I had the privilege of being invited to the New Year Party at MLB Cafe held by Good Smile Company, COSPA and BushiRoad. Three big players in the Otaku industry.

I think MLB refers to Major League Baseball. The Cafe, just a few minutes walk from Ebisu station, is located right opposite Yebisu Garden Place.

They have a pretty nice entrance.

The place was packed! 500 or so having a good time at this new year party. Good Smile Company does many things. One of the things they are good at is making figurines. Whenever Good Smile is hosting or participating in an event, there’s bound to be a display booth showcasing their latest figures.

Black Rock Shooter is an upcoming anime bound for a summer release, or so I’ve been told. The 2 uncolored figures on the right are brand new figures. It’s their first trip outside the GSC studios.

Danny has more pics on his blog.

Do you know who she is? ^^.

I noticed that at tech events, most people were casually dressed.

I was expecting sort of the same situation at this new year’s party organized by 3 big companies in the otaku industry.

I was dead wrong. I was surprised to find many people in suits and ties.

The otaku industry is a serious business too. ^^.

Aki-san, GSC’s syachou　(社長) is giving a welcome speech.

The food was ok. Buffet, all you can eat as long as there’s still food on the table.

Danny and I at our makeshift table.

We were introduced to 3 lovely Japanese girls who are voices for the characters in the anime series Weiß Survive R (ヴァイス・サヴァイヴ R).

Anyone know of or have seen this anime?

I couldn’t resist a photo too.

Why was I wearing my Keio jumper that day…

He’s a K-1 boxer. I have been known to watch K-1 on TV from time to time, but this is the first time I met one in the flesh!

Danny took a photo of Aki-san and I before we left the party.

Brrr… it’s cold outside.

For those who like to sit outdoors, they had some pretty comfortable tables and chairs right outside the cafe.

Love this Coke bike. It’s always there.

Heading back to Ebisu Station.

It’s a little late, but I’ve still got a few New Year Parties left to attend. In Japan, there are end of year parties called bounenkai (忘年会) and new year parties called shinnenkai (新年会). They are usually only a few weeks, perhaps days, apart. ^^.

You had a good new year’s party?

I experienced my first Dondo Yaki (どんど焼き). It’s a Japanese event associated with the New Year when families get together at the shrine to send off the Toshigami (歳神) by burning off new year decorations.

Long ago, Japan used the lunar calendar and this event was held on the 15th day. Pretty similar to the chinese lantern festival which is held on that particular day. However, Japan has since switched to using the Georgian calendar and rest is recent history. Like Seijin no hi (成人の日) which is held on the second Monday in January, dondo Yaki (どんど焼き) is held on either the second Sunday or Monday in January. I guess when depends on your local shrine.

This was my only new year decoration to welcome 2010. A wreath on my front door with the characters “first spring” (初春). I didn’t know what to do with it after the new year until I read a notice pinned on some nearby noticeboard saying that there’s a dondo yaki event today.

It’s my fifth new year in Japan and … I guess I should have paid more attention. ^^. 2010 also marks the first time I’ve put up Japanese new year decorations, albeit only a modest 1.

From what I’ve read (and been told), we hang new year decorations to welcome the toshigami. The Shinto deity that brings the new year (along with luck, prosperity and everything good). Some Japanese houses have a little Shinto altar (kamidana, 神棚) where the toshigami stays until dondo yaki day.

I don’t have a kamidana… I hope the toshigami was comfortable on my sofa.

Lots of new year decorations being stacked up.

Colored mochi on a stick for roasting later when we have a big fire going.

I spy with my eye, a cute tiger.

Well, here’s our first and last 2010 new year wreath. Looks all set to go. Front door looks lonely without it hanging on.

Lots of families have made their way here. The shrine provides amazake, a sweet kind of Japanese sake. There’s a non-alcoholic version for the kids too.

Do I see a Michael Jackson wannabe with his smooth criminal move in the background?!?

Almost set to go.

This fine gentleman turned to get some fire on a stick.

The ritual burning of new year decorations also has some religious significance. As the ashes rise with the smoke, it is believed that the toshigami is making his way back up. This particular event is also a way of giving thanks for the new year.

Some sprinkling of salt.

Some pouring of sake.

And here we go!

A small fire is starting.

The stack of new year decorations started to crumble as the flames got stronger. I wonder if instead of starting the fire from the bottom, it might have been better to light from the top.

I see kagami mochi (鏡餅)! The bun like thing right in the middle of the photo.

The fire provided additional warmth on this cold winter’s day.

Stairway to heaven.

That’s about that. Nothing recognizable left of my new year wreath.

When everything is black, the colorful mochi-s (rice cake) on a long stick are handed out. Everyone loves a nicely roasted mochi.

On chinese new year, a lot of sweets are given out. The main idea behind eating all those sweets is to “sweeten your mouth”. So you only speak sweet things in the new year.

I wonder what’s the explanation to eating mochi today… A way of giving thanks I guess.

The way they bend, looks a lot like fishing rods to me. ^^.

Everyone from 2 – 98 is happily roasting their mochi from 4 arm length’s away.

There’s a healthy stash of second/third/fourth helpings.

Here’s my pink mochi. Time for me to stop taking photos and join in the roasting!

How did you spend your day? Today was also Seijin no hi (成人の日) in Japan. A coming of age day in Japan. Also a public holiday.

The skies over Tokyo were extremely clear on new year’s eve. Every single star was there in plain sight, waiting to welcome the new year. Can you see the stars in that photo? And no, that photo above is not a HDR picture.

I was doing what I always do this time of the year. Watch Kohaku Uta Gassen and rushing off to the local shrine for 初詣 (hatsumoude) 20 minutes just before midnight. Hatsumoude is a very important event in Japan. It marks the first visit to the Shinto shrine at the beginning of the year.

Did you know there was a blue moon on new year’s eve? It’s called a blue moon because it’s the second full moon in the same month. A rather rare event. Now you know the story behind the phrase “once in a blue moon”.

Can you see the rabbit in the moon?

I wasn’t the only one making my way to the shrine. Other locals were also making their way there to get out of the cold.

There’s a nice camp fire waiting at the shrine.

It was really warm!

When I got there, it was still pretty quiet. There were some kids playing by the fire.

Free sweet potatoes on the grill.

When the clock struck 0000, everyone wished everyone a very happy new year and we all got in line to say our prayers for the new year at the shrine.

You have any wishes for this new year?

My wish for you, my reader, is the wish of good health.

Stay healthy and continue reading what little I will write in 2010. ^^.

Although it’s a local shrine, I keep telling everyone that it’s as huge as Meiji Jingu. ^^.

Everyone gets a free cup of amazake. Sweet Japanese sake helps warm you up from within.

You can tell how warm the fire was just by the average distance everyone was standing away from her.

A cool old dude.

Don’t remember what I was doing waving my arms. Probably something along the lines of

“Hurry hurry! My back is on fire!”

hmmm… are my eyebrows getting bushier by the year?

The people at the shrine were very nice. There were free popcorn for the kids. You like pop corn? I only like those black pepper flavored ones which I’ve only been able to find at Disney Land.

People kept coming as I was leaving. I hope they had enough amazake to warm everyone up!

My new year’s eve was a rather quiet night spent watching kohaku uta gassen and visiting the local shrine.

How was yours?

Every year, I always stay up for the first sunrise.

This year was just ever slightly so different. I kinda dozed off while watching TV. Woke up in shock at 7am. Grabbed my trusty Nikon and ran out the door.

In Japan, the first sunrise of the new year is called hatsu hi no de (初日の出). Many Japanese do try to catch the first sunrise. Get a good start to the new year.

There was this old guy who had been waiting in line at Tokyo Tower to catch the first sunrise since the 26th of December! The first person in line at Tokyo Tower gets a certificate. It was his 7th!

He’ll be facing a dilemma when the Tokyo Sky Tree goes up. When completed, the Sky Tree will be twice Tokyo Tower’s height! As of this post, it’s already standing at 257m.

When I saw the sun and felt his warmth, I prayed a silent “thank you for not letting me oversleep”. ^^.

Missed the orange sky this year, but that just means something to look forward to next year!

Sunrise and power lines are just like peas and carrots. I think they go well together in a photo.

Well, time to head home and catch some Japanese new year TV. You have any interesting new year TV programs where you live?

From my place, I get a pretty good view of the Roppongi skyline on a clear day. Today, the first day of 2010, was one such day.

It feels good seeing Roppongi embracing the first sunrise of the new year.

Do you know what this is?

Happy new year everyone!

皆さん、明けましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願い致します！

Did you manage to catch this year’s first sunrise?

Was out for dinner with the rest of the Tokyo Live Bloggers at Ebisu last night. It was our last get together for 2009 and we spent it eating hainanese chicken rice!

Unfortunately, the only prize I got for getting there early was a choice of where to sit at the table of 10. ^^.

Instructions for how to eat chicken rice. The first time I had chicken rice, eons ago, there were no instructions. I just had a “na, here’s your chicken rice”.

Left the rest to my imagination. You guys get it easy. ^^.

Chicken rice prices. Me had a large which went for ¥1313. Pretty expensive compared to what you can get in Malaysia or Singapore. But being exotic here, I guess it’s ok. It’s not something I have everyday.

Fellow Tokyo Live Bloggers Francis from Focal Point Computer and Joseph Tame.

Danny brought one of his lovely daughters along too. She’s all dressed up as a Miko san (Shrine Maiden) for the new year. Fellow live blogger Jerome looks pretty interested. Are you interested Jerome? ^^.

The night was filled with lots of tech talk, secret gossips etc.

Now that Joseph has found an extremely long carrot, we made it a new year’s resolution for him to find extremely huge watermelons.

Hainan Jeefan Shokudo 2 serves pretty decent chicken rice. Chilli’s not bad too. I had myself 3 whole servings!

The key to every good chicken rice is in the chilli sauce!

Keep up the good work guys! See you in 2010!

Have you been to the Tokyo International Forum in Ginza? Just off Yurakucho Station along the JR Yamanote Line. I was there last week for the Keio Techno Mall. This annual event is organized by Keio University’s Faculty of Science and Technology.

Entry is free and the event showcases some of the cutting edge research currently being brewed within the Faculty’s four walls.
It is a great chance for folks in the industry as well as you and I to check out how academic research is going to change the world. ^^.

There were a few posters in English, but unfortunately, most of the content was in Japanese. However, everyone speaks fluent English and would most certainly explain the ABCs of their research to you should you ask. ^^.

Each booth showcases a research laboratory within the faculty. Japanese university research labs are named after the Professor in charge. If the Professor’s name is Tanaka Ichiro, then the research lab would be referred to as Tanaka Lab.

This is Saitoh Lab and they are all about finding a new sound. ^^.

A short video clip about Keio Techno Mall will eventually end up on the Keio University YouTube channel soon enough. So you’ll be able to learn about what this fine gent here is playing.

Miki Lab is working on nano and micro sized devices. Micro is on a scale of 10^-6 and Nano 10^-9. Here’s an easy question. Which is smaller? ^^.

Keio Techno Mall is also a good chance for kids to get out of the classroom and go on a school trip!

What do we have here?

That’s a nice piece of headwear! What does it do?

Ushida and Tomita Lab hope to give you Star Wars like Force powers by letting you move things via thought and only thought. All you have to do is suit up your brain with their Brain-Machine-Interface! Their work as been heavily featured in newspapers and it’s pretty impressive.

It would really be an invaluable tool for people who are physically challenged. Right now, they are also pushing to apply the technology in muscle rehabilitation.

Onishi Lab is giving a demo of their work on a haptic robotic hand.

Shiratori Lab has done some pretty impressive work in developing water-proof coatings. Jump into a swimming pool with a coated t-shirt and you’ll only get wet (not the t-shirt). ^^.

I remain impressed by researchers who dwell into hardware. I’ve always been involved in creating new mathematical models and developing software to run them. Lots of computation and simulations. Although I don’t have to wait for things to get built, I have to wait for simulations to finish running. ^^.

BlogRobot.

A new P2P file transfer algorithm.

PS3s linked together for cluster computing. Amano Lab has 72 white PS3s locked away crunching numbers all day long. I blogged about this a while back.

BTW, you can also learn about their research from the Keio University YouTube Channel. You get to see their PS3s somewhere towards the middle.

I wonder what they did with the 72 game controllers…

The students at Okada Lab giving a demo of their research in touch manipulation. I haven’t tried Microsoft Surfaces. Have you?

I have tried using a Windows 7 touch-enabled computer at the electronics store, it wasn’t very intuitive and my arms got tired after a while.

Currently, I think that technology on a display is only good for using short intervals at a time. Especially when you treat your computer like a music jukebox.

I know Tom Cruise’s computer in Minority Report is super cool, but who wants to sit in front of a computer for hours waving their hands in front of them? Or who wants to stare at a display full of finger smudges?

Maybe if you remove the display? …

This is probably my favorite. Another group of students in Okada Lab is giving a demo of their smell dispenser.

The Professor has a portable unit that we can all wear when watching gourmet programs on TV. We’ll get to smell what the chef wants us to smell. ^^.

The device looks pretty good.

hmmm… I smell Lavender.

Imagine sending a friend an email with a smell attached, “Hey this curry smells good!”, when in fact, you’ve attached your atomic fart! The consequences would be disastrous!

Sorry, can’t help myself when it comes to fart jokes. ^^.

There was a rest area in the middle of the exhibition hall when one could sit down and enjoy keynote lectures/discussions.

Why is there a baby doll involved?

Aoki Lab is developing a monitoring system. You can learn more about it by watching their Research Introductory Video.

There was a panel discussion on the past and future of the Keio Leading-edge Laboratory (KLL).

Professor Tojiro Aoyama, our Dean at the Faculty of Science and Technology.

That’s about it for now I guess, there were alot more other ground-breaking, earth-shattering research being showcased, but I only managed these few photos.

Will leave you now with some other photos taken inside the Tokyo International Forum building.

Nice architecture.

This is easily one of my favorites. ^^.

If you’re interested in the Keio Techno Mall, you can find more informations at their website. Did anything catch your eye, nose maybe?

This time around, CGM (Consumer Generated Media) Night was held over at COSPA‘s headquarters in Shibuya. COSPA’s the number 1 Japanese manufacturer and brand to go to for cosplay necessities. Except for the occasional tux and some particular t-shirts, I don’t cosplay at all. ^^.

Do you? If you don’t and would like to get into character once just for the experience, who would you be? Optimus Prime?

Chris from Nihongo Notes. Is he looking around for a free Daimakura?

Some other COSPA t-shirts on the wall. What’s that Dragonball character’s name again?

I was a little early so decided to take a look around their office. This looks like a sound studio to me.

There were desks and partitions, but they were all moved into another room to free up some space.

Food was provided by Indo Tei (I know many Indonesians use “Indo” to refer to their motherland, but in Japan, Indo almost always refer to India インド. Not Indonesia インドネシア). You might not know Indo Tei, but it’s a curry restaurant that Good Smile Company and Max Factory operate together. The 2 figure-making companies do know how to make some good curry. I gobbled everything up before I even had a chance to take a photo.

Like always, there’s always a photo session when everyone gets together.

Heather and I got some photos taken with some of the girls in uniform. Heather runs the Japan auction and online shopping service Rinkya. You can use their service to get things in Japan which you might not be able to get your paws on.

Fukushima san (aka mofuku-chan) in pink runs Moe Japan and even has her own moe-themed live bar down in Akihabara. Has anyone been to Dear Stage?

I didn’t know who he was until Heather enlightened me. Kaname‘s a famous cosplayer who started off cosplaying Cloud Strife from “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children”.

A know alot of friends who are huge fans of Final Fantasy VII. Isn’t this cool or what?

I don’t usually take photos of loot, but since I spent most of the night socialization and only ending up with a hand full of shots, I thought I’ll just add more one to bring the number to a round 10. That’s another photo of Kaname’s Cloud at the bottom right there. Yeah. He’s the guy with red hair 2 photos ago.

Some other links if you’re interested in seeing more photos from that night.

Steve Nagata also has a blog post over here.
Design Review‘s post is entirely in 日本語-only.
Shibuya246 has some other photos taken that night.

I went and listened in on the Good Ideas Salon panel conversation on “pure living” last night. The 6 panelists included, from technology, Peter Rojas of gdgt and Danny Choo, from architecture, Mark Dytham and Rie Azuma, and green visionaries Marc Alt and Hiromi Matsubara.

What does “pure living” mean to you?

Of the many topics that came up, sharing pipped my interest. I came to know about “sharing sites” such as NeighborGoods and Neighborrow. Sites where one doesn’t sell one’s stuff, but instead, share it (maybe with a price even).

It’s a community thing. A good idea nevertheless. Wonder when it’ll start in Japan. One thing I might borrow alot is a car. ^^. Right now I usually rent for weekend outings.

But the thing about sharing… I think it is not within our human nature to share, at least initially. Sharing is something that we are taught. It is not a characteristic that is innate. This might be a little overgeneralizing it, but if you were to give it a little thought, to kids, it’s always “my toy”, “my blankie”, my this my that. Kids are taught to share by grownups and grownups were taught to share when they were kids by their grownups.

That was how it went with me… or at least that’s how I remember it. Memories during those early years are kinda fuzzy. ^^.

Sharing is good and all, but I only tend to share with people I trust. The same applies to when I want to borrow things. I’m not really one for sharing with total strangers. The problem being I don’t know what they’ll do to whatever they borrow.

You have any thoughts?

For budding architects, wood is the new concrete!

Matthew from Sony, Danny from Mirai, Gen from Mozilla and Ken from Keio.

A group of us went for dinner nearby after the event. Although we took this group photo at a parking lot, none of us drove that night.

What do you think? Are we walking home or to the hospital?

It’s close to midnight, something evil’s lurking in the dark.

And train stations are pretty empty.

Last night I attended a birthday party. Well… it was more like an anniversary party. Google Chrome is already 1 year old!

Security was provided by Tokyo’s very own stormtrooper. When Steve Nagata and I failed to show our invites, he pulled his out his blaster on us! We had to use our Jedi iPhone powers to get past this one.

I wonder if these are what Google employees drink everyday? An assortment of Google colored alcoholic refreshments. I had orange-flavored something, but it was yellow.

There was a short presentation. The birthday browser left much of the talking to Google marketing manager John Fu.

In addition to being chrome’s first anniversary, Google Japan also announced “Artist Themes” for Chrome. Let’s you personalize your very own Chrome.

I don’t really use Chrome myself. I probably will give it a try once Google has finished a Mac version. Until then, I’ll stick with the Safari and Firefox duo. ^^. What browsers do you use? Please not IE6…

Doesn’t this look like a cake? I thought it was, but no once sliced it up. I was looking forward to a slice (if it was a real cake).

If you’re still on IE6, please get Chrome here.

Was a little late for the general ceremony in the main hall. The President of the University gave us all an inspiring commencement address before we were all sent to our respective graduation ceremonies.

Graduations for every school within the university are held on a single day in Japan. Back in UNSW where I did my bachelors, different schools held their graduations on different days. What is it like for you?

“Hurry up give it to me!” ^^.

That’s me right there receiving my doctorate degree… in a green t-shirt, blue pair of levi’s jeans, gray socks, camper shoes and a yellow g-shock.

Are you wondering why everyone else is smiling?

Ken is a Doctor,

(of Philosophy). Thumbs up yeah! ^^. This is very mild compared to what I wore for my Masters graduation. Mild, but appropriate don’t you think?

Yes. I’m no longer Mr Lee. I’m Dr Lee. Will work on curing that headache of yours… from an engineering perspective. That will involve removing your brain for further analysis. You in? ^^.

Finally earned my Ph.D. in Engineering! Woo hoo!