On November 30th, Mixi, Japanese counterpart of Facebook, one of the three biggest Japanese social network service, introduced a new feature [J, requires Mixi log-in], which allows you to search your friend on Mixi from his/her e-mail address, which makes Mixi step into real life networks side.

Before the change, you could invite your friend by giving his/her e-mail address, but you could not know if the invitee were using Mixi, could not see the invitee’s profile on Mixi. However, this change enabled you to search anyone whom you know the mail address on Mixi.

As most Japanese users use Mixi as a closed, friends-only network, this change shocked a lot of users. Many users who communicate only with friends from school, who do not want to be caught from office colleague, now feel unsafe. Others who makes network with hobbies, never showed their real name and/or face behind nicknames and illustration icons, now fear for being found by real life friends.

Refusal response on this new feature from users soared, and today, December 2nd, third day from the release, Mixi announced their temporary withdrawal of the function [J].

Many Japanese users do not want to be linked on Mixi with acquaintances from work, school, families and relatives. But Mixi has been expressing their interest in becoming like Facebook in Japan recently.

Activity Notification

There was also another big change made yesterday, December 1st. The “Saikin no Ugoki(Activity info)” [J] does,

• notify when your friends add a new friend
• notify when your friends join a new community (“private” communities are not informed)

which seem to be imported from Facebook.

This function is also causing storm of denials. There are about 15 new communities established by users to protest this feature. One of them, “Activity Kinou Yamete”(Stop Activity Function) community gathered over 50,000 members within a single day. Ironically, the new community join notification feature spread this protest so rapidly among Mixi users.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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El Shaddai – Ascension of the Metatron - [J] is a Playstation3/Xbox360 action game. The game having the Hebraic name of God is planned to be released in 2011 so at this point there are only an official site and few demo movies.

However, this uncompleted game has been causing huge buzz on Japanese web. Today, Net Buzzword Awards 2010 Grand Prix has been given to “Daijoubuda, Mondainai”(No problem, everything is fine), the most buzzed line from El Shaddai trailer. The trailer has English subtitle so that you may understand what the game itself is (or will be).

This first trailer, which was released at the mega game conference E3 2010, has many points caused “serious mirth” to watchers, such like Enoch (a main character)’s face being indistinct handsomeness, grandly scene settings and phrases but many strangeness (like Rucifer, another character, supposed to be in god’s role, wearing a pair of jeans and carrying disposable vinyl umbrella), etc.

There are no clear reason why this attracted so many people, but mix of those several things hit firstly the video sharing site Nico Nico Douga users, then MAD video editors.

On Nico Nico Douga, the official trailer has been played over 3 million times. Over 2,000 parody videos were made, top 5 of which were viewed over million times each.

Popular Parodies

Many are re-uploaded to YouTube. I picked up the ones more understandable without Japanese command from the most popular ones.

The one mixed with teddy bear detergent commercial film,

The one mixed with Antonio Inoki, legendary pro-wrestler’s theme, my favorite,

Rap mix?

Trailer re-made in 8bit NES style,

Mega Man mix, (pun with “Rokuman”=60,000 and Rockman=Megaman)

The live-action version,

beyond the movies

Enoch’s hand-made figure,

Enoch at the univ. of Tokyo kiosk customer communication board. The shop clerk answered with the line in the game.

El Shadai Talking Calculator – Each key makes the line from El Shaddai.

Self Publish Comic Event For El Shadai – 92 circles joined and sold self-made El Shadai books and comics. (The game has NOT been released. just few demo movies) The attendees lined up,

There are cosplays,

Enoch bento recipes on Cookpad,

El Shaddai at Akihabara smartphone shop,

Someone even created the El Shaddai game for Windows,

…wait, wasn’t the beginning of this meme a game? Even before the original release, parody game is made and sold.

Some popular lines

Some of the lines from El Shaddai trailer are often seen on 2-channel, blogs and tweets recently.

“Sonna soubi de daijoubu ka?”(You sure that’s enough armor?)
“Daijoubu da, mondai nai”(No problem. everything’s fine)

“Kami ha itte iru, kokode shinu sadame deha nai to”(This is not your appointed time to die.)

“Enoch, sonna soubi de daijoubu ka?”(You sure that’s enough armor?)
“Ichiban Iino wo Tanomu”(I’ll take the best you have.)

“Otouto no kataki wo torunodesu”(subtext is “Come on, porklings! It’s payback time.” but the literal translation would be “Revenge for your little brother”)

“Aa, yappari konkai mo dame dattayo”(Not again…)
“Aitsu ha hanashi wo kikanai kara na”(The kid never listens to me.)

See Also:

El Shaddai parody images

El Shaddai(in Japanese) – Google Image Search

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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Overnight – a Japanese DIY pudding called Giga Pudding has become a massive meme on message-board 4chan. This enormously sized pudding, launched in 2008, contains over 20 servings and requires 1.6 liters of water to make. A promotional web video in which a pudding character endlessly sings “Puddi Puddi” had made the rounds for the past two years on blogs and other social media sites but had never broken through as a full-forced meme.

Inspired this video, moot, the founder of 4chan decided to screw with his users by embedding the video on autoplay in the message board /b/, and instigated a text-filter where all user-submitted text posts were replaced by an endless string of “PUDDI PUDDI”. This forced users to communicate via images and other creative means, temporarily besieging 4chan from Nov 30th to Dec 1st. While it is a forced meme, Giga Pudding is inspiring new image macros and uses similar to the Desu meme including Pikapuddi, Puddibear, and Joseph Ducreux Puddi.

Surprisingly, Japan has a history of oversized pudding that predates Giga Pudding. At a Nagoya restaurant named Samma-tei, you can enjoy a 12 liter pudding [J] for 42,800 yen. Further, making oversized puddings has long been popular with Japanese bloggers as well.  A few example posts where bloggers document their attempt at making bucket-sized puddings can be found here, [J] here, and here [J]. One blogger even made a questionable mannequin made of pudding [J]. Our theory is that these novelty restaurants and bloggers inspired Takara Tomy to create the oversized dessert.

You can purchase Giga Pudding from Rakuten, and learn how to make it here. [J]

Lyrics

“Puri Puri” is a Japanese onomatopoeia which means “Freshly and springy”, often used for food. “Purin” is Japanese word transformed from “pudding”.

Puri Purin Puri Purin
Sugoku Dekkai Giga Purin (Sugoku Dekkai = So huge)
Puri Purin Puri Purin
Kyoumo Pa-ti- Giga Purin (Kyoumo Pa-ti- = Party again today)
Puri Purin Puri Purin
Dekakute Happi- Giga Purin (Dekakute Happi- = Big is happy)

Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Minnade Tabeyou Giga Purin (Minnnade Tabeyou = Let’ eat)

Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Very Big ni Giga Purin
Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Giga Purin!

Giga Purin Giga Purin
Giga Purin!

Puri Purin Puri Purin
Sugoku Dekkai Giga Purin
Puri Purin Puri Purin
Kyoumo Pa-ti- Giga Purin
Puri Purin Puri Purin
Dekakute Happi- Giga Purin

Puri Purin

Giga Purin

Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Minnade Tabeyou Giga Purin

Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Very Big ni Giga Purin

Puri Puri Puri Puri Giga Purin
Minnade Pa-ti- Giga Purin

Giga Purin Giga Purin
Giga Purin!

Tags: Trend, USA by Dominic K. Gallello
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For the second year in a row, Asiajin is one of the participating group of the largest tech bōnenkai in Japan, Tokyo Biggest Tech Party Ever.

We had more than 400 people last year, celebrating together during an epic evening. To stir things up a bit this year, we found a better venue and reached out to even more friends at tech/web/entrepreneur communities. Here there are, from venture funding to Mac lovers, from mobile enthusiasts to startup launchers: AppleCert, Digital Eve Japan,GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan,Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, Ringo MUG,Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo,TLUG, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, Tokyo PC Users Group,WASForum.

We would love you all to join us.

The event will be held next Monday, Dec 6 in Aoyama, at the モーダポリティカ MODAPOLITICA event space (Google Map / Gmap)

Don’t forget to register and quick as we’re about to close registration due to so many people willing to come.

And while we’ll all be partying, the revenue of the evening will be donated to Beers for Bytes, a charity who helps build tech infrastructure for impoverished people. The more you drink, the more tools we’ll be able to fund. Isn’t that a great way to finish 2010?

Here’s the official announcement, both in English and Japanese:

It’s time once again to bring all of the tribes together for our annual TechXmas event, aka: Tokyo’s Biggest Tech Party Ever. We have nailed an Awesome Venue for the 2010 gig with a larger collection of participating groups and are expecting an even bigger crowd than the 400+ very cool folks who attended our epic mixer last year!

So mark your holiday calendar for December 6th – make sure you register – and use Twitter, Facebookand Plancast to help share the good word

Charity Benefit:
All net proceeds go to Beers for Bytes, an offshoot of the acclaimed Beers For Books event. The funds will be donated to tech infrastructure for Room to Read, whose focus is on childhood literacy and gender equality in education in developing countries.

Sponsorship Opportunities:
We will also be offering the opportunity for sponsors to donate door prizes or small cash envelopes, so please do drop us a note asap to make arrangements.
sponsor @ tokyobiggesttechpartyever.com

Date: Monday December 6th, from 7-10pm
Venue: Modapolitica – Map
Fee: ¥2,000 with Advance Registration – Or – ¥3,000 At The Door **Note Below
Menu: Advance registration comes with a super tasty buffet – while all drinks, including beer, standard mixed or non-alcohol and wine selection, will be cash bar 500jpy each.

**Note: ‘At The Door’ attendees will receive two-drink tickets instead of a food coupon as we need to confirm an accurate buffet estimate in advance.

Participating groups:
AppleCert, Asiajin, Digital Eve Japan, GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan, Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, RingoMUG, Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, TLUG, Tokyo PC Users Group, WAS Forum.

Thanks for another fantastic year — We look forward to see you all again soon!

東京最大の技術者仲間のかってないパーティー！

忘年会　2010　－　12月6日　–　モ-ダポリティカ

技術者仲間が一同に会して年末恒例のTechXmas event、別名Tokyo’s Biggest Tech Party Everを楽しむ時期がまたやって来ました。主催する多くの関係団体の合議で2010年の集会場として息を呑むような会場が最終決定されました。今年の人数は去年の壮大な交流会に集まった400人超のステキな仲間をさらに上回ると予想しています。

そこで、皆さんはカレンダーの12月6日に上記行事を予定して下さい。その事前登録の確認をお忘れなく。適切な発言の共有に役立つ Twitter, Facebook, Plancast を使いましょう。詳細は下記を参照して下さい。

チャリティ収益：
チャリティ利益の全額は、賞賛を受けている Beers For Books より分派したBeers for Bytesに寄付されます。寄付された資金は、開発途上国の教育において子供の文盲解消および両性平等に注力するRoom to Readの技術インフラに使われます。

スポンサー募集:
私共主催者は福引の賞品または大入袋を寄付するスポンサーを募集します。希望者は準備が必要なので出来る限り早くその旨を連絡して下さい。
sponsor @ tokyobiggesttechpartyever.com

日時：12月6日（月曜日）午後7時　-　10時
会場： モ-ダポリティカ（Modapolitica） – Map
入場料：前売券＝2000円　当日券＝3000円**
メニュー：前売券には一流のうまいビュッフェ食事が含まれています。一方、飲み物として、ビール、標準的な選別した洋酒、ワインとソフトドリンクが用意され、バーで一杯500円にて販売します。
**注意：主催者は事前に食事する人数を正確に把握する必要があるので、参加者は受付で食事ク－ポン券の代わりに2枚のドリンク券を受け取ることになります。

参加団体:
AppleCert, Asiajin, Digital Eve Japan, GreenITers, ICA Japan, Mobile in Japan, Mobile Monday Tokyo, Ninjava, Open Network Lab, Poken Japan, RingoMUG, Startup Dating, StartupWeekend Tokyo, Tokyo 2.0, Tokyo Beer & Blog, Tokyo HackerSpace, TLUG, Tokyo PC Users Group, WAS Forum.

すばらしいこの1年に感謝しましょう－- まもなく、皆さんに再会できることを楽しみにしています

On a personal note, I sadly won’t be able to attend, as I’ll be speaking in Paris for LeWeb. Most of the Asiajin team has already confirmed participation, though.

You can follow the official party Twitter account @TBTPE and the Twitter hashtag #tbtpe or follow -and like- the Facebook Page.
You can also announce your participation via Plancast or Facebook.

And, if you’re a photo lover, please share your pictures of the party on Flickr after the event, we would love to have these memories.

Have fun, everyone!

Tags: Announcement, Asiajin Event by Paul Papadimitriou
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