Group Shot

Here's a group shot of the team we took after an event last year.
これは昨年イベントの後にとった集合写真。

We just had our small shareholders meeting today. I explained GT Channel as our most important project for this year. Consolidating our efforts under one brand will be an effective way to focus our attention.
It's moving along and going well.

今日は実は株主総会でした。その中で「GT Channel」がもっとも今後注力するプロジェクトであることを説明しました。ジグザグ・アジアとして一つのブランドの下にコンテンツを位置づけ力を集中することができます。
毎日着々と前進中。

In the Neighborhood

I saw this car parked in the neighborhood. Pretty nice.The body has the used up look but the engine room was shining just like new.

近所にこんな車が止まっていました。なかなか渋いですね。ボディーはわざとユーズドっぽくなっていましたけどエンジンルームはピカピカでした。

NBC Strikes Deal with Youtube

NBC Youtube

The Wall Street Journal reported that NBC has plans to upload promotional video clips of some of its TV shows, including "Saturday Night Live" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." NBC will advertise on YouTube and promote the site on some of its TV shows.

Up until now Youtube was considered to be the deadly foe of the networks but I guess they figured if they can't beat them join them.

The same goes to us as content producers. It is not a battle against illegal downloading and streaming. We must find a way to work with these new media distribution channels.

GT Channel will be our first step in our attempt to make Best Motoring and Hot Version available over the net. Gt Channel will not limit to only the above. Wait just a little more and you will see. This is just the beginning...

NBCがYOUTUBEと提携

ウォールストリートジャーナルでいよいよメジャーネットワークのNBCがYoutubeと提携したと出ました。人気番組のSaturday Night LiveやJay LenoのプロモーションをYoutubeと提携しながら行う。

今までYoutubeは３大ネットや映画会社から憎くき敵として位置づけられていたが、これで見方が変わったかもしれない。

ジグザグ・アジアにしても同じ、もうネットがDVD事業の敵と考えるよりも、ネットを利用した新しい事業モデルや逆にDVD販売のためのプロモーションに積極的に使うべき。海賊版のダウンロードが多いと泣いても結局米国の連邦政府も警察も中国の当局も何もしてくれない。このような新しいDistribution方式を取り入れることが先決。

ということで７月には「GT Channel]という新サービスを開始します。今までアメリカではDVDでしか見ることができなかったBest Motoring やHot Versionの動画配信を始めます。サービス開始まであと少し。しかし、まだまだこれは序の口です・・・

Rainy Season

Japan is in rainy season now. When you see hydrangeas, which are native to Japan, you know it's time for the rain.

すっかり梅雨ですね。
梅雨といえばアジサイ。アジサイが日本原産と最近知りました。
そういえばあまり海外で見ないなと・・・

Hungry for Words

I've been on the board of directors for a company called Hungry For Words for about 3 years now. Hungry For Words is an e-mail marketing company that sends out English vocabulary lessons via e-mail out to its subscribers. It makes money by selling ads on the e-mails.

If you want to study English, check it out:Hungry for Words


実はハングリーフォーワーズという会社の役員を務めて３年ぐらいになります。この会社はEメール・マーケティング会社。購読者に対して毎日英単語レッスンのメールが届きます。発音もチェックできてとても便利。
メール内の広告を売る事業モデルです。

英語を勉強されたい方は是非お試しください。
Hungry for Words

Ecuador

Ecuador advances to the final 16 of the World Cup in Germany. I'm quite impressed. In '98 I had a chance to stay in Ecuador for a few weeks to visit my friend Francisco and his family.

エクアドルがワールドカップでベスト１６に進出しましたね。結構強いですね。ポテンシャルありますね。
９８年に高校時代の親友であるフランシスコをたずねエクアドルを訪問したことがあります。とっても自然が美しい国でした。治安はそれほど良くはないが、色々と自由に旅をしました。




The other day I found the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and decided to see our Zigzag Asia site.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.zigzagasia.com

話変わって、先日Internet Archive Wayback Machineというサイトでジグザグ・アジアの過去のサイトを見てみました。

そしたらちゃんとありました。

抜けている画像などもありますが、いったいどうやってこれが残っているのかちょっと不思議でしたけど。
近いような、遠い昔のような気がしましたね。色々あったなぁー、みたいな。
かなり懐かしかったです。

Bape Cafe?!

We found a Bape Cafe the other day near the house so we decided to take a look. Coffee and cakes weren't bad.

Service?

Watch out for a short hair blond Japanese girl that treats you like cattle. Other than that, everything was ok...

Would I go again?

I'll just stick to wearing their shoes...

ベープカフェが家の近所にできたのでちょっと覗いてみました。
コーヒーとケーキはOKでした。雰囲気はお洒落。
サービス？

ちょっと怖いショートの金髪の娘には注意。(^-^ )
それ以外はOKかな。
とりあえずベープは靴を履くだけにしときます。

MSC Challenge

I went to Nikko on Sunday to check out a Yokohama Tire sponsored event called MSC Challenge.
日曜日は日光にMSC チャレンジというイベントを見に行ってきました。





As you can see, taking pictures of cars sliding sideways at 100km/h is not that easy!
ピンボケですね・・・なかなか１００ｋｍ横向きに走っている車を撮るのは難しい！




Things like this happen too at the tracks. Becareful.
こんなこともあります。気をつけましょう。


On a separate note, Japan tied with Croatia yesterday. Now we are 0 wins:1 tie:1 loss. Our only way to advance is to beat Brazil by at least 2 points...
Many Japanese will be praying this Thursday.

クロアチアとは引き分けでしたね。０勝１敗１分け。喜ぶべき成績ではないですが、首の皮一枚でつながったという感じでしょうか。

次はブラジル。

ブラジルは昨日オーストラリアに２－０で勝ちました。
もう日本はブラジルに勝つしかありません。しかも２得点差をつけて。
木曜日は祈りましょう・・・

Slide Show

There are so many new services always coming out to make our web experience more and more fun. Myspace has the second most pages views out of all sites and it does it by just giving free space to people. Amazing. If I was 16, I'd be on it all day.

ウェブの新しいサービスは毎日どんどん生まれています。
これはslide.comという写真をアップロードしてスライドショーのタグを自動的に再生してくれるサービス。Myspace,Bloggerなどいろいろなサイトに貼れるようになっている。アメリカのティーンエージャーには絶対的な人気を持つSNSサービスのMyspaceはYahooにつづくPVを持つとしてどこの検索エンジンを採用するなど今話題になっている。
ボクが１６才のときにこんなものがあれば一日中やっているでしょう・・・
「今のコたちはいいなぁ、」なんてすごいオヤジ臭いことを最近すぐ言ってしまう・・・

Golf Cart Drift

Here's a video of my friend and professional drifter Dai Yoshihara drifting a golf cart. Never try this at home...


Get this video and more at MySpace.com



Dai drives the Rock Star Silvia for the Pacific Rim team in Formula D.

良い子のみなさんはゴルフカートのドリフトなんて、絶対にマネしないでくださいね。

あくまでもこれはプロが撮影のために行っていることです。なんてバレバレなうそはつきませんけど・・

吉原大二郎くんはアメリカのプロドリフト選手権Formula Dで活躍している選手です。
「日本発世界へ！」ということを企業理念としているジグザグ・アジアとしてはこのような若者を応援しないわけには行きません。

世界で通用する日本男児。
世界で通用する日本企業。

こっちも負けてられません！がんばるぞ。

Takeshita Dori

This is a photo of Takeshita dori in Harajuku.
Our office is located near Harajuku station. Harajuku is a pretty hip town with lots of places you can shop for clothes. Takeshita dori is actually not the place to go to find the latest fashion but has lots of small shops for kids.
You have to walk more towards Omotesando from Harajuku to find the latest styles coming out of Tokyo. The back streets of Harajuku and Omotesando is where many Japanese apparel brands have started up. Bathing Ape is from here too.
The front street of Omotesando is all international brand names like Dior, Gucci, Armani you name it. Ralph Lauren just opened up a direct managed retail store on Omotesando.
It's good to have my office here to see the drastic movements in fashion and retail. It gives me inspiration and new ideas.

Super Street July

My article about the Best Motoring/Hot Version event in Tsukuba is in the latest issue of Super Street magazine. It's called "The Wet Spot" since it was raining so hard that day. Despite the conditions it still was a pretty awesome event. When you have so many top name tuners and cars at one location, you can't go wrong.

筑波のベストモータリング・ホットバージョンイベントを取材したボクの記事が米雑誌Super Streetの今月号に掲載されました。あまりにも雨がすごかったので記事のタイトルは「WET SPOT」となっています。WET SPOTとは英語でオネショのこと・・・あれだけの土砂降りのイベントの割りにはお客さんも集まりも主催側も最善を尽くしたと思います。

On another note, Japan lost to the Aussies 1-3!
They scored 3 points in the final 10 minutes. Japan had the 1-0 for most of the game but the Australian team never gave up and just stompped all over us in the final minutes of the game...
What I couldn't understand is why Zico didn't change the players earlier. It was 30 degrees heat and obvious our guys were tired. Tsuboi got hurt and Moniwa went in. About half way through the second half, when he put Ono in, I couldn't believe he took Moniwa out who was fresher than the other guys dragging their feet. Oh well...
Now we are in a tough position from the get go. If we don't win our next two games we are coming home early.
Next game is against Croatia. Go samurai blue!

Japan VS. Australia

Today is Japan's first game of World Cup games in Germany. We're in a very competitive group. We share seats with Australia, Croatia and Brazil. What luck to be in the same group as Brazil... The 1st and 2nd place teams get to go to the finals so basically it is a battle between Croatia, Australia and Japan for the second place spot. 42nd ranked Australia has a very good team this year headed by coach Hiddink who lead Korea to the final 8 in the last World Cup. They are bigger and taller than the Japanese team.
Japan is ranked 17th by FIFA but these rankings mean very little on the field. Anything can happen. Japan has a very disciplined systematic playing style and we take full advantage of penalty kicks. Penalty free kicks will be our key during this tournament and they are usually be kicked by Shunsuke Nakamura who played in Seria A in Italy and now plays for the Celtics in the Premier League. His performance will be a deciding factor. Also if Hidetoshi Nakata plays a solid good game to lead the team, we should have a good chance of winning.
My only concerns are if we can score enough points. Yanagisawa and Takahara will probably start but if they can't deliver we need to put in faster and younger players like Oguro and Tamada at half time.
The game starts at 9:50PM Tokyo time. Go Samurai Blue!

Chicken Sashimi For The Soul

Last week, Masa Kuji who runs Zigzag Asia (America) Inc. for us was back in Japan for the first time in 3 years.

We took every opportunity possible to try to get good Japanese food which he misses living in the US. Masa has a passion for Japanese sake and Japanese food. Even though he is in LA and often gets to eat Japanese food, there is nothing like the real deal back in Tokyo.


Here's a dish that is about to be cooked, you may think.

But no, it is not. It's a Japanese dish called Torisashi. Basically chicken sashimi.

Yes you read it right. It is raw chicken meat you enjoy with just some wasabi and soy sauce. Our friend Ichishima-san from Spoon (picture above facing away) took us to eat at a little hole in the wall yakitori joint near his office.

It was delicious and probably something Masa will never get to eat in the US.
Or should never eat anywhere else besides Japan for that matter...

Touge Racing at Gunma

Yesterday was another big shooting of the Touge Showdown at Gunma.
I cannot announce who won but it was definitely an exciting day out in the moutain hills of Japan. This is Power House Amuses's GT1 S2000. It's a come back for Amuse, since the Touge Monster crown is now held by RE Amemiya's RX-8.


M.C.R's Nissan Skyline GT-R. Kobayashi is said to take this thing over 275km/hour. I'm not saying where he does his testings.


Me and the monster. : ) This car is so fast it can beat Japan Rally Champ cars on the mountains.


The Acqua Impreza


Tuners and their machines ready to go!