News

Government outlines Tokyo infrastructure plans

The Tokyo Metropolitan govenrment has outlined plans for future infrastructure upgrades in preparation for its 2016 Olympic bid.

“the metropolitan government predicts the population of Tokyo will continue to increase for some time, reaching a peak of 13 million in 2015.”

Source

Sony PS3 goes on sale

The new Sony PS3 went on sale last weekend. I was at the Yurakucho branch of BicCamera on Sunday night and saw a fairly orderly, but long line of eager customers.

Only a limited number were on sale on the weekend, helping to build a buying frenzy for the new gaming console.

Tokyo food cheaper than London and Paris

Tokyo food prices are dropping according to a survey done by the Japanese government. This is not surprising too much, as competition between Japanese fast food restaurants increases.

Household budgets are being stretched as bonuses shrink. One area which families seem to cut back on is dad’s lunch money. One coin lunch places (500 yen) can be seen frequently throughout the city.

If only my landlord would drop my rent!

Tokyo Experiences Power Outage

Tokyo had a power outage after a crane cut a cable shutting down power in parts of Tokyo on Monday.

The outage lasted around 3 hours and brought chaos to the city.

“It was really terrible,” said Naoko Maruyama, a 29-year-old office worker. “I had never experienced anything like it. I had to wait two hours at home until the trains re-started and it was sweltering because I could not use the air-conditioning.”

Fortunately, much of Japan is on holidays this week, with the Obon summer break.

Further reading

Hot Spring Opens in Roppongi

A new natural hot spring has opened in Roppongi. It features a restaurant, sauna and bar.

It is located directly opposite Roppongi Hills.

http://zaboo.jp/roppongi/index.html

Moscow takes over Tokyo as most expensive city

Moscow has taken over Tokyo as the world’s most expensive city. Osaka has also slipped from forth place to sixth.

“For many companies, it can now be more expensive to send employees to work in Russia or Korea than places like Japan or Switzerland which are often perceived to be more costly.”

Source

See the future in Tokyo

The “Miraikan” or future museum bill itself as “Dreams for the 21st Century”.

From their webite:

What direction should we take from now on? Considering that, we came up with
themes in 4 different fields, “the Earth Environment and Frontiers,” “Innovation and
the Future,” “Information Science and Technology for Society” and “Life Science” as we
look at science and technology from the wide viewpoint of space, earth and humans.

I will be writing a review of the place, next time I get a chance to visit Odaiba where it is located.

Tokyo makes bid official

Tokyo has made their bid official for the 2016 Olympics.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara said, “we aim to realize our plan to stage the Olympic Games by beating our rivals at home and abroad”.

Source.

Tachinomiya

The NY Times reports on the rise of the popularity of “tachinomiya” or standing-bars.

Car crashes into subway entrance

A car crashed into the entrance of Omotesando subway station on the weekend.

Police said the car had clipped a motorcycle immediately beforehand, and appeared to have veered onto the sidewalk and rammed into the station as a result.

Read the full story here.