Tokyo (and other cities) as viewed by locals and tourists
Here's a fun research project - based on photos' metadata this Flickr user mapped places most visited by tourists (red) and locals (blue). Yellow can be either one.
The archive
banzaitokyo's articles — page 37
Browse banzaitokyo's articles in the Akihabara archive.
Japan for Digital Nomads
Japan is usually thought of as a major travel destination: it's the place you go to marvel at centuries-old temples and traditional towns, not necessarily to get some work done. But it turn…
Japan starts selling rice in plastic bottles
Unfortunately the article is in Japanese only, but a picture says everything here - you can now buy rice in plastic bottles. Like there is not enough plastic waste already...
This Japanese Company Charges Its Staff $100 an Hour to Use Conference Rooms
Hiroyuki Suzuki couldn’t be happier that his company is charging him and all other employees about $100 an hour to use meeting rooms. “People really cut back on useless meetings,” says Suzuki, 37, wh…
Sony launches a taxi-hailing app to rival Uber in Tokyo
Sony last year announced it would enter Japan’s taxi-hailing space and, good to its word, the electronics giant has kicked off its S.Ride service in Tokyo. The service — which was first not…
Scotty of Strange Parts shops for wireless LEDs in Tokyo
Scotty of Strange Parts went to Akihabara (an area in Tokyo loaded with electronics, game arcades, and maid cafes) and found these cool wireless LEDs that can be illuminated with inductive chargers. …
The realities of 'owning' a Japanese convenience store
A familiar orange and green signboard glares in the pitch-dark, quiet street in a residential area. There, the owner of a 7-Eleven franchise store located in the suburbs of a small city in …
Sumo: Kakuryu, Tochinoshin suffer upset losses on Day 8
Overnight leaders Kakuryu and Tochinoshin fell into a three-way tie with rank-and-file grappler Asanoyama following their upset losses at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday.…
A shop of strange inventions
A shop owned by Nobumichi Tosa, a member of Maywa Denki sells all kinds of strange inventions - baseball that farts, robot that claps hands when someone approaches it. The owner hopes that the d…
Tokyo Olympic ticket lottery opens in Japan, foreign sales June 15
Residents of Japan began entering a ticket lottery on Thursday, hoping to land seats for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. People overseas will have to wait until June 15 when tickets are put on sale …