Many Thanks to My Tokyo Hosts!

I devotedly shared with you my first two days in Tokyo here on my personal blog, and posted a number of specific articles related to the startups I met with on Mashable, but I wanted to make sure that I let my hosts know how incredibly grateful I am to have been one of the few chosen to inaugurate the first of many trips they’ll be organizing for US bloggers to visit Japan.

I received a beautiful gift in the mail today from Katsuya (shown above and below), whom I first mentioned here. He’s a wonderful person who is whole-heartedly dedicated to his ability to connect people. He’s amazing at everything he does (including Japanese pizza!) and I couldn’t be more blessed to have been able tour Tokyo with him and his colleagues.

So I want to take this opportunity to again say thank you to Hideshi and Tohru at Lunarr, Katsuya at IBM and Kodoma at JapanHopper for being the most gracious hosts anyone could ever ask for!

1 Month Anniversary: Kristen Nicole in San Francisco

I’ve been in San Francisco for about a month now, and I hate to say that my schedule has been so crazy, that I haven’t been able to update my personal blog as often as I’d hoped. At any rate, I’m glad to say that my past few weeks in San Francisco have been great.

Other than meeting with more people than I’ve ever been able to, taking in the San Francisco culture has been an equally rewarding experience. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, a lot of folks have been able to recommend restaurants, clubs, bars and museums that they’d think I’d find interesting while staying in town. I went to Prana last night for the Fast Company HOT party, and I enjoyed the decor and the location. The bar tenders at Prana and Ambassador are great, too.

Over the weekend, with my mother visiting, I got to do some of the touristy stuff around town. We checked out the farmer’s market, pier 39, the fisherman’s wharf and even Dottie’s cafe for a great breakfast of sweet potato french toast and a spinach omelet. Yum!

Other than eating and walking around the city, I’ve also had the opportunity to attend a handful of conferences. The Video Summit was the first conference I attended after moving out here, while ad:tech and Web 2.0 Expo all but took over my life for the following two weeks. I even got to take a ride in the Schwaggin’ Wagon. Check out the Mashable FLickr stream here.

Center image credit: Brian Solis

I’m Headed West, to San Francisco

Writing about the tech industry from Chicago means I get to travel quite a bit, and my flier miles are only getting more frequent. That being said, I’m excited to announce my “dual residency” between Chicago and San Francisco.

I’ll be headed to the Bay Area on Monday morning, just in time for the Video Search Summit. If you’re going to be at this Mashable-sponsored event, please feel free to drop me a line! And, as always, if you’re in San Francisco, do let me know.

I’m very excited to hang out more with the startups and web-based companies I speak with and write about on a daily basis. As most of you know, the Mashble founder himself, Pete Cashmore, has just settled into San Francisco for an extended period of time as well. Fun times are a’comin’!

SXSW Rocked Me…Straight to Bed.

I’ve been home from SXSW for a few days now, but I’m still recovering from the mayhem that is the Ultimate Spring Break for Geeks. I had a great time, and managed to lose my voice the very first night I was in Austin, thanks to the loud music and my inability to correctly use my diaphragm for projecting my voice–I just screamed instead.

By the time Tuesday night rolled around, what I though were allergies turned out to be an all-out chest cold. So after spending the past 2 days in bed, my eyes can now stand the light of the computer screen, and I can finally post a recap of all the great times I had at SXSW.

I’ll start off by saying that, despite ending up sick as a dog at the Interactive conference, I’d do it all again (with Purell in my pocket). I got to meet more people than I ever imagined, and I got to catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen in quite some time.

One of the highlights of my trip was my first video interview, which happened to be with Guy Kawasaki. You can see the interview here, as Kawasaki speaks on his latest venture, Alltop. I admit that I didn’t have a tripod with me, and had to hold the camera the entire time…so you won’t see me in the video. Maybe next time!

Another highlight of my trip was getting to use the Nokia N95, which has become quite popular thanks to the likes of Robert Scoble, and the phone’s ability to support services like Qik. I took lots of photos with the camera phone my first night at SXSW, and even tried my hand at live vlogging, but the camera’s flash leaves a lot to be desired.

Otherwise, I love the camera and I can’t wait to use it some more once I get out to San Francisco in about a week. See here for the Mashable Flickr stream, and feel free to visit my Facebook profile to see pictures there as well.

Mashable Rocks at SXSW!

SXSW Interactive kicks off this weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited! This will be my first trip to Austin for the famed conference. It will be my first time in Texas as well, so if you’re familiar with the area and you’ll be in Austin for SXSW, then you’ll have to show me around!

I’ve been able to start traveling a lot more in the past 6 months, so I’m getting better at this live-blogging deal. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and I’ll have my video camera, too. I’m looking to get some interviews in, and work with Mark over at Mashable in order to get them posted a.s.a.p. Mark is great at editing videos, so we’ve got a pretty nice in-house operation goin’ here! Well, at least we will if I don’t screw anything up!

Also, be sure to win all the great Mashable schwag we’ll be dishing out over the next 4 days. Click here for details.

Kristini: Conceived at DEMO 08.

I’ve spent the past 2 and a half days in Palm Desert, CA, soaking up the sights (and sounds) of DEMO 08. This being my second time attending the classic conference, I’m beginning to pick up on some of the traditions that have been cultivated as only traditions can be: over time, with lots of dedication to a unified experience (i.e. branding).

As fun as the Jam Session was (and as happy as we all were to find that it was open bar), I thought it high time to start creating some sub-traditions of my own. With the help of a few choice friends, namely Brian Solis, Frank Gruber, and several other fine folks, we thought up a lovely way to apply all of this web 2.0 ideology to the simple act of mixology. That’s right. We made up a cocktail.

Well actually, I’m certain we didn’t make up a cocktail, but being my usual undecided self, I had a hard time telling the bar tender exactly what I wanted to drink. I had a taste for peaches and mangoes, so Brian was savvy enough to have the bartender create one mashup of a drink. I don’t know exactly what goes into this delectable mashup martini, but it’s been dubbed (by people other than myself) the Kristini. I graciously accept the bestowing of my name upon a martini so yummy.

Now that we’ve developed the Kristini, we thought it would be great to release a platform, where all mashups are welcome, and can play together in this world of collaborative cocktail-mixing. Discussions have already begun for the Mashtini, which would be in honor of my place of employment. Given the pink and blue theme of Mashable, the Mashtini will have to be made with blue Curacao and a heavier liquid that’s pink in color, which will sit on the bottom of the martini glass. Any ideas? Let us know if you’d like to join this movement and offer up some drink recipes of your own.

[image credit brian solis]

See You at DEMO08!

I’m pretty excited to be attending my second DEMO conference in a row, representing Mashable.com. And I can’t deny the fact that I’m also excited because it’s warm in California, as opposed to very cold here in Chicago! Tomorrow morning (officially later on today) I’ll be hopping on a plane and flying out to sunny Palm Desert to go to DEMO08. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about this winter’s DEMO conference, so I’m very happy and honored to be going. If you’re headed that way, please let me know! I’d love to chat with you for a while. Feel free to contact me here. I’ll be around for the entire conference.

See you soon!

(I’ve got to go pack now).