Trip Glasses from Alex Brooke on Vimeo.

What: Trying on Mitch Altman’s famous Trip Glasses

Where: @ 4nchor5 La6 / Anchor Lab a hacker space in Tokyo

Why: To check out what hacker spaces are like in Japan so we can see if we can make a new one here

Huh?: Keep reading, it’ll make sense…

The other day, Karamoon, Waka sensei and myself visited 4nchor5 la6 or Anchor Lab, a hacker space in Tokyo. A hacker space is for like minded people usually with an interest in technology to collaborate on creative porjects. It’s like an artist collective for techies (although it doesn’t always have to be tech).

We went inspired by a discussion at Tokyo Bar Camp to set up our own hacker space. The main issue here in Japan is usually space and money. Since land is at such a premium here, renting even a modest space can be quite a heavty financial undertaking. However, Bar Camp proved that it is possible to hold a major event for free with sponsorship here in Tokyo.

So off we went to the Anchor Lab which is located in Aoyama. It’s an Aladin’s cave of components, computers, gadgets, wires, programming textbooks, wave function generators, circuit boards and little mysterious flashing boxes. It’s run by Daito Manabe who is is quite prolific in his projects and creations one of which is his face stimulator music device. He attaches wires to parts of his face which when twitched play music on his computer. Check out more of his projects here.

During our visit Mitch Altman who tagged along handed out his trip glasses to the Anchor Lab members to try on. Trip glasses have embeded flashing LEDs and audio set at specific frequencies to induce certain mind states. As you can see from this video, people litterally freak out when they put the glasses on.

All in all it was an awesome visit and Karamoon and myself were definitely inspired to make a new hacker space here in Tokyo. But why? One, it’s just fun to make things with friends. Two I think it’s important to get some community projects going here in Tokyo that don’t rely on buying stuff or doing things that have been entirely created by other people.

When hanging out in Tokyo you will probably be experiencing and paying for something someone else ( usually a corporation ) has made. I think it might explain why Yoyogi park is packed with people doing their own hobbies; they have no where else to go. Not that this only happens in Tokyo but public spaces here are only semi public spaces. Be a little to relaxed or have too much fun and someone in uniform will make X signs with their arms and move you along.

But before I start getting up on my soapbox and bore you, suffice it to say that anyone interested in helping to make a hacker space here in Tokyo should check out http://tokyohackerspace.com

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A wise man once said, there’s nothing social about social networking. As we got tired of going outside, facebook slowly dumbed us down and then twitter went in for the kill. The word interactive now probably means not actually interacting with anyone.

However, this may all change with a new little invention called the Poken which sounds like a cross between Pocky and Pokemon. But I digress. It’s basically an electronic business card or “meishi” as they say here in Tokyo. It comes in various cute animal shapes and easily fits in your palm. Simply touch it with another one and you can instantly transfer all your social networking data such as your facebook and twitter accounts. This might be useful  when, after a few hot Kirishimas, finding a pen and paper suddenly doesn’t seem like an easy idea anymore.

Will it take off here in Japan? Japanese people aren’t really that into social networking. Mixi is popular but obsessively emailing your friends via mobile is where it’s at. What else can you do on long train rides into work in Tokyo?

It’ll probably be a big hit with the Gaijin folk here (foreigners) first as was the  case with the iPhone. The Japanese slowly and cautiously started to take it up. I personally think it is a great idea which is well timed. It could be Poken mania soon…

We shall see. Will the Pokemon Poken?

Main site: http://poken.jp