Last week I was kindly invited by the Tourism and International Affair Division of the Western Tottori General Office Citizen's Bureau (yes, a long name:-).The purpose of this invitation was to participate to the monitoring of a 3 days tour that could be offer in the future. This tour entitled "Kaike Daisen Exciting Tour" is for people having an interest in outdoor and sporty activities. The main activity being a ride around Daisen, the highest mountain of Western Japan, about 1700m. A good... Read more
Last week-end my wife and I joined Dan Castellano and some of his friends to do some volunteering in Ishinomaki with the NGO JEN. Ishinomaki is a port and one of the cities that have been the most devastated by the earthquake/tsunami of the 11th of March. It's a city about the size [160000 people] of my hometown Le Havre in France which is also a port. It is said that about 10000 persons lost their life in this area only.I upload the following photos and videos to encourage those... Read more
Well it is more about *my* Japanese summer...How's your summer?Here it's probably my hottest summer since I've been living in Japan. It 's the first year the lack of AC is bit of a problem at home.I am still working at UltraSuperNew for some Red Bull projects and an other website for an Ayurveda clinic in Tokyo. We already released the keitai site for Red Bull Japan. Keitai meaning "mobile", this website runs only on traditional Japanese handset. For iPhone and Android, things will come a bit la... Read more
How to play Shamisen was something I wanted to learn even before I start to live in Japan. Well, it actually took some time, but today I had my first lesson! Yeah !!I am a guitar player (well, I mean like everyone~) and always had interest in strings instruments. When I visited Istanbul in 2004 I bought a baglama (pronounced balama) and had fun with it at home even if I never properly learned how to play it :-) A friend also offered me a valiha (pronounced "valee" if I remember well) from... Read more
A quick post with : a cool dog : (I want one like this)And a video shot at arm's length : Japanese Tea Ceremony is well known all over the world. May I introduce you to to their Sake Ceremony :) Read more
By Fritz At 2009-07-21 09:22:07
from Tokyo ,Journalist
By 4ham At 2009-07-21 09:24:51
By James At 2009-07-21 09:58:17
from Boston ,Working
http://www.jamesmandrews.com
We also have these nifty hand scanners. Walk in, grab a scanner, scan and bag your groceries as you walk around the store (LOVE IT, Best invention EVER). Get to checkout and scan a bar code there as well. Pay at the self checkout kiosk. Every once and a while you are audited to make sure you are buying what you have scanned, they scan 5 random items and if they are on the scanner they trust you are legit.
Love technology.
By Shan At 2009-07-21 12:30:42
from Chicago, U.S.A.
By David At 2009-07-21 14:16:00
from Paris
http://davidsswamp.blogspot.com
By Jérome At 2009-07-21 16:14:38
from Home ,eating breakfast
http://www.jeromesadou.com
Well for now, in Japan it is still more usual to see 2 employees : one to register and one to help you to put your groceries in bags ... Not sure that this model will remain long though.
By swy At 2009-07-22 03:00:52
from uk ,engineer
although i not sure which is more ( read less) polite.... the machine or the grunting cashier who usually could give hoot to even say hello, let alone thankyou etc.
By swy At 2009-07-22 03:07:10
from uk
There is also usually a shop assistant manning a control pc that monitors all the self service desks... their second job is to come running over when one of the machines usulaly complains or gets confused.
Personnly for a alot of shopping (there are bigger versions of these machines too)... ie more than one bag i find the manned check outs alot quicker as you (in the uk) can pack the bags while the shop assistant scans.
By Gaetano At 2009-07-25 04:52:37
from in the kitchen ,cooking
http://www.gaetano.fr
Those are in all walmarts in the US, all Tescos in the UK and all Carrefour in France and China. You have been living too close to a computer screen recently. I'm glad Sayoko brought you out for a shopping adventure. You have become a real geek.!
If you do a quick search on google with the key words "wheel+europe" you'll discover an amazing invention we use here. It might come as a shock to you but don't be scared, it's been tested before use.
G
By DrVitoti At 2009-12-25 13:53:01
from Spain
By "aaron devor brown" At 2011-05-23 10:11:56
from Burlington Vt ,Just Listening.