Facebook and Japan

So I got back from dinner tonight, ready to keep practicing my Japanese speech, which I will have to deliver at my final early tomorrow morning. This speech, the last portion of my final project for Japanese, is essentially about Facebook, and the issue of using your real name vs. being more careful and keeping real information about yourself hidden on the internet. It’s a response to these two articles:

「逃げ場のない」SNS上の事件・安全神話への疑問
カナディアンも夢中にさせるSNS“Facebook”はmixi(ミクシィ)と何が違う？

Anyway, before practicing my Facebook speech, I checked Facebook of course (hooray for relevant procrastination techniques), and was surprised to find an invitation to an event in Japan — the Facebook Developers Garage meeting in Harajuku, Tokyo. I suppose I was invited since I participated in the Japanese translation of Facebook. Here’s the invite:

The address sounded a little familiar, so I checked it out on Google Earth:

See that intersection at the top right? That’s the one with corner stores including Jonathon’s, Condomania, and the Gap, and Kiddy Land off on one of the side streets there (where I bought my pink penguin/duck umbrella)… in short I’ve been there several times, when walking between Harajuku and Shibuya.

Unfortunately this event is on May 19th, when I will not be free to be hanging out in Tokyo with Facebook Developers. Alas.

Now to learn my Japanese speech.