Japanese alpinist Nobukazu Kuriki[J] (@kurikiyama) keeps tweeting and has uploaded YouTube videos from Annapurna, a series of peaks in the Himalayas, probably it's those from the highest altitude on the globe in the human history.   Almost a month later, he tries to ski from the top of the peaks (8,091 meter high / 26,500 feet high) with live Ustreaming.

By using a WiFi access point with a satellite data transmitter, he tweets via the iPhone with a number of pictures from his base camp at 4,090 meter high(13,400 feet high) as of today.   When he climbed up Mt. Everest last year, he tried Karaoke and nagashi-somen, a Japanese-style eating cold noodles that flow with water through a bamboo pol.

Tags: Japan, News by Masaru IKEDA
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"Uwaki Game@Evidence" (Uwaki = love affair) by IDAC [J] is a paid Japanese cellphone game, on which you track down your virtual boyfriends' love affair to break up peacefully.

In the game, you are supposed to snoop around places where your boyfriend visits, such like his home and office, and seek evidences like long hair and lip mark on a cup left by another girl.

Sometimes you need to decrypt hidden code to get them. You may also enjoy a mind game by selecting your love-tactic dialogue and action anywhere only on your cellphone、gains popularity by ladies around their 30's, a producer told to Nikkei Trendy.

The game is sold for 105 yen (US$1) on all three major carriers of Japan.

via Nikkei Trendy Net [J]

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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Shinjuku-based web app developer Axsh Co.,Ltd.[J] introduced an open source software called Wakame-vdc(virtual data center) which allows you to develop a public cloud service of your own, by enhancing Wakame-fuel that has been originally developed for making it easier to configure server instances and network setting on Amazon EC2.   You may download it and use it for free for non-commercial use.

The company developed it with aiming at automating miscellaneous procedures at data center facilities, and it is expected to be adopted by three to four data center companies in a year.

Author's note: Axsh (or Akushu) means shaking hands with someone in Japanese.   Wakame stands for a kind of seaweed.

See Also:

• Wakame Project Page at Ruby Forge
• Introduction to Wakame [J]

Tags: Company, Japan, News, Software by Masaru IKEDA
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Tokyo-based UserLocal Inc., which is known by its free and paid tools for website traffic analysis both for PC and mobile access in Japan, launched a new analytic tool for free specialized for social networking application (Facebook and major three Japanese social networking services - Mixi, Gree and Mobage-Town) platforms both in English and Japanese.

As well as their web analysis service User Insight, AppTraq provides visitors' demographics such like age, gender and location. Their popular mobile analytic service Ugokuhito's user data might contribute the accuracy of the data for mobile.

UserLocal's president Masao Itoh, who is also known as a young serial web entrepreneur - which is very rare in Japan as successful founders tend to stay as a CEO for good, answered to Asiajin inquiry, "We have good amount of user data for Japanese websphere collected by our PC and mobile services, and that makes our demographic data usable. This time we are expanding this to English market."

The service is provided for free even for huge traffic service over 50 million page views, which cannot be covered for free by competitors like Google Analytics.

See Also:

UserLocal's Release [En]

Tags: Japan, New Service by Akky Akimoto
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First half of April news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 2)

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

• Sekaimon Global Beta Expands To Sell European Items To Japanese
• Convenience Chainstore Lawson Starts Twitter (via @AMN)
• 2-channel Made Tokyo Metro Map In Ascii Art
• Nico Nico Douga's April Fool Was "Became Black Inc" parent company Dwango's stock surged probably by this
• Kofukuji Ashura Buddhism Statue iPhone app and case
• Messe Sanoh's (Adult) Game Buyers List Leaked From Insecure Backend System Via Google Cache, Over 1,000 Hentai Game Lovers Humiliated
• China's first cloud service was launched
• Beat Communication Localizes Enterprise Social Networking System In English For Multi National Japanese Company
• Hentai Game Review Site Galge.com To Terminate
• Actor Takao Ohsawa's Voice Composition For Your Text
• Softbank To Buy Victor Entertainment From JVC
• Radiko.jp Blocks Access From Third Party Clients Which Enable Listening From Oustide Of Service Area
• Wolrd First Cosplay Vocational School Will Open In Kobe
• Andou Kensaku - Google Search Keyword Game On Wii. Mashable took this. [En]
• Twitter phenomenon in Japan in English [En]
• Pixiv-Lawson Illustration Contest
• MMD Research - 70% of Japanese Are Not Interested In Smartphone
• Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency set up a special team to investigate underground criminal websites.
• QR Code Inventor Company Denso Wave Releases iPhone QR Code Reader App
• Livedoor's Online Self-Publishing Manga Site DLsite.com Separately Sold To Geo. NHN Japan president told that they see no benefit to have DLsite.com
• Illustration Social Networking Pixiv Introduces Its Own URL Shortener p.tl
• Apple Products Dissapearing From Major Online Shopping Sites. Out of order at Yamada Denki/K's Denki/eBEST. need to take out at Bic Camera/Sofmap
• Pornstar Sora Aoi's Twitter Gets Attentions From (Twitter-Banned) China. [En] @Aoi_Sora
• Facebook- and Twitter-enabled Walkman cellphone to be introduced from Sony Ericsson.
• (Japanese Characters Compliant) Twitter Slideshow Service Twitroll
• Bookscan - Another Book Digitizer Service For Individual
• Yamada Denki Supports iPhone For Their Shopping Points. First iPhone support among competitor chainstores
• Using Imported iPad In Japan Is Illegal.

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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