Blissful Japan

Some recommended activities for the summer…
納涼船 - all you can drink boat cruise that runs every night the whole summer
http://www.tokaikisen.co.jp/english/event/noryo2010/
Japanese page has more info:
http://www.tokaikisen.co.jp/event/noryo2010/
2500 yen, or 1500 yen if you wear a yukata (Monday-Thursday only)
Another all you can EAT AND DRINK boat ride (monja/okonomiyaki)
4900 yen, but it is a very small yakatabune style boat which [...]

Recently my friend asked me for info on where he can find a drum & bass event in Tokyo. Personally I’m more into trance. Anyway, here are three good sites for checking what’s playing in Tokyo clubs and when.
http://higherfrequency.iflyer.jp/tokyo/
http://www.clubberia.com/Club/List/
http://clubtune.jp/search.php Lets you search the listings by genre, etc. Nice touch.
As for venues, personally my favorites are [...]

Recently my professor was quoted in an article from Forbes: Starting Up Start-Ups In Japan: Obstacles abound; new U.S. ambassador expected to highlight importance of venture culture. Another interesting article is also linked to on that page: Searching For Entrepreneurship in Japan.
I am not an expert on this subject, but in my 7+ years in Japan I have talked to [...]

Let me start with a little background for anyone who is not familiar with the Japanese real estate system and what it’s like to find housing in Tokyo. First, let me discuss the fees. Before you can move into an apartment here, you will need to pay up front about 6-8 months of rent. Some [...]

Recently a couple of my friends have been asking for tips on what to see and to when visiting Japan. I decided to gather a few of my responses and post them here, so I can just give out this web page to people.
Feel free to add your own suggestions! This is by no means [...]

Recently I came across this article which sheds a bit of light on Japanese manufacturing methodology vs Apple’s. I think it’s far easier for the Japanese engineers to critique the crappy Taiwanese construction rather than to create their own new device from scratch. But it’s too bad though that Apple doesn’t have a bit more [...]

Some of you may have heard of Gree, Japan’s #2 social networking site (SNS). (No, I don’t know how they chose the name! Is it a Japanese-English version of “Glee”? Maybe someone knows?) About 4 or 5 years ago I joined after getting invitations from a number of my friends, who were also using the [...]

Recently I was forwarded this article from TechCrunch: Why Yahoo Japan is Worth Nearly as Much as Yahoo. It is worth a read, but I’d like to add a few thoughts. Here is my experience with Yahoo Japan, since having moved to Tokyo in 2001.
1) YahooBB
YahooBB took off because it was simply cheaper than [...]

Apparently there is a Facebook group to post photos of people sleeping in crazy or uncomfortable looking positions in Japan… This is actually a really good idea. The group is called simply, “Nobody sleeps like the Japanese do.”
Here are a few pictures which I have taken recently, and another which was recently posted on JapanToday.
Why [...]

A friend of mine just forwarded this post on JapanProbe about women’s fundoshi. My quickest description of a fundoshi would be traditional Japanese g-string loincloth underwear for men. According to Wikipedia:
Before World War II the fundoshi was the main form of underwear for Japanese adult males; however it went out of use quickly after the [...]