KORUA Shapes – SUNŌKERU (video)
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Japan – Neons & Sakuras (video)
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I took a group of students to Japan in 2014 to study mobile consumer behavior. Needless to say, it was an amazing experience. This video summarizes Japan’s diverse culture in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Enjoy!
CLOSER by KORUA Shapes (video)
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@KORUA_Shapes creates amazing videos! I’ve never gotten a chance to demo their board but next time in Japan ;) I will be sure to do so. Enjoy!
Mobile Consumer Behavior: The trip home
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It has been an amazing class/trip to Japan. I learned a lot about mobile consumer behavior and the cultural characteristics that drive some of the behavioral differences. In the end, if you boil the trip down to its base element(s), it all comes down to culture.  When I started this class, the equation I came up with for mobile consumer behavior was Psychology + Culture + Capability =...
Mobile Consumer Behavior: Day 9 in Japan
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Today is our last day in Japan and I got up early, ate and headed out to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This is a place I’ve always wanted to go and it did not disappoint. It’s about 1/2 hour from our hotel and it was easy to find. There are roughly 1 million photo opportunities and the repetition and process of getting from shrine to shrine was hypnotic. Truly something to be...
Mobile Consumer Behavior: Day 8 in Japan
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We had two full days left in Japan and my students needed to take everything they’d seen/heard/learned (also known as data) and use it to write the create the final project. The final project was a paper and is outlined here. I met with each student team – primary and secondary – to review their area of focus. Â I was very happy with what I saw and was excited to see the final...
Mobile Consumer Behavior: Day 7 in Japan
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After a brief stop at the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It was brief because the top three floors were closed! We then went back to Kyoto on the bullet train. Once we arrived we settled into the hotel (same rooms!) and then headed out to the Ginkaku-ji. After that we took a look at Heian Shrine. This is the shrine that Scarlett Johansson visited in Lost in Translation. The thing that’s amazing about...
Mr. Norio Murakami
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So . . . tonight my students and I had the very good fortune of having dinner with Mr. Norio Murakami, the former president of Google Japan. We had a great time and he’s an amazing man. (I was introduced by one of my students.) We talked about privacy, AI (no matter what Elon says), the Internet of things and Japanese mobile culture. Mr. Murakami also happens to know some very famous people...
Mobile Consumer Behavior: Day 6 in Japan
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This morning we went to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. This sounds like something that’s riddled with history but in fact, it isn’t. The palace is the working residence of the Emperor of Japan. (Yes. Japan has an Emperor and he’s much like the Queen of England in regards to power and responsibility.) This is going to sound stupid but the palace wasn’t much to see. After...
Mobile Consumer Behavior: Day 5 in Japan
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Today we started in Kyoto and ended up in Tokyo. In the morning, we visited the Kiyomizu-dera and SanjÅ«sangen-dÅ. We started to see more and more of the selfie sticks. (I guess the choice between genetically engineering people with longer arms or having them buy selfie stick, the stick makes more sense.) Also, when people take selfies in the US, they seem a little self-conscious. In Japan...