Category Archives: Japan
Japan
Livestreaming Report: Belgian Beer Weekend
Three days and 26 hours in the can. I’m writing this on the train to my last day live streaming the Belgian Beer Weekend Tokyo event at Roppongi Hills Arena. Just 8 hours left!
Had a very fun trial run this week with my gypsy Internet TV studio. I think I’m liking the name “Studio@stevenagata” for this monster of mismatched parts from my closet, computers and electrical tape. So far no major hiccups, but a few minor technical glitches I’ll have to work on.
The biggest problem so far has been errors on the Roland VR-5 mixer causing some of the saved streams to corrupt on closing. I lost a few bits I had meant to save including a music act that I thought went pretty well. Since we are not archiving online the video, I’m afraid, is lost forever. Will have to run some endurance tests to try and nail down the problem. Otherwise I might look into on off board video recorder like an Atmos Ninja.
It’s been fun to see so many friends stop by the event. Hoping a few more might make it by today. Keeping the stream up can be pretty draining so I wasn’t able to chat much, but hope that today will be a bit lighter as I starting together the hang of things.
The event itself has been super cool. Great bands, good food, 62 types of beer and a crowd expected to top 20,000 for the four days. Early metrics showing we’ll beat that number decisively with online viewers. Super thanks to Akoni KK, Rob Van Nylen and Dean Fujii for bringing me on board for this event. Hope to do more like it in the future (I hear talk of a possible fashion show! (^_^) ). Also big props to ace Cameraman and super geek Joseph Tame for putting in 4x hours over the agreed work and covering all the concerts like a pro.
Definitely stop by if you have time today. It’s really a great atmosphere. Or tune in on the livestream at http://bit.ly/bbw2011. More detailed reports on my studio later *I hope*
Dark Anniversary: Akiba Massacre +3 years
This Saturday marks the three month anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. Today marks another dark day for Japan however. Three years ago Tomohiro Kato, a disgruntled worker drove a rental truck into the crowds of Akihabara’s Pedestrian Sunday, a day the main street is closed off and turned off for traffic allowing shoppers to fill the street. Three people were killed after being hit by the truck, after stopping, Kato jumped out and begin attacking people with a dagger. Dozens were injured and another four victims were killed in the knife attack.
Japan is often plagued by these so-called toorima (通り魔) attacks, basically violent attacks on total strangers because the perpetrator is “pissed off”, but this has taken the lead as one of the worst in the countries history. Just a few weeks ago, Kato received the death penalty from the courts for his actions, and today at the scene of the attack, friends and family of the victims pay respects by leaving gifts and flowers by the side of the road. In typical Akiba fashion, the makeshift shrine holds not only flowers and paper cranes, but also canned coffee, energy drinks, and anime CDs.
Tragedies on an individual and societal level will never end. It’s part of life and we keep going on. The Pedestrian Sunday has been cancelled since the attack, but just a couple of months ago, the police and local government decided to reinstate it. You can see the busy intersection at the center of the attack now via a 24 webcam an d Akihabara is back to normal (or whatever passes for normal in this town). You cant stop all bad things from happening, but thats not really an excuse for living a morally vacant life (I’m looking at you Ayn Rand). Personally I just try to do more good than bad. I figure if we all do that the world become a pretty decent place for everyone. Why not try to do something nice for a stranger today, it could be for a victim of a natural disaster, or a refugee from a man-made disaster, or just a guy who had a really bad day at work. What could it hurt?
