Tokyo Sky Tree will open up to visitors on May 22nd, to go up to the observation platform will cost 3,000 yen. Tokyo Sky Tree is 634 meters tall and is the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa in Dubai. To celebrate the hotaru (firefly) festival during last weekend 100,000 balls with LED lights were released to Sumida river and the Tokyo Sky Tree lighted up using LED technology provided by Panasonic.

Photos by Spoon Tamago and video by Steven Nagata

Ooyama 大山 is a 1,250 meter tall mountain ideal to spend a day trip out of Tokyo. It reminded me a lot of of Mount Takao, as there is also a couple of temples half way during the climb, a Shinto temple and a Buddhist temple, and from the top you can see all the Kanto plain. If you are lucky you can also see Mount Fuji. We were not

To get there you have to go to Isehara station (Odakyu line) and from there take a 20 minutes bus until the head of the trail. It will take around three hours taking it easy to climb to the top.

Xavi! We miss you!

Beware of bears!

Berserk is a manga by Kentaro Miura that has been being published since 1989. The art is impressive and the story gets you completely hooked, specially during the first 5-10 volumes. In addition to the art, the fantasy-horror feel and the atmosphere of a particular medieval Europe, the best is the collision of the personalities of the main two characters Guts and Griffith. I like a lot how Kentaro Miura plays with the feelings of the reader as the story is unveiled and you start feeling attached to one character or the other but at the same time you like both of them. I liked it until volumes 12 or 13, after that the story started to lose interest for me.

If you haven’t read it, you should give it a try!, it’s available in English.

During this year a trilogy of Berserk movies called Golden Age Arc are being released on Japanese movie theaters. We were able to enjoy the first movie last February and the second movie will be released next month. In the movie theater I went to see the movie the cafeteria was decorated with Berserk stuff!

Official website of the Berserk movies

These are photos of a shop in Shibuya that only sells seaweed. All kinds of seaweed!

One of the most well-known seaweed is nori, which is used to wrap maki-sushi. It is also eaten as a snack or along with steamed rice. When I arrived to Japan I didn’t like it that much but after some years here I am now an addict to nori.

Another seaweed that is very popular in Japan is kombu, used to flavor soups in Japan as well as in China and Korea. It is also used to make a kind of tea called kombucha.

Wakame is another seaweed usually used in soups (as for example in miso soup) and also in salads.

Mozuku is maybe the least known seaweed for foreigners and the one that people dislike the most. Most likely because it doesn’t look really tasty:

Mozaku seaweed doesn’t look really good but it doesn’t taste that bad as an appetizer along with a refreshing drink.

The kinds of seaweed I have mentioned are the most used and well-known in Japan, however depending on the region you can find other kinds of seaweed which are used in regional cuisines, for example, in Okinawa one of the most used kinds of seaweed are sea grapes. Japanese people say that eating seaweed is healthy and it is specially good to keep your sking young.

The other day through Twitter @ignacio_valdes pointed me to this post I wrote in 2007 and asked me what computers I was using right now. It’s been almost 5 years and I am still using the Mac Mini I mentioned back then. The interesting thing is that lately more than “computers” to carry out several different tasks, I tend to use devices dedicated exclusively to a specific use or purpose.

I believe that having different devices to perform different tasks is better in order to be able to focus in a specific task. For example, it is difficult to read a book in PDF in your computer screen while knowing that you are one click away from YouTube or your favorite blog, or when suddenly a chat window pops up. If you have a Kindle you realize that when you arrive home and feel like reading it’s much easier to switch on the Kindle and plop down on your sofa than sitting down at your computer and finding yourself endlessly browsing the web just when you were about to open the PDF ebook you were intending to read.

Yes, I know that with an iPhone or an iPad you can do almost anything you can imagine, but as you will see next I am trying to find specific purposes for every gadget I own so that they can improve my “workflow-lifestyle”. Any advice you have is welcome!

These are the Top 10 gadgets/electronic devices that I use the most along with the specific purposes that I give to each one of them.

1.- iPhone 4 – For communication, taking photos (Instagram, Hipstamatic), schedule (Calendar, Wunderlist, Evernote), train schedules

When it was released I thought I didn’t need it but I eventually caved in. I have been using it for a year and a half and, as of now, I wouldn’t change it for any other smartphone.

I am quite a minimalist and I only have apps that I use frequently (if I notice that I haven’t used an app for 15 days to 1 month I delete it). Why do I do this? I am trying to make my iPhone a tool to make my life easier and more fun, while avoiding making it a gadget that makes me consume hours and hours fiddling with apps, games, etc.

These are the apps that I have installed right now, 14 in total, not counting the iOS default apps.

- Instagram: I have been only using it for about a month and I love it.
- Hipstamatic: here you can find my impressions about it.
- Pocket Light Meter: I use it to measure the light when taking pictures with my film cameras Hasselblad +500C/M and Kenko KF-2N
- Kotoba!: Japanese dictionary.
- Jorudan Norikae: app for checking train, planes and metro schedules in Japan.
- Genius Scan: a very useful app to scan documents. You take a picture of the document and it helps you correct the perspective and eliminate noise. I usually use it to store information and save it in Evernote.
- Evernote: not only I use it on my iPhone but also in all my computers and in my iPad. It is the best way to have all my information centralized, organized and accesible from any device.
- Amazon: to buy stuff on Amazon. I usually use it to buy milk and cereals. I buy my books in my Kindle.
- Sleep Cycle: the best alarm app I know.
- Twitter: along with Instagram it is the only social network I use in my phone.
- Skype: Skype on your pocket? Wonderful.
- Skype Wifi: I use it on airports when I am abroad. It allows me to use the Internet via wifi paying with my Skype Credit, very useful if you don’t want to waste money using “roaming”.
- WhatsApp: to communicate with mobile phones from outside Japan.
- Tokyo Amesh: to see rainfalls in real time in the Tokyo region. It is quite useful on rainy days, if you check this app you can see more or less if it will stop raining soon or not. Link to iTunes.
- Wunderlist: until recently I had been using a notebook in Evernote to do my TODO list; but now I am trying to change and start using Wunderlist. The advantage of using Wunderlist is that it allows me to focus visually and intuitively on the tasks that I have to do.

2.- Mac Mini – To watch movies (the old one), to write and retouch pictures (the new one)

I have two Mac Minis. One bought in 2007 and the other one in 2011. I use the 2007 one as a media center plugged to a 42 inches screen and even though it is 5 years old it runs smoothly under Mac OSX Tiger. I bought the other Mac Mini last year with 2Gb of RAM, but I soon upgraded it to 8Gb. Opening up the Mac Mini is easier than ever. I have it plugged to a 24 inches screen, I use it to retouch photos and write.

The Mac Mini is hidden behind the screen. You can easily place it vertically.

This is the old Mini which still works perfectly.

3.- Mac Book Pro 15″ – To code

I also own two. One bought in 2006 and the other one in 2011. I think I will soon retire the old one as I was thinking to use it as a typing machine with IAWriter but I am barely using it. The 2011 model has a SSD hard drive and 8Gb of RAM, it is plugged to a 23” Cinema Display; I use it mostly to code. Php, Python and lately I am learning Xcode/iOS to create iPhone and iPad apps.

I use a Mac Book Pro 15″ to work.

4.- Nikon D800 – To take photos

I had been waiting and saving for years to own this camera. It is my first full-frame camera, a totally new experience for me and a natural evolution after many years learning photography with the Nikon D90 I recently sold. I am still learning how to use it, I will let you know how my learning goes and I will be uploading pictures to my Flickr.

I’ve had it for a few days and I’m already in love with it!

5.- Kindle – To read

I got it as a present around a year ago and it quickly became an indispensable gadget in my life. Since I have it I almost don’t buy books in paper and the most interesting thing is that… I read a lot more! As it is so small, easy to handle and easy to use (you take it, turn it on and in barely two seconds you are in the last page you were reading) it makes the reading experience so much better and makes you feel more like reading.

Since I own a Kindle I read more.

6.- Nintendo DS – To review my Japanese and play

I use almost exclusively to review kanjis (I forget them easily!) with a software-game:なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習完全版 (6.- Learning Japanese with the Nintendo DS). I have been looking for a similar software for my iPad but I still haven’t found anything convincing enough, most I have tried are quite bad at recognizing strokes of complicated kanji. Sometimes I use it to play but not a lot; the last game I played was Dragon Quest VIII and I didn’t finish it

Lately I use it less and less, but I still find some uses for it, like studying Japanese.

7.- Canon S90 – To take photos

My compact camera for almost three years now. I almost retired/sold it when I saw the great pictures I could take using my iPhone 4 but I decided to keep it as it is much better than the iPhone in low light situations and it also gives me much more freedom when choosing the settings I want for the photo. It is the camera that I have used the most during the last six months: these are some photos I took in Panama a few days ago and these other photos in Nueva York.

Almost three years rocking!

8 – iPod Nano – To listen music

I don’t listen to music much, but when I do I use iTunes in my computer or an 8Gb iPod Nano, which I love because of its ease of use.

9.- Flatbed Canon CanoScan 9000f – To scan negatives and documents

A scanner always comes in handy.

I bought this scanner because it was really cheap and it allows me to scan 35mm and 120mm negatives. I scanned all these photos with my CanoScan 9000f, I am quite happy with it but I have to say that I was expecting to get more information (dynamic range) when scanning 120mm negatives.

10.- iPad – To read news (Flipboard plugged to Google Reader), do quick searches in Google, draw, sketch… I still haven’t defined how I am going to use it, any advice?

I bought the new iPad one month ago and I have to say that… I am hooked to it! It is my first iPad, I always thought that I didn’t need it because I am a person that enjoys more creating information than consuming it. But I was wrong!

Flipboard is the app I use the most on my iPad.

I am still a little bit lost, trying to find how I am going to use it and testing many different apps. Up until now the app I am using the most is Flipboard, which is much better than I could have ever thought. If you are using RSS feeds to read blogs, I would dare to say that Flipboard is a good enough excuse to buy an iPad. In five minutes I had my Google Reader, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, etc. in my Flipboard and I could read everything as if it were a newspaper. The app design is beautiful, it eliminates any element that could distract you so that you can focus on the reading experience.

Apart from Flipboard I am trying different apps but I still haven’t found any app that I use on a daily basis… mmm…. I am lying… I am also hooked to Draw Something . I have also noticed that it is specially useful to skype when I am home. Any other app recommendations for my iPad? How do you use it on a daily basis?

The best thing, the toilet paper mushroom?

Via Hioko-g.com

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Last month +Carlos Donderis guided us around Panama where we relaxed and enjoyed the country and their people. Although it is a total different place, I found it having many similarities with Thailand: tropical weather, slow lifestyle, big income difference between the city and the country side population; and a general feeling that they could be one of the most advanced countries in the world but their people don’t really want to… they are more or less happy with what they have and their current lifestyle and maybe they don’t want to make the extra effort.

Panama City reminded me of Asian financial cities like Singapore or Shangai, but somehow being less developed. The Panama City skyline is beautiful, I guess most of those skyscrapers where built by banks and financial institutions (Panama was a fiscal paradise until 2010).

In Panama City we visited the Casco Viejo, one of the oldest areas of the city that was designed to protect settlers against pirate attacks. Although most of the architecture was Colonial, sometimes I felt I was walking around in a city located in southern Europe.

We visited the Miraflores Locks. We all know about the Panama Canal, but I had no idea about its history. One of the most interesting things of the visit to the locks is the museum. I learned about how the French (leaded by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the same person who built the Suez Canal) failed to finish building the Canal and that is why later the United States finished its construction and owned it until 1999.

We also learned how the locks work at Miraflores and how the new locks that are currently under construction have been designed to use much less water each time a boat uses them. The construction of the new locks seems to be one of the most important things going on in Panama right now.

Visiting the locks was educational but seeing the rainforest around the Gatún Lake (inside the canal) was much more fun. We saw a crocodile, we saw monkeys, iguanas and beautiful birds (I forgot the names). I wish I had my old Nikon D90 with my 200mm lens with me! I could not take any decent picture of the animals in the wild with my compact camera Canon S90.

Everything awesome and beautiful, but the best part of the travel was visiting the Atlantic side. We started the trip crossing the jungle from the Pacific Ocean side to the Atlantic side with a 4×4. I thought I could manage talking Spanish in Panama but I was wrong!

At the north east of Panama, their people speak the Kuna Language. It is a Native American agglutinative (like Japanese) language spoken by the people from the Kuna Yala region. I only learned the word kuwedi “good morning”.

More interesting than their language is their lifestyle. Most of the 35.000 Kuna people in the region are living in 400 little islands. We visited one island that was around 300x200meters with a population of 350 people. The people in the island seemed to be happy and enjoy their simple life. They have a library, a school, a doctor etc. In one of the libraries I saw a kid learning Spanish with a book. They seem to live thanks to their fishing skills.

We stayed in another island where we were half of the population We almost owned the island for three days. The other inhabitants of the island were a Kuna family and four other tourists. We had the sea, coconuts, sand, two toilets in the whole island, pelicans flying around, lots of wind 24 hours a day, two kindles and… NO INTERNET! I relaxed and enjoyed, now I’m back to Tokyo replenished with positive energy!

More pictures I took during the trip in my flickr.

These are some of the first photos that I have taken with my new camera, a Nikon D800. Being my first full frame camera I am quite overwhelmed by all the new features.
Most photos were taken in Naka Meguro, one of the best places in Tokyo to take sakura photos.