NFGworld: Release Candidate

Technology

[ Sep 5 2016 ]

A View of Old Akihabara

Akihabara ain’t what it used to be, but what is? Here are some then and now photos.

Personal

[ Sep 4 2007 ]

I was in Japan last week and while I had a fantastic time I didn’t find much to buy. A man can only eat so many メロンパン or メロンソーダ, ya know? I bought a couple of cheap trinkets for the camera, but was otherwise prepared to go home with total expenditures of less than two […]

Games

[ Nov 2 2006 ]

Some slightly more up to date arcade news

Afterburner Climax (which is either Sega’s new arcade game or a jet powered vibrator) is currently on public location test in Club Sega Shinjuku in Japan until the 12th Feb. If you can make it there it’s probably worth a look on the off chance it’s not an arcade game. According to the ever elusive […]

[ Oct 1 2006 ]

Ebay, cursed ebay.

For most of the five years I lived in Japan I was selling games on ebay. It was fun, back when you could get stuff cheap and sell it dear, but times changed. Still though I find stockpiles of games now and then and I sell them on ebay. Currently I’ve got about 85 games […]

[ Sep 29 2006 ]

Oh how it sucks to be me.

So we rocked up to the airport and filed into the plane like good sheep, only to find that our window seat was a dirty lie of the worst sort. What kind of bastard fills in a window??

[ Jun 3 2006 ]

Vodafone useless, pulls out of Japan

The newest vodafone unit, the Sharp 904-SH, is like a mini deity. Check out this feature list: VGA screen, Bluetooth with a neat new ‘near chat’, letting you talk to people within a ten metre radius, 3.2 megapixel camera (featuring an incredible zoom mechanism, with 5 lenses!), optical zoom, motion sensor gaming, Felica e-payment chip, […]

[ Jan 30 2006 ]

No more Horienergy

A few days ago I posted about Livedoor still selling Horienergy on their site. The energy drink, no longer available from AM/PM, is no longer available from Livedoor either. The site still lists the sale page when you search for it, but the page is now gone. Translated for your convenience.

[ Jan 25 2006 ]

Why Livedoor?

LIVEDOOR’S STRATEGIES DEBATED Will Horie’s impact on Japan business world last? By HIROKO NAKATA Staff writer The arrest of Takafumi Horie, 33, founder of high-flying Internet startup Livedoor Co., has shocked business leaders and prompted some soul-searching. “There are rules and ethics that companies have to follow and should not breach,” Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of […]

[ Jan 25 2006 ]

Rise and Fall of Livedoor

So Horie, the charismatic leader of Livedoor, has been arrested. Then he resigned. Someone else has taken his place. You might assume the ride’s basically over for him, and I think that’s probably going to prove to be the case for the short term. Interestingly, Crisscross says Livedoor’s #2 man implicated Horie, but on Mainichi’s […]

[ Jan 17 2006 ]

More about Livedoor

Livedoor, a Japanese portal company offering many Yahoo-like services, has long been an underdog in Japan, an unruly upstart challenging the old guard and, generally, kicking ass at it. (intro and recap here) Well, Livedoor’s in the news again. The crime? Basically Livedoor announced they were buying a company they already owned, and the Livedoor […]