Latest posts by Chris Salzberg from September, 2008
Japan: Not just Hatena, the whole Internet has too many ads
Hatena user id:gnarl responds to id:rycotan's complaint that Japanese bookmarking service Hatena has too many ads on its keyword page with a post arguing that it's not just Hatena: the whole Internet has too many ads [ja].
Japan: Takeda Castle, the Japanese Machu Pichu
An entry entitled “Japan's Machu Pichu? The ruins of Takeda Castle, Castle to the Heavens” [ja] posted at Tomorrowearth.com has an incredible set of photos (more here, here and here) of an abandoned castle in Asago city, Hyōgo Prefecture. More pictures and a map of the castle ruins here [ja].
Japan: Nobuto Hosaka on the streets of Tokyo
Politician and blogger Nobuto Hosaka [保坂展人] of the Japan Social Democratic Party writes at his doko doko diary [保坂展人のどこどこ日記] about his experience yesterday giving speeches [ja] on the streets of Koenji [高円寺], Asagaya [阿佐ヶ谷], Ogikubo [荻窪] and Iogi [井荻] (neighborhoods of Tokyo) in preparation for upcoming elections.
Japan: Too many ads in Hatena Keywords
User id:ryocotan complains that the keyword page at Hatena, Japan's largest social bookmarking service, has too many advertisements [ja], demonstrating this problem with a diagram for the keyword “violin” (バイオリン [ja]) in which actual information is highlighted in blue, and ads highlighted in red.
Japan: The Birth of Blog Critique
Hiroshi Yamaguchi at H-Yamaguchi.net discusses [ja] Japanese journalist, author and Internet commentator Toshinao Sasaki‘s latest book, “The Birth of Blog Critique” [ブログ論壇の誕生]. In the book, Sasaki describes the circumstances through which statements in blogs have come to genuinely affect modern Japanese society, in a variety of different contexts.
Japan: Japanese input on iPhone 2.1
Views on the usability of Japanese characters on iPhone 2.1: At Thir's notes, thir reports that while many have complained that the input of characters is too slow on iPhone, 2.1 firmware offers a great improvement [ja]. Blogger wa-ren at Cross the Chasm! [キャズムを超えろ！] approves of these improvements, but reports...
Japan: Missing Pieces in Tainted Rice Scandal
The latest food scandal making headlines in Japan revolves on the nation's staple commodity: rice, one of only a small handful of foods for which the country achieves almost complete self-sufficiency. Bloggers discuss the roots of the latest food scandal, and one blogger points out holes in media's reporting on the issue.
Japan: DVD release by Politician Yuri Fujikawa
The upcoming release [ja] of a DVD featuring 27-year-old Japanese politician Yuri Fujikawa [藤川 優里], member of the Hachinohe city [八戸市] assembly in Aomori Prefecture [青森県], is all the talk in the forums [ja]. Back when she first joined office in January of this year, Fujikawa was called “too beautiful”...
Japan: The Unhealthy Image of “Ladylike”
Japanese blogger Miyakichi at Miyakichi Nikki writes about why the image of ladylike beauty in the world today so unhealthy [ja], tracing the preference for pale skin, 40cm waists and high heels back to the histories of Europe, America and China and connecting them to modern styles in Japan.
Japan: Wire Free Gadgets Network Bloggers Meeting
The Agile Media Network blog has a post [ja] about a bloggers meeting in Tokyo's Shiodome area on September 29th, organized by NTT Communications, on the theme of “Wire Free Gadgets Network”. Doors open at 19.00 and the event starts at 19.30. There is no admission fee, but people interested...
Japan: Hilarious Google translations
Blogger Cozy Ozy picks up a few simple sentences and compares English-to-Japanese machine translations [ja] from Google Translate, Yahoo, Excite and Korya Eiwa 2009. While translations by other services are understandable, Google Translate produces bizarre results: “We played baseball” becomes “This is our baseball” (私たちの野球です), “Lucy has no friends to...
Japan: The Success of Saizeriya
Blogger teruyastar draws over 800 bookmarks [ja] with a post [ja] about why Saizeriya [ja], a Japanese fast-food restaurant chain that serves Italian meals, has been so successful in Japan. As reasons for the chain's success, teruyastar points out that Saizeriya's prices are very low (you can buy everything on...
Japan: The Mixi Breakup
At Hatena's AnoymousDiary, a blogger writes about how his girlfriend broke up with him after finding out what he wrote about her on Mixi [ja], Japan's most popular social networking service. Within 20 minutes, the blogger writes, his girlfriend ended a relationship that had lasted a year. “I wrote a...
Japan: Street View's Missing Streets
The launch early last month of Google's Street View service in major Japanese cities brought with it considerable controversy and debate among Internet users. While that debate has since quieted down, another discussion has emerged in its wake, centered on a curious property of the new service that, as of yet, remains unexplained by the company that created it.
Japan: PM resignation starts Internet buzz, but was it real?
With less than a year spent in office, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made a sudden announcement on live television last Monday night that he had decided to resign. While the PM's resignation on Monday came out of the blue to most observers, however, the buzz that followed on the Internet was even more of a surprise. Some writing in bulletin boards were asking: was the buzz fabricated?
