The article is almost like a computerized recreation of other English-language reporting about Shibuya from the last decade:

Blade Runner reference - check
Quote from Hakuhodo Consumer Research Center - check
Beckham is big in Japan - check

are you trolling your own posts or just too lazy to log into your blog? Pretty sweet either way.

I'm sarcastic on the front page and dismissive on the comment section.

ha ha ha ha
blade runner / hakuhodo / beckham: yeah, right.

It must be a pretty sweet gig getting paid to write stuff like that. So effortless...

The David Pilling 3000 Journalisticomputer requires no money! Just plug it in and voila, human interest stories a half-decade too late.

This got past an editor? The article doesn't know if it wants to be about youth culture, teen purchasing power, or the finicky fone market, and its too short to be about all three.

Vodafone's failure to satisfy Shibuya street spenders is a mildly interesting angle, but I seem to remember VF brought out very "domestic" models (ie. cuter, more customizable designs) after the global 3G models bowed, didn't they?

He forgot to mention the poor girl that tripped over her skyscraper shoes and died.

Zzzz

He forgot to mention the poor girl that tripped over her skyscraper shoes and died.

And the one whose platform shoes were so large she couldn't reach the brake pedal in her car.

And the one whose platform shoes were so large she couldn't reach the brake pedal in her car.

Oh, yeah! Poor thing.

Maybe there should be a master file (you call it a "data set"?) circulated to all mainstream media of Japan cliches that have rotted way past their expiration date.

The word count would be so high it makes me drowsy just thinking about it...

We could put it in the vending machine that sells young girls' soiled underpants.

Yes, yes..."I love it when it a plan comes together."

Or we could simply connect a sewage pipe to japantoday's discussion boards.

All right, that's enough, jasong!

What the f*** is going on with the Yen anyway these days?! Not very favourable for me that has a lot o Yen I need too exchange :(((
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=JPY&submit=Convert

I earn the bulk of my freelance money in USD, so I like the yen to be high. If it goes up to 140 again, Japan will be almost mildly affordable.

Unless you are talking about the yen being in some sort of drugged state, I assume you mean you like the yen to be weak.

Right, even saying "円高" in Japanese means a "strong yen."

Although I must add, the yen on DMT is the craziest 20 minutes of monetary action ever.

Whenever I read some foreign newspaper article about Japan, I always start by running a quick search: any match for the string "blade runner", is the surest way to have me close the window right away.