Japanese_VW

Let's play on a bald men's head

2012-02-13T11:00:00.000+09:00

Japanese application developer Cyder released funny iOS application. It's “Hage-mu” ("Hage" means bald head in Japanese. Hage(bald) and game = Hage-mu).

hage-mu is game apps that gliding on the bald heads of guys from around the world. this is simple but difficult. we balance a snowboard on top of a bald men’s head and try not to slip off.

It’s supported on Game Center and you can share your score with other users.

In this sequel “Hage-mu 2”, we get the flag stuck on bald head.

Refuge administration game

2012-02-12T21:49:00.000+09:00

Japanese politicians are really stupid. However, the citizen knows it enough. So, they control ourselves in emergency. 1 year passes from East Japan big earthquake disaster soon. The trial to simulate the administration of the refuge using a card game is carried out now in Tohoku.

Players learn a way of the administration of the refuge through playing a card game. The setting of a game is "an elementary school of the stricken area where all lifelines were severed". The player must take the refugee of various kind to the elementary school which became the refuge quickly. Furthermore, they must keep community after refuge.

How about commercializing this card game?

PiggLife collected 50 million yen or more donation in less than one month

2012-02-10T03:43:00.002+09:00

I wrote about East Japan big earthquake disaster charity of PiggLife last month.
See also: PiggLife does charity collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto
It achieves great result now. The operator of PiggLife announced the middle of the donation amount of money today. Operator of PiggLife Cyber Agent announced the progress in the middle of the amount of donation. They collected donations of 54,027,140yen(696724.33 USD) during a January 11-31.

The donations were done by virtual goods. PiggLife users put a lot of virtual cedars on a garden. This project continues until the end of March.

Yokote city, Akita started the examination use of the Facebook page

2012-02-08T01:54:00.003+09:00

I came back to the parents’ home(birth place) Yokote city, Akita Prefecture last month.

See also: My Tumblr - My favorite things

This city is the country which is located in the northeast in Japan(Tohoku) and desolate very much. However, the local government and the citizen use the social media. The Yokote city government office started the examination use of the Facebook page today.

http://www.facebook.com/YokoteCityOffice

A period is till the end of March. It is too short and too careful. However, in Japan, that a local government uses Facebook is rare(IT literacy of a Japanese government is very low). Of course I stick up for them challenge. And I wish they learn more about Facebook.

By the way, There is the pioneer of this trial in Japan. That is Takeo city, Saga Prefecture. They shifted to the Facebook page in city's website. The mayor of Takeo city is the chairperson of Japanese Twitter society.

See also:
Takeo-city To Force All Employees To Register And Work On Facebook

Doraemon becomes social game in Mobage

2012-02-06T18:35:00.002+09:00

Doraemon is the most popular Manga, Anime and character in Japan,In Japan. This is national contents of Japan surely. Probably, there are no Japanese who hates Doraemon. Now, Doraemon is a popular also in Asia and Europe.

ドラえもん (1) (てんとう虫コミックス)

Today, DeNA announced that they released a social game of Doraemon in Mobage "Doraemon Hokkorina" in this spring.

Mobage users grant the wishes of various characters with Doraemon.

Of course I'll play this social game. Because Doraemon is my favorite character! :)

Spotify lands at Japan at last

2012-02-05T17:42:00.000+09:00

Such a text is displayed now on the top page of Spotify.

This is good news. Japan has been ignored for every social music service until now(Turntable interrupted access from Japan, too).
Of course I registered my e-mail address.

Twitter account of the Finnish embassy is popular in Japan

2012-02-04T22:04:00.001+09:00

Twitter account of Japan's Finnish embassy(@FinEmbToky) is very popular in Japan because they are friendly.

Besides, they are familiar with Japanese anime and manga.

When we search "Juutilainen(ユーティライネン)" by Google image search in Japan...

In this way, Girls were found than officer. This is character of anime called "STRIKE WITCHES". STRIKE WITCHES is anime which personified weapon of WW II to girls. Eino Ilmari Juutilainen is like that in STRIKE WITCHES.

The Japanese Twitter user asked it for a Finnish embassy. Then they answered.

"We already know all"

In addition, manga called "Hetalia" which personified a nation is in Japan. Finland in Hetalia is this.

Finnish embassy knows this, too.

Of course they do not do only Tweets of manga and anime. They teach us various Finnish information. And their Tweets are friendly, intelligible and replies also to the question of a follower frequently. Incidentally, it is secret which of Japanese and Finns is their Twitter staff.

Japanese Android application market finally get simulation game of poo upbringing

2012-01-27T11:50:00.002+09:00

Yesterday, I found madness Android apps in Japanese Android Market.

This is "Unko Ikusei simulator mobile".
(Unko means poo in Japanese. Ikusei means upbringing in Japanese)

This apps is the simulation game that can enjoy upbringing of the poo in real time. Originally it was software for PC developed in 1998. Developers redevelop it for Android. You can touch the poo using touch panel interface.
In addition, this apps is free and the users review are high evaluation.

PiggLife does charity collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto

2012-01-23T23:33:00.000+09:00

Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto performs the victims support project "LIFE 311" of the East Japan big earthquake disaster now. It is a project to build the temporary houses by the trees of cedar around the stricken area. And Sakamoto cooperated with PiggLife for the promotion of this project.

PiggLife opened a special area of LIFE311.

WE can hear the number of Sakamoto for free there.

He is virtual Sakamoto. Similar very much!:)

He speaks a message. "Hello, I'm Ryuuichi Sakamoto. The action of the virtual world PiggLife leads to activity of the reality stricken area support. This is a very splendid plan. Please participate. Love and trees!"

We can buy the trees of cedar for contribution in a special area. The tree of cedar has three kinds of 100yen, 500yen, 1,000yen.(abont 100yen = 1.29USD)

We can plant the tree of cedar in my garden. These profit is contributed all to LIFE311.

Go hentai go! Japanese developer developed iPhone game apps that removes girl's brassiere

2012-01-14T04:33:00.003+09:00

Japanese application developer accomplished an unprecedented splendid achievement. Apple has shut out sexual contents. However, App Store has such an application now.

This is a game to take off the brassiere of the girl. Player becomes a schoolboy and takes off the brassiere of a school girl sitting down on the seat in front in a classroom in class so that she is not noticed from the rear.

It was released in last August and was downloaded more than 20,000. A development period is two years. It fell to examination of Apple 3 times. However, the developer did not give it up.

And the miracle happened(In November of the last year, Apple was busy by release of iOS5 and iPhone 4S).

Watch this miracle if you can access Japanese App Store.

Japanese Social Game Platform War

2012-01-13T01:40:00.001+09:00

Japan has a lot of social game platforms. Japan has much social game platforms. Therefore I made a Japanese main social game platform list.

mixi(PC/Mobile)
History of Japanese open platform began in mixi(from 2009 summer). However, mixi loses in Mobage and GREE now.

Mobage(PC/Mobile)
They are the second open platforms in Japan. They were only mobile, but they cooperated with Yahoo!Japan later and opened Yahoo! Mobage(for PC).

GREE(Mobile)
They are late departure, but are a platform making money most now. They offer a social game only in mobile.

Ameba(Mobile)
Ameba is a CyberAgent's social community. Ameblo(Blog) and AmebaPigg(Virtual World) are famous, but they provide a lot of games for mobile in conjunction with them.

Colopl(Mobile)
Colopl is known as operator of mobile geolocation social game. However, they are platforms specialized in geolocation game with it.

NicoNico Douga(PC)
NicoNico Douga is Japanese popular video sharing site. They open platform "NicoNico application " which can play a social game while watching video.

Hangame(PC/Mobile)
Hangame was well-established online game portal site. However, they make efforts in a social game now.

entag!(Mobile)
They are the mobile social game platform which just opened on January 11. They assume mobile SNS "logtomo" which started in 2007 and renewed it on starting a social game site with a smartphone.

DMM.com(Mobile)
They are japanese PPV sites, but are known as porn video site mainly. They started a social game platform for mobile experimentally. Their characteristic is providing a porno social game. Hentai eroge and social game, this is the strongest combination! :)

Japan has many platforms besides these. Those big characteristics is almost of "for future phone". And everybody globalization and cross platform are behind.

Kawaii social music service "Beatrobo"

2012-01-09T22:42:00.000+09:00

When Turntable was released, it was popular among Japanese geeks at first. However, we can't access it from Japan now.

Therefore Beatrobo appeared.

Beatrobo is social music service that we can log in by Facebook account. A characteristic of this is asynchronous, not real-time. Other social music services are "real time". We cannot enjoy music together if we do not log in with a friend. If we compare them, Beatrobo is a social game, other social music services are virtual world or MMO.

We make the robot avatar first.

This is my room.

Facebook friends using Beatrobo are made a list automatically.

Avatars which we can display at a time are to 5 including myself. we can choose whose avatar we display.

Let's search numbers and add them to my play list.

We can search in Japanese.

Let's send a request to a friend of the same music taste.

Beatrobo exhibits in SXSW.

Beatrobo Facebook page

See also:
Social Music Community Beatrobo Makes Sharing And Listening To Songs With Friends Easy, Asynchronous(TechCrunch)

Virtual gift wrapping function of AmebaPigg

2012-01-05T00:43:00.000+09:00

Is the wrapping function necessary for virtual goods? CyberAgent has already carried it out.
Their virtual gift service "Ameba present" had a wrapping function than before.

However, this is something like icon(It resemble a virtual gift of Facebook).
They applied this function to popular virtual world "Ameba Pigg".

I got the virtual gift of the New Year's card from a friend the day before yesterday.

I can give my avatar it.

Therefore I decided to present a different virtual gift to a friend as thanks. The price of virtual gifts are 40yen - 250yen(0.5USD - 3.3USD). I chose the virtual gift of the "Otoshidama(Japanese New Year's present money)".

I chose the gift box next. These have various kinds like virtual gifts. And they are charged, too.

In addition, I was able to attach a message and appoint the date and time to give it a virtual gift. I thought that this was a very convenient function. They will assume a birthday and a memorial day.
I think that the wrapping function of the virtual gift evolves "send" to "presenting".

Let's battle with AR Kamen Rider in a convenience store

2012-01-04T22:28:00.001+09:00

Bandai NAMCO games release cool AR application for iPhone of Kamen Rider.

Originally this is AR application corresponding to Bandai NAMCO's trading cards "Carddas". Children scan AR marker printed on cards and can enjoy a card battle with iPhone.

This is AR Carddas pac.

Seven-Eleven and the Bandai NAMCO games held a tie-up event using this.

Seven-Eleven installed such AR marker in each stores of the whole Japan.

3DCG of Kamen Rider appears on a screen of iPhone when we scan this AR marker. We can fight with this Kamen Rider.

I have only 2 kamen Riders. This application has a collection function of save data which we scanned.

Chose the combination of play. Battle!

Unfortunately my Kamen Rider lost. However, we can challenge it again and again.

In addition, there are a vender machine function and an album function. Surprisingly we can play all free of charge. And this application is free, too.

The game application which is the most popular in Japan is a "nameko mushroom"

2012-01-03T18:18:00.000+09:00

Do you know the most popular game application in Japan? It's "Nameko Saibai Kit(nameko mushroom cultivation Kit)".

This is a simple game which cultivates nameko mushrooms and gathers a harvest. There are not a level system, charging system and social function at all. However, the cute nameko mushroom characters are collecting many fans(especially women).

How to play are only combining trees and equipment, and cultivates nameko mushrooms.

Then, we can harvest various kinds of funny nameko mushrooms.

If we release it for a long time, mold grow in a tree.

The winter limited version was released at the end of last year, too.

Most of how to play does not change, but designs are different. Moreover, we can harvest the nameko mushroom in connection with Christmas and Japanese New Year.

Furthermore, we can get cute wall paper for iPhone.

Developer of application Bee works released an Android version of this recently. It broke through 200,000 downloading from release in one week. It has broken through 3,3M downloads in those whole series(Nameko Saibai Kit:2,1M DL, winter limited version:1M DL).

They began character-goods sale recently.

This business model resembles Angry Birds of Rovio.

Social game of AmebaPigg enforced a tie-up quest with Disney

2012-01-02T19:47:00.001+09:00

There is an farming social game "Pigg Life" in Japanese popular virtual world AmebaPigg.

See also:
Farming Social Game in Ameba Pigg "Pigg Life"

Pigg Life enforced a tie-up quest with Disney. The subject was "Alice in Wonderland".

The quests were cultivated tea leafs, made tea and cooked "Eat me cookie" and more.

The cooking that users made eats by oneself and can feed other avatars.

Users were able to get virtual goods of Alice in Wonderland when they completed a quests.

CyberAgent cooperates with Disney for a long term until now in AmebaPigg. However, it was only sale of virtual goods.

This is the first time that CyberAgent and Disney carried out tie-up quest. In addition, it is the first time that Disney carries out a tie-up with Japanese virtual world service such positively.

Social Game Magazine War In Japan

2012-01-02T00:26:00.001+09:00

Now, social game magazine war has broken out in Japan. There are 5 social game magazines in present Japan.

アプリSTYLE vol.6 (Koiunreki2012年1月号増刊)

週刊ファミ通2012年1月12日号増刊ファミ通Mobage Vol.3【雑誌】

週刊ファミ通2011年10月20日号増刊ファミ通GREE Vol.1[雑誌]

Appli Fan (アプリファン) 2012年 01月号 [雑誌]

電撃ゲームアプリ Vol.1

These are all physical magazines. The price is 600 yen - 680 yen.
These contents are the introduction of the new social game, review, and columns. It is almost social games released in GREE and Mobage to be placed(Besides, most of they are offered for mobile).

And the most important existence is "supplement." The serial code which can get social games' virtual goods from every magazines is attached. There are many users who wants this serial code.

The history of the social game of Japan began in mixi for PC. However, mixi is a loser now. In Japan, a social games are "playing with mobile at GREE or Mobage".

AR application "KAMIWAZA" increase money

2012-01-01T15:45:00.000+09:00

A Happy New Year! In Japan, there are customs called "Otoshidama" where a child gets money from an adult for New Year holidays. Japanese TV company TV Asahi released funny iPhone AR application "KAMIWAZA" for it.

This is promotion apps of New Year comedy program, But we can enjoy regardless of it.

If we look at a thousand-yen bill with iPhone camera, the number of sheets will increase!

If we look at the 5thousand-yen bill with iPhone camera, it will change to a 10thousand yen bill.

If we look at 10thousand yen bill with iPhone camera, it will increase!

You can feel rich if you use this! :)

Angry Birds Landing in Tokyo

2011-12-14T13:43:00.000+09:00

Rovio held two events of official Angry Birds birthday in Tokyo on December 11.

The first is in Harajuku SoLaDo.

It seemed to be the event which advertizes it towards people who do not know Angry Birds yet. Harajuku is one of the hottest towns that send Japanese culture. Harajuku SoLaDo is a new shopping spot of Harajuku, and many young girls gather. It is the place where it is most suitable for promotion and marketing. Most of girls who were present here on this day would not know Angry Birds. However, the character of a round form tends to be liked in Japan. Good luck!

The second event was held in Ginza Apple Store.

Rovio Entertainment CMO Peter Vesterbacka gave a speech about the history of Angry Birds and business in the future. The participant of this event had many men. In the last of the event, a man asked a question "After a black bird explodes, what happens to him?" Probably he would want to say in this way "Does the black bird die?". Vesterbacka answered "Angry Birds are magic bird, so revive immediately".

I remembered that it was interesting about Angry Birds. When I recommended my friends Angry Birds, they said. "It seems to be painful" "A bird and a pig are pitiful" "Do birds dash themselves and die? Cruel!" etc...
Of course the negative impression fades away because the game system of Angry Birds is very fun while they play. However, the Japanese tends to be sensitive to "attack". Especially they may be sensitive to a bodily crush attack. In addition, probably, the Japanese do empathy to a character superfluously. It may be better for Angry Birds to advertize prettiness rather than aggressiveness in Japan.

Air Mushroom picking

2011-12-11T02:06:00.001+09:00

"Kinoko no Yama" is a chocolate snack popular in Japan. "Kinoko no Yama" means "The mountain of a mushroom" in Japanese.

Meiji which was the maker of this released iPhone application for promotion.

This is the game application that can experience mushroom hunting artificially. However, of course the mushroom is a chocolate snack:)

Many mushrooms appear when we watch neighboring scenery with a camera.

We perform hold of these with a finger, raise iPhone and pull it out. It is slightly difficult and tips need it.

The mushroom which gathered a harvest are list-ized.

Meiji seems to be interesting in AR recently.

See also:
AR figure of Final Fantasy XIII-2 on package of chewing gum

GREE released a prepaid card

2011-12-09T03:50:00.001+09:00

GREE sells a prepaid card from today in Seven-Eleven.

The price are 1500 yen and 5000 yen two types.

The prepaid card does not have popularity somehow in Japan. When I went to U.S., I watched that many kinds of prepaid cards were sold at a toy shop, drugstore and convenience store. However, main prepaid cards sold in Japan are iTunes card, Nintendo card, PSN cards of Sony. Probably this is because mobile payment and e-money completely spread in Japan. Why GREE release a prepaid card this time? I think this is smartphone measures.

By the way, I may always think about a prepaid card. It is a "design" of the cards. A prepaid card has no business, if a serial code is inputted by a website. However, it is a waste of it. For example, how about putting a prepaid card and the factor of trading card together? After having input a serial cord, users can play with a prepaid card. In addition, they can enjoy the collection of card, too. Furthermore, how about adding AR contents to a prepaid card? I think that there is still room for much improvement in a prepaid card.

AR figure of Final Fantasy XIII-2 on package of chewing gum

2011-12-08T01:39:00.001+09:00

Square Enix carries out a tie-up of Final Fantasy XIII-2 using AR apps with Japanese famous sweets maker Meiji.

http://www.meiji.co.jp/sweets/candy_gum/xylish/cmp/ff/

They released free AR apps for smartphones "XYLISH AR figure skating " for this tie-up. (iOS/ Android)

The AR apps works with three flavors of Meiji's chewing gum brand "XYLISH" :Crystal Mint, Fruity Mint, and Hyper Cool.

Start AR apps

XYLISH Fruity Mint

AR figure of Lightning appeared!

Press A or B to make Lightning change her pose

You can upload a photo to Twitter and Facebook.

Japanese e-money Web Money tie-up with Ameba Pigg and Famiry Mart

2011-12-07T17:11:00.001+09:00

Japanese e-money Web Money started a tie-up with popular virtual world Ameba Pigg and convenience store Famiry Mart.

When we buy Web Money in FamilyMart, we can get special virtual goods of Ameba Pigg.

Web Money enforces a lot of such tie-ups. The game card is not so popular in Japan. In addition, there are few game cards sold in Japan. However, e-money and mobile payment are completely takes roots in Japan. Besides, we can do payment at a convenience store. The offtake of the Japanese virtual goods are crazy. It originates in infrastructure of virtual currency. They are "e-money", "mobile", "convenience store".

Social Games of Japanese mobile social gaming startup Gumi

2011-12-05T18:47:00.001+09:00

via Tech Crunch
Japanese Mobile Social Gaming Startup Gumi Raises $26 Million

We can watch the name of gumi everywhere today. The social games of gumi are popular in Japan. They are popular in GREE in particular. However, they are not known easily abroad. And gumi CEO Kunimitsu can speak English, but the English version of gumi's website does not yet open.

Therefore I translated the summary of their popular social game into English in reference to this page of gumi's website.

Senboku! (Release: August 30, 2011)
It is the newest social game of gumi about Japanese Warring States period(Sengoku period). Users get the figures of various types of military commanders. And give a level of the figure by a quest and a battle, and get arms, accessories and skills. It is the characteristic of this game to bring up figure.

Sangoku! (Release: August 15, 2011)
The basic game system is almost the same as Sengoku!. However, the motif of this is a China's "Records of Three Kingdoms". Originally it was a social game for Japanese future phones. Now we can play this in GREE for smartphone as web application.

Ninkyodo (Release: August 09, 2011)
Probably this is the most popular in social games of gumi. It's won best RPG prize in GREE Award 2011 first half. This is a social card game about the Japanese Mafia "Yakuza". Users play everyday free Gacha(vending machine which various cards can buy at random) and collect the cards of the Yakuza character. And play various quests, battle with other users, give the level of characters. Originally it was a social game for Japanese future phones. Now we can play this in GREE for smartphone as web application.

Duel Eiyuutan (Release: July 11, 2011)
This is the social game that fused by world history and a card game. The user becomes a time venturer, become a frined with historical famous people and organize "hero army corps". The characteristic of this game are "world history" and "historical famous people". Users do a time slip to various times in a game play, and play qwest. You can make army corps with Perry, Napoleon and Caesar :)

Duel in Wonderland (Release: July 05, 2011)
The basic game system is almost the same as Duel Eiyuutan. However, the motif of this is a Fairy tales in the world. Users have adventures in the world of various fairy tales and make friends with characters. This is popular with women.

Kaizokudo (Release: July 04, 2011)
English translation of this title is "The road to pirate". The basic game system is almost the same as Ninkyodo. However, the motif of this is a pirate.

Deul Summoner (Release: March 29, 2011)
Users become "summons" of creature and collect treasures hidden in all parts of the world. And contract with various creature such as angel, devil, god, put them together and buttle with other users. The characteristic of this game is personified creature. creature in various legends of the world comes up in this, but all of they are personified.

My HelloKitty (Release: February 25, 2011)
gumi and Sanrio developed this jointly. This is a general pet game, but is Hello Kitty not to mention a pet. Users do care of one's Hello Kitty and have changing clothes. Hello Kitty learns various gestures in the process.

There are many other social games of gumi. They released 18 titles only in 2011. Furthermore, they developed sports social game "FIFA world class soccer" of GREE in cooperation with EA. The main platform of current gumi is GREE. Their social games sells a virtual currency for 100M yen(about 1,280,000USD) per day in GREE.

It may show the tendency of the Japanese social gamer when we check their social games. They are "collection", "combination", "upbringing". Social "card" game is popular in current Japan. Because there are all these three elements. There is the function of buttle with other users, too, but it may not be so important. It is only one of the processes of upbringing. However, the development of the social card game is hard. Because the developer must prepare for the art works of many characters. It is the attractive characters whom users want to pay money. gumi's social games have the artwork of about 100-200 characters. Furthermore, they increase by update. In Japanese social games, artist is important with engineer equally.

[Photo Report]Make: Tokyo Meeting 07

2011-12-05T02:30:00.001+09:00

I went to oreilly Japan's DIY event "Make: Tokyo Meeting 07" today.

I love this event. My inspiration springs out when I go to this event.

The 3D printer which was made with an clear acrylic board. It becomes not only the 3D printer but also the cool interior.

Hammock for geeks. These are hammocks made with LAN cables "LANmock".

Radioactivity crisis enlightenment balloons.

Many people gather for this event every time. Children, students, families, old people etc... every kind of people come here. Are all of them geeks or DIY lovers?

Oreilly's Capsule toy vending machine.

Geek girl makes the fake sweets LED light.

Programming workshop for children.

There were a lot of particularly handmade musical instrument and 3D printers this time.

The person who utilized Gamification first in Japan

2011-12-04T00:07:00.001+09:00

Gamification begins to become the topic recently in Japan. However, I think that the Japanese utilizes it from old days. They do not only know the word "Gamification."

The person who utilized Gamification first in Japan of which I think is Nobutame Heizo Hasegawa(長谷川平蔵宣以). He is the samurai who lived from 1745 to 1795. He was the head of police organization called "Hitsuke Touzoku Aratamekata". They were the police organizations of the atrocious crime speciality. Because Edo era of Japan was peace, samurais rarely fought with a sword(Katana) in fact. However, only the duty of "Hitsuke Touzoku Aratamekata(火付盗賊改方)" was very dangerous. If it compares to the present age, they resemble SWAT. Hasegawa was a very able person, so, many brutal criminals were arrested. Citizens of Edo called him "OniHei(鬼平)" with awe and respect("Oni" means a demon or ogre in Japanese. However, it is used as not only a negative meaning but also a meaning to strength).

Hasegawa had another face. It is drafting and administration of the rehabilitation facilities of the misdemeanants. He not only arrested brutal criminals, but considered the petty criminal's rehabilitation. And he thought the cause of the crime to be poverty and unemployment. Therefore he established an institution called "Ninsokuyoseba(人足寄場)". The Japanese jails of the Edo era were the places which shut up the offender. However, Ninsokuyoseba was a place which teaches offenders various work. The kinds of works are carpenter, making a bucket, straw mat knitting, basket knitting, sewing, making a recycling paper, cloth texture, etc.... The product produced by these work was sold and was assigned to independence support gold of the criminal. Surprisingly these systems are almost the same as the system of the prison in present-day Japan. In addition, the Ninsokuyoseba products were popular among the people because these had good quality and cheap price(This is the same as the present-day, too).

However, it was difficult to keep motivation to their works because originally they are criminals. Therefore Hasegawa added an idea to their uniform. He dressed them the polka-dot kimono(Polka-dot for criminals? You may think it so funny:) However, the polka dots were general designs in old Japan. There was the samurai who wore the surcoat of polka dots in medieval Ages). At first, they wear the polka-dot kimono in which many dots were printed. However, whenever the skill of their work improved, it was changed to the few dots kimono. They came to gradually make an effort for a few dots kimono. And they came to compete with a friend for the fewer dots. When a dot disappears from a kimono and wears a plain kimono, it is their "graduation".

It is the visualization of "efforts" and "action" which Hasegawa practiced. I think that this is essence of Gamification. In life, neither efforts nor action becomes fruitful in many cases. However, in a game, action and efforts are always visualized. Get experience level, get virtual goods, get virtual currency, improvement, ranking etc... Gamification is to apply them to the real world. If one's effort is visualized, any person becomes glad. Of course the word "Gamification" did not exist in the Edo era. However, Hasegawa might have the idea of this.

By the way, Hasegawa is a popular person in the present age. There are a period novel, comics, TV drama and movie that featured the theme of him "OniHei Hankacho(鬼平犯科帳)".

Polka dots kimonos are drawn in the comics version of OniHei Hankacho.

GREE's Social game advertisement

2011-12-02T01:28:00.001+09:00

It is Shinjuku Station of a subway here. There are a lot of GREE's social game advertisements.

This is a social game called "holy war Cerberus". It's one of the social card games which are the most popular in GREE.

GREE used the members of a Japanese popular dance group EXILE for this advertisements.GREE has spent 100 million yen(about 1,280,000USD) on the advertisement. Now in Japan, all the places such a magazine, TV, in train and among a town have the GREE's advertisements.

Social "card" game is popular now in Japan.

[Photo Report] Rovio's reception party of Angry Birds in Embassy of Finland

2011-12-01T01:11:00.001+09:00

On November 30, Rovio held a reception party of Angry Birds at a embassy of Finland in Japan.

The garden of the embassy was decorated in stuffed toys of Angry Birds. KAWAII! :)

Furthermore, the room was full of stuffed toys, too.

iittala & Angrt Birds

Angry Birds big Christmas tree

At the party, such a cute sweets were distributed.

Angry Birds cupcake! Of course we were able to eat characters.

He is Henri Holm, SVP Asia

He is Harri Koponen, Director of Merchandising

As a special guest Foreign Trade Minister of Finland, Mr. Alexander Stubb came(He visits Japan by the inspection of the stricken area of Tōhoku earthquake now). According to him, he is a huge fan of Angry Birds. He said, "Rovio is one of the ventures that are the hottest in Finland now. Angry Birds is a new Finnish representative character."

There are a lot of rivals of the characters who are cute(Kawaii) in Japan. It is necessary for Angry Birds to do an intense battle with them. Good luck！

Delicious slime

2011-11-30T03:23:00.001+09:00

Convenience store FamilyMart started selling "Slime Steamed Meat Buns" today.

This is the 25th anniversary food of famous RPG "Dragon Quest" seriese. The price is 170yen(about 2.2USD).

Is it lovely? Or is it uncanny?

The taste is good:) Chemistry food materials are not used for this at all. Blue is gardenia dye, red is deep red malted rice dye and black is charcoal dye.

Slime Steamed Meat Buns are sold by 1 million limitation. It became the extreme popularity and became the topic in Twitter.

Alice Wonderland

2011-11-28T18:24:00.001+09:00

New game apps for iPhone of CyberAgent America "Alice Wonderland" is very cute & fun! According to Shinichi Saijo , it was mostly developed by only U.S. members.

You have to improve desolate Wonderland.

When you builds objects in Wonderland, the "friend" of Wonderland comes.

Although it differs from "Kawaii" of Japan, the design of this game is really cute!

Kawaii fishing game application "Tsuri-Pon"

2011-11-25T01:06:00.001+09:00

Cybre Agent released new game apps for iOS "Tsuri-pon!". "Tsuri" means fishing in Japanese.

You can play Tsuri-Pon using the avatar of Ameba Pigg.

You can do fishing in tsuri-Pon in Japan's various seas.

The game system of Tsuripon-Pon like a rhythm game. Let's play with turn on BGM!

I fished the special fish!

When, you fished special fish, you can Tweet it.

The graphics and animation of Tsuri-Pon are very Kawaii! :)

"Aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami archive" which were developed using Google Earth

2011-11-16T19:44:00.001+09:00

http://shinsai.mapping.jp/

This is mash-up contents to understand the real state of affairs of the Japan Earthquake that cannot be understood by inspecting individual photographs. Users can view over 40 photographs from New York Times and others using google earth, and compare sceneries before / after the earthquake. All photographs are overlapped with three-dimensional geographical features, so the damage situation of the Sendai airport and the Fukushima nuclear power plant and others can be understood three-dimensionally. And also, Google's imagery update of Japan is included, users can switch latest and past satellite image by radio-buttons. We will add more photographs as much as possible.

via http://nagasaki.mapping.jp/p/japan-earthquake.html

Hidenori Watanave Laboratory, Tokyo Metropolitan University + Students continue developing a splendid archive using Google Earth. You can watch the interview video of the victims with the photos of the disaster.

They already developed Nagasaki atom bomb archive and Hiroshima atom bomb archive.

Japanese Netizen makes a smartphone hear the sound of fart and checks a sound recognition function

2011-11-14T09:13:00.001+09:00

One day, in anonymity BBS of the biggest in Japan "2 Channel", a certain project started. Japanese Netizen carried out an interesting experiment with a smartphone.

"Make a smartphone hear the sound of a fart, and report search results"

Now, there are a functions to search by sound recognition to both iPhone and Japanese Android smartphone. What did they search from a fart?

Examples:
1. "Dante - The Divine Comedy"
2. He call to the class teacher in the days of the high school.
3. He call to the mother.
4. He call to telephone number 8566
5. "Who?"
6. iPod started.
7. "Gogh"
8. "* 3 * "
9. "Titanic"
10. "Yahoo!" (This appeared by a sound search of Google)

Various interesting results came out besides these. There were many examples which the different function of the smartphone started suddenly.

Netizen in the last said,
"Probably, Jobs did not imagine that iPhone was carried out in such usage. "

via
http://blog.livedoor.jp/neteyomu/archives/622523.html

Popular geolocation social game "MyTown" came over to Japan

2011-11-13T11:13:00.001+09:00

Geolocation social game "MyTown" goes Japan. Yumemi performs localization and the administration in Japan.

We were able to play MyTown until now in Japan. However, unfortunately it was not so popular. because the Geolocation games are popular in Japan for several years and there are many rival titles.

Therefore Yumemi changed the design of MyTown boldly.

These are original MyTown

The colors are vivid. It is a cool design.

These are MyTown Japanese ver.

Kawaii design:)

Most of the systems are the same, but the designs are entirely different.

The designs of the icon are different, too.

"MyTown" "マイタウン"

Which do you like?

Japanese Netizen does funny play in virtual fitting room of H&M

2011-11-09T20:02:00.002+09:00

The virtual fitting room of fashion brand H&M is a very convenient function. It's like a changing clothes of avatar.

However, Japanese Netizen began funny play using this.

"Let's think about kinky coordinates!"

This spread rapidly in Twitter.

However, they did constructive suggestion last.

"We can change a hairstyle and coordinates by drag & drop and can change the color, too. This is very convenient. In addition, it was better when the model could be changed to the short model. The coordinates to look good with by height are different."
"I wish I can place an order for this coordination as it is. "

via
http://mamesoku.com/archives/3135861.html

Japanese snack uses a social game for promotion

2011-11-07T03:32:00.000+09:00

I found the interesting social game example. This is Japanese snack "PRETZ".

PRETZ gives the social game for promotion "Odecoke PRETZ" in mixi.

"Odecoke PRETZ" is geolocation social game using the GPS function of the future phone.

The avatar of "OdecokePRETZ" is a package of PRETZ.

Users can gets virtual goods according to migration length. And we change an avatar using them.

However, though regrettable, this social game can be played only in a future phone and it's only Japanese support. The Japanese must appear abroad.

At Apple Store Ginza, Toyko last night...

2011-10-07T09:01:00.003+09:00

R.I.P.

Japanese Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band Seikima-II Held 3D Film Gig Tour

2011-09-04T14:19:00.000+09:00

Japanese Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band -and one of my favorite band- "Seikima-II(聖飢魔II)" Held 3D Film Gig Tour. I went to holding in Zepp Tokyo.

This to say nothing of their 3D film gig was the first time. To begin with, music artist's 3D film gig is still few in Japan. In this 3D film gig, it showed with gig of the last year as 3D Vision. It was about 4 hours at total time! It was very fantastic. However, my eyes were a little tired :)

Furthermore, their clothes, musical instrument and panel were displayed in a floor. Cool!

In addition, the profit of this gig is contributed to a victim of 2011 Aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami as a contribution. The message board to victims was installed in the floor, too.

See Also:
Japanese Heavy Metal legend SEIKIMA-II released iPhone apps for promotion

Cool customer correspondence of the IKEA Japan's Twitter account

2011-08-26T05:32:00.001+09:00

IKEA Japan's official Twitter account "Anna" is very popular now in Japan.

@IKEA_jp_Anna

Anna is a character of the setting of working at the contact center of IKEA Japan. She does news dispatch and customer correspondence in Twitter.

However, Japanese Twitter users came to ask Anna a strange question.

It began in this Tweet.

"Does IKEA sell the human chair? I want the one that it doesn't cost the food expenses."

Then Anna did a faithful answer for the question.

"We do not sell the human chair. I'm sorry without being able to comply with your demand."

The faithful customer correspondence of Anna became the topic. And, the Japanese Twitter users began to do a strange question to Anna one after another.

"My friend said that IKEA is selling the military Stealth tank. Are there still these stock? I want them seven. "
Anna: Our large warehouse can hold seven tanks. However, unfortunately we do not sell them. I'm sorry without being able to comply with your demand.

"I have only few friends. Can I buy a friends in IKEA?"
Anna: Unfortunately we do not sell a friend. However, please talk again if I am enough.

"Does IKEA sell Udon? What is soup?"
Anna: Unfortunately there is not the udon in the restaurant for visitors. However, there is it in the company cafeteria. Yesterday's seasoning aimed at the summer heat cancellation and was a vinegar soy sauce.

"Does IKEA sell F-14TOMCAT? It retired, but was my favorite fighter."
Anna: I'm sorry. We do not sell it. In addition, we are Swedish companies. So, if we sell a fighter, it will be Saab."

The splendid customer correspondence of Anna still continues. A part of these exchanges is summarized in Japanese Twitter curation service "Togetter"(English name: Chirpstory) with a title "The things which IKEA does not sell"(Written in only Japanese).

These communications seem to joke very much. However, I think that it has consequentially raised the corporate value of IKEA.

Zombie fever!!!

2011-08-25T01:32:00.000+09:00

I played iPhone game apps "Zombie Restaurant" after a long absence yesterday. Then the graphic of the game became very cool!

People are dead in a town!

Zombies eat the body!

Zombies act violently in a town when we do not feed zombies a dish at a restaurant. This is very cool update.

Download free

Ameba Pigg tie-up with GUCCI

2011-08-24T03:22:00.000+09:00

Japanese popular virtual world Ameba Pigg tie-up with GUCCI.

Official logo!

This tie-up is carried out in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of GUCCI. They sell some official virtual goods of GUCCI. They are slightly more expensive than normal　virtual goods of Ameba Pigg. The most expensive virtual goods cost 1,800 yen (about23.5USD). We can buy a real bag for this money! :)

However, I saw a lot of Ameba Pigg avatars which put on virtual goods of GUCCI today.

If people of the Edo era use Twitter?

2011-08-16T16:12:00.001+09:00

Many Japanese Twitter users started funny wordplay again by using this Japanese long hush tag.

#江戸時代のtwitterにありがちなこと

This hush tag means "It is often in Twitter in Edo period" in Japanese. Japanese Twitter users combine the history in Edo period and the Twitter culture of Japan. If people of 200 - 500 years ago are using Twitter? Those Tweets are very funny!

This is the works which I like most.

Last general of the Edo Shogunate Toshinobu Tokugawa became the mayor of Edo Castle on
Fouesquare! :D

See Also:
If an English band name is translated into Japanese, it becomes nerdy
Japanese Twitter users are doing the wordplay with Japanese Hashtag

More light!

2011-08-15T19:33:00.001+09:00

The parents' home had me until last week. There was the severe situation. I worked at a apple farm of parents’ home. There goes to ruin everywhere. Because the Japanese agriculture is not profitable, and there are not youths in the farm village. Furthermore, my dad suffers from pulmonary lung cancer. According to the doctor, The remainder of father's life is 2 years. However, my parents are very poor. My younger brother lives with parents, but his monthly salary is only 150,000 yen.

My parents do not receive higher education. Naturally they are ignorant for the IT. Therefore I intended to teach them knowledge about the Internet at first. However, it was a shallow thought. Does it have a meaning to preach the splendor of technology and social media to a person a severe life? nti-cancer drug cannot be used because there is no money though cancer suffered, cannot pay monthly public utilities charges, cannot make money by work...Does it have the meaning to recommend a smartphone to the person that such a life became common?

And, Japan's farm village and the labour for farming have curse that the news of the world on the outside becomes trivial.

This is the scenery around my parents' home. I took it by Instagram, but is the scenery which is terrible in consideration of it.

However, the situation changed completely as soon as I took out iPad.

Parents operated iPad immediately! The parents know neither the smartphone nor the tablet at all. On the contrary, the parents have not possessed even a featurephone. Furthermore, they are 60 years old!

They said in this way.

Dad: It started as soon as I pushed the button! There is a great difference between this and Windows!
Mam: If there is even this, I can do anything if a finger moves even if a body did not move.
Dad: I can enlarge a screen even if I become hard to see it.
Mam: The ignorant human being like us must use this in future.
Dad: I do not understand it by the explanation with TV and the newspaper at all. However, it can be understood when I really use it in this way.

The expression of parents changed brightly in a moment. Light seemed to have opened it to cloudy skies.

"Everyone can use it even if there is no manual"--- This is very splendid!

Afterwards, dad has gotten smartphonen catalog from the electric appliances store. In addition, dad seemed to be interested in Samsung's GALAXY. "GALAXY looks just like iPhone and seems to be easy to use" he reason. The designwork of Samsung is also splendid. Because even man with an ignorant smartphone understands when it is just like iPhone :)

I actually felt the technology and the Internet were "Light of hope".

Nendoroid Wakusei(Planet)

2011-08-09T18:51:00.000+09:00

Japanese figure maker Good smile Company released cool free iPhone application.

Nendoroid Wakusei(Planet) *Wakusei means Planet in Japanese

"Nendoroid" is anchor product of Good smile Company. Various characters are deformed cutely. Good smile Company utilized the 3D model data of those figures well.

UI of this application is full 3D. However, It work very smoothly.

You play a game and can get a virtual currency.

And you can play a vending machine using the virtual currency.

Then, you can get virtual Nendoriod at random.

You collect much Nendorid in this way. Kawaii!

The 3D model of Nendoroid changes an angle and can look from all courses.

Furthermore, you can take a AR-like photos.

Of course you can check the news of the latest product, too. (Unfortunately written in only Japanese)

Let's download this if you look for the cute 3D application.

download is here(free)

The Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Archive on Google Earth "Hiroshima Archive"

2011-08-07T05:08:00.000+09:00

August 6 is a day when the atomic bomb was dropped to Hiroshima by the U.S. Army. Hidenori Watanave Laboratory at Tokyo Metropolitan University launched pluralistic digital archive “The Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Archive”.

http://hiroshima.mapping.jp/ (English and Japanese)

“The Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Archive” is a pluralistic digital archive using Google Earth to display on it the materials gained from such sources as the Hiroshima peace memorial museum, the Hiroshima Jogakuin gaines association and the Hachioji atomic bomb survivors association. You can watch survivor's note, interview video and photos here.

They launched "Nagasaki Archive"(English and Japanese) as well as this last year. Please check this, too.

Fuckin' News! The Japanese Government begins censorship of internet

2011-08-04T16:00:00.001+09:00

Fuck! The Japanese Ministry of Economy do the censorship. They are recruited the tender of the watching service of improper Tweet & blog.

Criminal document of the Japanese Ministry of Economy (Written in Japanese)
http://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/info/tender/tenddata/1106/110624b/110624b.htm

Then, Japanese advertising agency ADK accepted an order of this work for 70 million yen from them. 70 million yen is about 900,000 USD now. The salary of the work that only watch the Internet is 900,000 USD. Fuck!

Why will not they give the 900,000 USD to victims of an earthquake and the radioactivity? Aren't they shameful in themselves?

Source:
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/national/news/CK2011072802000040.html
(Written in Japanese)

If an English band name is translated into Japanese, it becomes nerdy

2011-08-04T03:01:00.001+09:00

I'm into funny wordplay on such a Japanese Twitter hashtags

#英語のバンド名を日本語にするとダサイ

Meaning...
If an English band name is translated into Japanese, it becomes nerdy

See Also:
Japanese Twitter users are doing the wordplay with Japanese Hashtag

These are my works

This is play to translate an English band name into Japanese. It is really funny!! When the cool band name translates into Japanese, it become very nerdy! However, I can't explain it in English.

There are a lot of other works of Japanese Twitter users.
It cannot enjoy this wordplay if not well versed in both English and Japanese. The global wordplay is difficult!

By the way, there are a lot of foreigners carving Tattoo of the kanji to a body. Say honestly, they look very nerdy when the Japanese sees.

The Japanese heroes goes to YouTube officially

2011-08-03T13:48:00.000+09:00

Japanese film, television production Toei Co., Ltd. Toei opened an official channel in YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/TOEIcojp

Toei is a Japanese representative film company. They in particular are known by producing a lot of special effects movie and TV programs. Do you know Japanese heroes such as Kamen Rider and Power Rangers? Originally they are the contents that Toei owns.

Toei will upload about 120 contents in future on YouTube. In them, there are old heroes and latest heroes. If you compare them, you will notice the evolution of the special effects technology of Japan.

Camera application for Women from Japan "girls pic"

2011-08-02T16:00:00.000+09:00

Are you interested in the Japanese women's fashion ? In addition, do you want to share your fashion photos with another person? Then let's use this camera application.

girls pic

girls pic is very similar to Instagram. However, it specializes concept, UI, design all for a women. Just the thing is "KAWAII".

You can add a filter to a photo. There are more those kinds than Insragram.

Furthermore, you can add a frame to a photo.

.

Then, you choose a category. The categorys are "nail" "fashion" "cosme" "lifestyle".

You write the caption of the photo.

Post-completion! There are a lot of KAWAII photos!

In addition, there are the social functions such as friend request, links with Twitter, Favorite..etc.

Download is here

iPhone application of Hatsune Miku's PV "electric love"

2011-08-01T16:41:00.000+09:00

Japan’s Virtual PopStar Hatsune Miku Rocks Los Angeles!

Do you want to watch Hatsune Miku on iPhone always? Then let's download "electric love"!

"electric love" is application to be able to enjoy the figure that Miku of 3D produced by 3DCG movie making tool "MikuMiku Dance" moves cutely.

Furthermore, you can get the wall paper, too.

"Touch" - When you touch Miku, she do various reactions.

Download is here

Ninja's hand hidden blade iPhone application for movie promotion

2011-07-30T04:35:00.000+09:00

A Kids mobie called "Ninjya Boy Rantaro"(Directed by Takashi Miike! Cool!) is shown now in Japan.

iPhone application is applied in the promotion of this movie.

Nintama Rantaro Attacker (Ninjya Boy Rantaro Attacker)

This is AR-like application. We can throw "Shuriken"(hand hidden blade) on real scenery.

Then sound effects of Shuriken are displayed on scenery. We can photograph the screenshot and upload it on Twitter.

However, amount of Shuriken where we are thrown in 1day includes a limit. This is application for kids. Probably this will be a system to prevent children from monopolizing iPhone of the parent :)

Download is here(Free)

Farming Social Game in Ameba Pigg "Pigg Life"

2011-07-26T05:26:00.000+09:00

I wrote about CyberAgent's new social game World Chef a few days ago.
There is the game like this in Ameba Pigg(It's the archetypal Japanese virtual world of Ameba Pico).

It is Pigg Life.

Pigg Life is the farming social game that we can play in Ameba Pigg account and avatar.

Choose the house

Game start!

The tutorial is an animation.

The system of the game is not so different from other farming social games.

This is NPC's area. I want to make such a gorgeous garden early!

Furthermore, Pigg Life can make a dish with the farm products which we harvested.

I get a reward when I handle a quest.

Pigg Life can change an avatar like Ameba Pigg. However, the fashion items are not sold now. We get them only by the reward.

In the good point of Pigg Life, crops do not die. Because it is a shock that crops die even if it is Flash graphic.

"Wonder Festival 2011 [Summer]" Photo Report

2011-07-25T04:32:00.001+09:00

Today, I went to Japan's biggest figure & toy event "Wonder Festival 2011 [Summer]".

This is a main visual. Why is a catfish drawn?

See Also:
Japanese Artists Draw Catfish To Encourage The Earthquake Sufferers

A lot of charity figures were sold here.

I watched 3D Motion-Capture Figure For 3D CG Production "Quma". It was cool! Quma is a device that can be used also for the interior item! :)

Airu is so cute!!!!!!

It’s my friends GALVANIC’s works. He is making works who used animal’s bone. Cool!

I began Tumblr

2011-07-24T04:20:00.000+09:00

I began Tumblr from yesterday.

http://chihok.tumblr.com/

I intend to write my favorite Japanese contents here. Book, comics, anime, movie, music, figure, game, character…etc…. If you likes Japanese contents, you will be able to enjoy here! :)

Pokemon became the iPhone application at last

2011-07-23T04:34:00.000+09:00

On July 15, the first iPhone application of Pokemon was released. "Pokemon Ie TAP?"
This is a music game for children. The player taps a screen to rhythm of Pokemon song "Pokemon Ierukana? BW".

However, it may be difficult for children because a tempo is fast.

Nintendo does not release social application and a social game until now. Moreover, they say that they will not release it in the future.
"Pokemon Ie TAP? "Is time-limited release until September 30. Can this application change determination of Nintendo?

Download is here

Let's play a restaurant game with Ameba Pico avatar ---World Chef

2011-07-22T03:29:00.000+09:00

CyberAgent is eager in a social game recently. They released a new social game "World Chef" this week on Facebook.

World Chef is a restaurant game played by using the avatar of virtual world "Ameba Pico" as it is. If you are playing Ameba Pico, you can play World Chef by same design avatar of Ameba Pico.

This is an initial restaurant Cheap interior! It's like a stall of the campus festival! :)

The system is the almost same as other restaurant games. We can cook various dishes of the world.

The screenshot function is implemented, too.

Let's help with the restaurant of the friends!

It's still far to a gorgeous restaurant....

We can open the branch all over the world by raising the level.

Japanese Twitter users are doing the wordplay with Japanese Hashtag

2011-07-21T03:02:00.002+09:00

Official Twitter blog announced [J] that Twitter is capable of Japanese character hashtags.

See Also:
Twitter Finally Supports Japanese Hashtag

Then, a lot of Japanese Twitter users started a strange wordplay. This is a trend hashtags　of 　yesterday's Tokyo.

What is this long hashtag? This is specification of the theme of the wordplay.
For example, this hashtag is such a meaning.

#Mix the Ghibli's movie titles. The most funny works is champion

Users who wants to join in this wordplay attaches this hashtag and Tweet a works. They are really funny! However, It's impossible to translate them into English...

These are my Tweets(Works)

#If "Younger sister" is put on the Japanese version title of the progressive rock number, they become like the title of the light novel

I used King Crimson as materials :)

There are various themes elsewhere. This wordplay does not have a purpose, a prize and sponsor. In addition, we do not know who thought about what kind of hashtag. They appear all too soon and disappear all too soon.

It's a very interesting and funny phenomenon. However, I can't explain it in English. It's exactly only in Japan.

A Japanese Twitter user wrote such a hashtag.

#If the hushtag is given to the Japanese, it becomes Ogiri

CyberAgent America's new restaurant game "Zombie Restaurant"

2011-07-19T05:57:00.001+09:00

U.S.A. corporation of CyberAgent CyberAgent America released new game application "Zombie Restaurant" for iPhone.

This game application will look like an ordinary restaurant game. However, visitors are various types of zombies. The player must treat zombis with the dish. If they cannot be done, the player and the steward are eaten by zombis.

The recipes are very unique! This is a "brain burger"! :)

The collection function to collect logs of zombis who come to a store is provided, too.

Many zombies came! This is dangerous!

This application supports Japanese and English. Download free.

Nade Nade Fuwamu

2011-07-11T13:14:00.000+09:00

Japan's representative IT venture CyberAgent makes efforts in female oriented smartphone application recently.

It's their new virtual pet apps for iPhone "Nade Nade Fuwamu".

System is simple, but design is so cute!

We take care of Fuwamu. However, it is only patted. Graphic of the body hair is excellent.
It seems to be really lightlysoftly! When we pat a lot of , his mood improves. Then, a virtual currency increases.

We can buy the fashion items with this virtual currency. Hat, bag, flower, glasses, etc...

Fuwamu was changed. I think that CyberAgent will start the virtual goods account by this apps in the future.

When we keep taking care of Fuwamu, he remembers various actions. Kawaii!

This apps is my recent favorite.

The downloading is here (Free)

SONY's new AR system "SmartAR" photo report

2011-05-29T03:19:00.000+09:00

Sony released markerless new AR system "SmartAR".

To this release, Sony held an experience event of SmartAR at Ginza Sony Building. Please enjoy a photoreport.

At cafe...

At boutique...

At Sony shop...

Outdoor advertisement

Door

The history of the AR study of Sony

Galapagos, ah...Galapagos, Galapagos

2011-05-18T04:22:00.000+09:00

Today, I watched Japanese e-book tablet "Galapagos" which a friend had.

It's a big! heavy! and strange size!

It had a long vertical size. I have not watched the ratio of such a screen size. I felt sense of incongruity very much. Golden ratio is important to the size of the gadget.

On the other hand, iPad2

Light! thin! and the color of the screen is beautiful!

....................Japan is over! \(^o^)/

Drag queen and Tohoku big earthquake

2011-05-17T01:11:00.001+09:00

On March 11, a gay man used Japanese video sharing site NICO NICO DOUGA. He did live streaming make-up of drag queen in NICONICO DOUGA.

About NICONICO DOUGA:See also
English Guide For Nico Nico Douga, Part 1: How To Register
English Guide For Nico Nico Douga, Part 2: How To Use

The tragedy came suddenly. An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 attacked Japan as soon as he showed a face of finished drag queen. You can watch the terror of the earthquake from log.

Fortunately, he was safe. After an earthquake stopped, he called, "were everybody safe?" immediately.

Now. we can watch a lot of video which took a moment of earthquake on video sharing site. However, this is a very rare case.

Funny DIY: iPad2 cover of Japanese bath tub lid

2011-05-16T02:58:00.000+09:00

The design of iPad2 cover looks similar with Japanese bath tab lid.

See also:
What New iPad2 Smart Cover Reminds Japanese – Bath Tub Lid

Then, Japanese blogger k.kinukawa [J]　made original iPad2 cover by using bath tub lid.

Funny!! :D

The covers are thicker than iPad2. The effort of Apple is spoiled! :D

DESIGN FESTA! vol.33 photo report

2011-05-16T02:32:00.000+09:00

I went to Japanese art event "DESIGN FESTA! vol.33" yesterday. It is the usual, this event is a treasure house of a variety of personality.

Main gate

New usage of tablet

Mystery creature

My lunch was a loco moco.

My friend GALVANIC's cool booth & works.

Show area

Super coooooool figure!!

I bought a strap of skull at this booth by 700yen. Good price!

Japanese sword umbrella. This made news in the U.S.

The very beautiful sunset

Using Instagram

Mickey Mouse goes Japanese Virtual World "Ameba Pigg"

2011-04-05T01:34:00.001+09:00

Anyone knows that the license consent of the character of Disney is difficult. Therefore there are little virtual goods of Disney.
However, Japanese virtual world "Ameba Pigg" released a lot of Disney's virtual goods last week.

There is the "Disney area" where they are sold. Very cute!

Fountain of Mickey Mouse

Item vending machine

Did Donald Duck wash?

Cute!

Virtual goods are sold for 200yen - 300yen. ( About 2.3USD - 3.5USD)

KAWAII !!

Nintendo 3DS of another person

2011-03-02T21:14:00.000+09:00

I watched Nintendo 3DS of the fellow worker yesterday. I was not able to reserve it in Amazon.co.jp because it was too popular.

This is my first impression:
I thought the superior point of Nintendo 3DS to be "AR Games". 3D stereoscopic vision of Nintendo 3DS is very smooth ans natural. In addition, "Face shooting", upload the face image and to make a shooting game is very interesting (and funny!). However, AR games are more attractive than them. I think that it can be most superior in a released AR game now.

Games such as THE EYE OF JUDGMENT may increase by Nintendo 3DS in future.

Coolest office in Tokyo

2011-02-16T19:19:00.000+09:00

I went in an EC navi special version of Bar Android the day before yesterday.

EC navi is a startup of Tokyo, but it is known as super cool office.

The art object of an entrance made from iron.

A floor map such as the map which shows whereabouts of the treasure.

COOOOOOOL!! The office where chandeliers are set up might be only here in Tokyo.

The sketching of the design concept.

Wall of conference room completed with concrete block of Okinawa special product.

It seems to be totally a shop, but here is a meeting room, too.

"Do not become navy. It is a pirate." Nice slogan!

I got a clear file of English word learning iPhone application "Moetan" as a souvenir.

Let's make a Bird Cafe’s poor osechi figure

2011-02-16T18:09:00.000+09:00

I have begun to make Bird Cafe 's poor osechi figure.

See Also
Photo Report: Wonder Festival 2011 winter

This is very delicate Garage kits.(The scale is 1/12)

I separated a parts carefully.

At first I spray Surface Primer.

To be continued......

Photo Report: Wonder Festival 2011 winter

2011-02-14T21:20:00.000+09:00

I exhibited to Wonder Festival 2011 winter last week.Wonder Festival is a biggest Garage kits & Toy event in Asia.

These are my works. 500yen

Lunch. It's a donburi dish consisting of happosai on top of rice. 600yen

KAWAII! Figure maker MedicomToy's limited figure "NOBIEMON"(Nobita ＋ Doraemon).

Figures done modeling with 3DCG data & 3D printer.

In this Wonder Festival, I had a certain big aim. It's to buy a Bird Cafe’s poor osechi figure(Garage kits).

It was sold for 2,000 yen.

See Also (ASIAJIN's articles):
Groupon Fails To Bring Happiness To Japanese New Year Holidays
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Apologizes To Japanese Customers For Osechi Trouble
Groupon Japan’s Osechigate Still Smoldering

Osechi figure is made of no foaming urethane resin. It's a very delicate splendid works! I look forward to completing this.

Let's shake the girl's tits with Android apps!

2011-02-04T22:14:00.000+09:00

This is Japanese.

Japanese startup Xrosspromotion released cool Android application. This is an application that shakes girl's tits.

Download charges are 300 yen.(about3.6USD).

Download page is here
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.xrosspro.android.app.shake001

GUNDAM Cafe

2011-02-04T21:46:00.000+09:00

It is famous that there are a lot of unique shop in AKIHABARA. However, I recommend this Cafe.

GUNDAM Cafe

Here is a Japanese robot animation series "GUNDAM"'s cafe. It is very convenient because there is near AKIHABARA station.

When you enter, big statues meet you.

What a cute! The menu which modelled on a GUNDAM's character!

They have the English official site. Check it!

http://g-cafe.jp/english/index.html

AR ×Second Life × Japanese traditional popular song

2011-01-18T20:56:00.000+09:00

to be continued......

Virtual Economy of Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year) in Ameba pigg

2011-01-17T21:24:00.000+09:00

In Japan, New Year's Eve and New Year holidays are biggest event in a year. It is similar in the virtual world.
CygerAgent's virtual world "Ameba Pigg [J]" sold a lot of virtual goods on the end of the year and the beginning of the year.

The Japanese eats "Toshikoshi-soba" on the night of the New Year's Eve. (soba is thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour)

CyberAgent sold 150,000 virtual goods of this Toshikoshi-soba in Ameba Pigg. However, this doesn't become the profit of CyberAgent because it was sold with a free virtual currency.

On the other hand, the Fukubukuro's profit is awesome!

Fukubukuro is the bag which unknown items were filled with. They are sold with a discount price than the actual value. The Japanese purchases these at various shops on New Year.
CygerAgent sold virtual Fukubukuro limited quantity only 2011 pieces. There were only female avatar's items in them. However, virtual Fukubukuro were sold out in several hours on January 1.
The price of this virtual Fukubukuro was 2011 yen each. Then …

2011×2011=4,044,121 yen!! (about 48,000 USD)

It's almost the same as the profit of real Fukubukuro.

In addition, 18 kinds of Oshogatsu(Japanese New Year) virtual goods were very popular, too.

These Oshogatsu virtual goods were sold about 480,000 during January 3, 2011 from December 31, 2010.
The most popular item of them was "Kadomatsu".

"Kadomatsu" is a traditional Japanese decoration of the New Year. It's made from bamboo, pine, straw and plum. Any home decorated the entrance with it in old days.
Virtual Kadomatsu was 200 yen, and they were sold about 16,000!

200×16,000=3,200,000 yen!! (about 3,8000 USD)

These Oshogatsu items are becoming outdated in the real world. However, they are still popular in the virtual world.

According to CyberAgent, about 2.4M users logged in to Ameba Pigg for a period of January 3 from December 31. This number is almost equal to real world's "Hatsumode(first Shinto shrine visit of the New Year)".

Current Ameba Pigg have more 5M users. The women are 65% and men are 35%.

Japanese 72years old gamer said, "Game has the effect to reduce crime"

2011-01-14T22:26:00.001+09:00

I wrote the article of Japanese 72 years old gamer Shiro Suzuki in February of the last year. He is a famous announcer, but is known as "Expert of the [BIOHAZARD]" in Japan.

He appeared in a game program of Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga on January 8. Therefore he told it about game "Mass Effect 2" for Xbox360. He makes a superior play by the game except BIOHAZARD.

He said, "I think that fighting and winning are one of the instincts of a man. ". Moreover, he quoted "GRAND THEFT CHILDHOOD(Kutner,Lawrence;Olson,Cheryl K.)" and said, "Young violence and sexual crimes decreased at the same time as games were popular in U.S.A.
Therefore the games have the effect of canceling a bad desire."

Furthermore, he said that the games were good for health. "
The action games should pay attention to my environment as well as driving the car. Moreover, it's necessary to move by under 1 seconds. Cars are duller than they. So, driving became easy since began game play."

The archive of the program of Nico Nico Douga to which he appeared is here.(The account of Nico Nico Douga is necessary.)

He will become 73 years old next month by February 10.

See also these articles:
Nico Nico Douga News [J]
Kotaku Japan [J]

The iPhone game character became a real toy

2011-01-14T21:00:00.000+09:00

I found such a Bulk vending the other day at Shibuya Station. These are toys of Japanese iPhone game "TUMINEKO". This is the first time that a character of application for iPhone became the real toy.

TUMINEKO is very popular game application for iPhone.This is used for a demonstration in Apple Store of the all over Japan.

TUMINEKO means "piling up cats" in Japanese. According to the title, users can piles up a cats of various size. The cats are very cute for physics operation quaking!

You can do Tweet of score.

Please download "TUMINEKO 2" if you want to challenge in world ranking. and I recommend "Real TUMINEKO" if you have iPad.

Why they say "real"?　Please look at this image and this page [J].

Let's study arithmetic with poo!

2011-01-13T21:08:00.000+09:00

Japanese startup KAYAC released mixi [J] application "Unko Enzan [J]" for education. This is application of the primary-school's arithmetic. However, there is funny characteristic in it. It is that poos are used for all problems.

"Unko Enzan" means "Poo Arithmetic" in Japanese.

Can you solve this problem?

"A diameter of rolled poo is 16cm. To calculate an approximate size of rolled poo, rolled poo is assumed to be a circle. How many cm is the perimeter of rolled poo? Pi is 3.14."

The answer is........

50.24cm!

How about this?

"Toru's weight is 47.5kg, and his poo is 230g. How many Toru's poos are the weight of him equivalent to?"

The answer is........

About 206.5!

There are ten problems about once. After an answer, a title is given by the number of the correct answers and time. I was able to answer only six problem correctly! Primary-school's's arithmetic is difficult! :D

According to the KAYAC's web page [J], "Poo is a magic word for primary-schoolchildren. It is a motif that is universal and passes in 100 years.".
It was developed as application for iPad at first. However, because a lot of poos had been too used, it was rejected to the examination of AppStore(So, they released in mixi).

This application does not have the support of other languages only in Japanese now. In addition, a Japanese mobile(future phone) is necessary for user's registration of mixi. I wish this supports a multi-language and becomes the Android application.

"Social Network" preview

2011-01-12T23:06:00.001+09:00

On January 9, I went to see "Social Network" preview. It will be in theaters in the Japan on January15.

Japanese ver. poster image.
It's written in this way...

Genius

Betrayer

Dangerous guy

Billionaire

Japanese version of "The facebook Effect"were sold at a 10% off price in the place.

Facebook How to book is released on February 2, too.

Before the screening, a talk show of Zynga Japan GM Shintaro Yamada was held. He did the Japanese subtitles supervision of this movie.
Yamada-san said, "Facebook is more easily than mixi usable SNS. Why was Facebook able to become the best SNS in the world in a lot of SNS? It's because it took in other interesting service immediately. When Twitter began to become popular, Facebook cooperated immediately. However, mixi was delayed."

The movie was very exciting and interesting! Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it though there were some elderly persons who would not know Facebook in the participant. Especially, Bill Gates's scene was laugh out loud!

I wish this movie becomes the topic in Japan.

Hamburger steak, Voice actress and AR

2011-01-11T22:20:00.000+09:00

Japan's Denny's is executing the campaign for the hamburger steak using AR and popular voice actress Aya Hirano.

Aya Hirano is very popular voice actress(seiyū) and J-Pop singer. She is known by the voice of Haruhi Suzumiya from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya".

Denny 'Management company SEVEN & i Food Systems released two AR application for this campaigns.

D Gold AR and GAME
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/d-gold-ar-game/id406649186?mt=8

D Silver AR and GAME
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id407203606?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
*There are not only the iPhone application but also the Android application

When you read a menu, you may find the AR marker there.

Then, let's use "D Silver AR and GAME".

Start screen of application

Let's start the camera.

CG animation of Aya Hirano appears when you photograph an AR marker with the smartphone's camera.

Afterwards, the screen changes into the menu introduction.

While you watch AR contents in this way, the hamburger steak food which did order arrives. (I forgot to take the hamburger steak!)

And you get such an AR card when you pay the bill.

Then, let's use "D Gold AR and GAME".

Then, Aya Hirano's different version of CG animation appears. She moves and talks!

After this, the application changes to the serial code input screen.

When you input the serial code described in the AR card...

You can watch a special movie of Aya Hirano. The special movie has four patterns in all, but the AR card is distributed at random. If you want to watch all movies, it's necessary to go to Denny's a lot, and collect cards.

The distribution of the cards are carried out until January 23. And, the limit of contents is January 31. Hurry up!

Tsukuba University's Second Life Machinima

2011-01-07T20:20:00.000+09:00

It's cool works!

Japan's Tsukuba University Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Laboratory shoots a PV with 3D virtual world Second Life.
Akira Yamamoto shoot a this works(He is a movie director at real life).

Akira Yamamoto's website
http://playgroundofsecretbase.blogspot.com/

This PV is used for student invitation and a demonstration of Laboratory.

A lot of Tablet in Comic Market

2011-01-06T22:12:00.000+09:00

I went to world's largest self-published comic book fair "comic market(Comiket)" at the end of last year.

What comic market ? via Wikipedia

This event is a sacred place of the otaku. And it's the place that can know the most tip of the Japanese contents industry.

I was able to watch the "change" that was here this time. It is that a lot of creators were using the tablet. iPad, Kindle, galaxy Tab......(and a little PSP, too). There were a lot of people who were using iPad.

In last summer, there were a few people who used tablet. Main users were the people who wrote a novel as the people who made a game. But, I was able to watch tablet with every genre this time. There was even Cosplayer which showed a collection of own Cosplay photographs on iPad.

The e-books correspondence of the publisher in Japan is much later than foreign countries. But Japanese creators begin to make e-books steadily.

JUMP FESTA

2010-12-28T18:17:00.000+09:00

On December 19, I went to JUMP FESTA.

JUMP FESTA is Japanese exposition event, all about anime comic, game, movie and music, sponsored by Shueisha. There are various exhibition booths about comic magazine brand "JUMP".

via Wikipedia

There was a lot of exhibition such as e-Books, Social game, Social apps for iPhone/Android, 3D film and AR about new technology this year.

TECMO KOEI HOLDINGS CO., LTD.'s new social game of dating sim for women.

Japanese mobile carrier KDDI collaborated with popular comics "ONE PIECE"

KDDI exhibited AR contents of ONE PIECE which used new Android smartphone "IS03". It used a palm as an AR marker. Characters of ONE PIECE appeared there when I shaded a palm with a camera of IS03 which started application. Because this AR contents are JUMP FESTA-limited, so we can't usually watch this. I wish we can watch this again.

KDDI × ONE PIECE goods