We explained how to register for Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga in English here (click here for a list of all Nico Nico articles we've written so far).

This quick guide should explains Nico Nico's main features and how to actually get around the site (ignore our older guide). Nico Nico has changed a lot over the past months, having added live streaming, apps, a manga section etc. - too much to cover the now massive site in a blog post.

Nico Nico is still being used mostly for clips, which is why we focus on the "videos" section in the following. (Note: Unlike YouTube, you can't view videos on Nico Nico without being logged in.)

Please click on the screengrabs to enlarge them.

Screen 1 (Nico Nico top page, viewed as a logged-in user):

Screen 2 (videos section - what you see after clicking the "videos" category on the top left on the top page):

Screen 3 (video display):

Tags: Japan by Serkan Toto
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It's been a while since we explained how English speaking users can set up an account for Japan's super-popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga (click here for a list of all Nico Nico articles we've written so far). A few things changed in the registration process, which is why we thought it's a good idea to give you a new guide (so please ignore the older version).

(Note: Unlike YouTube, you can't view videos on Nico Nico without being logged in.)

Please follow the instructions given in English in the screengrabs below to register for the site (click on the pictures to enlarge them). Learn how to use Nico Nico Douga here.

Screen 1 (starting page for logged-out/new users):

Screen 2 (choose between premium and free account):

Screen 3 (email address form - note: hotmail and other services didn't work, Gmail did):

Screen 4 (registration):

Screen 5 (confirmation):

Screen 6 (notification):

Screen 7 (registration complete - you land here after you click on the link provided in the email):

Screen 8 (Nico Nico top page, logged in as new member):

You're done!

Again, click here for a guide (in English) on how to use Nico Nico Douga in Japanese.

Tags: Japan by Serkan Toto
19 Comments »

It is not already unusual that the job fair is held in virtual world. But is there a company holding a serious job fair in the "cute" 2D virtual world? CyberAgent utilized their virtual world "Ameba Pigg" for their job fair.

Recently, CyberAgent strengthens overseas development, and push forward the employment of the Android application development engineers. However, not all university students live in the metropolitan area(CyberAgent holds "real" job fairs only in Tokyo and Osaka).

Last month, they held a job fair in Ameba Pigg for the university students who are supposed to graduate in spring, 2012 (Event administration method is the same as former Idol Event). Then about 1,000 students gathered there. 40% of who logged in were from countryside and oversea.

This cute avatar is CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita. He himself operated his avatar there!.

Then avatars of five employees appeared and did Q&A session with students.

Job fairs which used 3D virtual world and virtual event system were observed before. But most of them were in serious styles. All the participants wore suits and avatars were real-type graphics... CyberAgent and Ameba Pigg proved that job fair could be held even in cute 2D virtual world.

Tags: Japan by Chiho Komoriya
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Are you interested in the virtual world and Japanese anime film? Then, let's check the "Summer Wars". "Summer wars" is a Japanese anime film released in 2009 summer in Japan. The screening has just begun in U.S.A. on December 24.

Story

Kenji is a teenage math prodigy recruited by his secret crush Natsuki for the ultimate summer job – passing himself off as Natsuki’s boyfriend for four days during her grandmother’s 90th birthday celebration. But when Kenji solves a 2,056 digit math riddle sent to his cell phone, he unwittingly breaches the security barricade protecting Oz, a globe-spanning virtual world where millions of people and governments interact through their avatars, handling everything from online shopping and traffic control to national defense and nuclear launch codes. Now a malicious AI program called the Love Machine is hijacking Oz accounts, growing exponentially more powerful and sowing chaos and destruction in its wake...

via GKIDS.tv

See Also:

Summer Wars official North American website

Summer Wars official Japanese website [J]

A lot of elements are packed in this movie. 3D Virtual World(like Second Life), Japanese mobile internet, Avatar communication, Nintendo DS, Artificial intelligence, spoofing, Cyber-bullying, scenery of the Japanese country and big family.

This movie drew more than one million spectators in Japan, won a lot of awards. In addition, Summer Wars earns this year's Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

If you have iPhone or Android mobile, check these game apps based on the movie.

http://swkoikoi.indexweb.co.jp/s-wars.ap/ [J]

You can play the Hanafuda card game, "Koi Koi", which appeared in the movie.

What's Hanafuda? See Wikipedia, it is a Japanese playing card and your knowing Nintendo had been a company to make/sell it before game console.

Amazon Japan

US Amazon.com

Tags: Japan, USA by Chiho Komoriya
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Softbank Mobile, exclusive iPhone seller in Japan, today announced their new IC-Card(FeliCa) products for iPhone 4: IC-Card stickers.

iPhone not having FeliCa, RFID smart card, is one of lamentations for users who can not give up their e-wallets function on their Japanese cellphone. One of the reasons that half of Japanese iPhone users still keeps their feature phones.

Android is planning to support NFC on version 2.3, which has the same foundation as FeliCa but can not cover all of FeliCa's functionality. Japanese cellphone vendors have been adding FeliCa on their Android smartphones recently. There are also a few Japanese Androids which are capable in terms of hardware, but waiting on a software update to support major FeliCa e-money providers.

FeliCa functionality for three major e-money services WAON/Edy/nanaco used by supermarket and convenience store chains will be offered as different stickers in February 2011.

Each sticker costs 2,980 yen (US$36). The regular WAON and nanaco cards are 300 yen and Edy cards 500 yen, so it is pretty expensive but the stickers nicely fit with your iPhone 4. They are also tested well with Apple's genuine iPhone 4 Bumper.

It seems for me that you can put those stickers not only on iPhone 4 but also on anything. The release does not tell if those IC-Card can be checked and charged via iPhone, or it is just a small sized version of the card-size IC card.

Softbank Mobile made another weird peripheral gadget, TV for iPhone 2 years ago.

See Also:

Softbank Mobile Release [J, pdf]

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan by Akky Akimoto
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