Archive for the ‘JapanBlogMatsuri’ Category
Have you heard of Lafcadio Hearn? Meet the foreigners who made modern Japan
On August 27, 2008 in JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web
Well, the Japan Blog Matsuri for August is up on Shane’s “The Tokyo Traveler.”
There are some really great posts!
Shane’s post was particularly interesting. It was about Lafcadio Hearn’s impressions of Tokyo (<–click to read her post). Hearn lived in Japan in the late 1800s but his thoughts on Japan still ring true today.
Hearn was one of the Oyatoi Gaikokujin, foreigners hired by the Meiji government to modernise Japan. He is largely to thank for the preservation of countless “mukashibanashi” (folk tales of Japan).
http://nipponstercom-swicki.eurekster.com/Lafcadio+Hearn/
http://nipponstercom-swicki.eurekster.com/O-yatoi+gaikokujin/
“A Night in Ikebukuro” - my Japan Blog Matsuri entry
On August 16, 2008 in JapanBlogMatsuri, fun
Here is my entry for the Japan Blog Matsuri
I don’t usually blog about my personal experiences in japan so this is kind of new for me. The good thing about that is I can put all my effort and creative release into this one post. And if it is really good then I can retire from personal blogging, as the champion, at the top of my game. And, more likely, if it is really bad, well I can use the excuse that I never should have been blogging about my personal experiences in Japan in the first place. 
Lucky me!
Being forced at knife-point by the rest of the J-blogosphere to write something good about Tokyo, I am reminded of the words of the president of Jouchi University (my old uni). They were words we foreign students heard on one of our first days in Japan.
“If you visit Japan for a week or two you could write a novel; Understanding Japan. If you visit for a month or so, maybe a short book, spend six months and you could write a good essay. After a year a page; a few years and you’ll have a paragraph. And if you stay here in Japan for as long as I you’ll be lucky to get out a complete sentence.”
By that theory I should be somewhere between a paragraph and a sentence (which is why I am stalling with this long introduction )
So, impressions of the beauty, mystery, ugliness, and charm that is Tokyo…
When I sat down to write this I thought up a little list of interesting stories I could tell about my early experiences in Tokyo.
Should I tell them my “Going to the temple to pee” story about mixing up the words ‘otera’ (temple) and ‘oteari’ (washroom)?
Or maybe the story about how my Japanese friends persuaded me to dress up in my dinosaur suit for the dorm end-of-the-year party and drunken Japanese businessmen pointed at me on the street and said “Gojilla, Gojilla!”
Maybe the night I slept in an internet cafe. Or the time I ran into a taxi with my bicycle (yes, I ran into him…)
Or maybe visiting the homeless in Yoyogi park with donations and seeing their blue tarp villages.
Breakdancing in Shibuya hachiko; watching yakuza harass street performers; joining karaoke parties with random Japanese people; my first and last fish sausage; going to baseball games at the Dome.
I’ve never really told these stories before, so this is kind of fun.
I think the story I’ll stick with though is one I like to call “A night in Ikebukuro.”
When I was in college I had a Japanese teacher who wasn’t Japanese. Mr. Collazo. He had a big impact on me. He had studied Japanese at university, went on exchange, and then returned as a JET teacher. It was in his class that I firmly made up my mind to go to Japan; if he could, I could. One of the stories he told us about Japan stuck with me. He said that one day he missed the saishu densha (last train) and had to sleep in a park. We were a little shocked. Sleeping outside in a big city (or any city) is not normally a good idea, to say the least.
Little did I know that I was soon to follow in Collazo sensei’s footsteps in this case too. I had been in Tokyo for a few months at least now. I had my gaikokujin card, was deep into my school work, was living in the school dorm, and was beginning to feel like a pro navigating the intricate threads of the train/subway system. You know, the one that looks like someone took a bowl of multi-coloured spaghetti and threw it on a map of Tokyo. I had even just gone on my own to set up a Japanese bank account with Tokyo-Mitsubishi and received my shiny new bank card. My card says Tokyo and Mitsubishi on it, so you know it has to be good. Oh yes, I was a proud man. Nothing could stop me now.
Feeling confident, I decided to get a little more adventurous. So I started taking little trips alone off to this and that part of town, seeing the sites, and jumping into language situations without the comfort of a group of foreigners.
That’s when it happened.
It was a Friday night. I took the Yamanote line up to Ikebukuro. I hadn’t stopped there yet and I wanted to give it a look. I didn’t have any cash with me but it didn’t matter, I had my trusty Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank card. Proud of myself I wandered around Ikebukuro and stopped to watch a street performer clown/hip-hop dancer who made balloon animals as he did the moonwalk! Interesting…
Tokyo’s layout is best described by Dave Barry (a humour writer) in his book Dave Barry Does Japan. I can’t find the original quote (even on Google Books) so I’ll just give my version.
“The Tokyo cityscape has no order or planning. So a typical street might look like this: a factory, next to a school, next to a cemetery, next to an office building, next to a shrine, next to a McDonalds.”
So, down the street from the hip-hip clown was a rock band (their look was a lot better than their sound so I took a picture), next to that a palm reader, a guy selling gyros, and a ramen cart. “I could eat some ramen. Better pop into the convenience store next to it and take some money from my trusty Tokyo Mitsubishi card (so proud).”
Of course I have to use the ATM machine prompts in Japanese (I don’t like the English language menu, it talks to me in English, I want Japanese). I put in my card and start punching. A long paragraph in Japanese appears.
When you are hungry and all of your money is on your bank card the last thing you want to see is a paragraph.
I try to read what it says but the frustration clouds my little Kanji skills. I understand enough though to know I won’t be taking any money out of this machine tonight.
I leave the convenience store and go 50 feet to the convenience store next to it. Different machine, different luck right? Wrong.
This time out of desperation I am more patient with the paragraph. What is going on?! now I understand that the card doesn’t work after 19:00 (7pm) on weekends… What?!! Well, no ramen for me.
So I head back to the train station ready to get as far from Ikebukuro as possible. I can just feel the mattress of my tiny dorm room bed. I get closer to the station. Fresh, soft sheets. I get to the ticket machine and look at my wallet. 70 yen. Shimatta!
That’s when it hit me, I have no money, no way to go home until the ATM works again tomorrow morning… My dorm room bed will be lonely tonight.
I make one more go at a couple of combini (convenience store) ATMs, and a mad search for a Citibank, before settling into a quiet desperation. Desperate Gaijin.. could be a good name for a bad TV show.
“Well, if I’m stuck here might as well enjoy it,” I think. So I wandered around, drooling over the street food stands selling ramen, takoyaki (octopus balls), and other goodies.
I strolled over to a large open square (it prolly has a name but I can’t remember) and watched the last train leave. If I’d been naughty I could have “gaijin card-ed” my way onto that train (pushed through the ticket gate without a ticket and feigned ignorance on the count of my foreignness)
“Oh, well…” I settled down onto a slab of concrete in the square, the oddly comforting smoggy starless sky above me. For awhile I watched some people playing football on the concrete of the square. Ikebukuro wasn’t going to sleep tonight but I sure was. there were still people roaming about the square well past 3 am when I fell into a awkward, short and uneasy sleep; sweet dreams of being mugged or drugged.
Not a few others were sleeping out on the square also and I had to wonder what their stories were. Last train missers? Run aways? Homeless? Many were young and well dressed, but so probably are the ones who live in internet cafes. It was my first glimpse of Tokyo’s disguised homelessness.
After a few hours of “sleep’ I woke up and staggered around half-awake until my card (worst bank card ever) started working again in the ATM at about 7AM. Money in hand, I grabbed some food and coffee at the conbini and headed straight for the train. Dreams of my comfy bed. Oh, what a city, what a night.
-Tori Johnson (a.k.a the Chemist)
What Japan Thinks reviews DailyJ - and - yes to the next JapanBlogMatsuri
On December 31, 2007 in Announcements, Community building, JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web
Ken YN over at WhatJapanThinks has been reviewing the runners up for the Japan Blog of the Year Award, and DailyJ is “grateful bewildered” to have a place on that list. His review of DailyJ is below.
More importantly, after a bit of childish “Are-we-there-yet?” style nagging, we have word from Ken about possible future J-blog matsuri!
Daily J. This blog is centred around Japan blogger interviews, and is trying to foster, no, make that build a Japanese blogger community, something I feel should exist, and I hope that this Japan Blog of the Year vote has somehow helped towards that goal. Oh yes, and about the Japan Blog Matsuri - I have an alternative yet cunning plan, and I’ll have to talk to you soon regarding one or the other matsuris!
I am sure that Deas from RockingInHakata and Bill at RisingSunOfNihon will be happy to hear that! The credit goes to them for supporting it in the past and talking to DailyJ and others about having more of them.
I don’t know about you, but I am excited already!
Japan blogs of the year 2007
On December 18, 2007 in JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web
The Olympics of J-blogs!
Ken YN from WhatJapanThinks is having a little “Japan Blogs of the Year 2007″ Contest…
and somehow DailyJ has been nominated. I think that probably had to do with the “beer and darts” selection process
There are quite a few past DailyJ interviewees on there so maybe beer and darts have not gone too wrong. Here is a list of them (I’m not saying that you have to vote for them, I’m just saying that if you want to be my friend… ):
Somehow we were paired head to head and against JapanProbe. No fair! They are pitting us against each other. So I am taking drastic action and saying go now and vote for JapanNewbie so that at least one of us has a chance to kick butt!
We are also running against Trans-Pacific and they are shamelessly trying to bribe their readers into voting for them. We would never do that 
but rumour has it Jnewbie is offering a free round of beer, Osaka bloggers. 
Vote for the underdog!
#2 Gaijin Tonic
It’s about humour. How is Gaijin Tonic not in the lead?!
He is running against some funny sites, I admit (one of them, Tofugu, is an upcoming interviewee on DailyJ). But still, it’s Gaijin Tonic people. Vote!
Is currently second to PinkTentacle. Come on! Digital World Tokyo has USB humping Dogs! No contest! Vote DWT.
Now the heart-breaker…
Best personal blog on Japan
Two past DailyJ interviewees here:
Rocking in Hakata vs. Mari’s diary
This one I’ll leave up to you. But for me, I figure I am probably on this list because of Rocking In Hakata so sorry Mari, I had to do what I had to do…
All in all this has been great fun. And I think that it fosters a bit of community.
There are definitely sites that I’d like to see on there that are not. On DailyJ I believe 100% that each blog and each blogger has their own unique an interesting story to tell and they deserve to tell it and be heard.
Let’s all keep on blogging and sharing the love in our own special way!
DailyJ
p.s. Ken, JapanBlogMatsuri!
Great ideas from Daily J readers
On December 13, 2007 in Community building, Future of the J-web, JapanBlogMatsuri, Suggestions Please
Daily J readers are some smart cookies!
(Makes you wonder why they are reading this blog )
Here are some of their great comments and suggestions:
#1 (link to original comment) Chris from Waikiki2Yanai:
There is a “japan blogroll” thing I was on before but it was littered with old abandoned blogs.
A newer version of that which ranked on post freq or something like that would be maybe good? There is a extreme lack of cohesion obviously, since I have to hunt for others in Japan.
A hi Quality icon based link would blend better than text links.
Thats what I want. Can you get on that and have it ready by tomorrow?
Great!!
While I don’t know about having it by tomorrow (and I would already be late anyway), I definitely would like to make something like this! What do you think guys? Can we build it?! I say, “Let the brainstorming begin!”
#2 (link to the comment) Shane from Atypicallife
Rather than just do interviews why not due features on Japan. You could do informative pieces on arts&crafts, tech stuff, etc with a Japanese twist. You could use guest bloggers for these posts or challenge everyone to do a piece on a subject and highlight the good ones in a post here….I would be happy to consider co-ordinating this if you want to contact me.
Yes and yes. This is a great idea and is similar to the old Japan Blog Matsuri. I bet RockinInHakata would be interested too.
#3 (link to the comment) Harvey from JapanNewbie
I want to see an organized Japan Blogger get together! In Kansai.
You can have one in Tokyo too if you like, but all the cool people are in Kansai.
How about it Osaka bloggers?
These are just a few of the great ideas readers have had. Hopefully I will get the chance to post some more of them soon. And I always appreciate them so keep them coming.
Let’s make the J-web a brilliant place by helping one another!
Japan Blog Matsuri - an update (or lack thereof…)
On November 07, 2007 in Announcements, JapanBlogMatsuri
Still awaiting a reply from Ken from WhatJapanThinks…
I hope it doesn’t rain on our matsuri 
Quick rundown
On October 26, 2007 in Announcements, JapanBlogMatsuri
Okay, time for a quick list of things we are working on, etc.
There is a lot going on.
#1 The promised mailing list is up. Yes, that’s it on the left. I know you want to sign up!
Moving along.
#2 We have an interview coming up that I promised you a while back. I’m not going to tell you who it is (you’ll just have to wait), but here is a hint “walking.”
Next
#45 (might have skipped a few)
The ebook… no updates on the progress of it yet. But when it is done it will be given out to newsletter subscribers as a gift.
#? J-blog matsuri: I have contacted our fearless leader, Ken from WhatJapanThinks. I am looking forward to the next matsuri and I hope you all are too. Hopefully the participation will be good and we can realise Ken’s original goal of creating more of a community among Japan bloggers.
Why the Japan Blog Matsuri is such a good idea
On October 25, 2007 in JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web
“In order to get a bit more of a community and interaction going on here with my fellow Japan bloggers, I have decided to hold a Japan Blog Matsuri (outline and guidelines described there), basically a chance for everyone to recommend their best, or favourite, or most under-appreciated blog post for the month, based around a different theme every month.” - Ken from WhatJapanThinks
The part that stands out in my mind is “In order to get a bit more of a community and interaction going…” It seems to me that we do need more of a community and I think that a matsuri is a great way to do it.
I’ve talked a lot about the next matsuri but knowing that talk alone isn’t going to do anything I have also been chatting up some of the past hosts and hopefully the ball will start rolling again with the monthly J-blog matsuri.
Dreaming of the next Japan Blog Matsuri
On October 23, 2007 in JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web
A little break. No interviews today.
I’m busy daydreaming about the next j-blog matsuri.
And I am researching past ones.
Here are some links related to that (in very random order):
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/03/08/februarys-japan-blog-matsuri/
http://whatjapanthinks.com/jbmatsuri/
http://www.rockinginhakata.com/2007/03/27/112/
http://www.risingsunofnihon.com/2007/03/japan_blog_matsuri.html
http://www.rockinginhakata.com/2007/05/11/150/
Mmm. Matsuri…
Bloggers, Let’s Make Sure the Next Japan Blog Matsuri Rocks! - an interview with Rocking In Hakata
On October 21, 2007 in Interviews, JapanBlogMatsuri, On the J-web, bloggers
We’re back again today with Deas from Rocking In Hakata. Yesterday I mentioned why RIH is one of my favourite sites. Today we’re going to hear about Deas’ motivations for starting the site and a bit about the Japan Blog Matsuri.
So let’s get started:
Daily J: What motivated you to start Rocking in Hakata?
Deas: I started the site for a few reasons. 1) I live on an island where everything closes down at 7 or 7:30, and I needed a hobby and a way to stay connected to the outside world. 2) I wanted a way to have the kinds of discussions I used to have in person with my buddies - so as an expressive outlet? Sounds kind of uppity to say it that way. I basically like sharing thoughts. 3) It is partially a continuation of my old student journal, which was there for other prospective students. I don’t know how accurate that is anymore, though.
Daily J: Where did you get the idea for the name of your site? (i.e. why “rocking”?)
Deas: This is probably boring…but it comes from the slang phrases in English. You know, “Rock on!” and so on. I’m not in a band here or anything. It was actually part of my cell phone email here. During study abroad, I had a bad pun - Youth in Asia - in my address. This time, it seemed popular to reference your placement as an ALT (on the JET program) in the cell address. Maybe people can keep better track of my location than they can my name? I’ve actually been thinking of changing it…because…what happens when I’m no longer on Hakatajima? (Plus, people frequently think I’m talking about THE Hakata. The one in Kyushu. Understandable.)
Daily J: Can you tell us a bit about April’s blog matsuri? Have you heard any word on the next blog matsuri? Will you do it again if there is one?
Deas: April’s Japan Blog Matsuri was an attempt at a Japan-themed Blog Carnival that was put together by Ken Y-N over at What Japan Thinks. I highly recommend that you ask him for an interview next. He’s a great fellow. Anyway, it was my turn to host the matsuri, so I chose the theme of “tourism.” It was…well, in a word, mediocre. It was astoundingly difficult to inspire other bloggers to participate, and ginning up support requires a lot of time and effort. Due to the lack of enthusiasm, the official Japan Blog Matsuri is on hold…but I’m more than willing to jump back into it when / if it’s reinstated.
It’s sad to hear things like “lack of enthusiasm” and “difficult to inspire other bloggers to participate.” I think that bloggers have a responsibility to all the other Japan-enthusiasts out there. And it is a fun responsibility so I don’t know why coming together is so hard. But I know that it can be done and if we work together the next Japan Blog Matsuri will ROCK!
Well, I’ll get off of my soapbox now. Be sure to check out RockingInHakata. And then tune in again tomorrow as we will be chatting with Deas about some of the creative and entertaining content on his site. Heroes and horses and whales, oh my…
