The Western World

Tokyo Sky Tree: View from Okachimachi

Tokyo Sky Tree is coming along and will soon be complete. I am getting used to it's look now and liking it's presence on the skyline more and more each day.
Shot this from Ameyokocho, a maker street just south of Ueno station. The tower is a few kilometers away, but still makes a pretty big impression.
Thinking of heading over soon to take some pics close up.

What I did last night in Paris

So things have been going nonstop since I arrived in Paris. Not even a freak snowstorm can slow things down.
Following the incredible action of the first day of LeWeb, many of the participants moved to City Hall for a reception sponsored by the city. Of course, you can expect that the gathering was epic, and the venue unbelievable.

Following the reception, many moved onto the official late night party, but to be honest, I was pretty wiped out already. With the poor weather, empty taxis were as scarce as unicorns, so I decided to head back to the hotel before the last trains.
I did have a bit of time before that and I realized that city hall was a place Cedric Ingrand had taken me to on my first night in Paris. I also remembered what was just over the river. The Architecture of Paris is simply amazing and I don't think I could ever get enough. For some reason, the Notre Dame Cathedral really shook me up when first saw it in person. The building is amazing, and the though occurred to me that it might look even better with snow.

























What do you think?

Location:Avenue des Magasins Généraux,Aubervilliers,France

LeWeb Diary, Day 1

The last 24 hours has been intense to say the least. To an info junkie, gadget addicted, tech crazy geek like me, this is the closest thing I can imagine to Disneyland.

Throughout the day I have tried to livesteam what I can. You can see the horrific results on http://www.twitcasting.tv/stevenagata.

Today has been a day of tech, startups, culture, and food and it's just part one. Heres a few pics to give you an idea.

Mind you, the weather has not been so friendly. While early on things were actually not bad at all, the warmer air seemed to trigger a blizzard. In the space of just a few hours it has gone from chilly, to this.



We'll see how this effects things to come. In the meanwhile, we have plenty of food, drink, and company inside to last us weeks I think.
More tomorrow, but I think I'll focus more on pictures and writing and cut down on the live streaming. Poor net connection (what do you expect in a concerned with 3,000 geeks) make it pretty unstable. Hope you have enjoyed what I've posted so far though.

Location:Avenue des Magasins Généraux,Saint-Denis,France

LeWeb 2010

Waking in line for registration to enter LeWeb in Paris. After several days of non stop meetings, parties, dinners and sightseeing I'm already exhausted and the event has not even started yet.
Nearly 3,000 attendees will be participating in two days of speakers, panels, and exhibits featuring the forefront of the global internet. Of course with happening topics such as the wikileaks scandal, discussions are expected to be lively.
With so many geeks in the audience, I am sure Internet bandwidth will be a problem, but will do my best to stream out as much of the days events as I can.

Allons-y!

Food and Friends in Paris

I'm tremendously grateful for having such tremendous friends in France to make my visit here truly memorable. After a day of touring the sights and museums of Paris, we stopped for a dinner at an amazing French bistro.
Attending the dinner was a selection of technology heavyweights gathering before the festivities of LeWeb begin. Amongst them, my hosts from LCI Cedric Ingrand and Olivier Levard, Jolicloud founder Tariq Krim and Nabaztag creator Rafi Haladjian. The conversation was more than lively and the food top class.
Tomorrow night will be the speakers dinner for LeWeb and I've been told to prepare for a truly epic event. Will try to take lots of pics and maybe even live stream a bit if possible.

Location:Rue des Vinaigriers,Paris,France

Paris Subway

Taking the Metro to Palace Royale to see about getting into the Musee de'Orsay. The subway in Paris seems quite convenient. Not so packed as Tokyo but had to laugh. The diversity of the people in the train is quite wide, but ended up standing next to a bunch of Japanese students and staring at a woman with a big Uni-Qlo shopping bag.

Not so different after all (-_-);

Parisian Weekend

Have landed safely in Paris and am enjoying a slow Sunday morning at a nearby cafe. Took advice from friends and am staying at hotel near the center if Paris.
It's a bit cold, but not as bad as I was expecting and no snow falling (yet). Language will certainly be my biggest challenge as I am hopeless in that area. Luckily I have great friends I'll e spending most of my time with.
Very happy to have Internet access for my iPhone and iPad via an Orange Pocket wifi courtesy of @Cedric. This makes it easy for me to get around and stay in touch.
Was pleasantly surprised by entering customs at Charles de Gaulle airport. No silly forms or invasive bag checks. Pretty much just showed my passport and "Welcome to France".
Will be checking out some sights today and meeting up with friends for dinner. Can't shake the overwhelming presence of rich culture and history here. It's pretty overwhelming. More reports to come.

If you are curious about anything I am taking about or about my purpose here, leave a note in the comments and will try to respond.

Leaving Japan Now. (will be back)

Finally made it to the gate. Overall pretty smooth brush through customs. My carry on had to go through the x ray four times (I wonder why) and I had to pull my heavy coat out of my suitcase so it would fall under the weight maximum.
That's my plane in the picture. An Air France Airbus 380. I've been assured that AIR France doesn't have any of the A380s that have the small "defect" in the engine that causes them to explode. That's good. Don't want to explode today.
Don't think it has inboard wifi, so will likely be offline for the duration. Very excited to be going to Paris though as this is my first trip to France.
Downloaded a bunch of apps for my iPhone an iPad and will let you all know if any of them are helpful. Should have wifi in the hotel, so will try to livestream a bit once I check in tonight (early morning Japan time).

Well, wish me luck. Seeya on the other side.

New Skyliner Train to Narita

My first trip on the new high speed track Skyliner from Ueno to Narita Airport. This new train cuts about 25 minutes off of the trip to the airport which is very cool. The total time is now 36 minutes down from an hour.
Of course the cost was bumped up another 500 yen to 2500 yen total for a one way ticket.
Wonder if I should check out any of the high speed trains in Europe while I am there.

Allons-y! Paris bound

Bags are packed, house-sitter has the keys. Passport is check. All systems are go!

Heading to Paris for a few days to catch the gigantic LeWeb conference going on next week.
Thanks to the huge generosity of my good friends @Cedric and @gdelalande i've got an invitation and tickets to Paris and the two day conference.
Also big thanks to conference founder #loic for the generosity and of course @Papadimitriou for introductions and help getting around a new city.

Will try to blog and livestream as much of this trip as I can so hopefully you will see many more updates in the coming days.

Wish me luck!