Welcome to Shibuya246.com, bringing you the latest news on products and trends from Japan.

Living and working in Shibuya for 20 years this city within the city of Tokyo is always surprising me with shops, trends and new places to visit. I hope to introduce you to many of those new and some of the old great places in Shibuya as well as touching on other Japanese related topics.

Interests
As well I am interested in Japanese animation, movies, music and character goods, so you should find plenty of those tucked away in the site. In particular, you will probably see a variety of posts on Rilakkuma, Doraemon and the many trips made to the convenience store to check out what latest trendiest snacks and drinks are available.

Conbini Monday

Shibuya Streets

Japan Photo Articles

Mt Fuji, Boys Day

Rilakkuma Breakfast

My nephew the Ninja

Experience
I have worked and lived in Japan for over 20 years. I started out with a publishing company where I established and managed their office in Japan. I also was Editor in Chief of Japan Management Review during that time. Later, I ran my own consultancy business before branching out into web businesses about 10 years ago.

After 4 years, I took a break from the web and the consultancy business scene and got involved with venture capital investment groups in Japan, which among many investments included purchasing golf courses, acquiring REIT businesses and running stock exchange listed companies. Following this, I spent a short-time in Australia working for a public finance company and creating an online financial market exchange.

Meetings
Over the years, through work, I have had the chance to meet with some very interesting people. Sumo wrestlers, baseball players, actors and actresses, Prime-ministers of Japan as well as CEO’s of large corporations. Some of the most interesting people I have met though have been on the web, and it is to that media that I decided to return my focus.

Back to basics
Deciding the web was the best way to communicate with the world at large I have now returned to running my own web consultancy and social media promotions business.

I have programming experience in a number of languages suitable for web development including ASP.NET and PHP. One of the recent web projects I developed listed over a billion dollars worth of finance loans in a 12 month period.

In addition to web projects, we are also keen to help companies who are looking to learn about and “break into” the Japanese marketplace.

Who is shibuya246?
My name is Alan. I was originally born in England and spent my high school years in Australia. I have been living and working in Japan for over 20 years, mainly in the Shibuya area.

With Ryo Ishikawa cutout at Koga Links

Playing golf at Mt Fuji

In Shibuya Center gai

I chose the name Shibuya246.com because for one I have lived and worked in Shibuya for over 20 years and feel very much at home in Shibuya. Secondly I chose the 246 number because passing through Shibuya stretching up through Omotesando is Route 246, one of the main roads in Tokyo. Most people have heard of Route 246 and associate it with Shibuya.

Route 246, Aoyama dori

Scramble Crossing outside Shibuya Station

Featured on
The photos and articles from Shibuya246 have been featured on a number of well known Sites, including:

• Yahoo Sports – Golfing at Mt Fuji
• BoingBoing – Gundam Wedding and Battle Underwear
• CNNGO – Gundam Wedding
• Yahoo Star Wars – Maid Cafes in Akiba with Danny Choo
• Flickr Daily Blog – Gundam at Odaiba
• Dannychoo.com – Akiba with Danny Choo
• Aujourd’hui (France) – le prix des cigarettes au Japon

boingboing

Yahoo Star Wars

Devil Ball Golf - Yahoo Sports

CNNGO

boingboing

Flickr Blog - Daily Edition (Chinese)

I am grateful for all of these sites and the many other blogs / news sites that have picked up articles written here on shibuya246 and helped to share with them with others.

Recently, through the use of social networking sites like Twitter, Friendfeed, Reddit (Japan), JapanSoc and Facebook sharing links to interesting sites has become much easier and quicker. It is great to see the number of people who take the time to click on a link and view the content. Thank you all.

Regular Series, Features

• Conbini Monday – A Monday regular look at new and cool products at Japan’s convenience stores (#conbinimonday on twitter)
• Shibuya Streets – A set of posts with pictures of the action from street level in Shibuya.
• Tokyo Photo Walk – A chance to walk around with me and see some of the photos in the local areas of Tokyo.
• Featured Photo Articles – Some travel and photos of special events such as Gundam Odaiba and Wedding, Olympic Bid 2016, Kyoto and more

Conbini Monday

Shibuya Streets

Japan Photo Articles

A lot of the blog posts I write have photos which I have taken in Japan. I started out the blog using a Canon G10 Powershot camera and changed up to a Nikon D700 recently. I have tried out a few lenses and seem to be turning into a lens collector at the moment.

I also use an iPhone for Tokyo Live Blogging, hosted at dannychoo.com

You will probably see a mixture of different types of photos on the site ranging from the iPhone point, shoot and hope up to the D700. Sometimes the iPhone can really surprise me with a great shot, but normally the Nikon will win out.

Nikon Camera and lenses, Sigma 50mm f1.4, Nikkor 60mm f2.8, Nikkor 24-120mm, Nikkor 70-300m f4.5

Use of Photos on Shibuya246 site
You are welcome to reblog and use any of the photos on the Shibuya246 site or from my flickr account. All I ask is that you place a link on or near the photo so that readers can find a way back the original. If you want to remove the “© shibuya246.com” notice on the photos, please ask me first.

I am happy for photos to be reproduced in print media. If you contact me by mail I can provide higher resolution images. Most images I take are over 4,000 pixels. Images on the site are normally shown at 960px or less.

Meiji Jingu

Tokyo Tower on a Honda

Moe fashion in Harajuku

Promotions
I am available for guest blogging, photo requests or consulting on Social Networking, Consumer Generated Marketing and web programming. I have been working with a number of different Sites including

• dannychoo.com (Tokyo Live Blogging team)
• Tokyo2016Today.com site to help promote Tokyo’s Bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• Flutterscape.com
• JapanProbe.com
• GaijinPot.com

Business Rule

Take a look 5-10 years into the future and work out what things are going to be like. Then plan to get there now.

Many people viewed my pictures of Gundam and the wedding. Thank you.

Follow Me
You can find me on a number of different social networks and blog sites. Some of the more common and well known sites are

• Shibuya246.com – You can find my profile here
• RSS Feed – You can subscribe to the RSS feed for shibuya246.com and get updates directly to your reader or mailbox
• Twitter – great place to find out what I am doing through the day
• Flickr – you can keep up with my latest photos here sometimes before I publish them on shibuya246.com
• stumbleupon – see what websites I have found interesting
• japansoc – blog posts submitted mainly by fellow bloggers about Japan
• bloglinkjapan – over 300 Japan blogs gathered in 1 place. Shibuya246 has a page here
• FriendFeed – Another good place to keep uptodate with daily activities
• Facebook – I am not a power facebook user, but you can follow me here if you wish
• youtube – haven’t produced many great videos yet, but if I start this is the place
• ustream – I have started to stream live a few video feeds from my iPhone over Ustream.

O-mikoshi

Rilakkuma

Hachiko, Shibuya

Kyoto

Cosplay in Harajuku

Pokemon Shinkansen

What’s Next?
I hope this gives you a taste and quick overview of shibuya246.com. I will be continuing to take pictures of everyday life in Japan, particularly in the Shibuya, Tokyo area. When I travel I will definitely take cameras with me as well.

The Conbini Monday series has proven very popular and I am exploring some ideas on how to build on this further.

I hope you continue to be a reader of shibuya246 and consider joining as a member as well. As a member you can leave comments, create your own profile and register your Japan related blog for listing on BlogLinkJapan.com

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please use the form below or email me on blog @ shibuya246.com

Shinkansen