All New Street Fighter

Got myself another DualShock PS3 controller. Wee bit big for our Saber though.

And this is why I picked up a second one. Had been meaning to get Street Fighter IV for many moons now but didn't have the time - until I was promted to brush up on my skills after I had seven shades of poo kicked out of me during the Street Fighter tournaments held at CJ Night in Singapore.
You can also see some of the action in Episode 11 of Culture Japan Season 2 - towards the end of the show below.

I kinda like having the paper manual to read before I get down to play the game. The PS Vita games dont come with manuals anymore - instead there is a scanned version in the game.
The first Street Fighter I played was back in 1991 - Street Fighter 2.

Back then I chose Chun-Li all the time. Fell in love with the series and when I started to learn Japanese, I picked up a lot of the lingo from the Street Fighter drama CD's.
The character I use these days however is Ryu.
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But now Street Fighter is all new and improved! Thanks to artwork from Kei Suwabe-san. I want to try the Hello Kitty character!
I've recently become a big fan of Hello Kitty and my Twitter and Facebook followers will probably know why ^^

Check out more characters at Kei Suwabe-san's site.
Via Kotaku.

Visit Akihabara

Was out n about in Akihabara last week giving a lecture at Digital Hollywood University.
I dont go that often of late but when I do, everything seems so different. Many shops disappear while many new ones spring up. One of the things that I'm happy to say does not change is the amount of cute (2D) girls that you will see all over the place.

Had no idea there was an Arakawa Under The Bridge live action version.

Arrival at Akihabara - cold n rainy day. To get to Akihabara, get off at Akihabara station on the JR Yamanote line.
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Chuo Dori - the main road that runs through Akihabara.

Cars in Akihabara look out of place if they are not itarized.

Arrival at the campus to find some... hard working tired students.

Toshihiro Fukuoka - Chief Executive Editor at Ascii Media Works who lectures at Digital Hollywood University. He also produced the Mikunopolis concert in LA.

Yukina Matsuzaki - Ascii Media Works Angel.

You will all recognize this as Hokusai but did you know he drew ero stuff before this?

Moekana - soon!

My lecture was about my line of work and career advice.

Then its time to have a quick lookie around Akiba.
Fan disk for Hoshizora e kakaru hashi out next month.

Cute eroge girlies everywhere! If you like eroge then you will like http://erogetrailers.com/

Amagami nom nom.

Lots of Madoka Magica stuff coming up this year - a lot of surprises too ^^

Onechanbara Z for the 360. Aya is back and she's wearing even less now ^^;

The latest in the Super Robot Taisen series.

For those of you who have been to Akihabara, where was your first stop?
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Many shops start to close around 8pm so get there early if you are hunting for stuff. Restaurants usually stay open until later. Dont forget to check the side streets too as they have treasures like this hidden away.

Katsu for dindins.

The Akihabara Guide post has more info about what you can find at Akihabara.

The new Radio Kaikan - the old one is no more.

HD sized wallpapers over at Google Plus - feel free to use or trace or eat.

The must-stop-off-at store - Gamers filled with cute girlies.

This whole area used to be a car park where a load of folks would skate and play basket ball - photos from way back then in the History of Akihabara post.

Photos taken on the Sony NEX-5N which is great in low light conditions.

Mandarake - where you will find your otaku treasures.

Heading back to base. More Akihabara photos in the posts listed up below.

More places to visit in Tokyo listed below.

Japan Inc set M&A record in 2011

The extraordinarly strong yen - it has appreciated by 45% against the dollar in past four years - sent Japanese companies on a shopping spree abroad. With a cash pile of JPY60 trillion big listed companies are sitting on, it's no wonder corporate Japan spent a record $80 billion on some 620 foreign companies in 2011, exceeding the previous record of 466 acquisitions worth of $75 billion in 2008, according to Dealogic. The Economist's article sees this as not a sign of strength but weakness. The situation it argues is different from the Japan's corporate shopping spree in 1980s when the businesses in Japan were growing. Nowadays, a combination of Japan economy being sluggish, including March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, floods in Thailand, corporate-governance scandals, ageing population, lacklustre consumption and thanks to crises elsewhere makes Japan Inc seek opportunities abroad, especially in fast-growing emerging markets. Source: The Economist | Japanese firms shop abroad: Armed with a strong yen http://econ.st/sy4CjY

Social gaming market in Japan saw 80% growth to $3.2bn in 2011

Yano Research estimates the size of Japanese social gaming market hitting 257 billion Japanese yen or about $3.2 billion in 2011, an increase of more than 80% from last year. In 2012 the market is expected to grow by 33% to 342 billion Japanese yen.