Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan http://www.blizzardboy.net Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan is the blog of Simon Gibson, a New Zealander living in Tokyo, Japan. Focused on New Zealand, Japan, web design and other shiny things. Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:08:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Denphone Digest December Issue http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/denphone-digest-december-issue.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/denphone-digest-december-issue.html#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:08:50 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/?p=961 The December issue of the Denphone Digest is up and can be read here: http://www.denphone.com/denphone-digest-december-2009. This issue features an interview with Lookmedia’s Mark Long, as well as a short write up of our first trade show, and new phone from Polycom.

Lookmedia is an interesting company, offering some “out of the box” advertising solutions in Japan. Here is a picture of some of their walkers.

Lookmedia Walkers

And here is a short extract from the interview:

Simon: One thing I am always curious about when thinking about advertising and marketing, is how to judge the effectiveness of campaigns. Could you tell us about the metrics of your campaigns? How do they work out for the client?

Mark: Metrics are hard, but I can tell you one about a couple of campaigns we did where we saw very satisfying results. We were contracted by Nagoya City to help raise participation in the Nagoya local government election. We had to compete with numerous different companies to get the contract but we won the contract especially because of our mobility.

Over the last 10 years there has been a large decline in voting in Nagoya especially among young people. So we pitched the idea of targeting universities, shopping areas and train stations to directly focus on younger voters. For 10 days leading up to the election we had 8 walkers out from 7am to 9pm at different times of the day at specific locations – for example, the train stations early in the morning, at the universities during lunch time and then at shopping malls in the evenings so that we could best target these younger voters. This campaign was probably the most successful we have taken part in with a significant change in the turnout of voters.

Another job we did in Nagoya also had very positive results. NTT Flets TV do a campaign every March to increase sign ups for their service. We had 26 boards out for 4 days and the campaign doubled the number of sign ups. Now, it was part of a larger campaign, so we can’t say we were solely responsible for that. But we do get repeat customers, and if our campaigns weren’t working we wouldn’t get those repeats. So our customers are satisfied.

Other Random Posts from Blizzardboy. Enjoy:)

Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/denphone-digest-december-issue.html/feed 0 Plagiarizing Spam – a Poem http://www.blizzardboy.net/culture/plagiarizing-spam-a-poem.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/culture/plagiarizing-spam-a-poem.html#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:05:52 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/?p=952 The following came in a spam email today, so I thought I would plagiarize it as it makes a nice poem. After searching I found that it is originally from a 19th century book – Carnac’s Folly, Volume 3 by Gilbert Parker (Wikipedia enlightens: Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet PC (November 23, 1862 – September 6, 1932), known as Gilbert Parker, Canadian novelist and British politician, was born at Camden East, Addington, Ontario, the son of Captain J. Parker, R.A.). Amusing to think that a long lost Canadian novelist should be the source of spam.

The Gift of Reading

With his own face,
as it had been in his youth,
though his mother’s look
was also there-transforming,
illumining.

He had a pang as he saw the two
at the close of his meeting filtering
out into the great retort of the
world.

Then it was that he had the impulse
to go to the woman’s home,
express his sorrow,
and in some small sense
wipe out his wrong by
offering her marriage.

He had not gone.

He knew of Carnac’s success in
the world of Art; and how
he had alienated his reputed father
by an independence revolting
to a slave of convention.

He had even bought, not
from Carnac, but from a dealer,
two of Carnac’s pictures and a statue of
a riverman. Somehow the years
had had their way with him.

He had at long last realized that material things
were not the great things of life,
and that imagination, however productive,
should be guided by
uprightness of soul.

One thing was sure, the boy had never
been told who his father was. That Barouche knew.
He had the useful gift of reading
the minds of people in their faces.
From Carnac’s face, from Carnac’s
mother’s face, had come to him the real story.

He knew.

Other Random Posts from Blizzardboy. Enjoy:)

Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/culture/plagiarizing-spam-a-poem.html/feed 0 Around the world in 80 days – A couch surfer from Germany http://www.blizzardboy.net/travel/around-the-world-in-80-days-a-couch-surfer-from-germany.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/travel/around-the-world-in-80-days-a-couch-surfer-from-germany.html#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:26:08 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/?p=950 We currently have an interesting couch surfer staying with – this time from Germany. He is travelling around the world in 80 days. staying as he goes with different couch surfers. And back home, a group of hip hop artists made a track about him. Funky!

He has a blog here, if you read German and want to check it out: http://www.stern.de/blog/94_extreme-couch-hopper.

Other Random Posts from Blizzardboy. Enjoy:)

Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/travel/around-the-world-in-80-days-a-couch-surfer-from-germany.html/feed 0 You and the Pirates http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/you-and-the-pirates.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/you-and-the-pirates.html#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:54:47 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/you-and-the-pirates.html We are hearing suspicious rumours of a great debut novel set in Tokyo by Canadian Jocelyn Allen:

Canadian literature (or CanLit, as some insist) has gradually become a genre of its own- one of books that are bleak, desperate, *meaningful*, and above all, dull.

New DIY publisher The Workhorsery aims to do something about that by releasing You and The Pirates, Jocelyne Allens’ superfun debut novel.

The book dares to star you (a snarky prairie-girl expat) in its second-person wackjob tale of terrorists, cats and pirates in modern-day Tokyo. Check it out!

Free chapter (PDF)

We look forward to reading that!

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Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/you-and-the-pirates.html/feed 0 Issue 8 of Denphone Digest http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/issue-8-of-denphone-digest.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/issue-8-of-denphone-digest.html#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:17:44 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/?p=945 Issue 8 of the Denphone Digest is now available online – check it out here: http://www.denphone.com/denphone-digest-november-2009.

This issue features a really promising Japanese start-up – Inferret – who are doing some really interesting work in the field of natural language recognition for both text and spoken language. And we introduce a great little hotel IP phone made by Japanese manufacturer Nakayo (pictured above). While a lot of people still have a negative image of VoIP (due to cheap calling networks) this phone has top-notch sound quality and is a wonderful device. There is also a howto I wrote explaining how to get twitter feeds to display on Polycom phones (although it will also work on Cisco IP phones with a bit of tinkering).

Also, I should mention that we will be exhibiting at our first tradeshow –

Denphone to exhibit at Call Center/CRM Demo & Conference Tokyo

Denphone is proud to announce that they will be exhibiting at this years Call Center/CRM Demo & Conference Tokyo to be held November 12th and 13th at Sunshine City in Ikebukero.

The Call Center/CRM Demo & Conference Tokyo is Japan’s leading tradeshow for Call Center and CRM solutions with vendors exhibiting a wide range of hardware, software and services for the call center and customer center industries.

Denphone will be focusing their SIP and IAX2 trunking solutions, as well as managed voice services. This is a good chance to meet up with a representative from Denphone to find out how telephony related technology is moving forward and what new solutions there are now available to both reduce your company’s expenditure while increasing employee effectiveness.

Denphone will be giving away 2 IP phones to people who visit their booth – so visit us to be in to win!

The event will be held at Sunshine City Ikebukuro: (http://www.sunshinecity.co.jp/ (Japanese language only).)

For more information (Japanese only) please see http://www.callcenter-japan.com/.

Look forward to seeing you there, and I hope you enjoy Denphone’s magazine.

Other Random Posts from Blizzardboy. Enjoy:)

Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/issue-8-of-denphone-digest.html/feed 0 Real Sumo Fighting http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/real-sumo-fighting.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/real-sumo-fighting.html#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:49:20 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/real-sumo-fighting.html Chooch pointed this video out last night while she was reading the Flying Spaghetti Monster channel on Mixi.

Now I am not a big Sumo fan, but I thought this was pretty cool!

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Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/real-sumo-fighting.html/feed 1 10 Years in Japan & 500 Posts http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/10-years-in-japan-500-posts.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/10-years-in-japan-500-posts.html#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:25:50 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/10-years-in-japan-500-posts.html Just passed 10 years in Japan. It sure has been an interesting experience and I am really glad to have had the chance to spend so much time here in Japan.

Originally I was just planning to come for one year – I did a couple of papers on Asian Politics at university and I came to Japan because I was curious to see what life here was really like. Just studying something at university doesn’t really give one much of an impression of what things are really like on the ground.

I never really experienced culture shock here – I think because I had prepared myself for living in Japan by not preparing myself, so there wasn’t much that I was expecting. Before I came I had an image of the hi-tech Japan – the Japan of Sony and Panasonic mixed up with an image of traditional Japan – the world of samurai and ninja’s and gracious manners. What I found was a country that was both at the same time as being neither. In many ways the people of Japan are a lot like New Zealanders – a little shy at first but strong friends in the end.

Some of the highlights:

Meeting Chooch
Visiting Tokyo’s Islands
Snowboarding in Hokkaido
Using the Seishin-18kippu to travel to Wakayama and Hiroshima
Climbing Japan’s lowest natural mountain
Seeing my students from 10 years ago at their Coming of Age Ceremony
Passing the 2kyu Japanese Language Test
Swimming in Aomori
Little boat rides
Shinjuku at night

and many many more.

Oh and this is the 500th post for Blizzardboy!

Think I might have a beer and enjoy the view of Mt Fuji…

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Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/10-years-in-japan-500-posts.html/feed 7 Get Well Soon Mr. Knox! http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/get-well-soon-mr-knox.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/get-well-soon-mr-knox.html#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:30:10 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/get-well-soon-mr-knox.html Wishing Chris Knox a speedy recovery.

Sometimes living away from one’s original country, one misses important news. Chris Knox certainly played a big part of my life when I was growing up back in Christchurch. More than anything I love the way he has his own unique style. Playing his casio keyboard on top of an ironing board. Some very wonderful evenings. I remember him at one of the events at Canterbury University thanking the maths club for coming along (well they all had numbers on the back of their jerseys!).

Here is Not Given Lightly. Have always had a soft spot for that song. Reminds of someone who once had dreads.

Get well soon!

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Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/get-well-soon-mr-knox.html/feed 4 Martin Luther King Rocks Out http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/martin-luther-king-rocks-out.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/martin-luther-king-rocks-out.html#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:57:57 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/martin-luther-king-rocks-out.html

This rocks. Truly wicked!

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Share/Save/Bookmark]]> http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/martin-luther-king-rocks-out.html/feed 0 Snow boarding in New Zealand (wtf!) http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/snow-boarding-in-new-zealand-wtf.html http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/snow-boarding-in-new-zealand-wtf.html#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:05:12 +0000 Simon http://www.blizzardboy.net/japan/snow-boarding-in-new-zealand-wtf.html Well the snowboarding season in Japan is done and gone for another year, but that means the season in New Zealand will be starting soon.

Found this video of boarding in New Zealand. It will blow your mind!

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