By now, most regular readers of Japan blogs will have wandered across Gaijin Smash. With fairly frequent entries going back to 2004, Az has been blogging long and well enough to have attracted an audience that extends beyond the gaijin blog ghetto. It took me a while to warm up to Gaijin Smash. For one thing, the gaijin vein is played out. You’re not Japanese. Neither am I. Let’s move along. Add to that a persistent, trilling whining in the background of many of the posts and some readers may begin looking elsewhere. And yet…
The thing about Az is he’s smart, he has an excellent eye for what’s going on around him, and he’s often very, very funny. And he’s been here long enough now to have had a broad range of experiences in Japan. Starting at the first of his archived posts, it’s easy to spend an absorbing afternoon reading his story. Real characters come and go, and Az himself quickly emerges as a very likeable, self-deprecating man, and because he’s been at it for several years you get a real sense of his developing relationship with the country. I hope he’ll keep at it. Visit here or from the sidebar.
