White Rabbit Press

In today’s Japan Times travel section, Rough Guides author Simon Richmond explores Tokyo’s sub-culture capital with Tokyo Realtime: Akihabara.

“…there is always something new to discover in the dense, multilayered, eternally evolving metropolis that is Japan’s capital. And so up on the sixth floor of Akiba’s famous Radio Kaikan, I find myself in Volks, marveling at beautiful — but creepily realistic — Super Dolfie dolls that are priced at over ¥100,000. In an adjacent case a miniature figurine of a limping, black-eyed girl with a hand inching its way out of her emaciated chest is displayed beside a pop band of perky, innocent-looking teenage schoolgirls. I had passed through the rabbit hole and, like Alice, emerged in a wonderland where anything is possible.”

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TOKYO – Apr 19th, 2010

White Rabbit Press is pleased to announce that the first volume in its Tokyo Realtime guided audio tour series has been nominated as a finalist in the 15th annual Audie Awards.

This prestigious competition, organized by the Audio Publishers Association, celebrates the best in spoken word entertainment. Tokyo Realtime: Kabukicho has been selected as one of five finalists in the Package Design category, where it is up against industry heavyweights such as BBC Audiobooks America.

Tokyo Realtime audio tours provide a new way to explore the city’s most interesting neighborhoods. Interweaving narration and insider interviews within a soundscape of location ambience and music, they deliver a seamless mix of adventure and cultural insight while navigating real-world spaces. In addition to the 65 minute mp3 CD, the nominated package includes a waterproof map and a full-color booklet of area photography.

White Rabbit Press Creative Director and Tokyo Realtime producer Max Hodges created the series out of a desire to make Tokyo more accessible to visitors. Seeing a market for personal tours provided by experts, Max assembled a team of local insiders, passionate about their neighborhoods, and worked with them to create these unforgettable augmented reality audio adventures.

Uninspired by off-the-shelf options, Max worked with local printers to design an elegant new packaging form that is low- waste, yet substantial enough to earn a spot on customer’s bookshelves. This prototype was then passed to Tokyo-based designers AQ, who developed a striking, easily recognizable look for the series.

“We worked really hard with Max to make sure every element, from photography to typography, paper stock to ink, came together to express the unique culture of Kabukicho and delight the user, from the first time they crack open the case to when they’re actually taking the tour.”

Jake Adelstein, author of Tokyo Vice, praised the tour: “A decade ago as a police reporter for Japan’s largest newspaper, I was assigned to the 4th district, home of Kabukicho, and never forgot some of the crazy things I saw there. For a behind- the-scenes look at Japan’s seedier side, without getting mired in the sleaze, you can’t do any better than this tour. A wonderful insight for strangers into a very strange land.”

About White Rabbit Press
With customers in over 80 countries, Tokyo-based White Rabbit Press is widely recognized for producing outstanding Japanese language products. With the launch of the TOKYO REALTIME audio tour series, White Rabbit Press continues to receive praise for making Japanese language and culture more accessible to the world.

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IDG News Service in Tokyo produced this review of our Tokyo Realtime tour of Akihabara for their monthly online TV show, Akibatteru, which focuses on the worlds of Japanese anime, manga, figures, robots and gadgets in and around Akihabara.

Jump to 3m09s for the Tokyo Realtime segment.

To find out more about Tokyo Realtime, please visit www.tokyorealtime.com

Join White Rabbit Press for our insider’s tour of Akihabara!

If you have one hour free on Sunday 14th March 2010 why not come along to Akihabara for a behind-the-scenes exploration of the area’s must see spots?!

Here at White Rabbit Press we’re looking for people who’d be interested in taking our new mp3 audio walking tour of the area, and telling us what they think of it.

To thank you for your time you’ll receive a free copy of the tour (which comes with a photo booklet and map), and a big smile.

The tour is narrated by Patrick Galbraith (editor of ‘The Otaku Encyclopedia’) – he’ll be joined along the route by a team of expert commentators who’ll all help paint a complete picture of the area.

We’ve mixed the narration, directions and commentary with sound effects and music, making it into a unforgettable augmented reality experience.

At the end of the 57-minute tour we’d like to ask you a few questions about what you thought of it, that we can then use in a short video for YouTube.

If you’d like to take part, simply contact us via our support site or comment on this blog post and we’ll send you a special download link and further instructions – you’ll need to copy that mp3 to your iPod / any other mp3 player before showing up on Sunday.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Japan’s No.1 free English language magazine, Japanzine, recently published a review of White Rabbit Press’ Tokyo Realtime audio tours.

“Getting to know Tokyo’s most interesting wards is one of the great pleasures of living in Japan, though it can be a haphazard process that takes years of trial, error, more error and disorientation (not to mention stacks of ichi-man-en bills).

Enter Tokyo Realtime Audio Guided Walking Tours, an ingenious new series of products designed to introduce you to areas of the capital – beginning with Akihabara and Kabuki-cho – by means of the spoken word and simple English-language maps.”

You can download your own copy of Japanzine from the Seek Japan website.