How are you? I had to think about the world expo, Japan and all my friends in Japan last week...on March, 25th, when it was one year ago that the world expo started. One whole year. To celebrate this a week later, please watch this funny gaijin song about Tokyo. I think it is rather symbolic. ;) Does anyone know if this is Yoyogi Park?

Tokyo. Big metropolitan. Since my arrival on Japanese ground in March of this year, I was three times in Tokyo, first a week to prepare a press conference, and recently two times just for fun. I hope I will be able to post from time to time more video material about this great city. My first entry is this videoblog of the Tsukiji fish market - a must-see if you visit Tokyo. This video is actually mostly meant for all those people who didn't have the opportunity yet to visit Tokyo or who can't wake up between four and six in the morning to visit the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. Just stay in bed, and watch it on the web then. But you won't have the smell! Video (8,4 MB - 2:29) :"Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo" (This video is not for sensitive people!)

This videoblog of a guy learning some Dutch phrases, is way too funny. Actually, it has not immediately something to do with the theme of this blog, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. Since a world expo is also about learning new people, new languages. And at Expo parties, or in the pavilion, it is very common to exchange some important key phrases in all kind of different languages... This videoblog (Quicktime, 2.6 min 11 MB) is funny and instructive at the same time. Watch and learn, and come with your knowledge later too me... Waar is het toilet aub?

Like I recently announced, we've been fishing Ayu on the Maze river last Saturday. In total, we were five: a French photographer, a Tanzanian guy, a Greek-Belgian cook, Rocky the Japanese organiser, and myself. Every person had one fishing-instructor, which was a necessary but also luxury situation. We left Fujigoaka early by car in direction of Mazegawa, a nice small village close to Gero, in the Gifu prefecture. It was an unforgettable day of fish instruction, fishing, hot springs (onsen), meeting local people, BBQ... Chukyo TV (a local TV station) diffused this event on its "Plus 1" Evening News. Watch the video (2,8 MB): "Chukyo TV: Fishing in the Maze river". Of course, it's in Japanese, but you will easily understand... In the 40 second-clip, you can see us "Gaijin in Japan" fishing by the traditional "Tomozuri", a fishing method which uses another Ayu as a living decoy to catch the target Ayu. The Ayu gets caught when he attacks this invader to keep his territory. Thanks again to Rocky for a great day! By the way, he is thinking to organise again a similar event of fishing, BBQ and onsen for a larger group of Expo staff, so interested people can always leave a comment...

Time to also inform you about the performance of the Belgian male team during this Expo2005 Futsal tournament. We played yesterday our last game of the first round against UK/Ireland. After falling behind, 2-0, early in the game, on a very slippy grassfield, we could only admit that the British team went into halftime with a 3-1 advantage. In the second half, we reversed the negative situation and ended finally the game with a 3-5 victory. Watch the videoblog (3,8 MB): UK/Ireland - Belgium 3-5 to get a glance of our performance and the weather conditions... Results of the Belgian men: Switzerland - Belgium 0-3 Bicycle Team - Belgium 0-7 UK/Ireland - Belgium 3-5

This videoblog is for those people - often girls - who are somehow critical for my passion for football. Just watch and understand... ;) Videoblog (7,4 MB): "Japanese kids...FC Plaisir...pure football fun..." After seeing it again, I was thinking something else. In Belgium we have an ad for one of our most famous beers, Jupiler, and the tag line is as follows in Dutch:"Mannen weten waarom!" (Men know why!) I guess this video could introduce a new add to promote the football game: "Kids know why!" Can someone call the FIFA to propose them my idea... :)

Yesterday, we visited the Arimatsu-Narumi Tie-Dyeing Museum of Arimatsu. We could participate in the tie-dyeing process, that was demonstrated by several very experienced women. The basic technique of Arimatsu Shibori is to draw a design on a piece of fabric (in our case it was a handkerchief), then to tie very tight knots with thread around points of the fabric. The fabric is then dyed; since the dye does not penetrate the knots, when they are untied there is a pattern of dyed and non-dyed areas. This can be repeated many times to produce patterns of various colors. Arimatsu is the most famous location for Shibori in Japan. It is situated in Nagoya. I made a videoblog about this traditional Japanese craft. Watch the video (9,4 MB): "Arimatsu Shibori"

How can you best chill-out from all national day adventures? Of course, by forgetting how annoying and disturbing people can behave, and go and visit the many cool robots that show their skills at this world exposition. This week is even pretty special. From June 9 until Sunday June 19, there is a Prototype robot exhibtion, at the Morizzo & Kiccoro Exhibition Center - that's where the 88-meter-high Ferris wheel is located. Sixty-five types of unique prototype robots are exhibited by the company Nedo, and they show everybody what in 2020 should be practical use. It's always interesting to see a glimpse of what our future lifestyle in 15 years will be! Watch my latest video (6,6 MB): "The robotic revolution" If you want to see more robots, let me tell you that Bram and Bjorn, two Belgian guys I met in our pavilion a few days ago - researchers at the Faculty of Applied Sciences from the VUB university in Brussels - have been visiting the expo for a week and came in particularly for the many robots here at the expo. They keep a personal diary about their experience (only in Dutch for the time being, but it will be later translated into English) with a lot of small video snippets of the different robots they saw. For people who want to further dive into robotics, their website is certainly worth a visit... About this subject, see also my previous article: "Videoblogs about robots"

The Stiltwalkers of Merchtem were a must-see at our National Day. This small videoblog is in case you missed them... Watch this video (2,5 MB): "The Amazing Stiltwalkers"

Yesterday was a Big Day for the Belgian pavilion. Our Prince Filip, Japanese Prince Hitachi, several ministers and more than 200 Belgian businessmen came to visit the pavilion. Guess what, all of us survived this National Day! In the coming days, I will publish more information (article, pictures and videoshots) about this day. This is the first round of Flickr pictures about our National Day And this my first videoblog about the arrival of our prince at the Belgian pavilion. Watch this video: "Prince Filip in Japan - the arrival at the Belgian pavilion" Among the many media present to follow prince Filip and his delegation, was also VTM, Belgian's biggest commercial tv-station. On their website you can still see their report, with interviews with two of our colleagues, Renz (about the shop) and Pieter (about our beer). They aired it in "Het Nieuws" at 01.00 p.m. on the National Day. VTM Nieuws 13 uur - scroll in your mediaplayer to 26:30 to immediately see the news item about the world expo. And to correct VTM: this world expo will end on 25. of September, and not on the 15th. VTM Nieuws 13 uur

I'm posting a lot about the Belgian pavilion these days. I know! But hey, I'm working in the pavilion, so it's clearly easier than to inform you about the German pavilion. M y next videoblog is meant to underline the good work a lot of folks in all pavilions are doing. To make live of the visitor as comfortably as possible. This is the entrance of the Belgian pavilion on a rainy day. Videoblog (7,5 MB): "The Belgian pavilion on a rainy day"

Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK will air this week two programs about foreigners living in Japan. I'm one of those foreign guys they will introduce to their Japanese audience. Why me? Basically because at the Expo2005 football tournament they were looking for people who followed the Japanese language classes, and they got my name this way... NHK collected a lot of material in the past week by shooting at parties, at people home's, at last week expo2005 football tournament, etc. I personally was being interviewed and videotaped during my second Japanese language class on Saturday morning, and afterwards when I was working in the Belgian pavilion. Today they wanted to see where Belgian staff lives, and what we do on a day off. So they started shooting this morning in the appartment at 10.00 am. After that we took a cab to Nagoya where we visited the Osu Kannon Temple. The thing with television is that you really don't know what they will show from all the shootage and interviews they took. People interested in the program, should watch: - Wednesday the 25. of May somewhere between 18.00 and 19.00 - a five minute show report called 'Hot evening'. - Friday the 27. of May at 19.30 - a 25 minutes program called 'Navigation' about foreigners in Japan. For the folks who won't be able to watch the program - for instance because they live in Belgium - I shot this videoblog immediately after we left the appartment and took a cab to the Osu Kannon Temple. And as an appology about the video: yes, I know that my English is not my best foreign language. :( " /> Watch the video: "NHK tv video shooting evaluation"

My next videoblog has been shot - like all of them with a digital (photo) camera - in the restaurant of the Belgian pavilion. It's basically expressing a difference in "media"...like I previous did with the videoblog "videoblogger filmt filmende tv-ploeg aan de toog" Let me know what you think? Watch the video (6,5 MB): "In our restaurant: tv versus not tv"

Sometimes you have to leave the crowded expo. You have to. To replace the sound of people by the sound of nature. This is Kyoto. On a rainy day. Watch this video (.wmv, 9,8 MB): "Our rainy trip to Kyoto"

Moederkesdag is net geweest en ik weet dat die van mij van deze videoblog zal houden, dus speciaal voor... Watch this Video: "Folklore op de expo"

Sumo is very simple. The preparation goes like this: you eat a lot, and you eat a lot. Than, of course, follows the game. And the wrestler who either first touches the floor with something else than his sole or leaves the ring before his opponent, loses. At the occasion of the National Day of the Republic of Poland yesterday, among other cultural events, you could see two sumo wrestlers in action. Does anyone knows if sumo is also a national sport in Poland? Watch this video (3,9 MB): "Sumo at National Day of Poland"

You could foresee a (far?) future where for every article a journalist writes about an event or a news item, a weblogger/videoblogger builds upon that and makes the experience even more (multimedia) richer. Of course this is already happening from time to time... Think about all the tsunami amateur videos out there. But here is my first example! Journalist Christian Caryl wrote for Newsweek International an interesting article (May 9 issue), entitled Dances with robots, on how Japan is creating "a new generation of humanoid robots that may change once and for all the way we relate to our machines". In the article he also mentions the robots that are figuring at the world exposition in Japan. The first members of the new humanoid generation are having a coming-out party of sorts at the World Expo in Aichi, which opened in March and runs through September. Guests are welcomed by an android female receptionist who speaks 30,000 phrases in four languages and even knows how to fend off unwelcome advances from male Homo sapiens. Sony's remarkably limber dancing robot QRIO demonstrates why he's even served as an unofficial ambassador for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on some of his trips abroad. Toyota's Partner robots, which play musical instruments using artificial lips and lungs, have been drawing sellout crowds at their concerts. Although these robots are a big improvement over the clunky devices of a few years ago, they're only a first draft. Scientists working in the laboratory are readying a new army of even more sensitive machines. Since I'm working at the expo, I can of course always show with a small videoblog (or two ;) what he's talking about. This makes his article even more interesting. Here are my two videoblogs that should complement Caryl's article "Dances with robots": Watch this video: "Nedo, the cleaning robot" Watch this video: The android female receptionist And let me know what you think! Newsweek article 'Dances with robots' More information about robots in our society: -Robots in de spotlichten (Dutch article) -Humanoids on the march, The Economist -Robotic Nation, by Marshall Brain

Japan heeft op culinair vlak heel wat te bieden, maar naast de drie gekende s'en (sushi, sashimi, shabu-shabu) kom je af en toe ook zaken tegen die je minder snel kan thuisbrengen. In deze videoblog (3,4 MB) maak je kennis met "levende groenten"! Enjoy! Videoblog: "Levende groenten"

Videoblogweek: een week lang dagelijks een videoblogje vanuit Japan >> DAG 7 De videoblog van dag 7 komt met vertraging. De reden hiervoor is opnieuw een combinatie van PC-problemen en leuk Belgisch bezoek. Dagelijks videobloggen, het is toch een vrij zware opgave. In deze videoblog verlaten we de expo en krijg je hierbij een beeld van de vrij stricte controle. Videoblog: Leaving the expo.

Videoblogweek: een week lang dagelijks een videoblogje vanuit Japan >> DAG 6 Entertainment in Japan. Dat is karaoke. Zo maar even 50 miljoen Japanners zouden karaoke-amateurs zijn. Bovendien is karaoke één van de belangrijkste sociale activiteiten voor Japanse volwassenen, niet in het minst voor zakenlui. Onze karaoke-bar in Nagakute is klein, maar heeft de nodige stijl en sfeer. De keuze aan Engelstalige songs is er behoorlijk groot en zeer zeker up-to-date. Enkel jammer dat de vrouw des huizes meestal rond half één 's nachts de deuren sluit. Onze beste Belgische karaokezanger is ongetwijfeld de Jochen... Oren toe of geluid af, hier komt de zesde videoblog van deze week, uit onze karaokebar in Nagakute. Videoblog: Karaoke in Nagakute (6,2 MB)

Videoblogweek: een week lang dagelijks een videoblogje vanuit Japan >> DAG 5 In mijn eerste bijdrage van deze week (3,6 MB) zien jullie twee verschillende manieren waarvoor chopsticks - het Aziatisch voedingsattribuut bij uitstek - gebruikt kunnen worden. Videoblog: "Multipurpose chopsticks"