Japanese amulets (charms, talisman, omamori, ofuda, gofu etc) are carried or displayed about ones person which either bring good fortune, ward off bad luck or evil spirits or protect us from calamity.

The amulets come in different shapes and sizes but are usually made of paper or wood with some of them being wrapped in cloth. Smaller amulets are known as Omamori [御守り[おまもり]]. These ones are usually carried about ones person. Many school children tie them to their randoseru.

Lately there have been anime themed Omamori but many dont mention whether they have been blessed or not. If you are picking up an anime themed Omamori then you should treat it more like a novelty item or a token rather than something spiritual.

This arrow is called a "Hamaya" [破魔矢[はまや]] and is directly translated as an arrow that destroys evil demons. This Hamaya has been protecting us for the past year and must be brought back to the temple to be renewed.

This is our local temple called Meguro Fudouson Ryusenji temple located in Meguro.
The temple was built in the year 808. In 1615, the temple was burned down in a fire but was restored under the Tokugawa shogunate in 1624.
The nearest stations are Musashikoyama and Nishikoyama on the Meguro line.
[gmap=35.628640, 139.708059]

Inside the temple grounds is a place where you return all the amulets or talismans that have been protecting you throughout the year. From here, they are all burned as a respect to the deity who has been protecting you.

Amulets and talismans can be purchased from shrines or temples but you must return them to the place that you got them from - dont try to return an amulet that you bought from one temple to another temple. The difference between a shrine and a temple in a separate post - I (and even local Japanese folks) get confused between the two.

Inside the main temple. In the middle there is a box called Saisen Bako [賽銭箱[さいせんばこ]] where you would throw money before making a prayer. You would often see the box drawn in Tohou illustrations.
Usually one would throw a 5 yen coin - the pronunciation for "5 yen" in Japanese is "Go-en" (pronounced "goh en") and is the same pronunciation as "ご縁" meaning "good luck or fate."

Behind the Saisen Bako is where one will see many priests blessing the amulets and talisman before they are handed over to the owner.

This chart outlines whether you are going to have a year of bad luck or not in 2012.
Gender/Age
Male 42
Female 37
Female 33
Male 25
Female 19
Youngster 4
Male/Female 61

If your gender and age match any of the above then you can luckily ask a priest in the temple grounds to ward off evil spirits and purify you - and yes it will cost you extra. Amulets and talisman will also help negate the bad luck. But even after a blessing or being armed with an amulet, you are not rid of your year of bad luck - just proceed with caution for that year ^^;
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Here are the different types of amulets and talisman that you can buy - all of these do different things. Once you have placed your order, you will need to wait for a while because your personalized amulet or talisman are blessed in the main temple. You can sit and watch if you want but remember to take off your shoes.

This form needs to be filled in and boxes should be checked depending on what type of protection or luck you want which are:-
-Ward off calamity
-Flourishing business
-Safety for family
-Good health
-Prayers are fulfilled
-Prevent my current illness from getting worse
-Save me from these rough seas
-Safety for family+Flourishing business combo pack
-Safety for family+Good health combo pack

Which would you choose?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Time to pick up a new Hamaya.

Not all Hamaya ward off evil - some of them bring good fortune too like these ones.

We usually get one with the Ema (the wooden plaque) so went for the one with the ceramic dragon instead. We got a small one that cost 1,000 yen.

Yuki shows us what amulets and talismans we have for 2012. This is the Hamaya.

This is a talisman called "Ofuda" [御札[おふだ]] which is usually displayed at home or in the office. This is a wooden one but there are paper versions too. The 3 pieces of paper that Hakumu Reimu from Tohou holds are Ofuda.

These are Omamori amulets - one for wifey and one for me. These have been personalized and blessed to protect us.

Whatever you do - never open an Omamori!

You are not restricted to having Omamori or Ofuda from one temple or shrine - the Ofuda on the right is from a different shrine. Hamaya or Ofuda should be placed in a high location - which is why you will see these near the ceiling when entering a Japanese household or office.

Our Ofuda for the office is displayed in this corner - we chose "Flourishing Business and Safety for Family."

My Omamori is kept in my business card holder until this time next year.

And if you are wondering what Yuki is holding - its called an Oonusa [大幣[おおぬさ]] which is a wooden wand with zigzag shaped paper on the end its used during purification rituals. If you have seen this in anime or games - now you know ^^

There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Leaving you with more photos of Yuki.

All photos snapped on the Sony NEX-5N.

Miko [巫女[みこ]] are young female attendants who can be found at Shinto shrines performing ceremonies and other odd jobs such as staffing the shrine shop.
At the beginning of the year, selected girls from all over Japan get to become a Yuki Musume [幸娘] or "Fortune Girl" where they perform a spiritual cleansing ceremony at Keta Taisha shrine in the Ishikawa Prefecture.

Member Ellcy90 went along to take some photos for us.
I have a bit of a fetish for Miko - love the flowing red dress and their white shirts. They look so...innocent and pure ^^;
Interestingly enough, many moons ago (and possibly at some present day shrines), Miko were required to be virgins - according to Wikipedia.

"Miko" is translated into English as a "Shrine Maiden." Other terms such as prophet, medium, priestess, nun and even witch or sorceress is used - Wikipedia. Nun is probably the closest out of the bunch.

A place where you can be guaranteed to see Miko is at Meiji Jingu in Harajuku.

Back to the ceremony. The Miko line up and get ready for their chanting sessions.

The Miko then start to do their chanting.

I notice that Ellcy90 took quite a few shots of the miko on the far left ^^;

After chanting, the Miko then jog off to the nearby beach. They then chant "Essa, Essa" as they jog - extremely cute ^^; You can see some video footage of this ceremony here which was taken a few years ago. Also checkout the Youtube video below.

The stone gate is called a Torii [鳥居] which can be found at the entrance to a Shinto shrine. It marks the boundary between where humans live and the holy grounds.

The gods welcome the Miko by conjuring up huge gusts of wind.

The boat you was on sinks after hitting an endangered whale and you are bobbing up n down in the ocean.
You see a maid and a miko calling to you for help who are also in the water. They both look sweet and gorgeous with big anime eyes.
But alas, you can only rescue either one and swim with her to the nearby deserted island. Who do you choose to rescue?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

And this the shrine where the ceremony took place. Keep your eye on the site for the shrine to see when they will have the next one if you are interested in going.

Out of all traditional Japanese wear, the miko is my favorite ^^;

Oshogatsu [お正月[おしょうがつ]] is the word meaning "new year." Currently 4 days into 2012. How has your new years been so far? After about half a year of Culture Japan Season 2 production, I've always said that I'd take at least a day off in the new year. It turned out that so much other work piled up over the 6 months that it was difficult to just drop everything for a whole day ^^

But did manage to get some time to do the new year stuff which includes going to our local temple to make a prayer and exchange our Omamori and Ofuda.

At the Fudouson temple grounds. At this time of year, a load of hawker stalls would setup to sell nourishment and beverages.

Folks who want to visit the Fudouson temple should get off at the nearest stations which are Musashikoyama and Nishikoyama on the Meguro line.
[gmap=35.628640, 139.708059]

At the entrance to the main temple, there is a fountain which you should use to clean your hands to purify yourself.

The act of attending a shrine or temple at the beginning of the year to make a prayer is called Hatsumoude [初詣[はつもうで]].

These are called Omikuji - fortunes which have turned out to be bad - things like "a baboon will leave a pile of poo in your breakfast every day for the rest of this year." Most folks would not want something like that to come true so they tie the unlucky fortune to this fence.

Time for some noms - boiled potatoes with some butter.

This is Okonomiyaki with some katsuo sprinkled on the top. The katsuo will wave about while the Okonomiyaki is still warm which makes it look alive ^^

Huddling together with strangers in the cold.

Incense is burned infront of the main temple. Folks will approach the burning incense and try to get a whiff of the smoke.

Inside the main temple. In the middle there is a box called Saisen Bako [賽銭箱[さいせんばこ]] where you would throw money before making a prayer. You would often see the box drawn in Tohou illustrations.
Usually one would throw a 5 yen coin - the pronunciation for "5 yen" in Japanese is "Go-en" (pronounced "goh en") and is the same pronunciation as "ご縁" meaning "good luck or fate."

Behind the Saisen Bako is where one will see many priests blessing the amulets and talisman before they are handed over to the owner.

We discovered this temple a few years after moving into this area - one of the things I love about Japan - a new discovery everyday.

These are called Ema [絵馬] which are plaques of wood where one would write their wishes on.

Its time to visit the god who specializes in ones legs and waist - just what I need for my spinal hernia.

The water in this fountain is not only used for purification purposes...

...but also for splashing water on this god.

Visualize your goal and toss a coin.

Some kids about to try their dab hand at shooting a target.

If you are playing, remember not to take this too seriously. All the PSP games and wot not are all for display purposes only. What you are supposed to do is shoot a cork at one of the targets - if it falls over then its yours. Only the small items worth less than 100 yen will fall over ^^
This guy here is getting greedy and tries to go for the Koala snack. Even though he puts the gun right next to the target, the snack barely budges.

Arashi, Exile and AKB posters to entice the punters - these are just for display purposes too.

And this is what the Meguro Fudouson temple looked like many many moons ago.

Outside the temple are more stalls being setup to feed folks with warm rice wine and yakitori.

Then its off to check out our local shopping arcade as we usually do.

Most shops are closed but restaurants and grocery stores are open.

Decorations and signs outside closed stores wishing folks a happy new year.

Not sure about the meaning of these rubber chickens though ^^

Had a craving for some KFC ^^

Not too sure what I'm doing here ^^;

A load of folks lining up for some takeout sushi.

Pokeon calendars given away at Mc Dees.

And this is what we are after - Mc Dees apple pai for dessert ^o^

And this is how I eat apple pie - with ice cream ^o^ Absolutely nomalicious.

TV is filled with new year specials - here we have the Milky Holmes girls on their own show.

Hope you had a nice time off but also hope that you get back into gear soon - especially if you got goals to reach!

Before I forget, you can see coverage of previous years in the following photo articles:-
-Japanese New Year 2006 (Meiji Jingu in Harajuku)
-Japanese New Year 2007 (Sensouji in Asakusa)
-Japanese New Year 2008 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2009 (Meguro Fudouson)
-Japanese New Year 2010 (Meguro Fudouson)

If there is anything I love more than looking at photos of otaku rooms - it has to be looking at "before and after" photos of otaku rooms. Today we look at the room of Mim from Australia. This is what Mim's room looked like before - this photo was featured in episode 14 of Culture Japan Season 1.

Mim clears up ready to paint the room. In the meanwhile, all the Nendoroids get stacked up to make a temporary wall.

The sky blue wall gets painted...

Just the new lick of paint makes the room look so much fresher.

New display cases for the figures.

Wall scrolls leading up to Mim's room.

And this is the room after all the renovating. Carpet replaced too.

Mim still has some Nendoroids in their boxes waiting to be displayed.

A temporary spot for Mim's DVD collection. I'll be posting my before-and-after room photos soon but if you want to share yours on figure.fm then please do so! I'll pick up some and post em here from time to time.

More otaku room photos from around the world listed up below.

Member Mim from Australia decided to pile up their collection of Nendoroids (as one does) and took a few photos for us. Mim actually done this before the bedroom got renovated. I'm not even sure how many Nendoroids are here ^^;
Anyway, I hope that Mim decides to pick up this Nendoroid when it comes out ^o^

Occasionally I'l pick up Good Smile Company related posts from Figure.fm and post em on the official Good Smile site - just like I done for this photo. If you would like to see your photos on the GSC site then share ^o^ I may miss them from time to time so post on my Facebook wall too.

Which of these Nendoroids do you have?

The second season of Culture Japan has just finished its run in Japan and is about to start its global broadcast in America and Asia. At the end of each episode we show an end card featuring the artwork of a popular artist.

The End Card for Episode 1 is by Kobuichi sensei! Kobuichi-sensei also drew Mirai in Winter, Solar Marine and bikini too - will release those images soon. In the meantime enjoy the larger wallpaper!

The End Card for Episode 2 is Mirai-chan in her Solar Marine uniform by DMYO!
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP3 is of Mirai in her Aqua Skin swimwear by Refeia-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP4 is of Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform by Piromizu-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP5 is of Mirai in her bikini by Hagure Yuuki-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP6 is of Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform by Kko-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP7 is of Mirai in her Summer uniform by Choco Chip-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP8 is of Mirai in her Summer uniform by Mikeou-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP9 is of the Mirai Millennium team in their Solar Marine uniforms illustrated by Kazunori Iwakura-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP10 is of the Mirai Millennium team in their Summer school uniforms illustrated by Kazunori Iwakura-sensei.
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card for EP11 is of Mirai and Kanata in their Winter school uniforms illustrated byMirai's voice actress UTACO!
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The End Card wallpaper for episode 12 is of Mirai-chan in her Summer uniform by Azami Yuko.
Wallpaper version here.

The End Card for the last episode of season 2 is of Mirai-chan in her bikini illustrated by DMYO!
Get the wallpaper sized version here.

The ultimate otaku room? Dakimakura, wall scrolls, retro gaming machines, custom figures, eroge, doujinshi, Dr Pepper, dedicated Tohou machine and more! This place looks more like a shop or museum! Posted by member Nanashi over at figure.fm.

A room like this is known as an Itabeya [痛部屋[いたべや]]. The kanji "痛" is now commonly used to refer to illustrations of cute 2D girlies being plastered over any type of object - a car for example is called Itasha [痛車[いたしゃ]] - here is an example.

Nanashi enjoys 2011 Christmas with one of his favorite 2D girls.

More evidence that this could be the ultimate otaku room - Sega Dreamcast machines used as plates for caek.

The mortal enemy for an otaku room - photo taken just after the 3.11 Earthquake.

Photos of the room back in Summer 2010.

Nanashi-san's room Christmas 2009.

2009 Summer

The room back in Winer 2008.

Nanashi-sans room back in 2008.
More world wide room photos listed up below.

In Japan, on the 1st of January, a ton of postcards usually arrive called Nengajo [年賀状[ねんがじょう]]. Nengajo are new year greeting cards that families and business partners send to each other. Today we take a look at what some anime, figure and game companies send out - plucked some Nengajo from a few of my clients and got Yuki to hold them for me.

Publishers of YuruYuri Ichijinsha. Most Nengajo are of postcard form like this...

...but every year, Good Smile Company like to send something thats not the standard size ^^;

This years Good Smile Nengajo is one of those scratch and win thingies - I scratched and won! I get to plug absolutely anything I want (as long as its not too ecchi) on Mikatan's blog.

Most postcards come with the standard lottery system thats been in use for many moons now. The numbers at the bottom of the postcards are published in newspapers - if the number matches then you win a load of cash!
A retro Nengajo commercial below which mentions the lottery numbers at the end.

Figure maker Max factory.

Anime Studio Production IG. This featuring their up n coming movie A letter to Momo.

Publisher Kadokawa.

TV Production TV Man Union.

Publisher BNN.

Sega Sammy.

Figure store Hobby Search.

Where ninja's are born - Edo Wonderland in Nikko who are releasing a movie!

The folks who run NicoNico - Dwango.

Online figure store Hobby Stock.

The Max factory company Indotei who do Mirai-chan Curry.

Mirai in a wrestling collaboration in 2012?!

Doll maker Obitsu.

TV station BS11.

Fashion Designer Hibiki.

Eroge company Yuzu-soft - this one with a message from Kobuichi-sensei.

Online figure store AmiAmi.

Publisher Broccoli.

High School Girl Fashion designers Lucy Pop.

IT company Xtone.

Mockmoon!

Game maker JRPG.

Trading Card Game Company Bushiroad.

Game maker Idea Factory.

Asian Animation Industry.

Figure maker Kotobukiya.

Architects Klein Dytham.

I will be in Taiwan for a business trip next week and would love to have a meetup! Have no idea how many will come along but if enough come then we will close off the Good Smile Tetsujin cafe - if only a few then we will have a nice n cozy corner to ourselves. I call all these meetups Culture Japan Night even though they are held in the day sometimes ^^;

Good Smile will let us use the place for free but if you want food then you can buy something from their yummy menu. I heard that some folks wanted to bring their daughters along too - please do and I'll bring one of mine too ^^ I'll also be filming for Culture Japan Season 3. Season 2 will start its broadcast in Taiwan next month.

If you are interested in coming then register your attendance with this form. Feel free to bring friends!

Time and place as follows:-
2012/01/14 11AM - 2PM - will book longer if needed. Come and go any time ^^
Good Smile Tetsujin Cafe
No. 50, Section 1, Zhōngxiào West Rd, Jhongjheng District
台北市忠孝西路一段50號5F（K-mall 5F)
[gmap=25.046521, 121.515851]

Look forward to meeting folks in Taiwan!
Previous meetup reports listed up below.

Have you been to any of the meetups that we've had so far in the UK, France, US, Shanghai, HongKong, Malaysia, Singapore?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

PS. Folks from Aniarc are coming too ^^

Many moons ago I used to work in the fashion industry. During that time, I discovered anime, manga and Japan and decided that I wanted to live and work in the land of the rising sun. I left the fashion industry to pursue my dream but since then I've still kept tabs from time to time and make the occasional fashion accessory too.

Lately, my work has been brining me closer to the fashion industry again and want to start covering fashion topics from time to time. For a start, our regular Culture Japan guest Nagatopyon went along to the fashion district Harajuku to take some snaps of some fashionable bods for us.

Love the green coat/long sleeved combination - something that I'd like to dress my daughter in too ^^;

Love the flairy trousers. I remember I got picked on for wearing flairs at school ^^;

The neckstring seems to be popular of late - 3 lads in this post are wearing them.

Cute mittens, beret and yellow stockings.

Wearing glasses without the glass is another in-thing of late. If I wore glasses without the glass then I'll be walking into lamp posts all the time.

The chains remind me of the ones I used to wear around my belt when I was a teenager.

Large glass frames (without the glass) are popular too.

Nice looking Mirai Millennium type boots on the right!

Love the furry boots, coat and crown hat.

Some of my friends go out in bare legs during the Winter but they always tell me that it isn't cold ^^; Perhaps its all the training that they've had during high school ^^;

Love this style - loose and comfortable.

Nice looking chap - I wish I still had that much hair to play with. But then again I could go for one of these instead ^^;

And this is what I looked like back in 1988. I was 16 at the time ^^; I wore jeans all the time which was held up by an eagle n stripes buckle and you can just about see the chains around my belt too^^;
Can you recognize this pose?

I love Teh Tarik so much that I've opened a Teh Tarik cafe in Tokyo and here are my supplies ^^
Thanks to Maurice who brought all of this over from Singapore. The cafe is located in Musashikoyama Tokyo and will only be open for a limited time - until all supplies are depleted ^^;

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Yesterday was a public holiday known as "Seijin no Hi" [成人の日[せいじんのひ]] or "Coming of age day" where those who have turned 20 are declared adults meaning they can now do SDV (Smoke, Drink and Vote).

In the past, the coming of age day was celebrated only among samurai families - for boys it was between 12 - 16 and for girls it was between 12 - 14((Wikipedia).

Went with writer and art director comrade Andrew Lee (who took these pics) out n about to look for fluffy rabbits - and we found many.

Starting off with a few pics of my fave girls - one to the top right of this pic.

Very sweet. Gorgeous curly hair.

More sweet fluffy rabbits.

The coming of age day is held on the second Monday of January. The Shin Seijin [新成人[しんせいじん]] or "New Adults" would gather at the local ward office and listen to some pep talk given by the governing authorities - usually along the lines of "you are responsible adults now, stop playing with your dolphin and help out with the declining population. And don't rob banks while you are at it."

Some of the New Adults would then go to a shrine and get together with old school class mates in what is known as a Dousoukai [同窓会[どうそうかい]] - you may have heard this word in anime or eroge where old school class mates get together after a few years and have ecchi on the same night.

The girls wear a traditional garment known as Furisode [振袖[ふりそで]] which they normally rent. Rental for these garments for *one day* can cost up to and over 150,000 yen (not a typo ^^;) from online rental stores like Gohuku.

Many folks out n about to take pics of (mainly) the girls.

And if you are wondering - been told that most of the fluff is fake fur.

Started off in Harajuku but only saw a handful of rabbits. Andrew has a blueprint of the Shibuya/Yoyogi and Harajuku area printed on his left knee and showed me a shortcut from Harajuku to Shibuya which will change the way I travel around this area.

While many of the lads will go for a business suit, some still go for the traditional Hakama [袴[はかま]] - again can be rented online for something like 38,000 yen from places like Huuryuu.

With no catch at Harajuku, we arrived at the CC Lemon Hall in Shibuya. As local ward offices can only fit a certain number of people, the CC Lemon hall is used to fit in the rest.

The fire brigade was out in force - now that you are adults, they would like you to be a good citizen and help put out those fires.

Some of the new adult lads. Looks like the guy in the middle was given a congrats-you-are-now-an-adult beating judging from the bruises to his face.

If you want to catch some Seijin no Hi festivities next year, I would advice that you go to the CC Lemon hall in Shibuya at about 12:30 - you will have an hour of photos before they all go in at about 1:30.

Spotted many fellow gaijin out n about in the area taking photos too.

Its usually OK to ask for photos with the girls as they spent a lot of money to look good for the day - they generally want to be looked at. And if you are in armor then many ask to have their photo with you ^^;

Kawaii zo!

As far as I know, we didn't have any form of celebrations in the UK for folks who become adults - any in your neck of the woods?

Which brings me to a related question that I asked many moons ago but am curious as to what the demographics are now - how old is you being?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

If you arrive at the CC Lemon too late, you will find the place pretty much deserted.

Me cant remember the year that I turned 20 at all...

Some of these in the Wallpaper Pool.

Some of the lads do get a bit rowdy though.

This guy promises to give up on Tenga and dakimakura.

Video clip of how the New Adults celebrated Seijin no Hi in 2012.

All these were taken on the Lumix LX3.

Pretending to be a member of staff handing out goodies to the new adults.

This photo is 1 of a series of 3.

The second in the series...

And the third - caption these photos ^^;

And after the CC Lemon hall, it was off to Shibuya to see more shenanigans to be covered in another article. Bumped into this lovely lady on the way.

This lovely figure of Kuroneko as "Holy Angel Kamineko" by Max factory is now up for pre-order! She's 1/7 scale, due out this May and will retail for 8,800 yen.

Pre-order info should be up at the usual bunch of trusted online retailers.
http://www.amiami.com/shop?set=english
http://toylet.net
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
http://hlj.com
http://archonia.com
http://hobbystock.jp
http://kidnemo.com
http://jlist.com
There is a poll embedded in this article.

One of the things I constantly think about is how to become more efficient at managing my time. I've got a note to write about Time Management in a separate post but today I'm going to talk about a few things we can do to save time by making sure that we spend absolutely no time at all looking for stuff - because looking for stuff does not make sense and is a complete waste of time.

For starters, I always make a point of getting rid of stuff that I dont want so that I can easily find the things that I do want. Imagine you have a drawer filled with 50 different items - 40 items are things which you never use but you want to keep around for a rainy day. The other 10 items are things which you use regularly. But because those 10 items are mixed in with the rest of the items, you waste your time rummaging around for what you are looking for.

In this case you should try to separate out the stuff that you dont or hardly ever use into a different location - better still - you should ask yourself if you really want to keep it.
Just like some animals, humans like to collect things - somethings are part of a hobby but then some things are just useless stuff that starts to pile up - either stuff that you bought or stuff that somebody gave to you. If somebody gives you something for free, its not actually free because you need time to look after it. You need to find somewhere to put it which will take up space.

Going back to the stuff that we dont really want - we still tend to keep them for a few reasons:-

• We paid good money for it.
  
• Somebody gave it to us and its worth a bit of money.
  
• It could come in use some day - dont want to have to buy it again.

Up until today, I've gotten rid of so much stuff that if I'd kept it around, I'd actually be loosing *a lot* of money. The reason is that I value my time more than I value money. If I kept stuff around which I didn't need, I would need to invest time into making storage for things which I do need - because the stuff which I dont need is taking up shelf space.
Unwanted items in some cases need looking after - wiping down or dusting off.

Having a lot of stuff around also means that I have an extra distraction - a distracting that I could do without especially when trying to reach my life goals in the limited amount of time I have left.

Now I'm not asking you to throw everything away and become an extreme minimalist - what I am recommending is that you go through all your belongings and think about whether they really add any value to your life.
Take for example "I have a bunch of figures in the office which are nice to look at that add value to my life" vs "I've got a bunch of old electronic equipment that I never use but they take up space - they add no value to my life."

Life is a journey where you start off with no belongings. During your journey, you will start to accumulate stuff but at the very end of your journey, you cant take any of it with you. Thus, does it not make sense that your belongings should only be of the type that add value to your journey?

I remember when I first started to travel in my 20's - I brought with me to Japan a huge suitcase + huge carry-on + kitchen sink. I had every "just in case" item one could think of which I would never end up using. The extra hassle I went through to carry all that crap just for a "just in case" was absolutely not worth it at all.

Life is just so damn precious that you should be focusing on living your passion and making achievements in life rather than being bogged down by stuff that you are hoarding for a rainy day.

This was our 37" Plasma TV which you have seen in our lounge. When I started to work at Amazon, we earned quite a bit of moolah so could afford to buy this TV which cost 420,000 yen (5467 USD) at the time. It survived an international trip to Seattle and it served us well for nearly 10 years.
But the TV is analog and does not support digital broadcasts that Japan switched over to last July. Its got no HDMI socket either. Its still good as a spare computer monitor or games machine screen though.
Its been sitting under our bed for the past year and would be sitting there taking up space and gathering even more dust for many years to come if I just left it there.

I did pay a lot for the TV but it has served us well for a long time so I'm not going to feel bad by letting it go. Was thinking of donating it to charity but many charity bodies dont just want everything and anything dumped onto them - they need stuff like food, clothes and money which they can put immediate use to.

I decided to give this away to a reader, so posted it on my Google Plus and tweeted it - a reader came and picked it up in the new year. I didn't charge her for it either as she was doing me a favor too - it actually costs money to throw away big stuff like this which is why you can find electronic equipment out on the streets from time to time dumped by folks who dont want to pay the fee.

What I'm trying to explain here is regardless of what you originally paid for something, if that item has served you well over a certain period of time then you need not feel that you still need to hang on to it especially if you dont use it anymore - remember that by keeping unwanted stuff around means that you are loosing time and money - unless you have ample space and have somebody else to look after it.

Once you learn how to get rid of unwanted stuff, you will start to mentally feel much more lightweight and able to focus on your life goals.

Anyway, in the first photo of this post, you saw the cabinet in the office where I keep most of my stuff. I used to have 3 drawers which would look like this on a good day...

...but often end up looking like this on a bad day. This would happen too often though and needed a solution. Here I had a bunch of cables which I've never used that ended up in the "may need it one day" - I compared the cost of keeping them around vs the cost of getting another one in the case that I really needed one of them one day - keeping unwanted cables proved to be way to costly - its just not a case of tying them up and keeping them in a corner either.
Unwanted cables mean that the amount of cables I need to rummage through to find what I want wastes my time.

I make a point of regularly going through and getting rid of stuff that I dont need which usually goes in the recycle or to victims who visit my office.
If you cant decide whether you want to keep something or not, you could ask yourself whether you have used it in the past year - if not then just get rid of it.

Anyway, after this round of cleaning, I still wanted to do something about those 3 drawers which often become a mess. The solution I came up with was to utilize the same space in the cabinet but make smaller compartments. I got a couple of these plastic drawers from Muji for 3,700 yen each.
The great thing about these is that I can stack them and add more storage whenever I need - its kinds like cloud computing in the real world ^^;

Muji also sells different sized box drawers which lock on to the stack that I already have - most of these are cheap at 800 yen upwards.

I had a few of these at home already so decided to get more and stack them up - all you need to do is remove the lid from each box which reveals pegs that lock on to the bottom of each new box.

The old plastic cabinet was given to a relative and here I am moving all the stuff into their new home.

Didn't have too much time so just stuffed everything in randomly.

Because I didn't spend time sorting everything out properly, I found myself opening each and every draw every time I was looking for something!

Bought a few more box drawers and stacked them to fill up the extra space. The new drawers come on wheels too which means I can now do dusting much more easily.

Each box drawer needed labeling so I decided to use a single kanji for each box.

For electrical cables I use [電] which means "electric", for USB, Firewire and other cables I use [線] which in this case means "cable", for video equipment I use [映] which in this case means "video" and so on.

All the power related cables go here. Put heavy stuff in the bottom drawers for stability. Also put precious stuff towards the bottom too in the event of an earthquake.

USB , Firewire and audio cables go here. After a while I end up with a million USB > Mini USB cables - again I dont have any need for that many so the rest are thrown out with the recyclables. Having a million USB cables means that it takes longer to find the cables that I really need.

All the video equipment goes here.

All the camera equipment goes here. Managed to get rid of my old Lumix GF1 and GF2 - looking for a home for this GH2.

[娘[むすめ]] (Musume) means "daughter"...

...and indeed there is a spare daughters body inside.

[接] means "attach" and I've got a load of attachments that go inside.

Mostly Mac, iPhone and other attachment type bits n bobs.

[名] is short for [名刺[めいし]] which means "business card" - inside I have further boxes which are meant for trading cards - you can get them from Amazon for 500 yen each.

Several hundred business cards in each box.

The top box is the most awkward to open so I put stuff which I hardly use in there which are consumable goods like printer ink, batteries and bulbs. But come to think about it, even electronic equipment should be thought of as consumables which we use for a limited time.

This drawer here for all sound related equipment.

[遊] is the kanji to mean "play".

Inside we have a load of gaming related stuff.

[保] means to "preserve" or "save".

And currently store all my HDDs here. Heavy stuff must be put at the bottom or the plastic boxes start to buckle if the contents are too heavy near the top.

Figma parts and other knick knacks go in these small draws which are also available from Muji.

A bit more easier to find stuff I want this way.

Often use these masks when filming Culture Japan.

These are USB 2.0/Firewire 800 dual drive Mirror Light cases which cost 11,990 yen each. Originally got them for Culture Japan production which involves a lot of data handling.

The great thing about these cases is that you can just remove the front and plonk in a drive without any screwing about (literally).

As for documents - I try to digitize as much as possible - you dont need a scanner - just take a photo of it. For the remaining documents, I use file cases like these which I got from 100 yen stores. Here I'm about to sort out that bulge on the right case.

I used to get trolled when I started to buy figures long time ago. Now I get trolled because I get all my figures for free ^o^
Anyway, this is my main figure display area. If I get a new figure that I really want to display, one would have to retire. I could get a case and start to bung them all inside but I would not be able to appreciate the ones in the back of the case which I can hardly see.

Anyway, thats it for now - the next Desk Diary post is about cable management and I want to talk about organizing your HDD too in a later post.
But before I leave you, do you have any room organizing tips that you would like to share with your comrades?

Photos of the incredible cosplay quality that could be found at Comic Fiesta 2011. Thanks to Shane for letting me share these here and on Flickr. Originally posted over at figure.fm.

Oh, and if you was at Comic Fiesta and was part of the Culture Japan title call then, you can see yourself in the final episode of Culture Japan Season 2.

Had been using our Buffalo wireless router for a while now. Since then a load of new wireless standards came out which provide higher networking speeds. As the wireless speed of the old router was slow, I kept most of our macs in the house wired via LAN cable.

It was time to get a new router and get rid of those cables - I even had a cable running up the side of my house outside the window ^^; After removing all the LAN cables from around the house, this is what I was left with - 202 kilometers with of cable and dust.

The new savior is the AtermWR9500N PA-WR9500N-HP by NEC. Cost 11,299 yen - cheapest prices available at Kakaku.com.

Tis surprisingly small. While the wireless speeds are not as fast as the wired, the hassle of keeping everything wired was too costly in terms of time management for me.

The new router kicks 7 shades of poo out of my old one. The WR9500N supports speeds of up to 450Mbps over the wireless network and maintains a good signal throughout all 3 floors of my house.

The WR9500N comes with all the standard features that we expect from a wireless router these days. You can attach any HDD to the router and the files on that HDD will be available on the local network. Devices that support DLNA can browse any media files on the HDD too.
You can also attach a webcam and access that from outside the network on WAN.

The WR9500N supports both 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11n. You can access the router at the local 192.168.0.1 IP where you can configure everything via a browser including opening ports to setup a home server and wot not.

Nice n compact. Comes with a stand so that you can keep it either upright or on its side. The USB cable you see here is attached to a HDD - no need to have an extra machine just to serve up files on the network.

Most pleased with this purchase - bit on the expensive side compared to other wireless routers but certainly worth it.

But before the NEC router, I went for the Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H. I chose Buffalo because I had been using their wireless routers for many years.

Compared to the NEC WR9500N, the Buffalo version feels light and tacky - not too bothered as long as it does the job though - but it didn't do its job!
The Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H kept on dropping the connection. Went to google the reason and as I was typing in "WZR-HP-AG300H", the first suggestion was "WZR-HP-AG300H 途切れ." [途切れ[とぎれ]] in this case means "dropped connection."

Seems that many others have the same problem. There were suggestions to change the channel from an auto to a manual setting but that didn't do any good.

Rather than waste any more time with the Buffalo, I asked comrades on my Twitter who recommended the NEC.

The back of the Buffalo. Just like the NEC, its got a USB socket to attach a HDD to serve up files on the network. But it was hideously slow - after browsing to a directory, I'd have to wait quite a while before all the files are listed. The shared files on the NEC however list pretty much straight away.

And the old Buffalo router on the left.
What brand of wireless router are you using?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

And here are my Internet speeds over the wireless network - 83.61Mbps/down and 10.37Mbps/up - the upload rate is usually much higher though. Currently pay about 6,000 yen for the connection. My provider is Nifty and the optic cable is provided by NTT.
What sort of connection do you have and what are you paying for it?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

This gentleman in the middle of installing a second Optic Fiber connection to our house (you can see how it was done in this post) - one for private and one for business. This was a few years ago though when I was serving figure.fm out from my home ^^;

Continuing from the Organizing Your Workspace post, today I try to reduce and clean up those horrid cables under the table. Its always been like this down there and I only just recently managed to clean it up a bit during the end-of-year big clean out.

While unplugging everything, for some reason I was left over with spare power taps - but I was sure I used them all ^^;
All the lights around the desk are plugged into one tap so that I can turn them all on/off with a single switch.

When will we start to get wireless electricity?

If you got a tangle of wires like this, always make sure to keep them free of dust because dust can actually lead to fires.
What happens is that the dust that gathers around electrical points absorb moisture in the air and when that comes into contact with an electrical flow then something bad happens.
Scroll down a bit on this page to see a photo of what happened when a mound of dust caused a fire. Over 1000 accidents with fire are said to be caused by dust like this in Japan every year.

Getting 1 new wireless router enabled me to get rid of all this - LAN cables, hubs and the power for the hubs too.

Got these boxes from Amazon at 2,182 yen each. I could have gone for the Blue Lounge Cable Box that seems to be popular but they cost twice as much - these elecom ones come with ventilation holes at the bottom and little slits for charging iPhones and wot not.

Heat does build up inside so the ventilation holes do come in handy. But as you can see from the groove on the edge of the box - its rather shallow so the lid only feels like its resting on the top - not a major problem if you dont touch it though.

Got these power adapter plugs from Amazon too at about 500 yen each.

These L plugs come in handy to reduce cable mass.

The L plug attached to the PS Vita power adapter.

Less cable = good.

The shorter power adapter cables also help to reduce cable mass.

I use the shorter cables for my Mac power adapters like so.

Still messy but not as bad as before. Now I need some wireless USB hubs and thunderbolt ^^

The inside of the cable boxes are a wee bit of a mess though.

Charging stations for batteries help save time - the eneloop charger enables me to charge 12 batteries at once - in TV production I need at least 8 for the wireless mics for a days shoot - 4 for standby. The regular charger that only charges 4 means that I waste time waiting to replace/charge.

Trading card game company Bushiroad moved office recently to accomodate expansion of the company. You have seen their previous offices and today we take a lookie at the new ones.

On the way to the Bushiroad offices going through Shinjuku.

Love the cute characters dotted around on posters.

At the Bushiroad offices trying to break into their diamond cutter proof cases.

You need to get your hands on the goodies behind the diamond cutter proof glass but you notice there is a school girl guarding it. What do you do?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Mirai Promo card is the first step, full deck is the second step.

More Bushiroad products. I noticed that over half of the folks who attended Culture Japan Night in Singapore that over 50% of attendees were card game players. Is you being a card game player and if so what flavor?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

The lovely Milky Holmes girls.

The studio for the live TV show Vanguardo.

Sendo Aichi gets lego-fied.

Shelf O goodies in the big bosses office.

Korean version of Vanguard. Which reminds me - sorry its taking ages to launch the Korean version - will be this year together with French.

Some pets in the office too.

More pets. What pets do you have at home?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Ready for the legion of Bushiroaders to take over the world.

Some limited edition sleeves.

Time to go round poking about the staff desks.

Miku and tissue.

Cutie on the cover of Dengeki Hime.

Stock of card games. Wonder if anybody noticed the ones that went missing.

Cutie! Forgot her name though. Nearly as soft as Mirai's oppai.

The Twin Angel girlies.

How many of you display figures at work or school?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Tio is a real cutie!

Bushiroad employees get to wear nekomimi cloaks at work.

Before I could take all of these for myself...

...the owner thought otherwise and threatened to stab me between my nostrils with his mini sword.

Then its off to have dindins with the boss and co.

Nom!

This is the big boss of Bushiroad - Takaaki Kidani.

Having some interesting drinks tonight.

Voice actress Kitta Izumi joins us for dindins too.

Bushiroad Towers in Nakano.

Heading back to base.

Snap.

Goodies.

Photo reports of visits to other Japanese anime offices are listed below.

Akemi Homura figma - gorgeous figure to have around on the desk but probably even more gorgeous if she was on your desk. Thats right folks - tis time for another giveaway! Today I'd like to thank folks who have my Google Plus account in their circle and together with the hobby online store Hobby Search, we would like to give away 1 of these Akemi Homura figma's.

All you have to do to win is tell me who your fave Madoka Magica girl is by choosing one of them from the poll below. For this particular poll, you need to be logged in to vote - if you need an account then signup! Then all you have to do is leave the url to your Google Plus account in the comments like:-
https://plus.google.com/114133040010713743095/posts

I'll choose a winner at random this time next week and announce it on my Google Plus account.

Here is the poll! Arms installation is complete - good luck!
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Update: The parser for your pasted urls in the comments is broke at the moment but dont worry about it - your url is noted ^^

Akemi got her head bitten off too so Mirai takes her place.

Akemi joins a new school.

Akemi comes with a load of weapons to whip her comrade figma's with.

Was in Taiwan for a wee bit last week. T'was our first time over there and had a great time. I always knew that anime culture was a big thing in Taiwan but didn't know how big it was until I saw it with my own optical eyes. What I also didn't know was how many readers I had in Taiwan. I thought that maybe a handful of readers may come along to Culture Japan Night and was surprised that 110 people signed up!

The first photo taken on 2012/1/14 with folks who stayed until the end - I'll take the group photos at the beginning next time!

CJ Night Taiwan was held at the Good Smile Tetsujin Cafe which recently opened right outside Taipei station where there are a load of other Japanese stores. This time round the cafe had a Mado Magi theme. Inside the cafe are a load of figures on display and they were also on sale too.

How many of you can read this sign?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Some of these photos taken from Angus and Sanyu.
More coverage of the event below.
http://www.figure.fm/post/en/35921/With+Danny+Choo+Good+Smile+Cafe+Taipei.html
http://news.aniarc.com/dannychoo/news/17448
http://fhc.twgogo.org/upload/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=5385
http://blog.yam.com/uesugi2011/article/46606201

We only had one video and audio output which we used to show Culture Japan season 2 so didn't get a chance to indulge in some Street Fighter shenanigans like last time in Singapore. However we did get round to do dolly play and a load of folks brought along their lovely daughters.

Thanks again to everybody who came and please forgive me for keeping you waiting as I wanted to get a chance to speak to everybody. Look forward to seeing you again at CJ Night Taiwan 2012 Summer and at the official Culture Japan booth at Fancy Frontier this July!

Other CJ Night event coverage listed up below.

How many of you have been to a CJ Night and which one did you attend?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

And its off to the next location with Yuki and a few others - coverage coming up!