So you gotta know what station you should go to, which line is that, and where to transfer if there is no direct line going to that station from your starting point. 
Then you have to figure out how much you have to pay for each line. Because you buy ticket according to your destination and each lines you have to pay separately (or you would have to do fare adjustments, which means you have to add into some amount if you didn't buy the right ticket).

I had to go from Shibuya Station by the Hanzomon line and stop at Kudanshita station, then take the JR Chuo line to Takebashi station. The office for our meeting (the last minute meeting that my boss suggested - on my leave day) is just next to the station.

I have to say that I'm proud of myself not to get too panic and finally I arrived at Takebashi (about 45 mins too early, because I had to have spare time just in case the worst happened, like I got lost or something!) 

There I was and I have no idea which building I had to go (There were maps like in every block, but the building of the office that I was supposed to go wasn't listed, so I am hopeless). So I just walked to the nearest building, asked to the security in front, which eventually called his friend who (Thank God!) speak English. And he said this is Meteorogical building, not the office that I was looking for. Then he directed me to the public phone (because I'm almost desperate), and then I called the office where I'm supposed to meet, and the person barely spoke English. But she was nice enough to told me that the building is on the different exit of the station.

So another tip from me, please read the signs and make sure which exit that your destination is located, because different exit from the same station would lead me to some other neighborhood.

Finally I went back to the station, took the other exit, and voila, read the signs (I was so nervous I mislooked the clearly written sign on the subway walkpath.

I arrived, hot and sweaty, without any suits (because I wore the only formal wear I brought I've already used yesterday for the event), wearing crocs, and of course, with my bagpack. The building is this formal one like a bank (because I'm meeting the bank for development cooperation), and the two girl receptionists at front (of course all nicely-dress with their perfect make-up) greeted me.

I was told to wait, and then I waited in the big lobby until some woman picked me up, introducing herself as the asisstant of the person that I was supposed to meet. Since I was very early (which I explained to the receptionist - doubt that they would understand me, but anyhow), she said his boss was still in the other buliding. So we went one block to another office of his, which located inside a mixture of mall and office. And I had my meeting and all. (of course all meeting details will not be included to maintain the entertainment value of this blog :)) )

The person was nice enough to print me a map of the neighborhood ( I guess he had heard about my little adventure around the Takebashi station), so he directed me to go from Takebashi and t hen take Mita LIne to Mita station, which I would attend the second day of the Summit meeting.

It was good that I had a meeting there at Takebashi, the place was just accross the Imperial Palace, but unfortunately when I asked if I could go to Imperial Palace, it's only open on the weekends, so I just bought my lunch (starving after getting lost and all), and a new contact lenses solution (and a little juggling of words in the optical).

There was conveniently a post office in the mall, so I bought several postcards with the stamp already included. The lady staff was so nice, so I was able to pick good postcards for Zidane and hubby, my parents, Ruby (who was supposed to go with me to Japan), my cousins and nephew.

The nice office partner told me to walk to Jimbocho station, which located several blocks. It wasn't bad, and I just had lunch :) and managing to go by myself to Takebashi so far gave me some confident (though got lost haha).

On the way to Jimbocho station, I passed a street where they sell used-books (read it on LP), and I stop by there just to write the postcards and dropped it on the nearby mailbox.

I took Mita line from Jimbocho-eki and arrived safely in Mita station. Then my next challenge was to get to the campus where the meeting was. Again, when I surfaced on the neighborhood, I was puzzled as there was no signs to go to this campus.

Though a little hesitate, I asked a nearby salaryman there, who probably went out for a smoke, where is this daigaku (university). He answer, "Wakaranai" so I thanked him and text-messaged my friend, who came and picked me up :)

Für eine Weiterreise ins faszinierende Landesinnere der Inselkette sollte man sich mit den nötigsten japanischen Sprachkenntnissen wappnen, denn Englisch ist in Japan nicht immer selbstverständlich. Der schnellste Weg um sich mit der japanischen Sprache und gleichzeitig dessen Kultur und Traditionen vertraut zu machen ist mit einem Sprachaufenthalt in Japan. Die Schwerpunkte eines Sprachkurses liegen vor allem im Erzielen grammatikalischer Kenntnisse und der Praxis im Japanischsprechen. Der Unterricht wird oft mit spannenden Themen wie beispielsweise kulturellen Veranstaltungen, Ausflügen in die Region, Diskussionsrunden oder Begegnungen mit japanischen Studierenden ergänzt, wobei dies nur ein kleiner Teil des gesamten Programms darstellen soll.

Hat man die Basis der japanischen Sprache einmal mehr oder weniger intus, sollte einer Reise quer durch die Inselwelt nichts mehr im Wege stehen (ansonsten kann man sich ja immer noch auf die liebe Körpersprache verlassen). Japan kann nun gründlich erforscht zu werden. Vom Hase Kannon Tempel in Kamakura, zum Tsurugaoka Hachimangu-Schrein, zum Kegon-Wasserfall und Chuzenji-See in Nikko bis hin zum Mount Fuji in Hakone. Bei einem Besuch in Japan darf natürlich auch das Auskosten kreativ hergerichteter Sushis in den berühmt berüchtigten Sushibars, wo in einem Tempo gehackt, geschnitten und zubereitet wird, nicht fehlen. An die Kultur annähern kann man sich bei traditionellen Festivals, wo Kimonos darauf warten getragen zu werden und sich die heute nur noch selten anzutreffenden, zart geschminkten Geishas in gutem Benehmen üben. Wer sich seinen Traum von Japan erst übermorgen erfüllen kann, hat Gelegenheit in die wunderschönen, japanischen Welten in Haruki Murakamis Romanen zu tauchen.

Tipps für öffentliche Verkehrsmittel:

In Japan gibt es den so genannten Japan Rail Pass, den ausländische Gäste bei der Einreise beantragen und mithilfe dessen sie Japan bereisen können. Die Preise für den Japan Rail Pass belaufen sich auf ungefähr 180 Euro für 7 Tage in der zweiten Klasse, etwa 300 Euro für 14 Tage und ca. 400 Euro für 3 Wochen, wobei es für Kinder Ermässigungen gibt.

Wenn Sie vorhaben in Tokio regelmässig U- und S- Bahn zu hoppen, dann können Sie das Tokio Combination Ticket kaufen, mit dem Sie für rund 11 Euro einen ganzen Tag lang Zeit haben, in Tokio alle Winkel und Ecken abzuklappern.

En cuanto a la academia, decir que todo lo difícil que parecía, lo es, efectivamente, aunque da gusto ver como me equivocaba en cuanto al nivelazo del resto de mis compañeros de clase. Hay algunos que es cierto que me dan 20 vueltas, sobre todo en tema de hablar, pero en kanji por ejemplo parece que no estoy tan mal. En gramática, aunque me faltan como 20 temas respecto al resto (al menos respecto a los que hablan y muestran qué cosas saben usar), es un tema de darle caña al libro y estudiarmelo por mi cuenta. De todas formas, mis años de ver anime y doramas han servido para desarrollar un oído que me permite seguir las clases prácticamente entendiendo un ~90% de lo que dice el profesor.

Así que en ese sentido, mejorando poco a poco. Me he dado cuenta de que voy a tener que estudiar bastante más de lo que yo creía, pero espero que esto signifique que dentro de tres meses esté escribiendo las entradas en japonés nativo, o casi xDD

El miércoles por la tarde nos acercamos a Akihabara (sí, otra vez xD) y compramos una Webcam para Laura y dos mandos para PC estilo arcade. La primera aún intentamos hacerla funcionar en el aMsn de Ubuntu, y lo segundo lo tenemos ya quemadillo de tanto jugar al KOF '02.

Esta tarde nos hemos dado un paseo por el Tokyo Dome. Está cerca de Suidobashi (水道橋) y tiene el estadio oficial de los Giants de Tokyo (Baseball, 野球). También hay una especie de parque de atracciones, no muy grande pero bastante chulo, con fuentes que sueltan agua al son de la música, montaña rusa, tiendas varias, y hasta un sitio de apuestas de carreras.

Como anécdota del día, en el Dome hemos ido a una heladería, y al pedir 2 sabores y no acabar de entender a la tía que me estaba preparando el helado, me he visto con dos tarrinas, una de cada sabor en la mano... y 640 yenes menos en el bolsillo :(

Como suelen decir, vale más una foto que mil palabras, y si son 5 fotos, pos 5000 palabras xD

Oscar probando el Drummanía en los recreativos del Tokyo Dome.

La montaña rusa pasaba por medio del edificio adjunto. En otra esquina prácticamente se roza la cornisa con la cabeza al pasar xD

The following news is from JapanTimes:

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Killer posted warnings on Internet

'I will kill . . . in Akihabara,' one message said

The nation was still reeling Monday from the deadly mayhem waged the day before by a 25-year-old man who ran down several people with a truck and then proceeded to fatally stab others in Tokyo's densely crowded Akihabara electronics district, killing seven.

It was learned that several posts on a mobile phone Web site foretold the deadly stabbing spree.

The descriptions and the time-stamps of the messages, which were apparently posted starting early Sunday and continued until minutes before the stabbing spree, closely followed the developments.

The suspect, Tomohiro Kato, 25, a temp staff worker from Shizuoka Prefecture, has admitted to investigators that he posted the messages on the Web site, and the Metropolitan Police Department was trying to confirm the link between the crime and the posts, police sources said.

Seven people died after being hit by Kato's rented truck or stabbed with the dagger he allegedly wielded, and 10 others were wounded in the rampage.

Police and hospital officials identified the seven fatalities as Mai Muto, 21; Mitsuru Matsui, 33; Takahiro Kawaguchi, 19; Naoki Miyamoto, 31; Kazunori Fujino, 19; Katsuhiko Nakamura, 74; and Kazuhiro Koiwa, 47.

Of the seven, at least six had been stabbed and two had been hit by the truck, which was rented in Shizuoka Prefecture. The 10 injured people included a 53-year-old traffic police officer who was stabbed in the back while helping people hit by the truck.

Kato was quoted as telling police he went to Akihabara to kill people, saying he was tired of life and tired of living.

He told investigators that he decided to carry out the random attack "two to three days earlier," and that he chose Akihabara because he had been there before and knew that many people would be on the street, according to the police.

The first of the Web posts was time-stamped 5:21 a.m. Sunday and read, "I will kill people in Akihabara, have a vehicle crash and, if the vehicle becomes useless, I will use a knife." It was followed by one, among others, that read, "Getting caught along the way would perhaps be the worst scenario."

A 6:31 a.m. post said: "It's time. I'll go."

Kato said he rented the truck from a rental car shop in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, at around 8 a.m. and drove to Tokyo via the Tomei Expressway from the interchange in Susono, where he lives, according to police.

He reserved the truck Saturday evening by phone, saying he needed it for moving.

A 7:47 a.m. post said, "No postponement because of rainy weather." It was drizzling Sunday morning in Susono and areas around the city.

A 9:48 a.m. post said, "Rest after entering Kanagawa" en route from Shizuoka to Tokyo.

Subsequent posts include "Just arrived in Akihabara" at 11:45 a.m., and, "Today, it's a 'pedestrians' paradise,' isn't it?" in reference to Sunday being a vehicle-free day on Akihabara's main thoroughfare.

A post made 10 minutes after noon said, "It's time." Kato reportedly drove the truck into pedestrians and jumped out stabbing people on the street at around 12:30 p.m.

Police said they were investigating the motive and details of the attack.

It was also learned Monday that about 3,000 messages — also believed to be from Kato — had been posted on the same mobile phone Web site from several days earlier.

One message posted the morning of June 3 said, "Should I run down people with a car because everybody makes a fool of me?" A subsequent post said the author had spent "eight years of life as a loser every since I graduated from high school."

A post Thursday said, "My work clothes were gone when I went to work. Do they want me to quit? I understand."

On Friday, a post said the writer traveled to Fukui Prefecture and "bought five knives." A post made Saturday said the writer visited Akihabara — the scene of the carnage the following day — to sell some "software" to "make money" before renting the truck.

According to witnesses of Sunday's stabbing rampage, an officer at a nearby police box who saw the attack hurried to the scene and found Kato wielding the knife.

The officer initially failed to get ahold of the suspect after hitting him with a baton a few times. Kato put the knife down and surrendered after the officer drew his pistol, the witnesses said.

The suspect possessed a folding pocket knife in addition to the 13-cm-blade dagger he used in the stabbing spree, police sources said.

The Akihabara district was crowded with shoppers. The scene was near the intersection of Chuo-dori and Kanda Myojin-dori, only a stone's throw from JR Akihabara Station.

 NOTE:  I am writing artice on Japan in my following blog (SNS in Japan)

http://english.youshare.jp/blogs.php?action=show_member_blog&ownerID=1&blogID=3

Came here on a work assignment which would last roughly about 2 months. The first thing people told me when i was flying was that I should be prepared for really long work hours. I wasn't scared a bit because our work contracts read 0900hrs to 1800hrs strictly. After coming here I learnt, this was just specific to this project and that made me super happy :)

Day 1 - when I land here in Tokyo, I realize that I stay very close to Roppongi Hills and the place is shocking indeed. It is THE place in Tokyo where night-life is abuzz and it all starts off after 11p.m. A place like this in India wouldn't be safe after 10 in the night, leave aside the whole issue of people raising their eyebrows whenever you would tell that that you went to this place all alone. One day when I was heading to a 24hr store at around 11:30, the crowd there made me feel more safe than I would have felt anywhere in India at that hour, though I must admit that a significant fraction of that crowd was the one which would make you term them "indecent".

Slept late and realized that the sun in Japan wakes up at 4:30. Woke up and headed to Akihabara which is the place known to have all electronic gadgets - right from tiny devices to fuzzy-logic rice cookers. It is apparently the place that first began selling Robots directly to people in the market. Its full with peolpe on a weekday and that day, there had been a massacre there on the streets. Any criminal activity here raises the fear a bit but then, this country is known for the least crime rate I learnt. Probably this was why killing of 7 people became a world wide news.

Weekdays go fine but let me list down the weekend escapades.

A trip to Odaiba - also known as Tokyo Teleport. Its a man made island I heard and there are offices and huge building and there are entertainment zones too. A huge Toyota display centre where they show off their latest cars and upcoming concept cars too. You have a huge Ferris wheel which has a place amongst the top 10 all over the world. Then there is Palette Town - fairly big place which is built on Venice architecture principles and houses big brand showrooms. There is a car musuem and a big store which has die casts of almost every major car company and then you have Motor racing centre where you get to see Rally cars and one Toyota F1 car too. Toyota also houses a big screen here where they give a 4D ride of the Fuji Speedway in a rally car and you also have simulators if you want to feel it for yourself.

Tokyo International Forum and Ginza - Ginza is famous for shopping and there is virtually every international store here. They are so highly priced that an Indian might consider twice even before thinking to buy something from these chains - well, if you want to wear those brands, then am sure you wouldn't take a step back. Its a shopping heaven and if you wish to window shop, you probably need more than 3 visits to see the whole place. The wide streets that are closed to motored traffic, the crowd and the classy look - it all makes Ginza look pristine. The International Forum is close by and is a huge structure - It has conference halls etc where exhibitions can be held and it has ample space for any meets/gatherings can be arranged. Its just huge, huge mega structure. You can chose to come down from the 7th floor to the 1st using an inclined side-path which runs along the inner boundary of this structure - you have pathways crisscrossing from left to right in case you wish to change floors when you are somewhere in between. In short, the whole structure is just awesome.

A visit to Tokyo DisneyLand is must and I would say - do it on a weekday instead of a weekend because on the weekend, you will end up waiting for few fun rides for upto 3hrs in a line. Its big and one day isn't enough to see it all - atleast on a weekend you can never end see half of it. oh, did I forget to mention - this is again half of Disney's offereing - you also have a Disney Sea Park which I havent visited. You can shop a lot - glassware is costly but again, its Disney material and the same goes for absolutely everything inside. Make sure you don't compare the prices with what you get in Archies - you will go mad :)

Tokyo could be one prime hub of entertainment theme parks - there is one on the outskirts which is the "FujiQ Highland". Its famous for 3 rides - all of which figure in the Guiness Book of World Records.  2 of them were #1 long ago but now feature in top 5. All the three are NOT for the faint-hearted. One is famous for its length, the other for its speed and the third one - imagine what 14 spins in a roller coaster seat feels like. I wanted to be seated there like forever - its fun - around 2 minutes a ride each! However, if you are afraid of heights, then this place isn't for you and if spins n 360s scare you - never even board the train the this place ;-) Ever tried the freefall thing - a set of chairs raised to a lovely height above ground on some tower and then the whole boxed set of chairs is allowed to freefall - well, i have never felt so relaxed as how I felt when I gave myself off to gravity. I wish I could be in some kind of freefall at all times :D

I'll take leave for now and there are a couple more weekends ahead - keep looking for updates under the tokyo tag.

Es una Sony DSC-T2, de 8.1 mpx y 4 GB de memoria interna. Así como cosa graciosa, la pantalla digital es táctil. La tontería debe costar unos 350€, pero a nosotros nos salió por 160, incluído el descuento del 5% para gaijines. De hecho se nos pusieron de corbata cuando vimos que la chica del mostrador nos grapaba una especie de justificante de compra al pasaporte, y le plantaba unos sellos... aunque por lo que hemos podido averiguar esto no implica ningún problema en aduanas, ni límite de uso, ni nada. Simplemente es que nos ahorramos los impuestos nipones por no ser de aquí.

Con cámara en mano (que no ciento volando), procedo a enseñaros nuestro flamante apartamento-piso-manshon (マンション, como dicen aquí):

La entrada, con su armario para los zapatos, y una báscula que usamos 25 veces al día xD

El comedor y Laura echando una partidilla a la DS.

Mi cubil arácnido en estos momentos. Parece mentira lo que hace el flash, pq estoy a oscuras totalmente xD

Y servidor, fregando una sartén xDD

El día de hoy ha sido bastante más parado. A mi me han despertado a las 11:30 para decirme que llevaban estudiando un par de horas ya... Resulta que tenemos un "examen" de acceso en la academia que va a determinar si nos meten en la clase de los retards o en la de los bichos raros, y claro, todos como locos empollando porque el katakana está algo oxidado ya xD

Oscar y Laura trasteando un poco después del estudio, que hay que relajarse coño!

Después de eso hemos salido a cenar, pero nos ha pillado la lluvia al poco de irnos, así que hemos entrado a una tienda de bentos preparados (弁当) y hemos cenado tan felices. Mañana toca irnos a hacer el examen a las 2 del mediodía o por ahí, así que ya contaremos qué tal ha ido.

Mil besos!
Nina-chan, off.

PÁGINA DONDE DIERON LA NOTICIA

Are you going to Japan and want to discover all the hidden treasures of Akihabara? Or is just an Akihabara fan? Then you need the Akihabara Maniac Map!

This guide book has 100 pages with maps, pictures, and all kind of shops addresses. From figures shops to maid cafe, and lots of other information.

Where you can buy it? I know you want to know. You can buy it at J-List for $18.50.

Português por favor?

Você está indo para o Japão e quer descobrir todos os tesouros escondidos de Akihabara? Ou é somente um fã de Akihabara? Então você precisa do Akihabara Maniac Map!

Este livro guia tem 100 páginas com mapas, fotos, e endereços das lojas. De lojas de figures a maid cafe, e muitas outras informações.

Onde você pode comprar? Eu sei que você que saber. Pode adquiri-lo pelo J-List por US$18,50.

Cómo los ven? XDDDD.
Mil besos!!!
M. Meow, off

M. Meow, off.

Und dann noch random Artbooks, vor allem Gyakuten Saiban und Persona 3, yay! Persona 4 übrigens ab 10.07 für PS2 (zeigt mal wieder PS3 = DO NOT WANT).

Kyaha~!! Lelouch! C.C.! V.V.! Anya! Rolo! Killua! (loh? Nyasar?).

Fufu, sy nonton ulang Code Geass, karena dulu sy nontonnya cuma yang ada Lulu dan C.C. -nya aja sih. Makanya sy gak bisa sadar akan adanya Anya (cool girl type~! XDD), Rolo (Sy lemah terhadap segala sesuatu yang berbau 'Assassin'), dan V.V. (Bishounen tingkat parah!!). Terus, dengan menonton ulang, sy jadi makin ngerti dengan plotnya. Dan sy makin yakin kalo Lelouch Lamperouge = hasil Fusion dari Kamui Shirou dan Shinn Asuka. Betul?

Kalo ga percaya peratiin ED di R2. CLAMP yang gambar kan? Pas bagian Lelouch itu muncul, dalam hati sy shock abis. Baru nyadar sy, dia itu KAMUI ABIS !! Terus, pas si Lelouch lagi ngomong sama Nunnaly, pas dia bilang kalo dia gak akan kemana-mana, mukanya MIRIP ABIS sama ASUKA. Behh, kalo CLAMP dan Sunrise bekerja sama inilah yang akan terjadi.
.
Well, seperti yang telah sy ucapkan (?) di atas, sy lemah terharap kata 'Assassin'. Sy mencintai Assassins. Asalkan muka mereka gak babak belur seakan habis dicakar monyet terus dilempar dari ketinggian 2.368.427.854.926.458.906 m. Sebagai contoh paling bagus mungkin Killua. Bukan, semua keluarga Zaoldyeck, maybe? Ah, Maha, Zeno, dan Milluki adalah perkecualian. Lagipula Milluki kan bukan Assassin. Gendut gitu. Dan sy tidak suka chara anime yang udah jenggotan. Kimochi warui.

Dan, sy juga tiba-tiba meleleh saat baca di wikipedia kalau Rolo Lamperouge adalah Assassin. YEAH !! Rolo, be proud! You're officially one of my favorite chara in Code Geass. Ho! Ho! Ho! *tampaknya sy telah tertular ke-pede-an Lelouch...*

Ah~ minna-san yang baca blog sy, bisa rekomendasikan anime/manga yang ada chara assassin-nya?

TOKYO (Reuters) - A man who said he was tired of life went on a stabbing rampage on Sunday in a crowded Tokyo shopping street, killing seven people and wounding a dozen others.

The man drove a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians at lunchtime and then walked down the street knifing passers-by in Akihabara district, known for its discount electronics and maid cafes.

Original Reuters article here. Other news articles here, and here. (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Images of the aftermath: (Left) Suspect Tomohiro Kato being transported from a police station in Tokyo on June 10, 2008. (Right) The hearse of Mai Muto, who was killed by stabber Tomohiro Kato at Tokyo's Akihabara on June 8, leaves her funeral in Tokyo on June 12, 2008.

Photos

courtesy of Getty Images/AP

Quoting SDF-2 from SGCafe:

"The lecturer told to the press that in the past, the public treated otakus as fans whom were obessed with ACG culture and failed to connect with the society. With the recurring of such crimes recently, it will create a moral panic in the society and thus otakus will be feared.

The mis-representation of otakus by the media had created a ruckus in the online community. Some otakus got angry by saying whenever such crimes happened, the public will lashed their anger at ACG culture."

Now, I am as upset over the senseless killing as anyone else, but it is 1 thing to trial 1 person for his wrongdoing, it is another to judge a group of people by the actions of any individual. That is inane, if not downright xenophobic.

The (mis)conception of otakus being violent antisocial freaks came about because it's vague and based on little more than hearsay and wild ideas. Please explain to me how having a more obsessive passion for animation, comics, games figurines or the internet make you more dangerous than any other human being? Do I get a level up in violence quotient over the average hood or robber or any other bad sort? That will be nice, because this Maple Story boss is giving me the fits and I need just a bit more dps to finish it off. it just does not compute, to quote Star Trek.

The most common argument against otakus is their disassociation from society at large, which dehumanizes them. The premise, i.e. they presume, that an obsession for otaku-stuff (simplifying the large body of otaku-passions into 1 phrase) leads to disassociation with other humans and we then become inhuman monsters who will terrorize them and their kids. They assume, "oh this guy plays with his Barbie dolls, he has lost touch with humanity". Riiiight. Just because someone is not like you does not directly relate to the fact that he/she is not a human being, with equal rights to living his own life, will you nil you. Deviant lifestyles do not always equate to destructive lifestyles.

i argue that the anger and backlash came about because we are DIFFERENT. Not just different; obviously different in obvious ways, that can be pointed out and giggled at in some dark ota-phobic corner with like-minded ota-phobes. More importantly, we are safe to despise. It's like nerds before the turn of the millennium; like the blacks in the 60s. It's SAFE to despise us, to soothe their teeny-weeny epeens of their own importance, rather than own up to their own deficiencies. It's safe because they do not worry about being confronted with angry otakus with sticks. I dare anyone to look down upon motorcycle gangs. Fear them? yes. Look down? Only behind my double barred door and with a shotgun in hand maybe.

Have you heard all that news about creativity and innovation? Creativity can be simplified into having a different viewpoint when approaching a situation while innovation is about creating useful differences that will benefit users. People love to "talk" about creativity and innovation like it's the second coming of Jesus but when it comes to the "doing", they balk.

They twiddle their fingers.
They complain of the changes they have to embrace.
They rage at those who embrace it.

Guess what? You can't have the innovation without the differences. If it weren't for some village twit who did not fit in and wanted to see what was beyond the next hill, we would all still be farming our little patches of dirt now.

People don't seem to realize that differences are a good thing to have, especially passions. Being passionate about something means I am willing to go the extra mile to achieve it. If it were food, i would be a chef, a gourmet, or a food critic. If it were golf, i would be Tiger, Bagger Vance or a sports journalist. But if it were anime, i would immediately be an otaku. I mean, wtf? If everyone were to be like everyone else, ESPN will be out of business, because the standard of play will suck. Life will be boring, because everyone will be the same and there's no point doing anything because the level will be just like anywhere else. In other words, why bother to live if it's gonna be the same-old, same-old everyday for every week of every month for the remaining years of your pathetic existence?

In Japan, however, arcades are everywhere. There were several in Osaka, but the best arcades were in Tokyo, especially in Akihabara. On one of our last days of the trip, we had some free time and decided to go to the giant Sega arcade.

[akihabra without cars]
It was the weekend, so the whole street was closed to motor traffic

[solid snake]

All I can say is that it was unbelievably awesome! I won a Toad (from Super Mario) keychain at a strange version of crane game. Further upstairs, around the fourth or fifth floor, we found the Mario Kart Wii arcade, complete with steering wheel and pedals.

[Nic and I playing Mario Kart]
Did I mention these were the unreleased levels?

The controls were wild, and I hadn't played this version before. Nevertheless, my inner gamer saved the day.

[I win]

The other awesome video game place was a little store off a side street of Akihabara. It was an old-school Nintendo store, and they had everything an 80's gamer would want. Kyle bought an original Famicon, which was Japan's equivalent to America's Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

By the way, Super Mario Bros. 3 is quite possibly the best game of all time.

[Taito Game Station]

Alongside these technological meccas, tiny stores smaller than mall kiosks sold items like mobile phone decorations. Some of the small stores probably had a stock of 5,000 items all crammed in to a small, cube-shaped area.

[Smaller stores]

In Japan, personal space is a precious commodity. With an extremely large population and just a few small island of space, the natural tendency would be to make buildings as tall as possible as to provide the most space. However, Japan is prone to frequent earthquakes (which is what formed the islands in the first place) so tall buildings are unsafe.

Therefore, the tendency is to make buildings, rooms, and stores as dense as possible. This gives rise to places like Akihabara, where the synnergy of many stores selling similar products actually boosts everyone's sales by bringing more people to the area.

Hikaru le pregunta a Haruhi, "Estás enamorada de Tono?"
"Porque si no, entonces eso significa, que yo también tengo una oportunidad"

Two weeks ago, on the eve of Kevin Rudd’s visit to Japan, Tomohiko Kato, a 25-year old high school drop-out and casual worker from Shizuoka, drove a truck into a crowded shopping mall in Akihabara, the popular electronics shopping district in Tokyo, slaughtering 7 people and wounding many others in a stabbing rampage that followed.

Another young crazy whose psychosis could just as well have rent innocent lives apart in Melbourne, San Francisco or Madrid but for where he happened to be born?

Not if you believe the collective outpouring of self-analysis that has been going on in Japan ever since. This was a peculiarly Japanese story, in a society that does not give anyone a second chance.

Japan is undoubtedly a very rich country. But it is a rich country without the ostentatious displays of wealth that remain in America, for example, and income inequality as it is conventionally measured has always been by international standards been very low. Merit and effort appeared, for years of growing Japanese prosperity, to define life’s chances.

But income inequality is rising and there is a growing underclass of casual workers who, no matter how they get there and what their abilities, never get a second chance. This is a society – so the analysis runs -- where you catch the right escalator out of college or university or you miss the stairway to security and middle class heaven. This is a society of two classes: the secure and the comfortable or an underclass who are not only less secure (there are billions of them in the world who somehow get on with life even in quite awful circumstances) but who are left totally without hope.

Young Kato missed the escalator and certainly was a bundle of resentment about the straws he’d drawn in life. Hardly an excuse for what he did (see the widely-read Vox Populi, Vox Dei  column in Asahi Newspaper link below), but certainly his circumstance is one that is encouraging many Japanese to think deeply about how their country can give its citizens a second chance and the prospect of hope when they’ve made a mistake or two or haven’t used all the opportunities they might have in lock-step with their countrymen (and women a pace or two behind).

Asahi Shimbun, Vox Populi, Vox Dei, 14 June 2008

Novelist Budai Irokawa (1929-1989), who was also an inveterate gambler, likened life to a sumo tournament in Uraomote Jinseiroku (‘Jottings on both sides of life’), published by The Mainichi Newspapers.

‘If you finish with eight wins and seven losses, that's quite a respectable record. A 9-6 record would be even better. But I guess life usually hands you as many wins as losses.’

Life is a repetition of triumphs and defeats, big and small. There is no such thing as an unbroken winning streak or a losing streak. But Tomohiro Kato, the 25-year-old suspect in the bloody rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara that left seven people dead and 10 injured on June 8, summed up his life after senior high school as a "losing streak."

The monologues Kato posted on Internet message boards are filled with bitter negativism, describing his desperate unhappiness about having no girlfriend, hostility toward happy couples and complaints about his parents and workplace.

He described himself as a total loser, but the truth of the matter appears to be that he never bothered to fight fair and square in the first place. Kato was sulky toward society, chose to remain in isolation and wrote everything off as hopeless. He ultimately kicked himself out of the "arena" with his unforgivable "foul play."
Many people who have a hard time at work manage to find happiness in their family life or hobbies. One of the reasons Kato flitted from job to job was that he was a habitual no-show. He escaped into a virtual world of Internet message boards, but there was no conversation.

‘I wanted someone to stop me,’ he reportedly told police.

This sort of infantile refusal to take responsibility must at heart have been one of the reasons he committed this horrendous crime.

While we can't ignore the helpless feelings of dispatched factory workers like Kato, it would be wrong to explain away his deed as the evils of social disparity. Hasty generalizations will blur the elements that belong to this particular individual. The same mistake is made by those who dump the entire blame for such crimes on "post-World War II education."

Obviously, society cannot ignore its working poor. To prevent those in despair from finding a violent outlet, society should become a place where people can be given a second chance and be rewarded for trying again.
Irokawa, who categorized those who ‘lost as many times as they won’ as winners, also wrote about a way of life that allows even losers to ‘win slowly but steadily.’

Unless we learn from the lessons of the Akihabara killing spree and change our society, Kato's seven victims will have died in vain.

O jogo se chama Akihabara Otaku Gakuen e foi desenvolvido pela FrontWing. Vários fóruns e blogs comentaram que o jogo é bastante NSFW, mas a OP é bem light, somente com pantsu.

Confiram o vídeo :)

E a letra:

Blasterhead - Hold On Me

suki toka kirai kimi ni tsutaetai
好きとか嫌い君に伝えたい

denkigai guchi de sugu dakishimete
電気街口ですぐ抱きしめて

1, 2, 1, 2, 3
一二　一二三

me ga same yoyaku shiteta anime wo check
目が醒め予約してたアニメをチェック

aa hontou akirechau kara ne
ああ！ほんとう呆れちゃうからね

konna ni kawaii onna no ko ga
こんあカワイイ女の子が

soba ni iru tte iu no ni
そばにいるっていうのに

watashi oita tetsuya kumi
私置いててつやくみ

nande na no?
なんでなの?

shoukai tokuten koko ni mou aru yo
初回特典ここにもうあるよ！

tokimeku mune ni hontou no story
ときめく胸にほんとうのストーリー

sentakushi nuke koukando agete
せんたくし抜けこうかんど上げて

doki doki shiteru sakuranbo no hoho chu te
ドキドキしてるさくらんぼの頬チューで

haji keru kisu shite
はじけるキスして

Not a cute animé series, but rather a laboratory of sorts, the Guinea Pig are pretty rough horror films, with  graphic torture scenes of girls, of the "let's see what happens" sort. But, as in many cases when it helps move the goods, otaku were de-stigmatised and brought around as emissaries of cool in the post-Pokémon and post-Murakami Takashi world.

A collaborative that includes film fest programmer Alex Zahlten organizes the largest J-film fest in the world, held in Frankfurt each year. Alex interviewed a recent J-horror director, TSURUTA Norio, who talks about how the moral panic in the wake of Miyazaki, and the desire to distance from his spectre, provoked a whole new atmospheric aesthetic of J-horror films, which produced The Ring and much of what we think of as J-horror today.

Oddly, some photos of Miyazaki's room, as in the example above, were part of the Japanese government's offering to the Venice Biennale last go-round, as they apparently chose to ride the wave of "Japan cool," and Miyazaki phobia had died down.

Miyazaki's hanging took place, as is customary, without an announcement, on June 17. Rumors abound in the papers about why this took place now, just before the G8 summit which is taking place in remote Hokkaido in July. And about the relation of Miyazaki to a recent stabbing binge in Akihabara by a temp worker. Much of the speculation dwells a bit luridly, in my opinion, on recent incidents of youth crime, and connects them rather lazily to comic or game images, as responses to perverse stimuli.

More perverse to me, or differently so, is the new maid café in Culver City, which has leeched all the hostess-bar function out of the café, and made it into a coed gallery. It's supposed to be a kind of hostess bar, an oasis of "innocent" sex industry work in the stinky-boy electronics zone of Akihabara, where the maids --popularised via Sade in the late 60s, think role play here--hold your hand and listen to you whine about not having a girlfriend, while you drink lousy dishwater coffee. It's not supposed to be for sweet young girl-things in their twenties to meet for a yummy high tea. It's just wrong! Of course, it's probably easier on the server to pass out the sandwiches and not have to listen like a captive bartender and understand the freaking customer.

However, nothing can totally change Akihabara and after a few minutes the maid girls were all over handing out flyers. Sadly, photography is once again not allowed in these places however, Kin here are some pictures of some of them in the place I went. Furthermore, is actually really cheap! The cofee was actually amazing, and so were the waffles! Overall, I can't say is the coolest place I've been, nor super amazing however, it was interesting and different plus I can't complain as the food was really that good.

Basic Rules:
Do not record/take photos.
Do no touch!
Order at least every one hour.
You can dress up as one of the maids. (As crazy as it sounds, I actually overheard the guys next to me tell the maid he wanted to dress up like her X-X)

-Enrique