Connect like a Hipster

According to the Hipster Handbook , American Hipsters call their Mobile Phones "Piece's" .

In Japan "Keita" is used (pronounced Kay-ta).

Connecting via your "piece" is a very important aspect to being part of a Hipster Clan (group of hipsters that travel/live/party together, united by a mutual sense of apathy, enthusiasm for moleskin notebooks and appreciation of sardonic banter).

Who are you as a hipster if you can't contact other like-minded hipsters and organize a Warehouse Party or underground Gallery opening?

iPhones and other SmartPhones like Blackberries (etc) are a standard in Tokyo and any new technological advancements are quick to hit the streets as Japanese Blogs are popular sources of information (according to the Washington Post there are more blog posts made in Japanese than in English) and most of the top 50 most-visited blog pages in Japan are dedicated to Technology news or "Geek blogs"

Social Networking sites (SN) such as are popular but an interesting study by Mobile Marketing Data Lab has discovered most users access them from their mobile with only 2% of users (of the 4,000 studied) claiming to access SN sites solely from a PC.

It makes sense. Tokyo is on the move and the need for a wireless data carrier is high. This also suits a hipster's sensibilities well, as it would be hard to seek out your favorite bootleg album whilst carrying around your MacBook... It would only stretch your calfskin messenger bag way out of shape and make you look like a total "Ahondara".

You also don't want to be skulking around any old Social Networking site. While Facebook and Twitter dominate in the US, UK, Europe and Australia they have had a small impact compared to Japanese sites like mixi, Gree and Mobage-town.

These networks interestingly pay a high amount of attention to gaming opportunities for their users so the actual "networking" aspect is secondary. They are fee-for-service sites and users will pay for premium content.

This grates dangerously close to the anti-consumerist leanings of the hipster crowd, so perhaps Facebook and more exchange/interaction based Social Networks will eventually take off.

For now though, the sugar-sweet characters (turtles, pink bunnies, toadstools and more) used in the games available on Japanese Social Networking sites like mixi are just ironic enough to pass judgement.

I've included a really interesting presentation by Alexei Poliakov, a mobile industry professional with Fujitsu about the practices of mobile phone users in Japan and their Social Networking habits if you're interested...

For those that are opposed to hearing sentiments from "the man" let us depart.