It’s been over half a year since I hosted carnival number 34 at Wireless World Forum. This time, I decided to host it at w2japan and so I’m giving this carnival a Japanese theme. The Japanese love a carnival just as much as anyone else (祭りmatsuri is the Japanese for carnival). Welcome to Mobilist Matsuri number 61!

Although matsuri are a lot of fun, there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly – and it’s the same for the mobile industry. This week’s postings that look behind the scenes of mobile include CEO on MIDP3, Ajit at Opengardens on using Java as a middleware to mobile Ajax, Martin Sauter on problems with Wifi congestion at conferences and Symbian-Guru on mobile voip or moip.

No carnival is complete without music and our matsuri maestro is Xen at Xellular Identity. Xen continues her series of fascinating interviews (well I would say that – I took part in one last year ;) ) on the mobile industry with John White from Portio Research. Read his thoughts on digital music at the end of the link.

There’s something magical about a matsuri and this one’s no different. Helen Keegan talks about sending marketing messages through thin air using Bluetooth. Justin at Mopocket and Tomi at Communities Dominate Brands write about turning web content into mobile content. Abracadabra! Meanwhile, Peggy Anne Salz reads consumers’ minds to find them mobile content they’ll love. They say that magicians should never reveal the tricks of their trade, but Gabe Frost bends this rule and lets us in on a few secrets of 802.11n.

On matsuri day in Japan, it’s common for teams to build floats and race them in the streets. Bill Day at Billday.com looks at the two horse race between Nokia and Motorola and wonders whether Apple can upset the balance.

Many Japanese matsuri are dedicated to gods. This week’s matsuri god (a.k.a posting of the week) is the Design Translator at Design Sojurn with a petition to bring back buttons on mobile phones.

No Japanese matsuri would be complete without food stalls. These brightly coloured shops sell a mixture of foods from all over the world and our matsuri has an equally eclectic selection of food for thought. Greg at Twofones chews the fat on whether a US ruling forcing operators to unlock their phones will really free the consumer. Wap review serves up a guide to bookmarklets in Opera Mini. Anders at Abiro gives us a bite-sized opinion piece on why the mobile is not as limited as some think. Finally, Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity provides a recipe for success for companies in the mobile data industry.