Geocaching with Max, Part 2 (again, in Japanese only) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r51KkqSS9cI

Geocaching with Max, part 1 (in Japanese only, sorry...) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqy1iEY2DfE

Max' Ancient Cedar

Paula, Stefnee,

Here I am back at the ancient cedar tree near Max' place that you love so much!

I took this photo with all of my love for the two of you pouring from the depths of my soul!

I love you!




Cam

Osaka-san's New Restaurant

For those of you who remember Osaka-San and his restaurant I present
you with is remade restaurant, Oceans!

It sure is good to meet my old friends again. I'm glad he was working!
I'm going to bring Hiroko here for a buffet lunch tomorrow after she
arrives and we drive around a bit. I want to show her my old
Shangri-la.

The guy standing outside the shop is Max and the guy standing in the
shop is Osaka-san.

I love you!

In The GAP

On Rhursday I got out of the office to see a client with the other business development people We don't say 'sales' any more because clients require more than just selling; they expect the vendor to help them develop their business and take on risk as well. It is a big shift from the days of yore.

The entire train was a massive ad for The GAP. Each car was full of only GAP advertisements. The banner you see above everyone's head is actually knitted (in China of course) like a scarf!

I thought it was quite unique an idea since people are pulling out their winter wear already and bundling & scarfing up.

Time to catch my flight to my Shangri-la for the rest of the week. My bike and Masaki (and the cold rain and high humidity) are awaiting me!

I love you!
Cam

There seems to be no app for Multiply and the mobile version is rather limited. I like to be able to see the sidebar that shows us comment numbers, personal message numbers, and new post numbers without having to scroll through all of my contact posts. I can't even find easily if anyone has commented on my posts and I guess that makes access from the iPhone the least desirable. If anyone has found an iPhone app for Multiply please let me know as I don't see it in any of my searches. I love you!

aWesome iPhone 4S cOver

I couldn't resist getting this cover for my iPhone. I absolutely love
it. Actually we are supposed to be able to put our train pass between
the phone and the back of the case and then just touch the phone to
the turnstile and go. But the phone waves seem to block the ic chip in
the pass card so it doesn't work. That is a disappointment but
still.... It's so frikkin' awesome! If I were Japanese everyone would
think I was either a yakuza or a rebel. But since I'm a white dude
it's a cool juxtaposition that messes with their minds. And I like
that!

And I love you!
Cam

No Action is Good Action?

This photo is on the fence of a construction site between Gotanda Stn and my offices. They are putting up a brand new office building.

It just strikes me as funny, as I'm sure you can understand. Of course the meaning is such that the company is doing its part in reducing CO2 emissions (to 0) but still....

I love you!
Cam

P.S. The logo is really quite clever. An eco-hard hat. I love it!




Cam

Siri is amazing!

 This is absolutely amazing I can’t believe how well Siri works I’m testing it out and sending this email entirely by voice right now using the Siri program is absolutely unbelievable how much technology has move forward this is a dream come true I have thought about this for many years and thought how wonderful it would be to speak to the telephone and how to do everything for you well Siri is doing it right now of course there’ll be some mistakes in how it hears me and you won’t see the periods at the end of the sentences but just think I am recording this email by my voice and sending it out to you is that amazing or what I love you I love Siri this is fantastic technology yeah this town

Cam

Through Great Effort Comes Great Reward

SoftBank has been the sole monopoly in Japan for the iPhone since it first exploded onto the market years ago. The problem with SoftBank is that their reception has always been poor; it is the biggest complaint of iPhone users (and SoftBank users for that matter) for years.

Enter competition...

This past October au, another major carrier started handling the iPhone. Their carrier service has always been in my opinion (different from that of Jaime and Jason I think) much more reliable. Docomo I hear is the most stable of all but I have always been with au. So I thought I would give the au iPhone a go this time around.

Hiroko switched from au to SoftBank this past July on the advice of her brother but she has not been happy with the service to date. Since I switched to the iPhone it has been
More difficult to connect to each other as the iPhone system doesn't provide instantaneous push service of mail. The best you can set is 15min interval checks. Of course you can open the mailer and it checks for you but if you are waiting for a message while the phone is in your pocket and you aren't checking it all the time like an email junkie then you won't feel the buzz until your phone checks at the predetermined interval. This IS a drawback.

Also the Message system here in Japan which uses the phone number to send SMS to only works between users of the same carrier (apparently that will change in the not too distant future) so SoftBank iPhone and au iPhone have their limitations.

Hiroko really didn't like that so although she bought her phone in July yesterday she switched back to au and got a 4S. Now we can communicate with the message system instantly so she is happy.

We tried to set up her Gmail address on the new phone but it just didn't work so in the end we had to delete it and set up a new one. Also we had to transfer her extensive contact list over, set up the dedicated au email address and get her music and photos off the one phone and onto the new one.

It took us six hours to get this all done as the gmail was the most frustrating. After going back to the au shop and getting a lot of help the final conclusion was to make the new address and start fresh. It worked. But we were still limited by the 15minute push option. What to do?

The techie guy who helped us was also frustrated by all of this Gmail trouble and while researching options for us discovered something wonderful!

He found out that instead of using the Gmail setup option if you set up the gmail in the Microsoft Exchange option you will get instantaneous email push and no longer be limited to the silly 15minute push! That works great and gives us the functionality of a Japanese cellphone.

So although it took us six hours to get her phone up and running smoothly we discovered something great in the effort!

Through great effort comes great reward.

I love you!
Cam