Sunshine Ranch: More Than 2M Japanese Users Join China-made Flash Game In 2 Months

Mainland China’s 2nd largest social game maker Rekoo[C] launched a flash-based social game on Japan’s largest social network service Mixi[J], which earned more than two million users in less than two months since the launch, and it’s ranked the 1st in the number of Mixi app users. The game is called Sunshine Ranch (click here… Continue reading Sunshine Ranch: More Than 2M Japanese Users Join China-made Flash Game In 2 Months

Emoji/Manga Relation Explained Fully

You might have heard about that Gmail and iPhone has added Japan originated emoticon, Emoji, set. You may know that Google has been promoting those “letters” into Unicode standard. Filing those drawings as new letters is, though Chinese letters were made from drawings thousands years ago, not acceptable for all people, some says it is… Continue reading Emoji/Manga Relation Explained Fully

Quadlingual Midnight Weather Show Broadcasts Live Images Of Orionids

On the 24-hour Internet video broadcast channel brought to you by the world’s largest meteorological information service company Weathernews, a quadlingual weather news show was launched this month, which is aired from 1am to 3am everyday excluding Monday, Japan Time. (Refer to this article for more about the video channel) Korean weathergirl Lee Jee-youn (李芝妍,… Continue reading Quadlingual Midnight Weather Show Broadcasts Live Images Of Orionids

Photo Speak: Let Your Favorite Portrait Speak And Blink

Motion Portrait, a tech spin-out of Sony Computer Science Laboratories(CSL) and now a subsidiary of So-Net Entertainment, introduced an iPhone app that allows you to animate your favorite picture and let it blink and speak anything you want, Photo Speak today.   Now it’s available at AppStore for JPY350. The app uses the company’s state-of-the-art technology… Continue reading Photo Speak: Let Your Favorite Portrait Speak And Blink

140Trans: Now It’s So Easy To Tweet In Unfamiliar Languages

Tokyo-based start-up Anydoor started a translation service using Twitter on Tuesday. It’s named 140 Trans. When you post a tweet having attributes of an original language and a target language of your translation request, the service’s participating translators will give you back a translation result on Twitter. The service can handle 140 character long messages,… Continue reading 140Trans: Now It’s So Easy To Tweet In Unfamiliar Languages

Good Ideas Salon Tokyo: Explore Perspectives On Pure Living With Japanese Tech

On Tuesday, NYC’s SOHO-headquartered blog network on researching global trends and insights PSFK hosted the first Good Ideas Salon conference in Tokyo.   More than 90 people came together to hear the panel discussions with innovation experts and pure living evangelists from Tokyo and the world. Peter Rojas (founder of gdgt, Engadget and Gizmodo), Marc Alt… Continue reading Good Ideas Salon Tokyo: Explore Perspectives On Pure Living With Japanese Tech

Google Puts Big Billboard Ad At Shinkansen Station To Promote Enterprise Use

Google started a promotion campaign that encourages corporate users to switch their BI (business intelligence) tool platform to Google Apps, which is called Go Google[J]. Go Google is the worldwide campaign, and the company displays a billboard ad at a location for each one of major cities around the world.   Here in Japan, a 6.6… Continue reading Google Puts Big Billboard Ad At Shinkansen Station To Promote Enterprise Use

Book Retailing Now Starts Digital Street Solicitation

On Monday, Kyoto-based catalog and mail-order clothing retail giant Nissen[J] launched a new promotion business using a digital signage display in partnership with the country’s second largest wholesaler in book and magazine distribution Nippan which has a nationwide dealership of 12,000 book retailers. Nissen will put the displays at the storefronts of 50 selected bookstores… Continue reading Book Retailing Now Starts Digital Street Solicitation

Idol Foreign Language Academy: Now Idols Teach Languages (In Akihabara, Of Course)

This is slightly off-topic but cool. There are hundreds of language schools in Tokyo, but the Idol Foreign Language Academy, which will open its doors very soon, is certainly unique. The concept of the school is based on having Japanese idols, young and cute girls who are famous to some extent (I am paraphrasing), teach… Continue reading Idol Foreign Language Academy: Now Idols Teach Languages (In Akihabara, Of Course)

Air Sampai – Virtual Kyoto Temple Experience

Before we introduced Air Yakiniku (Air BBQ), now it is holier, Air Sampai (Air Worship) to a famous Kiyomizu Temple at ancient capital Kyoto. Bilingual (Japanese with English subtext) Flash site offers you a virtual tour to and around Kiyomizu-Dera (temple) anytime from anywhere around the world. The narrator guides you necessary religious rituals, such… Continue reading Air Sampai – Virtual Kyoto Temple Experience