austrian otaku

Since the release of iTunes 9 a few weeks ago  I’m using iTunes as my default music player.

One thing that bugged for a few weeks was that Genius wasn’t as helpful as I should be.

A little info about Genius taken from Wikipedia-sensei for those not familiar with this feature:

The Genius feature, introduced in iTunes 8, automatically generates a playlist of songs from the user’s library which are similar to the selected song. Genius playlists are created by the ratings system and collaborative filtering. An iTunes Store account is required because information about the user’s library must first be sent anonymously to Apple’s database. Algorithms determine which songs to play based on other users’ libraries, and Genius becomes more intelligent given a larger data set. The resulting Genius playlist can contain 25, 50, 75, or 100 songs and can be refreshed for new results or saved. The Genius Sidebar will similarly recommend selections for purchase from the iTunes Store based on the selected library track.  iTunes 9 added Genius Mixes, where the Genius software finds similar music and automatically puts them into mixes.

It worked fine for western music of course, but for all my Japanese music it didn’t find useful, matching stuff.

The problem is that I have an Austrian iTunes account and there isn’t something like a global iTunes Store. There aren’t much Japanese artist available here and some Apps from the App Store are only available in Japan too.

The only workaround for this is creating a Japanese account.

Thanks to free Apps you can create one for free. If you’d like to buy stuff there you can get a iTunes Japan Music card from Jlist here.

As some comrades on Twitter were quite interested in how to create a Japanese account, I decided to do this short tutorial.

Now let’s get started:

Open up iTunes, and click on “iTunes Store” in the left sidebar.

Scroll down to the bottom in the Store window. Click on the small circle resembling your country in the bottom right.

You should see this screen. Scroll down again and select Nippon.

Now select some random free App from the App Store or simply click on this link which directs you to an Eden of the East like App currently quite popular in Japan. (More info about this App can be found at ahbonk’s burogu.)

Click on the “Get App” button.

A dialog like in the screenshot above should pop up. Select “Create new Account” or however it is called in your language.

Click on “Continue”. At the Apple EULA check “Accept” and choose “Continue” again. (Yes, the Store switches to English now.)

On the next page you have to enter your email address. This address has to be different from the one you use with your primary iTunes account. If you don’t have a second mail address you can simple create as second one over at gmail.

Choose a password and a random question and answer. Select your birthday and check or un-check if you’d like to receive spam mails from Apple. ^^ Click… guess what… “Continue”.

At the top of the next page “None” should be selected if you didn’t order a iTunes music card from Jlist.

If you bought one you can enter the code in the field “iTunes Gift Cards” below.

After you filled in the information you will notice that Apple wants you to enter your name and your Japanese address. Please don’t freak out now ^_^

Enter your last name first and your first name after that! This is… JAPAN!!!

As phonetic name just enter your name again.

Now you have to enter a Japanese fake address. First the postal code (seven digital numbers), then the prefecture and the city. As far as I know are those the only things which are checked by Apple. You can use an address you know, one provided by a Japanese friend or just use one from the list below.

At the “Address” field enter some number which should look like that: “1-56-21 okino-cho”.

(Common -cho names are : hiromi, yanagibashi, yamato, hayama, nakamura, tono, izumi, wakamatsu, shinmachi, oomachi, …)

Enter some random phone number and click continue.

There should appear some text which tells you that a verification mail was send to you per email.

Click on the link in that mail and your account will be activated.

Congratulation you own a Japanese iTunes account now! Just sign in via the button on the top right and you are done.

Seems like Apple doesn’t care that much cause it doesn’t really matter if you are a Japanese or not if you pay for it, right?

For those interested: The new blog will mostly likely be up and running at the end of next week, be prepared to update your RSS readers. There will be another post here on the old blog next week cause I’m expecting three boxes to arrive by tomorrow^^