Lure of the Rising Sun

There is just something about Japan that draws techies back to the Land of the Rising Sun year after year, and the one place I never fail to visit--or rather, the only place I visit--is its capital, Tokyo.

The city never fails to surprise me. Change, it seems, is the only constant in the urban landscape of bright neon lights, and every time I'm there, I discover something new about the city and get reacquainted with Tokyo all over again.

I took my annual pilgrimage to the mecca for tech fanatics last week, and what would a trip to Tokyo be without exploring the ever-metamorphosing electronics town of Akihabara (or Akiba for short).

This year, I walked past a shopping area which I've not noticed during my previous trips. Accessible by crossing to the other side of the railway track from the old Akihabara quarters, the site houses main tenant Japanese electronics retailer Yodobashi Camera and a photography shop with DIY photo-printing machines.

Self-service photo-printing facilities aren't exactly a new concept in this part of the world, but I was surprised that approximately two-thirds of the shop were allocated specifically for the DIY machines. In Singapore, it's uncommon to see any more than three DIY photo-printing kiosks in a shop.

At 30 yen (US$0.25) for a 3R-size photo, customers at the photo shop can select pictures stored in their digital cameras and print them using the touch screen panel. Each high-quality photograph takes approximately 40 seconds to print, and instructions are also available in English, Chinese and Korean.


Photography shop with two-third shop space of DIY photo-printing kiosks.

It's no wonder Japan is the capital of cutting-edge technology. From vending machines that let consumers purchase their beverage simply by flashing the image of a two-dimensional barcode that's stored in their mobile phones to self-heating toilet seats, the appeal of Tokyo doesn't stop with techies. There's always something for everyone.

Here's a look at Japan's other intuitive, simple and fuss-free technology:


DIY photo-printing kiosks.


Close up of the DIY photo printing machine.


Beverage vending machine that lets consumers make contactless mobile payments.


Customers can choose to pay via infrared, QR Code (a matrix code or two-dimensional bar code created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994), and near-field communications (NFC) respectively.

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Eileen Yu

Eileen Yu began covering the IT industry when Asynchronous Transfer Mode was still hip and e-commerce was the new buzzword. These days, she gets stirred up over issues concerning Internet regulation, intellectual property rights and software patents, online privacy and data protection. Eileen is senior editor at ZDNet Asia, where she oversees the business tech news site.