Robot55 Discount Video Production in Tokyo

Even though I haven't been blogging on this blog (my own blog) these past few days, I have been blogging religiously everyday over at a new video production business we started in Tokyo. That company is called Robot55. 

Robot55 Top Page image

That's not Robot "Fifty- Five," it is "Robot Go-Go." "55" in Japanese can be pronounced as "Go-Go."

Robot55 is a discount professional video production service in Tokyo. We specialize in 30 second and 60 second internet-use videos to promote businesses, organizations, products, restaurants, bars and services.

The reason all our commercial videos are 30 seconds or 60 seconds? Well, data gathered by research agencies show that there are two very important numbers to remember when making a video to promote your business, product or service. They are "10 Seconds" and "15 Seconds."

“10 seconds.” That’s how long you have to grab the attention of viewers in a video marketing clip. According to research by Visible Measures, 20% of your viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or fewer. And it doesn’t get a lot better than that. You’ll lose about 1/3 of your viewers by 30 seconds, 45% of them by 1 minute and almost 60% by 2 minutes. And those numbers remain the same no matter how long the video is. 

 “15 seconds.” According to research conducted by Jun Group (2011), videos that are 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37 percent more often than those that last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. If you make your video longer, that stat goes down. Those shorties are only shared 18% more often than videos of longer than 1 minute.

So why would anyone in their right mind make a video for advertisement purposes that is longer than 60 seconds at most? 

(Of course, the data tells us 15 seconds is optimum. And it is, if you are selling a nationally recognized brand, like, say a dishwashing liquid that can be bought at any store in town. But if you are small business, then you need to get your address, hours, etc. all into the video. Pretty tough to do in 15 seconds. But! We're working on it and are coming up with some great ideas!)

(For more data and details, please read: 90% of All People Say a Video Helps To Decide a Purchase! (www.robot55.jp/blog/90-of-all-people-say-a-video-helps-to-decide-a-purchase/) 

Here's a 60-Second video we just completed for a very happy customer:

This is perfect because, in English or Japanese, you know within the first 5 seconds what this place is all about. 

Like I said, all our videos at Robot55, that are for advertising purposes are under 60 seconds. In this way, we can uniform and streamline the entire production process and bring our clients professionally crafted videos at 1/3 or 1/4 what the competition charges. I like to think that we are pioneers in this much like Charles Schwab or Earl Scheib.

"Discount" is not a dirty word; it is smart business.

And we are planning to hire the physically disabled so that they can do office work and video editing at home and earn a decent wage.

Over at the Robot55 blog, I've been blogging about interesting things "Japan" as well as tips on how to take better photos and make better videos.

We even have a series started there entitled: Video Tips! Make Your Own Video For Your Business For Free! (www.robot55.jp/blog/video-tips-make-your-own-video-for-your-business-for-free-part-2/) Where we give professional advice to small business owners - and anyone else - on how to make a better video to promote their business for absolutely free!

I hope, if you have been missing me here, you'll just jump over the the Robot55 blog. At the Robot55 blog,  there's great advice for making better videos and taking better pictures as well as great retro videos about Japan.

Hope to see you there!

Robot55 Blog: http://robot55.jp/blog-center/

Robot55 URL: http://robot55.jp/

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Oh! And please come "Like" our Facebook page if you can. Much appreciation!

https://www.facebook.com/robot55video?ref=hl

Beautiful Views of Japan Taken With Cellphones!

It's a Sunday morning at 10:30 am here in Tokyo and I've been up since 4 am doing work. I'm pooped and it's hot as heck out there!

So, since it is Sunday, I want to relax.... How about a Japan photo mini-matsuri?

Here's some photos that my friends have taken in Japan recently that I thought were wonderful and, simply enough, these were taken with cell phones. 

That's Sheena (OK, that one is not taken with a cellphone!)

I took this photo of my mini-barbecue (Shichirin) and my favorite BBQ squid!

InterFM DJ George Cockle took this wonderful photo of the shore off Enoshima (Look very closely and you can see the outline of Mt. Fuji)....

Alright, already! A friend says he can't see Mt. Fuji. There it is marked in red. The arrow shows the snow line:

Tsukasa Sato took this breathtaking view of Tokyo

Toru Tsuno captured this great shot of Mt. Fuji in spring

Takatoshi Uchiyama from 76.1 InterFM shot this great photo of Zushi beach

I was going to work one day when I came upon this gentleman and his friends going to play baseball. I loved that handlebar moustache! I shot the photo with my iPhone then used Photoshop to add the baseball diamond in the background to give it a "Baseball card" feel.

James F. Setz took this great late afternoon shot of Tokyo (Shinjuku)

My ex-wife, Masako, with my daughters Wendy and Sheena at Narita Temple. (That's Sheena who was in the kimono at the very top of this article).

Giant Fembots in Shinjuku: Hooters in the 25th Century

Did you ever see the Austin Power's movie where the sexy Fembots came out and they fired machine guns from their nipples beneath their pink furry bikin tops? Yeah. OK, then instead of machine gun bullets, imagine of those bullets the Fembots fired were actually yakitori or french fries? Ok, well then you get the picture.

There's a new restaurant opened in Shinjuku that is called the "Robot Restaurant" and it features a rumored $1 million dollar robot show as well as scantily clad women running around serving the customers. There's tons of photos here on Google. Judging from the photos and seeing about the "scatily clad girls" makes me think that this isn't a Disney production and possibly might not be suitable for children...


It costs ¥3000 just to enter, so... I guess it is cheaper than Disneyland! Still, maybe I wouldn't take my kids there. Let's just say it's probably like a "Disneyland for Daddies!"


Leave it to the Japanese to take a "Good Old country home feeling" idea like the, er, "Girl next door" feeling of Hooters (think Denny's with loose women running around - Yeech!) and turn it into the "Jetson's." Maybe with how the Japanese like to torture English (Japanglish) it will be "Hooters meets Jetson's" as in "Jooters!"


I guess it's kind of like a Hooters in the 25th century, sort of....


Of course the restaurant uses iPads for ordering too. My friend says he is going to take me there this week. I'm skeptical... Though very partial to Japanese Fembot girls!!!!


To infinity and beyond!

Current Radiation Levels in Shinjuku, Tokyo and Tsukuba (75 km. north of Tokyo)

Click here for a comparison of current radiation levels and pre-quake levels in Shinjuku, see here for water. 


都内の環境放射線量調査１日単位の測定結果はここです：
http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/emergency/monitoring.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/monitoring/past_data.html

Click here for regular up-to-the-hour updated information: http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do

Next, updated daily and hourly from the Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Unit in Tsukuba (Tsukuba is between Tokyo and the accident site at Fukushima. It is about 75 kilometers north of Tokyo, and 150 kilometers south of Fukushima). Is an updated hourly summary of radiation measured in microSv/hour.  You can view the daily and hourly radiation level updates here: http://www.aist.go.jp/taisaku/ja/measurement/index.html

Here is an chart from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's National Metrology Institute of Japan webpage. It shows what typical radiation levels (measured in microSv) are in our daily lives: 

At the bottom left, you see the mark of 190. That's the amount of radiation you get on a one-way flight from Tokyo to New York. Above that, you see the number 2400. That is the amount of radiation that a person gets annually from nature. At the top left is the number 10000. That is annual radiation amount a person who lives in Karapari City in Brazil gets. At the top right, you see 6900, that's the amount of radiation you get from a CT scan. Bottom right? That's 50, the amount a person receives from one X-ray. 

As you can see, there is absolutely no radiation risk in Tsukuba and Tsukuba is much closer to the accident site than is Tokyo. One gets a much bigger dose of radiation flying from Narita to New York. In fact, at 0.05 microSv per hour, you would have to be standing outside in the elements everyday for nearly 40 days straight to equal the amount of radiation you'd receive on just that single one-way flight from Tokyo to New York.


Thanks to Mark!

The Ultimate Japanese Song and Karaoke: Four Minute Taste of the Essence of Japan: 浪花節だよ人生は

Ever wanted to go to Japan but couldn't afford it or just haven't had the chance to? Well, here's your chance, folks. This short blog post will give you one integral part of anyone's vacation to Japan all in just under four minutes.

Kimura Tomomi made this song a standard Enka classic

Ask any foreigner whose ever been to Japan and partied with Japanese people and they will tell you that this, if anything could, captures one slice of the essence of Japan. Laugh now, but it's a Karaoke video. 


Seriously. 


Let me set up the situation for you (as it happened to me!): You've been in Japan for one or two nights and your Japanese friends want to take you out eating and drinking. Of course you want to go and do.


They take you out to Shibuya or Shinjuku or some place that you can't remember the name of. First you go to an Izakaya and eat all sorts of delicious foods that come in all sorts of small plates. Everyone eats a little bit of this and a little bit of that. There's all sorts of foods there. The typical Japanese diet is not just a huge plate with one slab of beef, some mashed potatoes and gravy and bread. The Japanese eat a tine bit of this and that.


Of course you start off drinking beer. Everyone makes a toast and, instead of yelling, "Cheers!" they yell "Kampai!" (You just learned a very important Japanese word!)

Kampai!

After drinking and eating some,  then your Japanese hosts start drinking something else. It's probably sho-chu (Korean liquor). They ask you to try it. Heck, you're in Japan for the first time. What the heck? You'll try anything once. You do. The sho-chu is great! You drink a lot of it.


More food comes and you continue to eat and drink. Everyone is speaking Japanese so you haven't the clue as to what people are talking about and what's really going on, but you don't care... You're having a blast!


Then, it's on to the Japanese sake!


You get tipsy and have to go to the restroom... It's one of your first forays into Japanese world by yourself. The restaurant mama points you in the direction of the restroom. You walk in. You think, "Woah! These rooms are tiny! And what's that water faucet doing over the toilet water tank? Is that water clean?" 


When you return to your table, your friends continue with the festivities. You've eaten and drank to your hearts content. But, no! This is Japan! We have to go to somewhere else! Your friends want to go to Karaoke! You hate Karaoke, but you go anyway.


Outside, as you walk the city, you are blown away by the neon lights and the pretty girls who are just everywhere! What a sensory overload...


And the city is clean and the sidewalks are safe. There is no crime to fear! Heck, the most dangerous person in the entire 1 mile circumference of where you are is probably you!


You get to the Karaoke club. You haven't a clue as to which direction you came from. The club is a nice place. You go in. You drink more! It's a blast. "Wow! Japanese people are good singers!" You think (but no. They just are used to the controls of the Karaoke machine!) Everyone sings. You watch.


Then, the ultimate "Japanese song" and "Japanese Karaoke Video" comes on.... Like I said, this one video, at least for me, encapsulates the entire thing in just under 4 minutes.

浪花節だよ人生は (Naniwa Bushidayo Jinsei Wa) Suggested viewing? Watch along with drinking beer and sake

Later, your hosts make sure you find your way back to where you are staying... The next day, you wake up with a hangover...


You think, "God! I love Japan! I wish I could stay here forever."

Tokyo is Like 1986 Again - Let's Live for Today

Today is a wonderful time to begin to live for today. Let's try to give up our guilt feelings and our hate and anger. Let's give up our attachments and surrender our sins. Let's drop our defensiveness and our masks. Let's go back in time to when we were more pure at heart.

Live. Let's really live for today.

GRASS ROOTS - "LIVE FOR TODAY"

Thomas Aquinas put it nicely when he said, "Every time someone sins, they're sinning under the guise of good even though they know it's bad; they're rationalizing because they're seeking something under the pretext of good."

As Anthony De Mello wrote in Awareness:

"Charity is never so lovely as when one has lost consciousness that one is practicing charity. 'You mean I helped you? I was enjoying myself. I was just doing my dance. I helped you, that's wonderful. Congratulations to you. No credit to me."

Kabukicho crossing in Shinjuku 

Last night I went through Shibuya and Shinjuku. I rode the subway, the JR and the Keio line from Shinjuku for the first time in at least 20 some years.

It was like a time trip. It brought back good memories.

One more thing brought back good memories; as I rode the trains and walked the stations, I saw very few foreigners. In fact, I'd guess that I didn't see more than 5 foreigners on the entire trip. Why that brings back memories is that that is because it was the way it used to be; you rarely saw foreigners.

I remember a time when I walked down Center Street in Shibuya and people stared at me and whispered, "There's a foreigner." That was back in January of 1979. Those were the days when, in Japan, you were a star just because you were a foreigner.

How silly we all were. I was such a fool. And, as a young man, I loved playing the fool.

It felt strange last night to stand at the Japan Rail (JR) platform at Shibuya and Shinjuku and not see one single other foreigner standing around the platform and I even looked for them.

I hate to admit it, but it felt fine.

I felt like a 20-year-old once again as, in the early to mid-eighties, that's what it was like in those days: very few foreigners; you had to look for them to see them. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I thought that  little boy in the train walked up to me and stared at me out of curiosity.

If you want to take a time trip in Tokyo then you can do it today. Throw away your preconceptions and live for the now. See what is around you and notice what is different today than yesterday.

If you've been in Japan a long time, then look around. Really look around. Take this opportunity that we have been given to, if even for a moment, go back to a younger time.

This moment is fleeting. We rarely get a chance to go back in time. Catch it today and live it while you can.

If you have recently done wrong or felt guilty because of your actions, or you want to help, don't talk about it. Say nothing and do it. Do it for yourself. Don't do it for other people or to gain glory.

Could there be any greater glory than being happy and living in the now and being and doing "happy"?

If you need help, then say it. There's far too many who are willing to offer advice and yet, far too few who are willing to actually get off the couch and help and lend a hand.

The best advice is no advice and the best charity is the charity that one does for fun. The happiest people admit their sins and drop their chains.

"There's no begging bowl in a true community. There's no clinging, no anxiety, no fear, no hangover, no possessiveness, no demands. Free people form community, not slaves..." - Anthony De Mello

Current Radiation Levels in Tokyo and Tsukuba (75 km. north of Tokyo)

DEVO - SHRIVEL UP

Bookmark these links I am listing here. Here you can find the current radiation levels in Shinjuku and Tsukuba (75 km. north of Tokyo).


For a comparison of current radiation levels and pre-quake levels in Shinjuku, see here: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/radiation-levels-in-shinjuku-tokyo-from.html)

Click here for regular updates: http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do

Next, updated daily and hourly from the Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Unit in Tsukuba (Tsukuba is between Tokyo and the accident site at Fukushima. It is about 75 kilometers north of Tokyo, and 150 kilometers south of Fukushima). Is an updated hourly summary of radiation measured in microSv/hour.  You can view the daily and hourly radiation level updates here: http://www.aist.go.jp/taisaku/ja/measurement/index.html

Here is an chart from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's National Metrology Institute of Japan webpage. It shows what typical radiation levels (measured in microSv) are in our daily lives: 

At the bottom left, you see the mark of 190. That's the amount of radiation you get on a one-way flight from Tokyo to New York. Above that, you see the number 2400. That is the amount of radiation that a person gets annually from nature. At the top left is the number 10000. That is annual radiation amount a person who lives in Karapari City in Brazil gets. At the top right, you see 6900, that's the amount of radiation you get from a CT scan. Bottom right? That's 50, the amount a person receives from one X-ray. 

As you can see, there is absolutely no radiation risk in Tsukuba and Tsukuba is much closer to the accident site than is Tokyo. One gets a much bigger dose of radiation flying from Narita to New York. In fact, at 0.05 microSv per hour, you would have to be standing outside in the elements everyday for nearly 40 days straight to equal the amount of radiation you'd receive on just that single one-way flight from Tokyo to New York.

Iodide is served; How the USA Created a panic

in Japan and how heads must roll.

If you are interested in the radiation rate currently in Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo, see here:

http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do 今日の東京　新宿区人形町での放射線測定記録 (Radiation measurements recorded in Tokyo today Ningyo-cho Shinjuku-ku)

For more details and explanation as well as other radiation comparisons see "Updated: Nuclear Crisis - Just Facts no Rumors" 

If the above link does not work, try this:http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-crisis-facts-versus-rumors.htmlhere.

Labels: Shinjuku, earthquake, nuclear, nuclear meltdown, radiation, Tsukuba, tsunami

Radiation Levels at Tsukuba, 75 km. North of Tokyo, Much Lower - Dropping to Pre-Quake Levels

Is he strong? Listen Bud, he's got radioactive blood

So far, through the entire crisis at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, radiation levels in Tokyo have not come close to dangerous levels to human health. They would have had to increase more than a thousand-fold to have done so so far. Once again, the radiation levels at Tsukuba dropped yesterday. The levels are well within range of pre-quake levels. (For a comparison of current radiation levels and pre-quake levels in Shinjuku, see here: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/radiation-levels-in-shinjuku-tokyo-from.html)


Click here for regular updates: http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do

This chart is updated daily and hourly from the Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Unit in Tsukuba (Tsukuba is between Tokyo and the accident site at Fukushima. It is about 75 kilometers north of Tokyo, and 150 kilometers south of Fukushima). It is an updated hourly summary of radiation measured in microSv/hour. These levels taken on Friday, March 18, 2011 are 1/2 of the levels they were on Wednesday, March 16. You can see that the levels were between 0.02 and 0.05 microSv per hour.

You can view the daily and hourly radiation level updates here: 

http://www.aist.go.jp/taisaku/ja/measurement/index.html

Okay. 0.02 and 0.05 microSv per hour. But what does that mean? Here is an chart from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's National Metrology Institute of Japan webpage. It shows what typical radiation levels (measured in microSv) are in our daily lives:

At the bottom left, you see the mark of 190. That's the amount of radiation you get on a one-way flight from Tokyo to New York. Above that, you see the number 2400. That is the amount of radiation that a person gets annually from nature. At the top left is the number 10000. That is annual radiation amount a person who lives in Karapari City in Brazil gets. At the top right, you see 6900, that's the amount of radiation you get from a CT scan. Bottom right? That's 50, the amount a person receives from one X-ray. 

As you can see, there is absolutely no radiation risk in Tsukuba and Tsukuba is much closer to the accident site than is Tokyo. One gets a much bigger dose of radiation flying from Narita to New York. In fact, at 0.05 microSv per hour, you would have to be standing outside in the elements everyday for nearly 158 days straight to equal the amount of radiation you'd receive on just that single one-way flight from Tokyo to New York.

If you are interested in the radiation rate currently in Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo, see here:

http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do

 今日の東京　新宿区人形町での放射線測定記録 (Radiation measurements recorded in Tokyo today Ningyo-cho Shinjuku-ku)

For more details and explanation as well as other radiation comparisons see "Updated: Nuclear Crisis - Just Facts no Rumors" 

If the above link does not work, try this: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-crisis-facts-versus-rumors.htmlhere.

Radiation Levels in Shinjuku Tokyo from March 1 ~ March 17, 2011

Radiation levels in Shinjuku measured from March 1, 2011 to yesterday March 17, 2011. Ever so slightly elevated. No risk to humans. Here is a direct link. If that doesn't work, try this: http://113.35.73.180/monitoring/past_data.html

Here are the current levels as of right this moment: http://113.35.73.180/report/report_table.do


See more detailed explanations here.

◆ １日単位の測定結果

Marketing Japan: Japan's Love Affair with Vending Machines

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Japan has vending machines everywhere you look. It just goes to show you how little crime there in in this country still to this day.


You can see vending machines on the corner of any street in a big city like Tokyo but you can also see them on the corner on some dirt road out in the country in the middle of what seems like nowhere!

Now, in Tokyo, the game has been taken to the next level. In Shinjuku station a touch-screen vending machine has been installed.   

As online magazine Dvice reports:

Japan has a love affair with vending machines. You can get anything, from hot coffee to hot noodles to fresh fruit to cigarettes, from the ubiquitous machines. So it's only natural that they'd jump on the touchscreen vending machine bandwagon first.

A new touchscreen machine called the aCure has just been installed in the bustling Shinagawa Station in Tokyo, and it's already been attracting a crowd. Featuring the huge slew of various beverages that salarymen are used to, it doesn't do anything particularly novel. But it sure looks awesome, and it's flashy. And you know what? That might just be enough for it to catch on.

No, the one in Shinjuku station is not that great, but it is a test case. The next model is rumored to be something like the test model that Samsung (a Korean manufacturer) unveiled last year.


Here's a video of that device: 

Pretty cool, eh? Now I usually never buy anything from these vending machines, but I might buy something from one of these just to play with it...


But then again, if I can play with it as much as this girl does in the video, then I already know what the machine does, and, if I am not really thirsty, then why buy the drink?


That's what the manufactures of the machine need to figure out next: How to get people who play the machine to actually make a purchase!


Aha! Now there's the $64 million dollar question.


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Keywords: Shinjuku, vending machine, touch screen, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers, Mike in Tokyo Rogers