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A day out in Tokyo

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:29 EDT

YAY! I have been to Japan three times now - each time for several weeks, so I guess I am fairly familiar with it. However, each time I come, I tend to be chaperoned around, which is not always the best thing when experiencing a country. So at the weekend I decided to head into Tokyo to two places I had on my mind - Akihabara, and Harajuku. I think the people I was staying with were more worried than me, since my Japanese is at 1 year old level, and Tokyo (make no mistake about it) is HUGE. I was quite proud to buy my train tickets and lunch - in Japanese. Akihabara For those who dont know, Akihabara may well be the largest shopping centre on earth for electronic goods. If you are a geek like me - its heaven. I had been before, but had learned a long time ago, that if you have a fetish for electronic gadgets, dont drag around with you, someone who hasnt (like my family). If you want 'stuff' and you are in Japan, come here, coz the prices and selection are mind blowing. However, Akihabara also has a phenomena which easily confirms that the Japanese are pretty much as crazy as we think they are. Therse are Akihabara Maids. First thing - this is about as un-politically correct as you can get (thats why its so much fun). These maids line the streets of Akihabara, and if you go to one of the Maids Cafes, will give you a cute little show with you coffee. My personal theory is, computer geeks have so much trouble getting near a lady, this is thier only chance. I managed to leave Akihabara, without losing my honour. Harajuku I wanted to visit Harajuku for a while, and thought I could get some snaps of the weird fashions you can see there. When I arrived - I realised I had been before about 6 years ago, but my guide hadnt shown me the parts I was interested in. In the end, I took no photos, but strolled around for a while. Its a little like England's Carnerby Street in some ways. But in honesty - nothing to blow your mind, just punky kids. So I headed back to Akihabara, but this time in search for a little music. Found a fantastic music store yes. But while passing the station I came across Alma. Actually, I was feeling rather annoyed, that while some 'fake maid' was doing bad Karaoke, but being cute and noisy, Alma were playing some very impressive music, but virtually being ignored. Well, I made a point to stop listen and take some photos, and clap load at the end of songs, as I thought this may help to get a crowd started. I'm pleased to say that it did - other people (sheep) followed my lead and stopped to listen. I bought Alma's CD, and have invited them to add thier music to Zorpia. I hope they do! I headed back to Tsukuba where I was staying, and then next day was on a plane to Matsue (thats another story). I enjoyed my day out alone in Tokyo very much, and I'm sure will do it again.

Jasy

Sun, 13 May 2007 20:11 EDT

Hi everyone !

I’m just passing by to announce the birth of our beautiful baby boy Jasy Takato Enjo.

Jasy (pronounced jay-see) is named after our good friend John Clare (JC). ‘Takato’ is a combination of both Aya’s fathers names (Takayoshi and Makoto).

He was born at 8:30 on Friday 11th May, and weighed 7lb 8oz.

Spotlight on Zorpia's staff #2: Laoxie

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:42 EDT

Next in my series of Zorpia staff that keep this whole show running is Laoxie (said something like 'Lou-shi-ai') our lead software engineer. A dependable kind of guy - when there is a big problem, Laoxie is the kind of guy you can call at 3am to fix it.

Despite his claims that his english is not good, we got him to talk more in staff meetings, and he is pretty darn good. His sense of humour is goofy, and like all tech geeks, he loves electronic gadgets.

Give him a wave (in english) and thank him for being Zorpia's 'rock'!

Spotlight on Zorpia's staff

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:11 EDT

I was thinking "How do I put this space to good use?" and I came up with a plan:) Many of you are aware of some of the people that have made Zorpia both possible and great. You are especially more aware of some of our more 'public' team members including Jeff (of course), Dee, and Aidan. However, there are many 'unsung heros' in our team, and I thought I'd give them some recognition over the coming days and weeks. First up....

Calvin Yuen

Calvin is one of our Software Engineers, and very influential. He is one of them people that you want to work with. Fun but dependable, and pretty smart. His most notable achievement in my mind is the 'Groups' feature, which he almost single handedly created. Nowadays, if someone wants something done to Groups, we go to Calvin:) I worked with him closely on photo slide shows, portable albums, photo editing, and basically, couldn't have done it without him. He doesnt always know the answers to my many questions, but he always tries, and thats a damn good start. My best thoughts of him concern my trips to Hong Kong when he has been a brilliant host (good ambassador for HK!). Best thing is, he gets my dumb sense of humour - which is key when putting up with working with me. Give praise to Calvin at http://www.zorpia.com/wmyuen ! tell him a silly joke while you are there :)

Update

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:39 EDT

I've been super lazy to add new stuff to this page. You'll be glad to hear that is because we are always super busy here at Zorpia, figuring out how to make the site better and better for you guys :) One reason I was a little quiet a couple of weeks back was because Jeff and me took a quick trip to San Francisco to spread the word of Zorpia. We had a really successful trip and met many more people who I'm sure will help to expand us over the coming months. I'm really pleased with the way that the music feature is going. When I have time, I slip in and browse the new artists. Typically for Zorpia, we are not all English language music. I'm discovering some really great 'world music', its nice to get the chance to hear music that my local 'commercial' radio stations are too scared to try. I've always been a person who wants to encourage 'new' undiscovered music, so I decided to add anything I love to my play list. Enjoy. If you dont know how to add music to your page, see a tutorial here.