Hayabusa (peregrine falcon in Japanese) is an unmanned space mission to return a sample of material from the asteroid Itokawa. The spacecraft launched from Japan seven years ago, and succeeded to land on the asteroid. It is now returning to the earth and will be landing in Woomera Prohibited Area, Australia today. The final landing… Continue reading Spacecraft Carrying Asteroid Sample Returns; Landing Process To Be Ustreamed From Australian Desert
Japanese recipe site Cookpad in overdrive, doubles sales and profits
In case you didn’t know: Japan is the only country in the world that has a listed recipe site, Cookpad. After going IPO at the “Mothers” section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange last July, its current market cap stands at a staggering $370 million. Over the weekend, the eponymous company behind the site reported [PDF]… Continue reading Japanese recipe site Cookpad in overdrive, doubles sales and profits
No Dish? Don’t Panic, iPad Is On Your Side.
There is no right way or wrong way. Looks yummy tonkatsu. There need to be karashi mustard. Photo by zoo_200 And why iPhone 4 looks familiar to Japanese people (via @miyagawa) You can check how these gates are working on this movie, Tokyo train IC card system. Some use card, another use cellphone.
Computer-Synthesized Vocal Album Tops The Japanese Chart First In History
Probably first in the world history? Oricon(Japanese Billboard)’s [J] CD album chart in 5th week of May 2010 reported that the week’s No.1 was “EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocalogenesis feat. Hatsune Miku” [J, Amazon Japan], which is a compilation album by Vocaloids, a series brand for several voice synthesis software packages based on Yamaha’s technology published… Continue reading Computer-Synthesized Vocal Album Tops The Japanese Chart First In History
A Japanese Heavy Twitter User Pausing A Day Thought As Missing By Followers, Retweeted Frantically
Japan is increasing Twitter addicts everyday. Percentage of Japanese tweets is now about 20% and chasing USA’s 27% (by TweetSentiments). On May 30th, a Japanese girl cosplayer(= costume player, person whose hobby is wearing fictional characters costume) Jekyll Yui [J], who had been sending 50-250 tweets everyday on her Twitter account @_01 [J], stopped tweeting… Continue reading A Japanese Heavy Twitter User Pausing A Day Thought As Missing By Followers, Retweeted Frantically
Rakuten Announced Its Chinese Brand Name
Japanese e-shopping mall colossus Rakuten, who are cooperating with China No.1 Search Engine Baidu to open joint e-mall in Chinese web, disclosed their Chinese name [J]. The three Chinese letters, pronounced the same “Rakuten” are consist of original “Rakuten” in Japanese two letters and a new letter at the middle of original two. The first… Continue reading Rakuten Announced Its Chinese Brand Name
Twitter Mobile Version Now Limits 140 “Bytes” Not “letters”
Twitter API seems down and many Twitter client authors are trying to say it is not their bugs but Twitter’s glitch. Twitter official URL shortener experiment may be the cause of this trouble. At the same time, mobile.twitter.com seems to accept maximum 140 bytes, which had been 140 letters. It is the same for English… Continue reading Twitter Mobile Version Now Limits 140 “Bytes” Not “letters”
Yahoo! Japan Search Now Provides In-TV-Program Products Info
Yahoo! Japan Search Team Blog [J] announced that their search results page by TV program names show products, services and point of interests (shops, restaurants, etc.) at the top. Here is an example which I searched on Y!J by keyword “ladies 4″(in Japanese, of course), an afternoon program featuring lifestyle info on TV Tokyo. At… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan Search Now Provides In-TV-Program Products Info
Japanese mobile gaming startup GREE to open US and China offices within a year
Japan’s social networks seem to be hitting a ceiling growth-wise, and apparently they increasingly feel the need to go abroad in order to grow. “Japan’s Facebook” Mixi, which now counts 20 million members, is operating “Mixiu” in China. DeNA, the company behind mobile gaming platform Mobage-town (19.4 million members), has always been more aggressive in… Continue reading Japanese mobile gaming startup GREE to open US and China offices within a year
E/J Bulingual Digital Manga “Darling ha Gaikokujin” Goes On US iPad
Japan’s 3 million best selling comic essay “Darling ha Gaikokujin”(My Darling Is A Foreigner), which also became a movie this spring, depicting international relationship and marriage between Japanese girl and American guy, was digitized and published as one of the first Japan originated iPad manga application both on US and Japanese app store. Original Japanese… Continue reading E/J Bulingual Digital Manga “Darling ha Gaikokujin” Goes On US iPad