June 2008 – Page 2 – A Geek in Japan

Yesterday I attended the Firefox 3 release in Tokyo. Gen Kanai (Mozilla marketing manager) invited me and Danny to the event. Unfortunately Danny could not attend but Francesco and Peter came with me. We had a great time meeting all kinds of people and eating really good food. Here there is Gen Kanai‘s smile after the launch, I guess he has been working really hard lately and now he is very happy with Firefox 3 success.

firefox

What you can see behind Gen‘s head is a screen showing Firefox 3 downloads all around Japan. I recorded a video that shows how Firefox 3 was released and in seconds people all around the country started downloading it. I specially like the bursts around Tokyo and Osaka area.

firefox

Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama are two of the most famous contemporary Japanese photographers. Nobuyoshi Araki is the bad boy, he likes colors and controversy, on the other hand Daido Moriyama shots almost always en b&w and his pictures are sad and melancholic. Daido Moriyama was friend with Yukio Mishima, and he confesses that his photographic style is very influenced by his melodramatic novels.

Daido Moriyama has been taking Tokyo’s pictures since 60 years ago, his pictures are one of the best ways to travel back to the past in to the post-war years of Japan. This weekend I visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum Of Photography where there is a great Daido Moriyama exhibition until the 29th of this month . Go if you have the opportunity.

Here there are some Daido Moriyama’s pictures I found goggling Daido Moriyama and 森山大道.

Sometimes I see Spiderman