In Japan, Starbucks Coffee, Subway Sandwich and Ramen Jiro are the shops which make many first visitors feel scared by their mystic words to order.

Custaba is a Japanese Android app on which you can simulate coffee ordering at Starbucks.

The generated order in the screenshot above is “Tall vanilla two-percent caramel source dark Mocha chip frappuccino” in Japanese notation.

The developer’s note says,

“It seems difficult to order at Starbucks coffee shop. I have no idea what to order in what way. If you make up your mind before visiting shops on this app, you will be able to buy in a fluid motion” [J]

Sutaba Kowaina (Afraid Of Starbucks) is another Android app

“This is an app to make you order coffee smoothly and precisely at Starbucks Coffee. Now you are not afraid of Starbucks any more!” [J]

Sutaba Kowaina developer says that he was inspired by a Japanese manga “Nichijou”(Daily Life) depicting a scene in a coffee shop. Here you can watch the Anime version of it with English subtitle.

You will see how some people are afraid of ordering with those magic Western words.

Custaba has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Sutaba Kowaina is over 5,000 downloads. Those people practiced how to order at Starbucks on them.

via Netolabo: Iced Double Tall Double Hazelnuts Extra Formy Latte

Tags: Android, Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Yahoo! Mobage, a joint social game networking service for PC run by Japan’s largest web service Yahoo! Japan and mobile social game giant DeNA, starts a present campaign celebrating its 6 million users registration.

If you play any games on Yahoo! Mobage first in time, and purchase anything on selected stores on Yahoo! Shopping, you will get 1,000 Yahoo! points, which is worth 1,000 yen for shopping on Yahoo!.

Yahoo! Mobage passed 3 million users in March, 5 months after launch, so their adding latter half of the 5 million took 8 months, which is slowed-down. However, the pace is still higher than Facebook, as its active users are around 5.24 million according to SocialBakers (which is not super precise though) currently.

Indeed, people pay lots less on PC social game if you compare with Japanese feature phone social game, but Yahoo! Mobage is taking up a firm position with people who play social game on PC based social network in Japan.

Tags: Japan, Social game by Akky Akimoto
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