Back in Tokyo

Yup, finally the army stuff is over – at least for this year – and I came back to Tokyo last Sunday afternoon. For the first time I took Turkish Airlines instead of Emirates which I always used before. Even though the in-flight entertainment system on Emirates in unrivalled by pretty much any other airline company (there are literally more than 200 movies from animations to movies in theaters to classics that you can choose from) the ease of travel is not even comparable. Emirates does not like the newer, international airport in Tokyo for some reason. As a result, to get to Tokyo, one first needs to travel to Osaka and then fly to the smaller of the two international airports (Haneda/羽田). Add to that the fact that Emirates always stops over in Dubai and you get the pretty ridiculous itinerary: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Dubai –> Osaka –> Tokyo. With Turkish Airlines this takes much much less: Cyprus –> Istanbul –> Tokyo. The flight is a “codeshare” between Turkish Airlines and ANA so a lot of Japanese passengers use this route too. The price can get a bit high if you get the ticket in the last minute though so if you decide to use this make sure to get your ticket nice and early.

Buying a PSP from a vending machine?

If anyone asked me before my little trip to Nashville where, if anywhere, one would be able to buy a PSP or an iPod from a vending machine I would say it has to be in Japan somewhere. Well, imagine my surprise when I got off the plane at Dallas International Airport and ran into not just one, but at least 3 huge vending machines which, well, vend, PSPs, iPods and related accessories. There is also a little touch screen introducing each item and of course the all important credit card reader. I am not sure what would happen if an item would get stuck just like with other vending machines – I can live with wasting a dollar for a bag of chips that gets stuck, or I can pay for another one and get two at the same time but the same “trick” doesn’t work when each item costs upwards of $100. Still though – pretty interesting concept. It seems like Sony and Apple are the two big backers of this as of now.

The airport is your typical large US airport, with a multitude of terminals and a train system linking them. There isn’t really a distinguishing feature of the airport – at least internally. I am not entirely sure how it is from the outside though since it is one of the airports I have only seen from inside. Oh and before I forget – I snapped this picture of a crashed application that was on the display screens. I am wondering why no one noticed it but I suspect there is no application that watches for crashes and notifies an operator. I guess this would be something good to build for applications like this though I am surprised there is not one already.

From Tokyo to Nashville

Last week I was in the US, attending a conference in Nashville and well, if I don’t start posting about this I am going to forget so… here we go…

I took the AA flight out of Narita on Sunday and had a 10 hour flight, touching down in Dallas. The flight was generally pleasant and contrary to my last experience aboard an American carrier (United back in 2006) there was actually an entertainment system of some sort for each passenger in economy. Now before you get excited – it is a VERY limited system.  First of all, it has the smallest screen I have ever seen. The screen is supposedly touch screen and it does allow, um, touching, but the resolution is basically 8 by 8 or so. When you succeed in pressing a “button”, the whole screen reloads giving the whole experience a slideshow kind of feel (which I guess was appropriate given that I was going to a conference with lots of slideshows). There are a few new movies and TV series available and they even threw in a token Japanese movie but the whole collection included less than 20 or so items – when you compare this with literally hundreds offered by Emirates (which not only had recent movies but also classics) and the like you can see how AA still has a long way to go. Oh and the system they have for the videos is just strange – unlike a perfectly digital system where you can start to watch any of the offerrings whenever you want as well as pause it, rewind it etc, you have to start watching at certain time blocks (seemed to be about every 20 minutes) or you have to watch starting from the middle. Better than nothing but not by a lot…

I want to talk a little bit about the next hop to Nashville but it is almost 11 pm so, that’s it for today. More coming tomorrow (hopefully) ;)

Changing continents...

I will be going to the US tomorrow for about 8 days. It will be both a holiday and a bit of business for me - after spending a few days in New York, I will be back at good old Pittsburgh for attending the graduation ceremonies I missed last year and to give a talk at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, about the company I work for in Japan - SECOM. I will try to keep on posting from the US.

I will be flying on a Japanese carrier - ANA. I have tried JAL before on a local flight from Osaka to Haneda but never ANA. I heard good things from colleagues and friends who have tried it before. If it is anything like Emirates which I enjoyed quite a bit then I am sure it will be a nice experience. This also will be the first time I use my re-entry permit to Japan. This is supposed to streamline the immigration process when re-entering Japan when on a working visa so hopefully this will mean less time spent in the airport on the way back.