Beer Fujisan

Posted on November 5, 2011 by w00kie

Is Softbank’s new iPad 2 campaign worth it?

Posted on October 11, 2011 by w00kie

Updated 2011/11/09 -- see bottom of the post

For the iPhone 4S launch, Masayoshi Son, Softbank's CEO, decided to go all out to keep his customers from going to aU by KDDI.

Fun Fact: during his keynote on October 7th, one day after Steve Jobs passing away, Son-san declared tearfully that these campaigns were his gifts to spread the Steve's "art work" (he used the word 作品 as opposed to 製品) to as many people as possible.

One of these campaigns is for the iPad and it's description is very confusing. See the figure below:

Many people take this to mean that you can get a 16GB iPad for free, ¥0 per month, if you are already a Softbank iPhone subscriber. That's not true because ¥1,860 monthly discount on the second to last line only applies to the communications charge and not to the iPad hardware monthly cost. Going to the cost simulation page shows this well: your minimum monthly bill is still ¥1,860 (the cost of the 16GB iPad 2) and the data plan is free up to 100MB.

So in the end we get a free data plan if we don't use 3G internet (almost don't use it, 100MB a month wouldn't get you much farther than regular email checking). That sounds like a classic mobile operator swindle: giving you something for almost free and then hammering you with extra high fees whenever you go over the pathetically low usage limits. Let's look at the data plan details:

So yes, free for 100MB, capped at ¥4,980 over 111.5MB or you could choose to just pay a flat plan ¥4,410 every month whatever your usage. You end up paying a ¥470 premium for the flexibility of paying nothing the months when you almost don't use 3G... Is that actually a good deal? I put the numbers into Numbers to see:

iPad 2 16GB + ZERO data plan under 100MB usage per month: ¥22,320 per year
iPad 2 16GB + ZERO data plan over 111.5MB user every month: ¥63,540 per year
iPad 2 16GB + FLAT data plan: ¥56,700 per year

So over the course of a year you would be saving money only if you stay under the 100MB cap for more than 3 months.

Is that a good deal? If you only use the 3G for emailing in the train and turn off the modem when not in use (letting it check your mail every 15min in the background would significantly bump your usage) then it could be. But having already an iPhone, do you really need to check your email on your iPad?

Myself, I will probably pass on that campaign. What would really be interesting would be a tethering option for my iPhone at a reasonable price... Well reasonable would really be ¥0 as I consider I'm already paying for the bandwidth and how I use it is none of Softbank's business. An "acceptable" price would be maybe ¥1,000.

Please tell me in the comments what you think about this campaign.

Update: Very good point added in the comments by Maddy. If you get an iPad from Softbank for that campaign and remove the SIM card, never to use it again, you still get to download the Softbank WiFi roaming profile that lets you connect to all Softbank / FON / YahooBB / Tokyo Metro access points for free (that's a pretty extensive network in Tokyo) and a GPS to boot. That's a clear advantage over buying a WiFi only version from Apple for the exact same price.

Lady Homare of Greystoke

Posted on September 4, 2011 by w00kie

The other day as we were watching TV, my wife was saying that 沢穂希 (Homare Sawa), captain of Nadeshiko Japan the national women soccer team, should really keep her hair tied up under all circumstance lest she look like an ape...

To which I replied that comparing her to a monkey is a bit harsh, but she does look a bit like the Earl of Greystoke, Lord of the Apes. As she looked at me dumbfounded, I realized she had never heard of the original Tarzan apart from the Disney adaptation. So I dug out a torrent of the movie Greystoke and we watched it together.

The movie is just as good as I remember it from my childhood. It was Christophe Lambert's first major movie role. It was also Andie McDowell's first role so next up on the movie list is "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

Lantern Festival in Hiroshima

Posted on August 18, 2011 by w00kie

For the Obon summer vacations I went to see my wife's family in Hiroshima. Although I've been there 4 or 5 times before, it was the first time that my visit coincided with the anniversary of the atomic bomb blast on August 6th and the 灯籠流し — lantern festival. To commemorate the victims, we float tens of thousands of lanterns representing the dead's souls on the river in front of the 原爆ドーム — the A-bomb dome.

Despite buying a nice Manfrotto tripod for the occasion, I'm a bit disappointed with my photos of the event... The conditions were not optimal, after queuing up for more than an hour to launch our lanterns on the river, I started shooting. But the unbearable heat (the high riverbanks blocking any wind and the hundreds of people crowding the launchpad and the bridge were not helping) as well as my wife and her friends clamoring for retreat towards a cold beer and plenty of wine at a nearby restaurants meant I took a mere 20 quick shots and left with my shirt completely soaked.

Impact of 3/11 disaster on Tokyo real estate marketing

Posted on June 29, 2011 by w00kie

Now a bit past 3 months after the March 11th disaster in Japan, we can observe some trends of changes to different aspects of life here. Here is one thing I could see on the real estate business 震災後 (post-disaster): there is a big focus on designing buildings that not only will withstand earthquakes, but will also help living conditions during the days or weeks without water/gas/electricity that follow as we continue to witness in Tohoku. Recently, on my way to work, I was handed a pamphlet outside my station for apartments for rent at a new building in Sugamo (Northern Tokyo). The 4xA4 page glossy paper advertisement shows on pages 1 & 3 pretty pictures of the interior and modern amenities. The back page shows a plan of the neighborhood and touts 0 key money, 0 agent fees and free rent and parking space for 2 months (this was already becoming more common before March). Pretty much standard... But on page 2, something new: a full-page dedicated to the "防災 qualities" (disaster prevention) of the building. Here is a scan with some explanations:

The 2.2ha park in the middle of the grounds can hold 500 people camping for 1 week.
Storage rooms hold water reserves, batteries, lamps, covers, radios, emergency toilets and other emergency supplies.
Benches in the park can be converted to kitchen counter tops. The pergola can be tented over to provide shelter for refugees during bad weather. A line of multiple manholes is ready to set up emergency toilets.
The building is 7.4km along main arteries from Otemachi (the traditional business center of Tokyo) meaning that even if all trains are stopped after a big earthquake you can walk home in about one hour and a half.

The website for the building also has a page on its disaster prevention design.