STEVE NAGATA

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go

I'm standin' here outside your door

I arrived in Japan in the spring of '02. Arrogant and unsure, excited and cautious, with just a couple of suitcases and almost no contacts on the ground.

Over a decade later it is now time to end this chapter of my life and begin the next one. Over the years I have laughed and loved, cried and screamed, achieved some of my greatest triumphs, spent days cowering in my bedroom hiding from imaginary monsters. I have made a great many amazing friends who will stay with me for the rest of my life, and I have lost a small number whose absence still haunt my thoughts on cold winter nights. I have achieved a great deal, yet I often thought of myself as a fraud.

And I have learned to love this place. So much it tears at my soul to leave. But leave, I must.

These past few years I have often lamented the lack of leadership in this country, the bleak economic future, the degrading social structure and the lack of good Mexican restaurants. But this is not why I leave. The problem is me, not you.

But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn

The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn

Already I'm so lonesome I could die

More and more I have noticed my weaknesses getting strong, my strengths slipping away as I have lost my direction. I have been comfortable. I found, not what I longed for, but what made me feel comfortable. I was letting fear of the unknown push me around in exchange for safe, clean public transportation and one of the best lifestyles in the world. I left my apartment every day and never feared that a lion might eat me before I made it home that night. Life was just too easy.

Lately I have been looking for a catalyst. Something to take me out of my comfort zone and get me living a forward focused life again. I have been looking for the end of the world. And damn, if I didn't find it.

Oh baby, I hate to go

There's so many times I've let you down

So my apartment has been disassembled, pieces scattered to the winds. I arrived with just a couple of bags and I leave practically in the same condition. Ive traded in all I have for a chance at a new start. And I couldn't be more excited/terrified about it. There are so, so many things I will miss. My comfort spots and my hidden secrets. I'll miss the friends I have made and I'll miss the rich texture of living in one of the most complex and rich cities in the world. I'll miss the world class arts scene and the geek enclave that has been both my home and playground for the last few years. I'll miss the way you can understand what a total stranger is thinking without a look, word, or gesture, but by simply understanding the context of the moment. I'll even miss learning how to be lonely in a city of over 12 million people. Oh, and I'll miss late night combini runs for curry-pan. They are awesome.

Every place I go, I'll think of you

Every song I sing, I'll sing for you

Luckily i am not giving all this up forever. In truth I expect to be back in just a few months. My new job includes a focus on Japan that will bring me back often and keep this country well on my radar. But this is no longer my home. My hat stays on my head or hand. The next time I walk the streets, it will be not as a resident, but once again as a visiting alien, collecting samples and abducting livestock for dark sinister… Err Ok that one got away from me there.

I hope I am making the right decision. The fact that I am so unsure about this move makes me feel that I might finally be getting back on track. For any of my friends who may be surprised by this news, I apologize for keeping this quiet. In truth this was all quite sudden and really only became a real plan a couple of weeks ago. I intend to have my “going away party” but I'm afraid it will have to wait until next year sometime when I can get back for a few days,

So after ten years and eight months this will be my last post as “Steve from Tokyo”. Coming soon (I hope) will be a posts from my new home and life. For these precious years living in one of the most spectacular cities in the world, from the bottom of my heart, “thank you”.

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane

Don't know when I'll be back again

Oh baby, I hate to go

It really can’t get much worse than this right?

A screwed up IPO and tanking stock price is holding key investors hostage on the titanic and putting a big cramp into stock option sports car purchases, so let’s top off the week with a privacy issue story spiced with a whiff of user apathy.  In order to lock in a part, the social network just needs to fall through an open manhole and have a door smash a cream pie into it’s face.

PC World: Facebook Claims on Policy Change Vote Turnout Stir Image Problem

Ok, so let me get this right.

facebook wants to update it’s privacy policy *again*.  This is always a high point in public relations for social networks in general and facebook specifically, so obviously someone is looking for a way to make the whole experience a bit more… combustible.

So, they decide to hold an online referendum.  Wow… This one must have come from the zombie apocalypse of bad ideas.  Let’s ask the billion facebook users what they think.  If 30% respond, the results will be binding. 30% of course being roughly the ENTIRE population of the United States.  I’m sure someone at facebook was thinking “no way we can hit that number so even though it’s pretty much certain most people will hate the idea of a policy change, we can easily ignore the results and do whatever we want.”  This executive of course should be given a medal for being right, then taken out behind the building and shot for being an idiot.

As could easily be predicted, users vote against the measure by around an 8-1 ratio, and indeed the magic 30% number was not reached, so the results are invalidated.  So how many people voted?  Well, that would be, let’s see…

0%

yup.  A statistical nada.  Only 342,000 users voted. That’s roughly 0.03% or 1/1000 the required quorum.  I guess this means that facebook has a Klout score of like… well… 0.

In it’s first “community” governance call, facebook was able to reach out and involve a whopping 0% of it’s own user base.  I guess next time they should allow votes by bot and troll accounts.

So they win because they can honestly say that there is not significant opposition to instituting the new privacy policy.  If you can cell getting “liked” by 0.01% of users “support”.  At a time when the market is nervous about the viability of the organization, particularly it’s ability to motivate its users and generate sales and revenue, it’s not a great confidence builder when you set your own standards and fail to miss them by, well, more than the total population of Germany.

Maybe next time they should check craigslist for a Social Media expert.  They could probably use the help.

Call me Charlie Brown. Every year I fall for it.

A decade ago, the first trade show I ever visited in Japan was Wireless Japan. I was dying to see the new 3G network phones and cutting edge wireless technology that was the envy of consumers around the world. Ostensibly my main goal revolved on finding out when Japan would add Blackberry service or what alternatives there were in the works. Oh what an absurd rabbit hunt into Wonderland that turned out to be.

This year, as is tradition, I made the trek to Tokyo Big Site to see what I could see. At first, I wondered if the malaise I felt was because things had changed. The venue seemed less full, less energetic. But now I realize the problem is not what has changed, but what has not changed.

Here’s an example. Casio was there with, I kid you not, a Cassiopeia branded barcode scanner running Windows CE.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Had a nice chat with an engineer at the booth about how sad I was that the once revered Casio PDA brand had been completely wiped out years ago and how it would be great if they could find a way to revive it with something new and innovative like the old days.

I spotted the Brother booth showing off their new Air Scouter glasses type display system. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release next month to learn more about this device which looks like a slightly more dorky version of Google Glasses.

Indeed, the device was very shiny. While the look made me feel like a 1980′s era science teacher, the display was crisp, and seemed by usable, creating a floating screen that felt like a monitor about a foot away from my left eye.

“How’s the power requirements” I asked. “It draws from the USB port so as long as your computer has charge it works” the rep replied.

“ah, cool… Wait… Huh?”

After some roundabout answers we come to the point that there is only one interface available. USB to Windows OS. When I asked by there was no HDMI/VGA/Composite Video interface the rep said, “this was the easiest way”.

Stupid football…

It’s like no one there was even trying. Well, one group was. NTT had a huge booth pitching its mobile VOIP solution 050+ which is kinda like Skype where you pay lots of money. But what they lack in ethics or originality, they more than made up in audacity with booth attendants dressed up like idol singers, one of which kept flashing her knee tattoo of the brand logo to me so much I think she must be a soccer player.

Sure there were plenty of Android phones and Apple accessories, but nothing new, nothing interesting. It feels like walking around a 5th grade science fair. Everyone showing off a potato battery and looking at you to praise them for making something so cool.

Meanwhile no one official seems to take this event remotely seriously. While Docomo and Au were there, they mostly had leftovers and hand me downs from other shows and events. Despite its recent launch, there was practically no presence by Docomo’s NotTV, the Nth iteration mobile TV boondoggle that they have spent a fortune marketing. While they had a giant booth with a live TV studio at CEATEC last year, they were happy with a small table in a corner of the Docomo booth here. SoftBank of course boycotts most of these trade shows in Japan, and even OEM giant Huawei just has a tiny booth in a corner of the floor where it looks like they just handed out business cards to anyone curious enough to stop by their spartan space.

I can’t stress enough how wrong this feels. This is Japan. Japan pushed the boundaries of consumer mobile tech to mythical levels before the iPhone showed up. While Americans were excited over a Color LCD screen on their Nokia, Japanese consumers had Digital TV sets in their handset. Sharp made the first mobile Cellular PDA, J-Phone introduced the camera phone, Docomo had the first active 3G network. While the world media was glued to Tim Cook’s speech at D10 today, no one was watching for Japan’s premier wireless technology expo, not even here in Japan.

Except me. Sitting here in the dirt, watching Lucy laugh as she walks away with that football.

On the final day of Golden Week, the cluster of national holidays in Japan each spring that sends families all over the country into a spring break like frenzy, a new type of festival was launched.

The Tokyo Hotaru (firefly) Festival, sponsored by Tokyo Municipal Govt. and other businesses and government entities literally lit up the Sumidagawa river near Asakusa by floating 100,000 small LED lanterns downstream.  The festival, with a heavy Eco-friendly theme highlighted the lanterns, provided by Panasonic, each containing a small solar cell and a rechargeable battery.  The result was a summer festival for a new generation, replacing large fireworks display with a high tech version of an ancient tradition.

This was an excellent opportunity for Panasonic, having recently purchased state of the art eco-tech through their Sanyo acquisition, to highlight their line of LED lightbulbs.  Each of the 100,000 glowing balls dumped into the river contained a high power LED bulb and an Evolta rechargeable battery.  I was very impressed with the overall design of the lanterns, each waterproof ball containing it’s own solar panel recharging system.  Two metal leads on the bottom of each ball creates a circuit, that when floating in water is connected turning on the light.  Simple, elegant and a stunning effect when floating en mass in the water.

(a shot of  my recently obtained Sphero robot pondering joining its friends)

Another winner for this festival is Tokyo Skytree, the new digital broadcast tower that at 634 meters is the second tallest structure in the world.  Officially opening in just a few weeks, the tower is illuminated with thousands of high intensity LED light bulbs (also by, you guessed it, Panasonic), but as part of the festival, the tower was fully illuminated.  The cherry on the cake was the Supermoon rising right behind the tower just as the festival hit full swing.

Last year many festival were cancelled after the 3/11 quake and the full shutdown of all nuclear reactors in Japan has put huge pressure this summer on power conservation efforts, so this festival couldn’t have come at a better time.  A combination of large scale festive, public event, a strong eco-friendly message, and a celebration of the technical ability of the country that was well received at challenging time.  I look forward to more events like this in the future and hope this marks a new tradition.

Tokyo Hotaru Event Webpage

Panasonic Hotaru info page

Spent the day yesterday in Makuhari at the NicoNico Chokagi, a special event going on this weekend.

View slideshow

NicoNico Douga is a Japanese video sharing and online streaming service. It fills a niche of Pirate Otaku Video so you can imagine what this place was like. Cosplayers, Itasha, Idols, Ikemen Otagei dance performances… ^^;

Saw my friends from Neurowear there doing the Japan launch of the brain wave controlled robot necomimi. Judging by the huge number of girls (and way too many guys for my comfort) wandering around the site I think you could call this a very successful launch.

The event is running today if you are looking for something to do. That is if you have a high tolerance for crowds, blaring loudspeakers, crazy otaku stuff and EM radiation.

http://www.chokaigi.jp/

Lots of Itasha offer video games playing anywhere, anytime.

Of course I was most interested in drooling over the production equipment.

Plenty to check out if you are into cars or cosplayers too!

A crazy Otaku dance-off. I have no explanation ^^;

Now that’s my kind of EVA cosplay!

Don’t forget to pick up your necomimi! Here are the creators Tomonori Kagaya and Toshitaka Kamiya. Special launch price at the event.

Also got some free toilet paper from Good Smile company. Asked this nice girl to hold the TP and this is what she did. Is this some kind of thing?

Get there early, I ended up waiting in a line for about an hour in the sun with a few thousand people.

March 3rd in Japan is a holiday called Hinamatsuri or Dolls Festival. It’s a holiday where families erect displays in their home for with traditional Japanese dolls reflecting the Imperial court. The dolls an be very pricey and are passed along within the family from mother to daughter often augmenting the collection along the way with more or nicer dolls.
I remember having one of these displays in the house that belonged to my sister. But what do you do if your little girl is more into lightsabers and spaceships than fancy dresses and princesses? (other than receive constant high gives for having the coolest daughter ever)

Well I found a shop in Nihonbashi that has you covered. Cool dolls here from an entirely different Imperial court there are Vaders and troopers with full Samurai armor and what I am sure are laser sword Katana.

But get it fast cause at $4,000 for a 1 meter high Sith Lord Doll I’m sure they will sell out fast!

Still scheduled to be completed this year, the renovation work on the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station is still under way. The new domes over the North and South entrances can now be seen popping up from the scaffolding surrounding the building.

For as long as I have known it, Tokyo Station has been an underground building. The Marunouchi side was a quick post war knock off of the original building and has for all intents and purpose been a condemned building for years. This new renovation is supposed to return the building to its pre war original state. I’m dreaming of a new, but classic design that will add visibility and access to the tracks and bring ye station out of its underground cocoon. Tokyo needs a signature station like Grand Central in New York or Moscow subway station. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see this landmark rise again in a few months.

Read more on Tokyo station here. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tōkyō_Station

Three days and 26 hours in the can. I’m writing this on the train to my last day live streaming the Belgian Beer Weekend Tokyo event at Roppongi Hills Arena. Just 8 hours left!

Had a very fun trial run this week with my gypsy Internet TV studio. I think I’m liking the name “Studio@stevenagata” for this monster of mismatched parts from my closet, computers and electrical tape. So far no major hiccups, but a few minor technical glitches I’ll have to work on.

The biggest problem so far has been errors on the Roland VR-5 mixer causing some of the saved streams to corrupt on closing. I lost a few bits I had meant to save including a music act that I thought went pretty well. Since we are not archiving online the video, I’m afraid, is lost forever. Will have to run some endurance tests to try and nail down the problem. Otherwise I might look into on off board video recorder like an Atmos Ninja.

It’s been fun to see so many friends stop by the event. Hoping a few more might make it by today. Keeping the stream up can be pretty draining so I wasn’t able to chat much, but hope that today will be a bit lighter as I starting together the hang of things.

The event itself has been super cool. Great bands, good food, 62 types of beer and a crowd expected to top 20,000 for the four days. Early metrics showing we’ll beat that number decisively with online viewers. Super thanks to Akoni KK, Rob Van Nylen and Dean Fujii for bringing me on board for this event. Hope to do more like it in the future (I hear talk of a possible fashion show! (^_^) ). Also big props to ace Cameraman and super geek Joseph Tame for putting in 4x hours over the agreed work and covering all the concerts like a pro.

Definitely stop by if you have time today. It’s really a great atmosphere. Or tune in on the livestream at http://bit.ly/bbw2011. More detailed reports on my studio later *I hope*

Ok, first of all I need to come up with a better name than that.

Some work recently has given me the chance to play around with higher level AV gear and in typical fashion I kinda got a bit carried away. A couple of years ago, comrade Danny Choo convinced me to give live streaming a shot, Ustream had just published their iPhone app and I had great fun running around Akihabara streaming micro tours.

I’ll be honest. Personally I watch very little on Ustream, and I NEVER watch my own stuff. The jarring motion when I move the iPhone around makes me carsick in about three seconds. But I do see a strong value there if things are done well, and simply put, I love the gadgets.

In the world of content, the combination of real time and video is the tip of the sword, and combining valuable content, modern technology, and logistical planning can create a new level of communication never before seen. Yeah, it’s basically cable access tv spliced onto the Internet, but think about it. Cable access tv spliced to the Internet. The potential to waste time in vain pursuits shared equally with the power to topple governments.

But I digress. What I am really talking about is the opportunity for Steve to play with gear. And Steve likey the toys.

The studio I’ve set up is man-portable, folding up into a few large equipment boxes. Not fun to trudge around town with, but in a pinch a single person should be able to transport all the gear in one trip to set up pretty much anywhere.

Based around a Roland VR-5 video mixing board, up to three live video feeds can be mixed with pre-recorded media and computer output and output via built in USB interface to a computer. I’ve got a Mac mini set up as a media server/titleing machine and a MacBook air with Ustream Pro as the primary uplink computer. Of course it can just as easily output to Twitcasting, Livestream, or Vidcaster. There is also a Behringer Xenyx 1002FX audio mixer to augment the VR-5′s more basic sound mixing capabilities, and a Shure SM48 dynamic microphone, as well as an old classic iPod for audio. Finally I threw in a cheapie crapgadget 10 inch display that can serve as a display for the Mac mini, and output or preview monitor for the VR-5.

The end result of all of this is a setup that could theoretically be handled through the Ustream Pro software interface, but in practice would overload a server class computer in seconds. And what can I say, I really, really like having lots of buttons and dials to work with rather than fiddling with setup menus and drop down options.

Serving as cameras I have my aging Sony HDR-CX520 camcorder and my new wireless cambot. If I continue down this path of destruction I’ll likely have to augment this and am stealing glances at the new Sony NEX-VG20 as a possible future addition.

Combined, this setup allows me to effectively run a small live TV production studio. Better yet, I can move it around and set the whole thing up pretty much anywhere (with an Internet connection) in about an hour (a bit slow due to my phobia of wires). I’ll be running the first production test of this full setup at the Belgian Beer Weekend at Roppongi Hills this coming weekend if anyone wants to check it out in person, and hope to be able to push the power of the studio in some other projects in development. Of course if anyone is interested in hiring my studio to stream an event , i’d love the help to offset the cost of the equipment. As they say, no job too small, no fee too big!

Of course as with all of my creations the studio is a work in progress and I’ll be enhancing and tweaking along the way. Always looking for suggestions on improving the setup or new gear recommendations so if you have any thoughts, please drop a line in the comments.

Just put the finishing touches on my new wireless camera platform. It’s still a bit rough and I know there’s a revision on the way, but it came out surprisingly well for a first draft.

The head is a .3 MP CCD camera attached to a 1.2 ghz wireless transmitter. The antenna for the transmitter makes up the right arm and I threw in an LED lamp for a left arm for balance. Loose cables and a monster 6,800 maH LiOn battery fill the backpack.

Range is a bit of a problem. I think it will reliably transmit about 10 meters with Line of sight, maybe further, but indoors through walls that’s about the limit. I need to work on an improved antenna for the receiver to improve that range.

It’s basically just a webcam on a tripod (an old Gorillapod I had lying around) but I wanted to do something fun with it. It’s pretty fun to put it on a table somewhere and have people say “hi”. I guess future versions can add things like a pivot head and facial recognition, as well as a mobile base to turn it into a full robot, but overall not a bad project with some random parts I had lying around and about $10 in pieces for the body.

What do you think? What does the next draft need?

Yeah, there is no such thing as a free lunch. But for a data addict like me, a cup of coffee is well worth a cool, long pull of that sweet, sweet wifi.

Once a rare thing in Tokyo's vast sprawl, free wifi has more recently become a true unicorn. A beast of legends told of by grey bearded Linux wizards. Sure there are plenty of wireless consortiums, but of course they all require contracts and identification, forms that mention first born children, etc. Plenty of shady mystery networks offering free wireless as well, but they always want personal info and leave me feeling like I need a long shower and a shot of penicillin later.

So, on top of supporting some of the major subscription networks, Starbucks Japan Today has launched their own free wireless scheme, and so far, me likey.

So what's good? Well first, it's easy. Registration required just a valid email address. Go to the sign up page here – http://starbucks.wi2.co.jp/pc/menu2_en.html , conveniently available in both Japanese and (praise the lord!) tourist friendly English. Click on the sign up link, enter in your email and a password. You should receive a confirmation email (mine came within seconds) and once you click it, you are golden. I recently tried to sign up for Lawson convenience stores new free wifi network, but the process heavy and confusing registration system left my curled up in a ball crying in the corner. Hint to designers, please try to not make your interface suicide inducing.

Now look for a Starbucks with this wifi sign. It's not clear yet how many stores around Japan are supported, but my local 'bucks in Akihabara proudly placed the sign right next to the register.

Once you manage to find a table (may be difficult. See Unicorn reference above), you can look for the Wifi hotspot at_STARBUCKS_Wi2. After connecting, you will be prompted to enter your username (email address) and password. Again, all screens are bilingual. Now you are golden.

So now I sit, slurping down a cool iced beverage and typing this blog entry on my iPad while uploading some pictures from my iPhone. Multiple logins seem to be ok and my login credential were saved so you don't have to type in you user name and password if you lose the connection, although I don't know how long they will be valid. I tested out my VPN and had no problem connecting and streaming some video from Hulu, but wasn't able to ping a connection speed, so mileage may vary over time and from locate to location. Still, very happy with the service and this could be a lifesaver to travelers to Japan.

For completeness I tested the service outside as well, and was able to log in a few feet away from the entrance, so I suppose in a pinch a frugal cyber-vagrant might be able to sample a bit of free data without paying the for a cup of the only black liquid I can think of that costs more per barrel than oil, but I wouldn't set up your cardboard office in front of the store unless you are willing to find out if your local place box also has wireless (yes kids, unauthorized access to computer networks is considered hacking in pretty much most countries).

Hopefully the service will expand and improve. Then again, it's also possible that Starbucks will rethink the system, add restrictions, or start executing patrons who sit at tables too long typing away on laptops (a policy I wholeheartedly endorse when it is not me.) In the meantime enjoy your “free” wifi while you can.

For the past couple of weeks it’s felt like half of the YouTube videos that I have watched have been following an ad for the Japanese telecom provider Docomo.

Aside from the fact that it’s up using the new preview mode (you can skip the ad after watching a few seconds), I’ve actually sat through the whole video a few times. It seems like this new -Ad as soon as you start up- system is training my brain to ignore anything that happens immediately after a mouse click.

So here is the ad.

After a few views, it started to hit me how much I disliked this ad, and how it played into my dislike of the company spamming my eyes with it.  Basically, a young, healthy, energetic new office worker learns that working pretty much sucks. Bosses are mean and you can’t catch a break. But, hey, if you buy a smartphone, you can escape from your reality anytime you want by reading escapist novels and comic books.  After all, life ain’t getting any better for you.

So while I’m pretty sure this message will strike a chord with many of the young new workers entering this economy (The consensus is that the lucky ones get crappy jobs they hate), the overall impression I get from this ad is “We know your life sucks, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Why not try some Opium. Docomo: We sell that”.

A contrast to that is Google’s recent ad push.  Taking an obvious cue from Apple’s human focused function ads for the iPhone, Google pushed out what I felt were some really fun and effective ads.

In the first ad, a father uses his smartphone to amuse his fish loving child on a rainy day, and in the second, a young woman sings her request to her phone looking for art to liven up her new apartment.  Each of these ads do a great job of conveying a sense of ease, fun, and magic around using a smartphone.  Instead of using it to escape your horrible reality, you can use these magical tools to improve your reality.  Considering that all of these ads are pitching to exactly the same target market, it’s interesting to see what different advertising philosophies these two companies have some up with.

My take away from this round;

Docomo: Life sucks. Trust us, we know it. Heck, she probably works for us. But you can read manga on a phone, which is the only place you can read it, except for in books. Anyway, this is the only happiness you will have cause again, life sucks.

Google: Anything you sing to your phone will come true, and you can afford a pricey apartment in a trendy neighborhood, and your kids will think you are super awesome cause you know stuff like what fish look like.

Due to the overwhelming chaos that always exists within my own mind I thought I’d start up a new blog here. Rather than a mash up of random thoughts that is usually the hallmark of my blogs in the past, I plan to use La Vie En Tech to focus on just technology. Specifically how I use and adopt technology based solutions in my work and personal life.

Things here probably won’t fall into easy categories like reviews, news, or recommendations. Rather, I’d like this to be a space for ideas and solutions to specific needs and problems.

It will likely take me a few days to get things fully up and running, but once I do, I plan to update as much as possible. I know I say that a lot, but you gotta start with goals right?

Well, I hope readers find this interesting.

Allons-y!