Naoko McCracken

Japanese Web Design: Not Just Chaos and Simplicity

Naoko — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:47:30 +0000

Japanese Web Design: Why You So 2003? was a very interesting read.

When I think of Japan I tend to think of beautiful design. Zen gardens, temples, shrines, tea ceremonies, manga, anime, wabi-sabi… the list goes on and on. Yet for some reason Japan just can’t put any of this together to make a decent looking website. Where did they go wrong? What in the world happened? Time to find out.

In response to the article, a summary of Japanese anonymous bbs thread was posted on a blog. The comments are in Japanse but going through the screenshots is worth your time if you’re interested in this subject (note the linked blog itself is kind of… chaotic).

Shinjuku – in the morning (by pictinas; cc: by-nc-nd)

In general I liked Tofugu’s post, but I’m not sure just wabi-sabing the current design is the solution to the chaos. Because I believe both chaotic Tokyo neon signs and minimalistic shrine architecture are reflecting the beauty and interestingness of this culture. Living in Japan today can naturally exposes you to many aspects of traditional Japanese Aesthetics as well as modern ideas and products.

I could be biased but I am seeing a lot of great web designs coming out of agencies that embraces cultural diversity within themselves (e.g. I love works of AQ). We don’t need to stay stuck with zen, miyabi, or even kawaii. I look forward to more innovation in Japanese design that come out of unique situations that people are living today.

A Day in Tokyo with a Colleague and Friends

Naoko — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:59:06 +0000

One nice thing about living in Tokyo is that you get to meet people visiting this city and show them around. This morning a colleague of mine and his wife arrived in Tokyo and we had a fun day around Harajuku, Yoyogi and Shinjuku.

First we got some spicy breakfast at Thai Festival in Yoyogi Park, and ate it while getting suntan at the lawn of WIRED CAFE <> FIT.

Thai Food Stall at Yoyogi Thai Festival 2012

My Breakfast.

Group Photo!

We walked through the park and went to Meiji Shrine – saw three wedding groups. Then sat down to have coffee at Roots & Beat in Yoyogi.

Ordering Coffee. Arigato!

Roots & Beat Coffee

While we were chatting there Warren showed us Monocle magazine. The special edition booklet he had listed things to do in Japan and it said you should go to the food market at Isetan department store.

Japan: Monocle Travel Guide

So that’s where we decided to go next! We had some samples of food & drink and were thoroughly entertained by a guy at Saza Coffee shop!

I love discovering new things in town with guests

Automattic’s Worldwide WP 5k in Fukuoka, Japan

Naoko — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:35:34 +0000

Today I participated in Automattic’s Worldwide WP 5k. It’s a jogging/running challenge that my employer Automattic invited WordPress bloggers. I did a 10k run in Ōhori Park — it was a nice spring day in Fukuoka.

My Stats:

Location:: Ōhori Park (Fukuoka, Japan)
Course:: 5 laps around the pond
Time:: 58 minutes 3 seconds (for 10k; 28:28 for 5k)

I used to run around the same course as a junior high student. This park now has a well-paved jogging path around the pond.

The view at the end of my 5k run:

I took a shower at a fitness club nearby. They have yoga and running classes called “way”, the same kind of classes that I am going in Tokyo. I love their red lockers!

I started running regularly around this time last year — I could not have ran 10k like this a at that time. Also, I did not announce this event on WordPress.com Japanese blog last year because I didn’t know if people can feel safe or motivated to go running while the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku was still fresh in everyone’s memory. The public transportation schedule was in unstable state and aftershocks were frequent.

The fact I was able to participate in the event this year doesn’t mean the situation for those who affected by the earthquake has improved or anything like that. I just know that one year can change a few things for myself. Only the collective effort and changes we make every day will affect what tomorrow will look like.

So start running, blogging, or doing whatever if you want something changed, instead of hoping or wanting.

Cherry/Plum Tree Photos with iPhone & Camera+

Naoko — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:05:44 +0000

I took a walk in the park on Sunday. Shinjuku Gyoen Park is one of the most famous spots for cherry blossom viewing (Hanami) in Tokyo. The high season for Hanami is not until a week or two later, but there were a few people that came to see some early blooms.

I took all of these with my iPhone 4S and used Camera+ App to tweak them around. I also played with other iPhone camera apps — Pixlr-o-matic, Snapseed, and MagicHour — but ended up not keeping any of the modifications with them. Maybe it’s just I’m so used to using Camera+, but I can’t think of any better camera app than this at the moment.

Other photos are on Flickr: Cherry Blossoms 2012 – a set on Flickr

OTO Android App by 10-year-old

Naoko — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:14:27 +0000

This simple Android app called OTO was created by @jishiha‘s son who is 10-year-old. He used App Inventor – “a simple programming tool for building Android apps.”

Touch one of the animal photos to make sounds. If you say the name of the animal (in Japanese ) after pressing the microphone icon, Google speech recognition will tell the app which one was selected.

Android Mannequin at Takashimaya Mall

Naoko — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:54:39 +0000

When was the last time you stopped at a window display for more than a minute, or even 10 seconds? Well, this mannequin at Takashimaya department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo did a really good job capturing my attention for quite a while.

Take a look at these short video clips I recorded:

Her name is “GeminoidF” and she was developed by the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory in Osaka University. Her expression is so real it’s almost creepy, yet you just can’t stop looking at her.

While I was standing away from the display to get out of other people who started gathering around, one of the staff (probably the lab member?) told me to get closer to the display. He said that her motion is activated by the input captured by Kinect and webcam which are set up behind her. I thought it was interesting that he said if you overdo it she’ll start ignoring you – so don’t make any big/unusual movement.

As amazing as it was to see this in real life, the novelty of android mannequin may go away after a while. Though I still think it’s surprisingly capturing to have a human-like figure in front of you in comparison to some kind of digital interactive display.

What if she can respond to what you say? What if she is more responsive to your movement or even expression? I think these androids have a good potential of capturing people’s attention if they can perfect the response/feedback mechanism (which they are already trying to do with this display experiment too).

The Future of the Book by IDEO

Naoko — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:49:57 +0000

I wonder what will the future of the blog contents/presentation look like.
Related: Post-Artifact Books and Publishing by Craig Mod

Joris Luyendijk in Japan

Naoko — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:50:01 +0000

Last week I got to go to an event for Joris Luyendijk‘s newly translated book. The book is titled “こうして世界は誤解する” in Japanese (the English version is called “People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East“). 6 years after its original publication in the Netherlands, he says he’s feeling the same kind of frustration toward international news reporting.

Reporting affects news. It’s inevitable how something is reported transforms the truth.
Journalists tend to only pay attention to new things. News is always an exception to a rule.
We are relying on media to hear about the paralysis in journalism.
Since references to shared values is required, the fact can’t be received in the exact same way across cultures.
News coverage has been limited in terms of airtime, paper/magazine pages. There is no easy cure for the imperfect world with tool and time restraints.

Share Your Learning Curve

He offers one way of reinventing journalism, which is what he calls “sharing your learning curve”.

When you don’t understand something at all, you lose interest.
If you know well about something, the same kind of knowledge is not valuable news to you.
By sharing your learning curve and having conversation, you can offer the readers some pegs to hang their knowledge on.

He is practicing this method on his Banking Blog on the Guardian site. There’s a good video on this topic, his session at TEDｘAmsterdam:

His book title in Japanese translates to “This is How World Misunderstands”. I feel I’m drawing in information every day, but feeling that I still don’t know enough. His talk encouraged me to accept that status and keep learning while sharing what I know from my point of view.

Dondo Yaki, Burning New Year’s Decoration

Naoko — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:20:51 +0000

Japanese New Year celebration lasts longer than that of most other countries, but by now people are wrapping it up and slowly getting back to normal business. I went to Dondo Yaki fire festival near the Anbo Port, where people bring their New Year’s decoration and burn them off in a big pile.

It’s been a long while since I’ve been to one of these, not since my elementary school years. You can take all kinds of things that you used to decorate your house, office, or car for welcoming the new year. When I was a kid, I remember burning Japanese calligraphy work I did for the first time in the year too.

Shooting the flag at the top

The purpose of the festival is to send off the god of the year (Toshigami/歳神) which was greeted with those special decoration. It’s also a practical event – you get a chance to clean up and switch your mind to the after-holiday mode.

Burning a small bunch of twigs to take home

Firetruck on standby, good idea.

Anbo Port and the moon

Dondo Yaki (どんど焼き) (kenleewrites in 日本)
Customs and traditions of Japan – Dondo Yaki

New Year’s Day in Japan, 2012

Naoko — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:38:05 +0000

Japanese New Year is a family holiday, somewhat like American Christmas. Almost everyone cerebrates in one way or another, and there are many family / cultural traditions around it. I’m staying at my parents’ in Yakushima Island this year.

Here are some photos to illustrate this time of the year in Japan:

You can send 年賀状 (Nengajo, New Year’s greeting cards) ahead of time to be delivered on January 1st. Just use one of these pre-stamped post cards or write in the word “年賀 (Nenga)” beneath any stamp. I wonder if there is any other country that does this.

Wikipedia says:

(T)his custom existed for people to tell others whom they did not often meet that they were alive and well.

Now that I think of this, it’s kind of like a Facebook Poke that only comes once a year. Twitter went down for New Year’s greetings and Japanese phone carriers advised not to call or text families and friends right after the midnight to avoid overload. Maybe we need a Nenga mark for that kind of communication to queue up greeting messages.

Had お節 (Osechi) dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s like a fancy bento boxes with stuff you don’t really eat every day. In December I went to a department store in Tokyo and found there are Osechi sets with price tags over 31K JPY (= $40K) for 3 of the boxes similar to the size of those shown here. This one we had isn’t even close, but Osechi for New Year’s is a serious business in Japan. Not a good idea to mess it up.

Mom placed a bunch of flower arrangements throughout the house yesterday. Some flowers came from Mom and Grandpa’s garden.

In the afternoon we went to Yakushima Taisha Shrine.

For more photos from my trip, check out my Flickr set.