Japan on the Web
By James Hadfield
The following guide is intended to help you get the most out of the web while you're here in Japan. It's by no means definitive but, hey, there's only so much web surfing a guy can manage before he starts to get a weird tingling sensation around the back of his eyes and a mild sense of nausea. While you'll probably be familiar with some of these sites, we hope you'll run into a few new faces, too. Oh, and if you already know all of them, maybe you should consider going outside and reminding yourself what the sun looks like, eh?
Art & Design
It's a tough job keeping abreast of the movers and shakers in Japan's art and design world, but PingMag does it with aplomb. Featuring in-depth interviews with the hottest names in the biz, this is one of the coolest sites around, period. Among their regular contributors is terrifyingly prodigious blogger Jean Snow, who has been keeping the Tokyo design beat covered for a few years now. And pretty bloody good he is at it, too. Don't forget Shift Japan, either: the art-minded e-zine marks its tenth anniversary this year. To find out what's on around the capital, make a beeline for the bilingual (and pretty bloody brilliant) Tokyo Art Beat. And for the lowdown on what people are wearing around the capital (well, the fashionable ones, at least), ch-ch-check Japanese Streets.Blogs
These days it feels like there are more blogs than Internet users, and we make no pretense that the following are a definitive sample. Still, you've gotta start somewhere, eh? Some of the most enlightening ones are multi-blogger efforts such as Japundit and Japan Probe, which devour, dissect and debunk the latest news stories – while making ample space for less highbrow concerns, naturally. Mutantfrog Travelogue offers similarly wry commentary with a more overtly political slant and a more pan-Asian focus. If you can't be assed reading – well, some of those bloggers can be awfully long-winded, can't they? – then check out the podcasts, mainly of political commentary, at Trans-Pacific Radio.As blogs go, they don't get much more charming than Mari's diary at Watashi to Tokyo. I think “skewed” is the word... Actually, that's an appellation best reserved for MasaManiA, which educates the world with “fucking photo & poor English you never seen at boring CNN, Time or major sophisticated jurnalism [sic].”
Néomarxisme offers some of the most incisive critiques of Japanese pop culture you could ask for, albeit leavened by a commendable appetite for kitsch and 80s nostalgia. He's constantly coming to blows with itinerant indie pop intellectual Momus, whose Click Opera blog probably couldn't say a bad word about Japan even if it tried.
This being Japan and all, there are innumerable online shrines to the country's cornucopia of kitsch. Among the better ones are Danny Choo, TV in Japan, Plastic Bamboo and JapanSugoi.
Classifieds
When you just can't convince any of your friends to take that pristine mustard yellow sofa of yours off your hands, it's heartening to know that there is a wealth of online classified services available to help you find a sucker who will. There's our own Seekjapan, of course, while Gaijinpot also has a well-frequented classifieds section that covers the whole country. Tokyo residents should check out the listings over at Metropolis and Tokyo Notice Board, while folk in the West are covered by Kansai Scene and the defiantly low-tech Kansai Flea Market.Communities
A lot of fuss was made when MySpace revealed last year that it was starting a Japanese version of their insanely popular social networking site. MySpace Japan is still in Beta version, so we may have to wait a little while to see if it can topple the reigning champ, Mixi. It isn't the only new contender, either: Korean heavyweight Cyworld has also set up shop in Japan. If all those Japanese-only interfaces are giving you a headache, though, look no further than Asoboo, a site that's come along leaps and bounds since we mentioned it in last year's internet round-up.Piqniq.jp is billed as “Japan's First Family Network” and is targeted specifically at English-speaking families living here. Meet other families, talk shop and share advice about how to get the most out of life in Japan – nice. (Incidentally, anyone who can’t live without Japanzine or the Internet, check out our communities on both MySpace and MIXI, and bring your obsessions together under one geek-colored umbrella.)
Food
The quickest way to a Japanese person's heart is via their stomach... wait, I'm getting my clichés mixed up again. Anyway, when you're in Japan (check) and you've gotta eat (check again), waddle on over to the Tokyo Food Page. It's got listings for 1000s of restaurants in Tokyo and – site name be damned – Kansai, along with stacks of recipes and articles. There's plenty more of the latter to be found at About: Japanese Cuisine. On the listings front, Gourmet Navigator serves up some appallingly translated nuggets from its popular Japanese site, though you'd probably do better to join Asoboo and check the user recommendations there.Jobs
If you're looking for a new job, you don't have to look far these days: the web is positively teeming with job sites, aimed at everyone from the eikaiwa mob to big shot corporate types who make more in an hour than you scruffy lot manage in a whole week.Pretty much everyone knows Gaijinpot, and not without reason: at any one time it's got hundreds of job listings available, albeit mainly for teaching jobs. If that's the kind of thing you're after, you might want to sign up for the long-running O-Hayo Sensei newsletter, and also take a sneaky peek at the listings on Jobs in Japan and Job Seek Japan. The latter also runs a lot of IT-related postings. Oh, and don't forget Seekjapan, eh?
There's been such an explosion in online teacher-student matching services that you can't help wondering who actually uses some of them. The godfather of them all, of course, is FindaTeacher.net, currently home to over 1200 sensei, teaching some 56 different languages. Anyone fancy learning Zulu...? You can also pimp your mother tongue at the long-running SenseiBank, or try your luck with one of the others like Hello Teacher, EigoPass, FindStudents.net, Orangutan English or a-kaiwa.net.
There's more to working in Japan than teaching, of course, which is where the more high-end job sites come in, offering rich pickings for bilingual professionals and professional blaggers alike. Daijob.com is one of the biggest, and – just for good measure – throws in a whole heap of handy advice for job seekers. There's more of the same at the ACCJ's Ecentral, CareerCross and JobDragon.
On a more general bent, there's always The Japan Times Career – a weird moniker if ever I heard one – and Tempstaff Universal. Last but not least, some of the most random jobs imaginable pop up on tokyo craigslist – just keep your wits about you while you're there.
Learning Japanese
Feeling lonely as you hunch over those textbooks? Head to TheJapanesePage.com and find one of the web's most lively communities of Japanese learners. Lots of information, including a new kanji database that – while still a work in progress – is shaping up very nicely. JGram is great, too: a user-driven database of Japanese grammar that also offers a free, graded “Grammar a Day” e-mail service.You have to admire the folks at nihongo.fm's dedication to the cause: they're offering a free, 24-hour radio service for Japanese learners. There's also an MP3 store, at which users can purchase bite-sized lessons for 35 cents a pop. On a similar tip, JapanesePod101.com provides free daily podcasts for nihongo students, ranging in level from survival phrases to all-Japanese audio blogs. Paying subscribers also get lesson materials to accompany each broadcast and (for Premium types) access to the site's Learning Center.
Meguro Language Center rather generously provides lots of downloadable study materials, including past JLPT papers. Have a rummage through Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials, too: there are lots of good tools here, especially for learning vocabulary. Very informative Links section for other study sites, too. I'll stop here, shall I...?
Kanji
Pretty much everyone bitches about them, but you've got to knuckle down and learn the buggers sooner or later. Fortunately, there are dozens of kanji study tools out there. Kanji-A-Day.com presents users with a new kanji character each day, graded according to the level of the JLPT for which they're studying. The Kanji SITE has everything you need to drill all the characters for Levels 2 to 4 of the JLPT. Ice Mocha is a fearsomely powerful kanji and vocabulary learning tool that still confuses the hell out of me. Sure you'll fare better, though. If not, use the altogether more low-tech Speedanki.com's kanji flashcards.LGBT
JguyUSguy is a huge bilingual site “for Japanese and non-Japanese seeking fun, friendship and maybe more” (ooh, how coy!) – now with audio and video chat services, to boot. Other online gay communities include the venerable GayNet Japan and Kiss Japan.GayJapanNews is aimed primarily at Japanese speakers, but also has some English-language content. Although there doesn't seem to be much going on at Bravissima! these days, it's got some useful resources for lesbian and bisexual women. Oh, and there's nothing remotely LGBT about it, but what the heck: swing by Love Piece Club for quality, female-friendly sex toys.
Movies
Midnight Eye is still the best place to go for your Japanese cinema fix. Opinionated and unashamedly highbrow reviews of movies both new and old, plus interviews with some of the industry's prime movers and shakers. For news and links to reviews of the latest flicks, look to Ryuganji or the more Asia-centric Twitchfilm and Kung Fu Cult Cinema. The Internet Movie Database's coverage of Japanese movies and TV dramas has improved markedly over the past couple of years, and should now be able to answer most of your pub quiz questions. Failing that, JDorama.com is a goldmine of tarento trivia, compiled by people who are scarily into this kind of thing. Finally, if it's just listings you're after, look no further than Seekjapan.jp for a complete guide to what's on in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Kansai areas.Music
It's quite telling, perhaps, that the healthiest J-Pop fansites out there are in Spanish (see especially www.yumeki.org). Slimmer pickings for English speakers, sadly. Wade through the distinctly 1990s interface and there are regular J-Pop news updates and reviews galore on J!-ENT. Nippop is badly in need of an update, but it's still a handy one-stop shop for information on Japanese music, J-Pop or otherwise. For a more zealously underground approach, try Simon Bartz's Badbee, Keikaku or the long-running Rock of Japan.If you just want to listen to this shit, the iTunes store and MySpace are both obvious places to start. JapanFiles.com is doing a commendable job of selling obscure Japanese indie acts – including JZ faves TsuShiMaMiRe and mothercoat – to the outside world. There are also some pleasing sounds to be found on European label Sonore's site and Internet radio station Cosmosmile – possibly now defunct, though there's loads of good stuff archived there.
News
Japan's English-language dailies seem to have one thing in common: really horrid websites. The Japan Times loses points for requiring users to register in order to access material more than one week old, though it looks like a work of exquisite elegance compared to the oh-so-clunky sites for The Asahi Shimbun and The Daily Yomiuri. MSN-Mainichi INTERACTIVE isn't any prettier to look at, but it's a lot more fun – especially the downright essential WaiWai section, translating the best of the gutter press into English.Japan Today lets users have their say about all the news items posted, making for some frequently inane but invariably entertaining discussions. Most Japan-related stories from major sources end up at News On Japan, or you could snatch your news straight from the proverbial horse's mouth at Kyodo News.
Reference
As with most anything else, if you're looking for information on Japan then Wikipedia is the place to start. More traditional ports of call such as Japan Guide and Japan Reference seem a bit old hat in comparison, though they're still worth a look, especially if you want some forum action or travel tips. The drab frontpage of Web Japan hides a wealth of good content, including online magazines, facts and statistics and special interest sites like Kids Web Japan. Don't get put off by the oh-so-1990s, hotlink-driven interface of Japan Visitor either: it's a treasure trove of information. The Foreign Press Center Japan's 'Media Resources' section also contains some interesting facts and figures. One of our favorite sites for random tidbits, though, is What Japan Thinks, where a slew of opinion polls – ranging from the pertinent to the downright perverse – are translated into English.Regional
Naturally, some of the best places to start when you're searching for regional information are the erstwhile English-language publications dedicated to each area of Japan (see below). Being the center of the universe... er, capital of the country, Tokyo is amply catered for in web world. Get the definitive hipster's overview of the city at Superfuture or Gridskipper. Down the road in Yokohama, you can sit back and let the folks at Yokohama Living show you the ropes. In Kinki's capital, the place to go is BikeClub, which probably isn't lying when it proclaims itself “The Definitive Guide to the Osaka Underground.”Shopping
A pat on the back to HMV: not only are they continuing to outclass Amazon Japan in the English language interface stakes, but they also offer an English mobile site now, plus WMA/ATRAC3 downloads. For more in the latter vein, there's always the Japanese iTunes Store. The new, Tower Records-affiliated Napster Japan finds space in its heart for users of DoCoMo and AU phones, though apparently not for English speakers. Boo. GDEX sells imported and domestic video games, plus all manner of peripherals and what-have-you. Scroll down the top page for English language guidance.Literary types will probably want to try the aforementioned Amazon, indifferent English interface or not. If you want second-hand tomes, Tokyo's The Blue Parrot now has an online bookstore, while the long-running Infinity Books is also still going strong.
The Foreign Buyers' Club has the most extensive selection of imported goods, including groceries, books, pharmaceuticals and more. If your nearest Costco is a few hundred miles away, don't despair: The Flying Pig can get what you need and ship it to you. On the subject on pigs... He may have killed Babe, but don't hold it against him: The Meat Guy is your go-to chappo for everything from steak to Steppan cheese. Earth mother types need look no further than the Tengu Store at Alishan Organic Center.
Special Interest
Debito Arudou was all over the papers again last month, kicking up a stink over the controversial Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu mook. His website, Debito.org, is a mine of information for social activists and Average Joe foreigners living in Japan. His step-by-step guide to handling random ID checks by the police is a time-worn classic.Recently discovered Nikkei Resources, which is very interesting indeed: a vast encyclopedia focusing on Japanese migrants and their ancestors.
Sport
Baseball
Japan's most popular sport has more than a few avid supporters online. JapanBall.com offers a good overview, while the latest news is available at Japan Baseball Daily, a site whose design apparently hasn't been updated since 1995. If you prefer to enjoy your sport in the form of colossal data dumps, meanwhile, JapaneseBaseball.com is the place to be.Football
Japanese footie fans have had slim pickings since Football (Japan) Lost in Translation shut up shop last summer. I'm inclined not to trust any site that calls the Beautiful Game “soccer”, but if you're cool with that then head to Jsoccer.com and the J-League pages of Soccerphile for blog-style news updates. The J. League Official Site may not be flash, but it does everything you'd expect it to.Outdoor Sports
Outdoor Japan has so many plates spinning, you wonder how they manage it. Loads of info on pretty much every outdoor sport imaginable, plus more general travel-related stuff and articles from their excellent print magazine. Surfers should try that, or else go to the small but perfectly formed Japansurf.com. Snow Japan, meanwhile, is a one-stop shop for all your winter sports needs: daily snow reports, detailed guides to resorts throughout the country, lively forums and way more besides. Just bookmark it now – you'll appreciate it come next winter. Finally, Japan Cycling Navigator is a disarmingly lo-fi guide to getting around the country by pedal power.Sumo
The team at Sumo Talk just can't seem to get enough of watching flabby guys in nappies take each other down. All the “Expert Sumo Analysis” promised, and then some. The updates at Sumo Fan Magazine don't come as regularly, but they're pretty nice when they do. Head to SumoForum.net and tell the world what a wuss you think Asashoryu is, or get the official deets from the Japanese Sumo Association's decent English site.Other Sports
From the brains behind Outdoor Japan, the new Golf in Japan site has information on courses throughout the country, plus an online reservation system. The Fitness Japan webzine has occasional articles on how to burn those calories, plus a slightly buggy but still useful Fitness Center search engine covering the whole of Japan.Technology
Unleash your inner nerd and let him salivate over the hottest gear at Akihabara News. In-depth news, reviews and even occasional HDTV broadcasts – well, would you expect anything less from a bunch of unabashed otaku? Digital World Tokyo casts an insouciant gaze over the latest technology news, while Wireless Watch Japan gives a rather more po-faced take on happenings in the world of mobile content.Translation
You'll probably need at least a rudimentary level of Japanese in order to take full advantage of the translation tools available on the web. Jim Breem's WWWJDIC remains the industry standard for online Japanese dictionaries, complementing a massive database of entries with neat functions like the handwritten kanji search feature. Rikai uses the same database to help users decipher webpages: just input some text or a URL into the window, then drag the cursor over words to get a pop-up reading and translation. POPjisyo does a similar thing, with pop-ups that are a little slower but rather more attractive. If you're using Firefox, go one better and download the Rikaichan plugin to get all this built into your browser.The interface is all in Japanese, but there are some useful dictionaries on Yahoo. The person who cannot speak Japanese had better make Babelfish which there was of good translation. For something mildly more intelligible, try Infoseek's translator. The dictionary at Internet portal Space ALC is also very handy, in that it can translate phrases as well as individual words. Well, on a good day at least.
Travel
Some of the sites mentioned elsewhere in this guide are venerable fonts of wisdom when it comes to travel, too. If you're planning a trip, or just looking for inspiration on where – anywhere – to go, be sure to stop by at Japan Guide and Japan Reference. The latter actually claims to be “the most extensive online travel guide of Japan in English,” which is both pretty much impossible to verify and also quite possibly true. Outdoor Japan is another good 'un, with regional guides and even an online booking service for accommodation.When it comes to places to stay, Japanese Guest Houses is still the one to beat: they have over 550 ryokan on their books, and an online reservation system for booking at all of them. Though probably not at the same time. There are a range of other English-language hotel booking sites out there, none of them particularly comprehensive. Try a few of the following, though, and you should hit paydirt: the discount-toting Asia Hotels, Rakuten Travel's English site, Japan Hotels Online, JapanHotel.net and Accommodations Japan. Cheapskates can rest safe in the knowledge that the International Tourism Center of Japan has got them covered.
Randy Johnson's 'Favorite Getaways in Rural Japan' makes up for what it lacks in sheen with an almost overwhelming abundance of advice for travelers looking to experience the “real Japan.” The officially-sanctioned Japan, meanwhile, is safe and well at the Japan National Tourist Organization, which seems to have been given a rather tasty overhaul since the last time I checked it.
FlightFinder Japan comes in handy when you're desperately scrabbling around for a cheap flight out of the country. A number of travel agencies in Japan also have English-language websites, among them IACE, No.1 Travel and A'cross Travellers Bureau.
Oh, and when you just need to get from A to B, Hyperdia is still the best online route finder. See also: Jorudan.
Video
A few years ago, internet video seemed like the most awesome thing ever – hell, we even briefly tried it ourselves. While you've got to admire the tenacity of old stalwarts like TokyoDV, it's hard to compete in a world in which YouTube exists. At the time of writing, a search for “Japan” yields 131,000 results – half of which will probably have been removed on the orders of NHK by the time you read this. Bets are off as to how the newly launched Spinshell TV will fare in this climate, but it's off to a good start. Tokyo's first all-English video channel, it cobbles together music vids, documentaries and the like. Oh, they've got a more text-centric city guide, too, but... hey! Internet video!When Paper Just Won't Do...
Japan's English-language publications, online.The Asahi Shimbun – www.asahi.com/english/
Avenues – www.avenuesmagazine.com
The Daily Yomiuri – www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/
Fukuoka Now – www.fukuoka-now.com
The Hiragana Times – www.hiraganatimes.com
Japan Echo – www.japanecho.co.jp
J@pan Inc – www.japaninc.com
The Japan Times – www.japantimes.co.jp
J Select – www.jselect.net
Japanzine – www.seekjapan.jp/japanzine
Kansai Flea Market – www.kfm.to
Kansai Scene – www.kansaiscene.com
Kansai Time Out – www.japanfile.com
Kateigaho International Edition – http://int.kateigaho.com
Kyoto Journal – www.kyotojournal.org
Metropolis – http://metropolis.co.jp
The Nikkei Weekly – www.nni.nikkei.co.jp
Outdoor Japan – www.outdoorjapan.com
Tokyo Journal – www.tokyo.to
Tokyo Notice Board – www.tokyonoticeboard.co.jp
Weekender – www.weekenderjapan.com
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