by distributing catalogs at their storefronts.

See Also:

• Nissen and Nippan jointly launch a media rep business using digital signage display [J,PDF]

Tags: Company, Japan, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
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This is slightly off-topic but cool. There are hundreds of language schools in Tokyo, but the Idol Foreign Language Academy, which will open its doors very soon, is certainly unique. The concept of the school is based on having Japanese idols, young and cute girls who are famous to some extent (I am paraphrasing), teach you languages.

The academy will hold its opening party tomorrow in Otaku- and geek heaven Akihabara (where else) starting 7pm. Japanese idols Minami Yoshida [JP, pictured] and Hinata Ise [JP] will be there in the flesh.

And besides throwing parties every Monday, you can really learn English and Japanese at the academy (from idols), meaning the school is a serious brick-and-mortar institution.

No virtual lessons have been announced yet, which means bad news if you're an Otaku not living in Tokyo.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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Before we introduced Air Yakiniku (Air BBQ), now it is holier, Air Sampai (Air Worship) to a famous Kiyomizu Temple at ancient capital Kyoto.

Bilingual (Japanese with English subtext) Flash site offers you a virtual tour to and around Kiyomizu-Dera (temple) anytime from anywhere around the world.

The narrator guides you necessary religious rituals, such like proper bowing,

She also suggest you to squat appropriately in front of your PC to become tired as if you are really climbing approach road.

In the Japanese narration, by unknown reason, English originated Japanese words are pronounced in original English way, which makes it very funny for Japanese speakers.

After going through whole routes, you may be able to feel why Japanese says "to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu" when they mean "to take the plunge".

Tags: Japan, Joke by Akky Akimoto
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