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How Tofugu was born - an exclusive interview
On February 03, 2008 in Interviews
Hi All. Today we are back one last time with Koichi of Tofugu.com (Japan Humour Blog of the Year 2007). I first heard about Tofugu from Thomas at NihonHacks.com when he recommended them as a good possible interviewee. So, thanks to Thomas, today we get to hear the story of how the wonky Tofugu was born…
DailyJ: What motivated you to start Tofugu?
Koichi: I originally just started my other website, Koichiben (www.koichiben.com) for an independent study class in Japanese. I made a couple of posts in English, and they became surprisingly popular (though they have since been hidden or remade over on Tofugu). After a while, there was enough of a following to split off and create an English website. I did it in the name of branding, since I didn’t want to mix the English and the Japanese, and everyone called me crazy. Still, it’s worked out okay, I think.
DailyJ: What part of running the site do you like the best?
Koichi: I really enjoy responding to (some) emails. Interacting with new people is always a lot of fun. I just wish I had more time for it.
DailyJ: Where do you see the site going in the future?
Koichi: I have no idea. The internet is so unpredictable. I really hope to make an alternative Japanese learning book someday. I think the site will help.
DailyJ: Are there any projects/etc. you are working on?
Koichi: What? That’s secret.
DailyJ: What posts/content are your favourites?
Koichi: I kind of like everything we write, sorry about the mass of links
The pokemanz one is a little… hmm.
Thomas was impressed with the Tofugu post “How to Win at UFO Catchers” (a good post with some good video). Maybe he might also like to add Studying Japanese with a Nintendo D as a nihonhack.
Lots of good stuff there on Tofugu. Wonky and wonderful. So check it out!
And a big thank you to Koichi for the interview!
Have a great day!
DailyJ
Thank YOU. I’ll spread some link love back this way.
Tofugu is a great blog and Koichi is a great guy!
[...] I hope you enjoyed the Tofugu interview. If you missed it here are the posts: 1, 2, 3, 4 [...]
Hi Jamaipanese!
I was wondering if you knew about Tofugu. They have some good posts on learning Japanese that I thought you’d like.
btw, how is the studying going?
I’m not a true Japan geek, but I like the Tofugu site.
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