J-Bloggers Meetup for Beer

Last month I met up online with some Bloggers on Japan. Last night I met up in person with another group of bloggers and techies in Japan.

Organised by Ken Brady of Genkii.com who runs the Tokyo Beer and Blog website, it was a very social evening with no agenda or presentations. It was mostly an excuse to get together, enjoy a drink at the Hobgoblin Pub in Shibuya and meet other technology enthusiasts.

Andrew Shuttleworth, one of Tokyo's well known social network gurus, was there. He had some electronic "Pokens" for sale at 2,000 Yen each. They were soon snapped up by those of us not already owning one.

Poken is your social business card. Scrap the paper business card! Your Poken card is far more comprehensive. Rather than handing out a piece of paper that shares just your basic contact information such as company, address, phone, and email, with Poken you can include your social network profiles as well. When you associate a social network to your Poken identity that social network's favicon appears on your Poken card. If you are connected to your friend on that social network, then they can click the favicon link to instantly view your social network profile. If you opt not to be connected on that social network, then they will simply see the public-search version of your profile.

We discussed these on the J-bloggers conference and several people were looking forward to getting one. I think they could catch on, but these days with everyone having iphones and mobile phones, where data exchange is already very easy, the extra step of having to register your Poken on their website maybe be one hurdle too many. According to their website they are doing well in Europe.

Some of the many people I met include: Steven Nagata, Ted from TokyoFoodCast.com, Sam Ragnarsson and Matthew Dons who is planning to run a Bar Camp event in Tokyo at the end of May.

Joseph Tame, who has just launched his new podcast site JapanPodShow was there briefly, before having to go to work. In their first podcast: Joseph and George discuss some news items; guest presenter Honor of TokyoTopia has some advice on flying into Tokyo; there's an interview with Ken Brady about Genkii.com's new project Sparkle: The first virtual world for the iphone; the inventor of the Poken talks about how he first thought of the idea and how he met Britney Spears; there's an interview with a musician and a competition to win a Poken too! Go on over to JapanPodCast.com to hear the full story.

One last thing: check out this Web Trends map of the most influential websites arranged in format of the Tokyo Subway map. From Information Architects.
(Hat Tip to Japansoc.com where it is one of the top stories. In fact it should appear in the widget on my sidebar with the subject Websites as Stations on the Yamanote )

Real Ale Festival, Tokyo, Feb 15 2009

Regular readers will know I like a glass of beer. So I was delighted to find out from Alan at lemonsoju that there is a Real Ale festival in Tokyo on Sunday this weekend.

When:
Sunday, Feburary 15 2009

Time:
13:00 - 17:00

Where:
Sumida Riverside Hall, Azumabashi, Tokyo

Organized by
Executive Committee of the Tokyo Real Ale Festival

Co-hosted by
Good Beer Club、Brewers

With the Assistance of
Yaho Brewing

Map and list of beers available here:



Tickets have sold out in the two pubs in Shibuya, (I got the last four from the Inishmore) so make sure you call ahead first if you are still looking for tickets that are sale at these pubs Tokyo Real Ale Society.

Beer Festival in Tokyo

I am looking forward to the Great Japan Beer Festival. From the Japantimes:

The Great Japan Beer Festival is the biggest beer event of the year in Japan, with more than 120 microbrews and craft beers available to taste.The festival is organized by the Japan Craft Beer Association, and this year the Tokyo event will be held May 5 and 6 at the tail end of the Golden Week holidays.

Hours are from 2:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on May 5 (Mon.), and from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 6 (Tue.). Admission is ¥4,800 (¥4,300 for advance tickets), which includes unlimited tastings; food will be sold separately.The venue is the Garden Hall at Ebisu Garden Place, 1-13-2 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo. Tickets are available from Lawson, Pia and other outlets.

Check the Web site at www.beertaster.org for more details or e-mail english [at] beertaster.org

The event moves to Osaka a few weeks later on the weekend of May 31 and June 1, at the Kyocera Dome; check the same Web site for more details. (Listing courtesy of Bento.com)