Yesterday was very exciting. We launched the TIME Magazine Podcast for Japan at the Apple Store in Ginza. Kanasugi-san from TIME, Peter Barakan and myself gave speeches, we played the podcast and there was a half-hour presentation that gave the background of TIME, of eigoTown and explained the concept of "paratalking". I was very happy with the way the event went and we're looking forward to getting a lot of press coverage. There's already been some coverage online.

Here's a picture of me, Peter and Kanasugi-san, with the Apple logo in the background, and below that is a great picture of Terri Macmillan, who writes and manages the podcast, taken Tuesday morning after collecting the latest TIME magazine from the TIME offices in Roppongi Hills.

I said last time that I'd write about the official CD-ROM that we created and published for the British Government back in 1998. Peter Barakan (a Brit) was kind enough to work with us on the CD-ROM, acting as the virtual guide for each section ... British music, art, culture, business, film, etc. The CD was an amazing collection of material ranging from classic paintings from British art galleries to features on (then) new films such as Trainspotting.

We were producing the CD-ROM to give to Tony Blair on his fist visit to Japan as prime minister -- this was in early January 1998. The deadline pressure was incredible, with people working 3 days and nights at a time with only short naps on the sofa, but we made it. My final mission, and I chose to accept it, was to get good photos of the prime minister with the CD-ROM. On the day of Tony Blair's main speech in Hanzomon, I was in position, suitably fortified with a couple of gin and tonics. As soon as I was introduced to Tony Blair, I thrust a copy of the CD-ROM into his hands and called over the official photographer. I almost manhandled the prime minister, moving him around so that we could get better shots of him showing off the product. Tony (as I now call him...) cooperated with all this but protested that he new little about technology and that I should consult with his wife Cherie on technical issues...

We got about 5 or 6 shots for the prime minister with the CD-ROM, and this is the one we used in our promotional materials.

Back in early 1998, Tony Blair was fresh and exciting, a new hope after so many years of Conservative government under Thatcher and then Major. As a long-time member of the Labour Party, I was especially excited to meet Tony Blair. Now the bloom is definitely off Blair's rose. But it was a great experience.

Had a good meeting with broadcaster Peter Barakan today. Peter, of course, will be a special guest presenter for our forthcoming TIME Magazine podcast series. I know he'll be great because I've had the pleasure of working with Peter before.

We first met at a conference back in 1995 where I was demonstrating the first-ever commercial implementation of speech recognition for language learning. I had a developed a program whereby you could talk to a gorilla and he would obey your commands..(!) If you said pick a grape, the animated gorilla would pick a grape etc. I asked Peter to help us with our first packaged speech-recognition-based product called Speak! We did a video interview with Peter and then the user would talk to the computer and ask Peter questions -- "Why did you come to Japan?" etc. A video of Peter would pop up and answer the question. The product was truly impressive, and the CEO of Apple was to demonstrate it at Macworld Expo in Tokyo that year. We were all very excited... But at the last minute it fell through... and that's another story... The next time I worked with Peter was for the British Government sponsored UK98 Festival. Peter acted as the host and interpreter for Tony Blair (see picture) at his main appearances, including an appearance at British-owned HMV.... He helped us on the British Government's Official CD-ROM, British Style... I'll tell you more about that next time!

So, after nearly 10 days of indulgence, I'm back to a relatively healthy (if not completely pure) regimen (banning sugar, rice, pasta and bread from my diet). I only rebounded a bit during the 10 lost days, going up to 106 kilos and am now back at 104. What's my new target, you ask? Well, when I first came to Japan I was considered thin and weighed around 88 kilos so.... no... forget it. That was a long, *long* time ago! But let's say that should I chance upon 95 kilos, I'd be happy.

Anyway, 12 weeks of Japanese study started yesterday. An hour a day, 5-days a week for 3 months. I've decided to study kanji for 45 minutes each working day, and watch the NHK mini-drama as well (15 minutes of soap -- I think the show is designed to make you have a good cry each morning... ) This seems like an achievable goal, and I'm very impressed with the textbook that I'm going to be using. It's called 250 Essential Kanji (in two volumes, so 500 kanji altogher) and was published by Tuttle and written by a group of authors from Tokyo University. It really is an extremely well -thought out book. It's neatly designed with clear explanations, useful situations and systematic recycling of kanji. With the compounds, it should help me learn to read thousands of words. So a big thanks to the goup at Tokyo University who wrote it, and to the editors at Tuttle for publishing it.

OK. That's it for today. Tomorrow, I'm having lunch with Peter Barakan, a great guy and talented broadcaster. Tell you more about it tomorrow.

indulgence - 気ままにすること regimen - 摂生規則 compounds - 合成語

It's Apple's 30th birthday today. Apple computer and the Macintosh changed my life (I started using Macs with the Mac Plus back in 1987). I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now without it. But it didn't only change my life. When Steve Jobs wooed the president of Pepsi to Apple to become CEO decades ago, he said "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?" Jobs wasn't exaggerating. Apple changed - and is changing the world. Happy Birthday Apple!

Oh... 102 kilos. So 20 kilos lost. Not bad. I would have liked to have got under 100, but there's always next week.