Eric Cunningham is a graduate student keeping a fascinating blog of his time in Otaki, a mountain village in Nagano with a population of just under a thousand. Recent posts include accounts of ice fishing for wakasagi, traditional roof construction in Otaki, and a neighbor’s water wheel, used to grind rice flour.
Eric’s research, as far as [...]
Archive for the ‘living’ Category
In the Pines
Posted in academic, culture, living, miscellany, outdoors, people, rural on February 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Gaijin Smash
Posted in culture, humor, living, people on February 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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 Hopeless Romantic
Posted in culture, humor, living, miscellany, teaching on August 29, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Apparently this blog’s title came about in the aftermath of a failed college romance. These days, though, the author (calling himself Claytonian) seems to have put those worries behind him and is keeping a very engaging personal blog of his time in Japan. He’s recently finished the first chapter of his life here, in Kyushu, [...]
Nihonhacks
Posted in food, living, miscellany, travel on August 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Problem: You’ve just arrived in Japan and are standing in the supermarket weeping softly at the price of steak, or you’ve spent all Saturday wandering the blistering streets of Tokyo looking for shoes that will fit your prodigious, paddle-like feet.
Solution: Nihonhacks.com
Thomas Hjelms keeps this blog, which is devoted primarily to offering quick answers to questions [...]
Get Hiroshima Blog
Posted in living, miscellany, nightlife, people on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The most common advice bloggers receive, other than to post regularly (ha!), is to find and hold a focus. Few Japan blogs have managed that better over the past several years than the consistently useful Get Hiroshima Blog. Kept mostly by a British and American couple living and working in, well, Hiroshima, the blog keeps [...]
Tokyo Through the Drinking Glass
Posted in culture, food, living, nightlife on July 6, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Despite the title, this is not just another English teacher evincing the early signs of what will shortly become full-blown alcoholism. Melinda Joe is, according to her profile, “a graduate of the John Gauntner Sake Professional Course and a WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) Wine Certificate holder.” She also writes a bar column for [...]
Let’s Japan
Posted in living, miscellany, teaching on June 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This blog is a potential lifesaver for some hapless young humanities major out there, with fantasies of coming to Japan and teaching English while he (a) dates an endless parade of submissive auto show girls (b) becomes a martial arts legend or (c) gets an apartment in Akihabara and claws his way to the top [...]
The Workaholic Hostess
Posted in living, nightlife, people on May 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Interesting primarily because there are so few similar blogs in English. Jade (not her real name) is an American citizen working in a Roppongi hostess club. In her blog, she writes about her co-workers, customers both good and bad, and her alcoholic mama-san.
The blog is obviously a place for her to blow off some steam, [...]
Frangipani
Posted in living, people, photography on May 21, 2008 | 5 Comments »
It seems a great many people who arrive in Japan wind up trying to reinvent themselves, even if that wasn’t their intention at all when they set out. I can’t say for sure why this is. Perhaps the relative scarcity of opportunities allows some of us to look into possibilities we wouldn’t have taken as [...]
Cherry Blossom Adventures
Posted in culture, living, miscellany on April 15, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Here’s a very lively, chatty blog being kept by a young Australian in Tokyo. She’s engaged to a Japanese man and has been teaching in an international kindergarten. They’ll be moving back to Australia shortly, but only for a year.
Sometimes its pleasant to read a blog that isn’t trying to flummox you with a hipper-than-thou [...]
Notes from the Nog
Posted in culture, living, rural, travel on April 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A consistently interesting peephole into the mind of an American yoga teacher and self-described “internationalizationer” living in the Kyoto area. Includes local events, the odd haiku, long and thoughtful posts on the author’s ramblings around Japan and farther afield, and a number of entries that are obviously 3 a.m. seismic rumblings at the base of [...]
Chanpon
Posted in culture, living, miscellany on April 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is a fascinating project, launched by a group of alumni of one of Tokyo’s international schools. The word “chanpon” means a blend of distinctive ingredients, or the juxtaposition of elements that, on the surface, may seem at odds with one another. Chanpon.org explores those places where Japanese culture makes close contact, for better or [...]
Sushicam
Posted in living, photography, travel on April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In addition to the many wonderful photoblogs maintained by Japanese bloggers, there are a growing number of excellent offerings from foreign residents in Japan. One of the best of these is Sushicam, an eight-year old blog started by Jeff Laitila. Jeff is an American living in Yokosuka, and the blog consists of both his writing [...]
Tommy’s busy life in Japan
Posted in living on April 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
One of the better examples of a blog by a young guy just having fun, this one in Nagoya. Tommy’s an English Conversation School teacher, far and away the most common job for people in their twenties coming over to Japan for a few years. Tommy’s also doing a bit of web design and [...]
Beck Block Blog
Posted in living, miscellany on April 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another Daddy Blog, this one from Adam Beck. Adam works for the Hiroshima Peace Center, and has been responsible for a number of interesting charity projects launched from Hiroshima.
On the blog, you can follow the day to day life of an American trying to make a living doing something other than teaching English, while [...]
Walking with Lee
Posted in culture, living, miscellany, travel on April 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Not a foreigner’s blog, but an excellent English language blog by a resident of Tokyo. The basic idea? Shige takes us along as he walks Lee, his miniature dachshund, through some of the capital city’s loveliest spots, morning markets and shrine festivals. Be sure to stop by and take a look.
Find it here, or from [...]
An Englishman in Osaka
Posted in culture, humor, living on April 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“He’s English, he’s a man, and he’s in Osaka.” This blog has been going steady for three years now, and judging from the comments the author has built up a solid readership. Most of the posts are silly, and if you enjoy the kind of humor on offer here then you’re in luck, because the [...]
Blue Lotus
Posted in culture, food, living on April 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s one for the foodies. The blog’s page says, “A Canadian girl eats her way around Tokyo.” What it doesn’t tell you is that she cooks too! Entry after entry details either trips to restaurants in and around Tokyo or wonderful looking meals she’s prepared at home, all accompanied by mouth-watering photographs.
With a high frequency [...]
Tokyo Tsure Zure Gusa
Posted in culture, living, miscellany, photography on April 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tsure Zure Gusa is the title of an old Japanese novel, translated into English as Essays in Idleness. The only idle thing about this blog is the rate of postings. Written by Tokyo’s Quinlan Faris, the blog combines interesting (if infrequent) entries about daily life in Tokyo, local politics, learning Japanese and other subjects [...]
Pure Land Mountain
Posted in culture, living, rural on April 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Pure Land Mountain is the online journal of Robert Brady, offering almost daily dispatches from the Japanese countryside. One of the founders of the wonderful Kyoto Journal, Robert’s writing is often lucid and lovely, sometimes cantankerous or just funny, but hardly ever dull. And his willingness to write unselfconsciously about topics ranging from shopping for the [...]
Alive in Kyoto
Posted in culture, living, photography on March 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Alive in Kyoto is the blog of Nils Ferry, an American father living and writing in Kyoto. On the blog, he documents daily life in Kyoto both through writing and his excellent photographs. Recent posts include video from the Kurama Fire Festival in October and the January Ebisu Festival, both quite good. And with posts going back more [...]
adekun’s japan blog
Posted in living on March 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a site that tries a little of everything, from recipes and gardening tips to beer reviews and a blog. The website’s author is a first-time father living in western Japan, trying to keep his sanity amid the asparagus and cabbages. The blog is updated a bit sporadically, but the posts are interesting, especially for [...]
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