Better Place Battery Swap Station in Yokohama

Well, this is another first for Yokohama as well as being a first for the world. As previously mentioned on Yokohama Living, Better Place, has come to Japan, specifically Yokohama. Better Place is an American company that plans, with the cooperation of others, to bring dramatic changes to the automobile industry by implementing and electric car infrastructure that would help reduce the world’s dependence on oil. You can read more about what they are about at the Better Place website.

Just recently Yokohama was the venue for the first ever demonstration of the a Better Place battery swap station. In the following video you can see a demonstration of how the battery swap happens. You can check out more videos on the Better Place website.

This was held near the in Naka-ku, Yamashita-cho. To be more precise, it was held near Yamashita Park and right beside the Doll Museum. It’s about 2 minutes on foot from Motomachi-Chukagai Station on the Minato Mirai Line. This area is open to the public on the following dates with some type demonstration being held from 11am, 1pm, 2:30pm and 4pm.

May 17th, 23rd, 24th, 30th, 31st, June 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th and 20th.

Yokohama to be a Better Place?

Recently I read an article in Wired magazine about a company that wants to change the auto industry by creating and infrastructure for electric cars. It is a very ambitious but a very exciting idea but it is not just one of those concepts that people talk about but never actually get around to doing. Israel, Denmark and some Australian cities have already agreed (I believe) to start implementing this system.

This morning in the Japan Times I came across and article titled Renault-Nissan teams with Yokohama to develop ‘green’ transport. As Renault is making electric cars for Better Place I am guessing that perhaps this new electric car being built by Renault-Nissan is for the same project. I couldn’t find any mention of it on the Better Place website though. You can see a video about Better Place below.

IE, Firefox or what else?

Sleipnir, a browser developed by a Japanese software company based in Osaka a few years ago has been gaining popularity among the computer geeks for its high level of customization. Noticing rising demands not only from Japanese users but also from international users, the company, Fenrir, is reinforcing the international promotion of their service, and has released the global websites. I am not an advanced user, so please check it out yourself if it offers new and unique features.

My New Mobile Phone

I don’t really like my new mobile phone. My previous mobile phone wasn’t fantastic either but I wish I could switch back. My previous mobile phone was made by Samsung and when I bought it, it was the slimmest phone in Japan. Just for about a week though, when a competitor came out with a slimmer one. I basically chose that phone because it was slim and cool, not for the functions. It had a camera and some other functions that were mostly gimmicks.

I decided this time that I would go for the camera with functions this time. Of course that means getting a bigger phone. I very quickly got used to the bigger phone though. I mean, even the bigger mobile phones are not big these days. This phone is a Panasonic, has a 5 megapixel camera, you can watch one-seg TV, you can add memory with a micro SD card (purchased separately but necessary if you want to take several high res photos) and some other stuff. When I update the software I will be able to use it instead of my Pasmo.

Sounds great, so why don’t I like it? The text input in English is annoying and takes time. I thought that I would get used to it but I haven’t yet. It is so annoying that I avoid writing English text messages as much as possible. It’s a simple thing but it’s more important than the gimmicks it comes loaded with which I rarely use anyway.

I do like the camera though and while it is not such great quality it is good enough for some things. I have even posted pictures on this site that I took with it. I haven’t figured out how to transfer the images to my pc via usb cable yet though which means I have to open up my camera, take out the micro sd card, put it in an adaptor and slide it into the memory card slot of another pc and then transfer the images to my PC. What a waste of time.