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Japan is probably one the most developed country in technology, it is obvious everyday for me as I am working in research center on Computer & Communication Innovation. Nevertheless I think I did not give you a sense of techno-life in Japan so far. Here it is then!
If you are familiar to this blog, you may remember some pictures of Umeda Sky Building, a high construction on which you can enjoy a great sight view of Osaka city. Well I went back lately but at night this time. Unfortunately the pictures are too bad to be shown (not enough light and pretty blurred too). Anyway, we had a closer look at some posters inside the building and they were all on high place and construction throughout the world. Surprisingly, we learnt that the Umeda Sky Building was built according to an airspace launcher. Well it has some similarities in fact and they also say that the Floating Garden, shaped as a ring, was an idea for a space city of 10 km diameter. Japanese have crazy ideas but that must be why they are so innovative also. The view was exquisite and seeing all the lights and even cars and trains moving without seeing the ground was like being in space or at least somewhere above…
Another topic I would like to talk today is the dimension games are taking here. As most of you know, Japanese love games and especially video games, so we went to an entertainment plaza, called “Konami Land”. There are many of these in the city but not as big as I had thought. After spending some coins shooting at bad guys in Time Crisis 4 I guess… we had a look at other people. I knew Japanese were truly fonds of cards games but I did not expect to be played in such a place. So like in some famous cartoons, you can slide you cards in a machine and then play them against other players through the screen. You also move them on the board and the game recognized the move and act appropriately on screen, truly interesting.
Last but not least, we were flabbergasted by pods. There are actually cabins you seat in and take commands of a virtual mecha, those of you who ever wanted to be inside an Eva or a Mobile Gundam Suit, you should definitely try someday one of those. You face a huge screen, making like a 360 degrees view of you surroundings and guide you mecha against other participants. I am probably sure they embedded sounds and motion feeling but we could not try as people were lining to play with them. Also note, that it is played by 2 teams of 4 players and each pod is connected to other team members.
La version française est maintenant disponible sur la page suivante, bonne lecture !
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