Best of the Web '08

By Jon Wilks & Mike Oakland

For such a tech-savvy country, Japan certainly took a long time getting online.

Arriving in Japan some 9 years ago, I found the school to which I was newly enslaved floundering in the fitting of a state-of-the-art computer lab; sparkly, speedy and ready to embrace the brave new World-Wide-Web. What they hadn't taken into account was the need for a service provider, and the aging headmaster spat digits trying to locate the website they'd paid handsomely for. When a provider was finally found, they were given a limited package that allowed 5 hours of online activity a month, all of which I managed to use uploading a photo of said headmaster on the first day. The man suffered a fatal stroke shortly afterwards.

Wind forwards to February 2008, and I'm still having problems. Japanzine's annual round-up of mega bites from Cafe J-Web is an increasingly trying task, as our host country continues to produce and inspire some wonderful websites. We're so spoilt for choice, in fact, that we've had to impose ground rules. This year, we've decided to center our spotlight almost entirely on sites that offer Japan-related content in English. Sadly, that means we'll have to the drop the likes of www.monstar.fm (great for underground J-music, but only of use if you can speaka-da-lingo) and the enduringly popular MIXI (where this innocent had more sexual propositions in his first 2 years of membership than in the whole 31 years he spent in the real world).

In an attempt to inject a modicum of fun, we've decided to categorize our findings according to gaijin stereotypes. Accordingly, if you're the type that can't live without flagellating daily before a teeming screen of idoru, turn to our Otaku section and let yourself go. If, however, you're fresh off the boat and don't know which way to turn, the chevrons lead to Newbie. No need to thank us. All part of the service.

The Editor

Benkyou Fiend

"No, I don't need drugs, and you can stick your booze up your woozy derrière! I need kanji! Just a thimbleful... yeah, that's right... straight into my eyeballs and I'm gone, dude! Solid gone!!"

As respectable drones who've always managed to stay on the right side of kanji addiction, we can't pretend to understand how tightly it grips, but for those of you lost to a fickle mistress, you can do far worse than hitting up the sensational Rickaichan (www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan). Easily the best thing since the dubious wonders of Babelfish, this obliging little plugin sits nicely in your Firefox folder and gives you the kanji, meaning and reading of any Japanese text you care to roll your mouse over. Without pretending to be any kind of translator, Rickaichan acts as a super-fast dictionary for anyone yet to give over half their brain to a million dreaded hieroglyphs, making you a fully-functioning citizen of Japan in nanoseconds.

An excellent site with a range of study materials for all levels, Many Things (www.manything.org/japanese) remains the best place to go if you ever wanted to know the idiom, "Bitter enemies stuck together in the same boat by chance", and other obscurities. We're also fans of Speed Danki (www.speedanki.com). With a bunch of cool kanji flashcards, broken down by JLPT level, this site is absolutely idiot proof. Simplicity like this is tough to find these days. There's also J-Gram (www.jgram.org), an excellent collection of grammar points, sorted by JLPT level which provides a sweet alternative to expensive grammar dictionaries. Be warned: it's all based on user contributions which can be verified by anyone, like Wikipedia. But hey, Wikipedia got us through college...

Based on its street-cred, Japanzine panel judges have decided to add www.alc.co.jp to the list, despite the English-only rule. Alc is the site Japanese college students use for English class, so with a little Japanese know-how, users can make it work the other way too, with fantabulous results.

Charisma Man

Playing on former glories here, allow us to introduce a few tasty morsels for the man about town who fancies himself as something of an adonis.

The 'Pickup Artist' scene has been growing worldwide, and now there's a group in Osaka. Head for The Osaka Crew (www.theosakacrew.com) to get some tips on your game. Shell out a cool grand for a weekend Boot Camp, or just surf the forums and home-spin your own style for zero investment. If you can decode the military jargon these guys use, you're sure to boost your kino game and net yourself tons of IOI - whatever that means.

What better way to score a date than to convince those foxy J-ladies in the 20-75 year-old age bracket that you're worth paying to go out with? Join up with My Yes Man (www.myyesman.com) and the ladies will come to you. As the website suggests, you will be paid handsomely to 'go dinning together' and 'massage hot toes'. Apply at your own risk: some dates are just glorified English lessons, and the cutoff for ladies is 75 years old.

Alternatively, you may plump for an entirely different demographic, in which case you might like to sample the flesh available at J-Guy US-Guy (jguyusguy.org). Girls after girls might try Bravissima! (www.bravissima.com/english/index.html), a bilingual site that offers info and support, as well as movie listings and shopping recommendations.

Ladies and guys alike can head for SeekJapan Friends (friends.seekjapan.jp), a dating site with countless gaijin hunters for the guys. The girls are catered for, too; there are plenty of Japanese men surfing regularly - all of whom are apparently doctors and lawyers.

Food Fetishists

For a nation so worshipped by food lovers, Japan-based dining is surprisingly ill-represented on the WWW. That said, Gourmet Navigator (www.gnavi.co.jp/en/) has most of the bases covered, with a region-based guide to the finest eateries across the country. It really is bountiful in its selection, though they've yet to uncover a Japanese salad that isn't just shredded cabbage and goma dressing (but maybe that's just asking the impossible). Bento (www.bento.com) does a similarly impressive job, though its scope is limited to Tokyo and the Kansai region.

For drink, head to Sake World (www.sake-world.com), where the amiable John Gauntner has compiled all that is worth knowing on Japan's favorite tipple.

Home-Bod

The real kudos this year is with the friendly folks over at Piqniq (www.piqniq.jp). Bringing up children has never ranked highly on life's piss-easy list, so props to anyone piling on the pain by doing it in another country. Piqniq provides plentiful information on schooling, days out, jobs, travel... if you're a clueless parent with no real sense of direction, these guys will nuzzle and nurture you and buff you up into a shining example that others will applaud from afar. The blogs are useful and homely (everything from where to find a kids' gym to new birth announcements), and - most importantly - frequent. What's more, they're often published in Japanese, too - so you can idly wile away your time, justifying it as language study when someone questions your net addiction. Hurrah for Piqniq! (And so say all of us.)

Of course, the ever-useful Gaijin Pot has a decent overview for anyone bringing their brood with them (www.gaijinpot.com/family.php), though it seems to be aimed at the international resettlement crowd, rather than your average multiracial household. Not so over at UMJ (www.tabunka.org), where your attempts to internationalize from the homestead are their chief concerns (ignore the fact that their web design is as clinical as a vasectomy, they genuinely mean well).

For the broads, there's still Caroline Pover's Being a Broad (www.being-a-broad.com) which offers a combination of great advice and tasty discounts - what more could a gyaru ask for? You might want to hit up AFWJ, too; a caring site for women married to a Japanese fella - a hugely overlooked community (www.afwj.org).

Hentai Aficionado

Does the site of a big takoyaki ball with a juicy, lolling tentacle drive you wild? Does the smell of leather makes your undergarments feel 3 sizes tighter? Then these sites will sate your socially sideways passions.

Some websites are good for finding a casual date or a marriage partner, but Passion (www.passion.com) is geared towards no-strings hookups. It has a huge Japan community with plenty of members sharing interests of the abnormal persuasion. A quick glance reveals that Aomori is Japan's swinging capital; we guess there's not much else to do up there than bukkake 'til the snows melt (apologies to the easily offended, but that seems to be all they're talking about doing). Check Fleshbot (www.fleshbot.com/tag/japan/?refld=30001) for non-subscription videos of the weird Japanese variety, plus recent hentai news. Only for those of you whose obsession has reached sick and incurable levels.

If you prefer your dark fetishes disguised as 'art', check out Kari-Ssu-Mummy (kari-ssu-mummy.sub.jp). If there were an art gallery in the darkest alley of Tokyo's grungiest soapland, this stuff would almost be tasteful enough to grace its walls.

Japanophile

 In these heady days when every Tom, Dick and Rarry has a weblog (or blog, as we believe the young folk are calling them), it's hard to draw the line between well-researched Japanophilia and the ramblings of an "expert" with too much time on his hands.

One guy who certainly doesn't fall into the latter category is unwavering genius Matt Treyvaud, his No Sword page being the last word on Japanese literature and language (www.no-sword.jp). Judging by his involvement with the ever-popular Néojaponisme (www.neojaponisme.com), you have to assume his days have several more hours than we mere mortals begrudgingly contend with, but the man deserves some kind of medal for doing what he does.

Meanwhile, the rot is setting in right across the board for many of the Japan-related sites. The likes of 3 Yen may be jam-packed with J-content, but we can't help feel that all they really do is provide a means for prowling gaijin to "date Japanese girls today." If that's you, then get stuck in!

 Web Japan has a wide variety of content for the Japanophile, including stuff on fashion and family life that could fall into several other categories here (www.web-japan.org), and the very wonderful What Japan Thinks (www.whatjapanthinks.com) continues to alarm us with its completist report on, errr, what Japan thinks ("Bus tour" drops to number 8 on the list of ideal things for a Japanese man to do alone - and other compelling facts). Another site that once reveled in data is Quirky Japan; a very popular site in its day, but now looking a little dated and unloved (last update some 6 months ago). We hope to see it hitting its stride again this time next year (www.quirkyjapan.or.tv).

Japan Probe (www.japanprobe.com) is still top value for J-news of all shapes and sizes, and the lovely Mari continues to keep us informed on what it's like to be a Japanese girl living in Tokyo (though we've a feeling our description will interest male readers more than our female friends: smt.blogs.com/mari_diary/).

Incidentally, if it's blogs you tend to read over your Sutaba frappaccino, you might want to know where you can find wireless internet in your vicinity. If that's the case, head on over to Freespot Japan (www.freespot.com/users/map_e.html) where they're doing an excellent job of keeping things updated in the land where coffee shops barely last 5 minutes. If you're in need of something new to read, J-Blogs in English are nicely rounded up at the Japan Blogger Ring (www.japanbloggers.com).

Lonely Ryuugakusei

Some of us just ain't cut out for the hustlin' ex-pat lifestyle. For those of you who would rather pine for home, alone on your futon, than run the nomihodai gauntlet with your comrades, these sites will put you on familiar turf again.

Nothin' makes you feel further from home than a tiny, ¥3000 pizza with fish and mayonnaise on it. Thank god for the Pizza Hut beishiku piza. About ¥1000 for a medium and one normal topping, and it tastes just like it does everywhere else in the world! Get a good grasp of katakana and swing by this site to order one online, so you don't have to expose your hideous gaijin visage to the locals. (order.pizzahut.jp/order/).

When the Facebook messages from your friends back home have slowed to a trickle because they're moving on with their lives without you, harass them via chat with Meebo (www.meebo.com). A flash-based emulator of the most popular chat programs (Yahoo, AIM, MSN, etc.), Meebo connects you with the rest of the world even while you cry alone in a manga kissa cubicle, you pathetic weasel.

Paralyzed with fear at having to actually speak some Japanese, you're stuck at the dorm while your friends are all out getting clobbered at the hanami and hitting on desperate office ladies. While away your time at Alluc, a streaming video compilation of international TV Shows and documentaries, as well as every anime known to man (www.alluc.org).

Newbie

There can be few more disorientating experiences than stepping off a 747 at Narita Airport and realizing that you're suddenly illiterate. Finding your bearings in Japan is a tough job, which is why the likes of Gaijin Pot (www.gaijinpot.com) and Info Swap (www.japaninfoswap.com) are so useful. Both provide all the lowdown on settling into life in this country, and GP has some of the liveliest internet forums English-speaking Japan has to offer. Basically, if they're not debating it, it's probably not worth knowing about.

Our very own Seek Japan (www.seekjapan.jp) offers great resources for jobseekers, as well as people selling all kinds of stuff (someone's been slowly selling off his recording studio for the past year). Lonely hearts and friend-seekers are also accommodated, and we have some of the most eclectic and prolific bloggers out there. A selection of today's titles include Japanese Sportsmanship - the Sumo Problem, A Day in South Korea's DMZ, and something billed as My Refrigerator - which is probably as scary as it sounds. Add to that an extensive cinema, festival, and gig guides, and you've got all you need within easy grasp of your timid fingertips. New here? Get online and get over it!

Outdoor Type

Christmas 2007, and Japanzine found ourselves tottering down a picturesque and untouched piste in the Hakuba hills. Wild monkeys watched in wonder as we casually failed to impress on our umpteenth attempt at snowboarding. Still, at least we had the runs to ourselves, all thanks to some in-depth research courtesy of those tireless sensations over at Snow Japan (www.snowjapan.com). A more complete set of statistics you could not ask for. We'd recommended anyone on a snow-tip to spend a good hour over there, wading through the reviews.

Anyone in it for the waves should definitely check out Japan Surf (www.japansurf.com/public), where it's Jack Johnson and sunshine all the way. Any other uses of the great outdoors are given their dues at the indefatigable Outdoor Japan (www.outdoorjapan.com).

Otaku

You came to Japan because you thought Naruto costumes were considered fashionable here, and you're dying for a girl who will understand she ranks just below your Gundam model collection. You are a geek, and proud of it. Prepare to get your otaku on, starting with the Anime News Network(www.animenewsnetwork.com), the definitive source for the anime scoop, laid out in the 'ugly list of stuff' format reminiscent of AintItCoolNews.

Otaku web designers are apparently too busy making cosplay outfits to put a lot of thought into layout; the all-things-nerd grab bag that is Otaku Stuff (www.otakustuff.com) also adopts the ugly list style, but it's the only place to look for a touch-and-go English language geek-out, including tabs for manga, cosplay and even Japanese comedy duos. More scatter-brained madness with Danny Choo (www.dannychoo.com), but if we were nerds, we'd certainly trust Otaku news from a man who seems to spend most of his time dressed as a Storm Trooper.

If your eyes aren't bleeding from your marathon game sessions (remember to keep the lights on and sit at least 5 feet from the TV), check out RPG Land (www.rpgland.com) for the word on all the spiky-haired Final Fantasy protagonists and melon-breasted damsels you can choke down. If you'd rather pretend you are the spiky-haired protagonist, the aptly named Cosplay (www.cosplay.com) has your number.

My Anime List probably takes the cake for nerdiest thing ever conceived (myanimelist.net). This site allows you to sort and archive all the anime you've ever watched, make recommendations to other members, write reviews, and receive E-mail notifications whenever fansubs for new shows come out. It even tells you, in a running timer, how much of your life you've wasted watching cartoons. Your profile is displayed as a list of statistics, like some sort of freakish anime fantasy football.

For those of you who envy the lines of salarymen, silently using their commuting time to plug into the drone-like world of manga obsession, Ja-Press (www.japress.com) do a great line in otaku-friendly literature. Delivered via Amazon, you'll never need to leave your apaato again. You'll be living the otaku dream!

Shop-aholic

There are two major groups of ex-pats in Japan. Crazy vampire nerds who hole up in their rooms playing video games and watching anime all day, and the party-crazed types who spend the majority of their waking lives prowling the event circuit and getting hammered. There's one thing these two types have in common: sunlight is pretty much poisonous. We all know vampire nerds melt upon direct contact, and a party cat's daytime hours consist of sleep and hangover recovery, so any light that isn't neon and blinking crazily is like kryptonite. We all shrink into our caves like molemen between the hours of 9 to 8, and there's even a Japanese saying to the tune of, "During day, go out play. Sun go down, crazy foreigner eat you".

Sure these aren't the only two types of foreigners, and yes we are all beautiful, unique flowers, but for those with a certain hatred for cosmic rays or anyone just feeling lazy, cool Japanese stuff can now be found online and shipped throughout the world without ever having to step outside.

The site is GDEX (www.gdex.jp), a new online shopping mall that gives Osu Kannon a run for its money in terms of crazy, novel, or just plain cute Japanese products on the cheap. It's easily navigable and has tabs for just about any type of product you can imagine. Books and manga, kitchen appliances, games, DVDs, even stationary and office supplies are represented. There is even some apparel with Japanese kanji and hiragana printed on them. Most ex-pats have probably found that shirts with crazy Engurish on them outnumber shirts with Japanese writing 100 to 1, so here's your chance to buy some cool digs to wear back home.

The otaku in all of us can have a field day here at GDEX. There's a massive selection of games for all systems way back to the PS1. There are also computer games, and some American import games, so if there's something out back home that you just can't be without, try importing it from GDEX first.

Surfing GDEX is also an excellent way to buy last minute gifts for friends and loved ones back home. Shipping is reasonably priced and much faster than loading up a box and shipping it via mail, which can take between a few weeks and a few months and cost a lot of green. There's enough Hello Kitty for the little sis, games for little brothers, and cute kitchen/decorative stuff for mom and dad.

Picks that are sure to be popular: cheap tatami mat units, a super cheap region free DVD player, and bulk snack and drink items, all of which can be shipped directly to your Japanese apartment, or home ahead of you if you're saying goodbye to the JP soon.

New items are being made available nearly every week so make GDEX.jp a regular hit for all your import/export needs.

For more down-to-earth, non-Japanese product, check out Foreign Buyer's Market (www.fbcusa.com) or The Flying Pig (www.theflyingpig.com) for must-haves from back home. And how could we not mention The Meat Guy [www.themeatguy.jp], possibly the only site able to import a pig's head to order!

Tourist

Spring 2001, and the ubiquitous Tortoise Matsumoto is promoting travel arrangements for the Ulfuls summer festival. 5000 Hakata citizens are encouraged to punch the air and chant - in English - "GET ON THE BUS!! GET ON THE BUS!!", which they manage in perfect, surreal unison. Perhaps the most dumbfounding rock'n'roll experience Japanzine's ever witnessed. 8 years later and we're encouraging you to do the same, only this time it's the 123 Bus (www.123bus.net) we want you to gesticulate for. English versions of Japanese websites are notoriously bug-riddled, but this one genuinely seems to work. And hey, when they're offering Tokyo to Aomori for a laughably cheap ¥4800, whose quibbling? An Osaka-based nightbus company that seems to drive anywhere, these guys could probably get you back to when Ulfuls were actually cool (certainly pre-2001). They're that expansive. The site is easy to navigate, and seems to offer the best deals available; it's also the only site to do what it does in English, something of which they're justifiably proud. On the off-chance you're easily confused, however, here's an idiot's guide to 1,2,3.

Cosmic coincidence or clever marketing, there are exactly 3 steps to booking a trip on 123Bus. First: Obvious. Click in. Type www.123bus.net into your browser bar, and navigate the awesome deals 123Bus offers by destination. If this part is confusing you, trade in your loin cloth for some jeans and a Yokoso! tee and get with the times.

Second: After you've selected your destination, choose the style of bus you want to ride in. There's a pretty big variety. Pay attention, because each style has a specific time table. Prices are for one-way journeys, but still ridiculously cheap compared to standard fares. Note the handy "boarding map" button which produces...drumroll... a boarding map.

Third: Fill out the name-rank-serial number stuff. You know; payment method, phone number, personal deets, etc. Here you'll also select your disembarking point, as each destination city offers multiple stations to get off at. Click "Reserve" and your done. Hurrah!!

Much as we're loathe to include something as obvious as Wikipedia, Wikitravel has about the best advice on what to expect from the wonderful Seishun 18 Kippu service (wikitravel.org/en/Seishun_18_Ticket), a must for any train travelers who've forgotten to pick up the essential Japan Rail Pass (www.japanrailpass.net). If you're not already in the know, the Seishun service offers 5 days of unlimited train travel (not including limited express trains or faster) at a huge discount. While it's only available during school holidays, don't let its youthful orientation fool you. Anyone can make use of this offer, providing they have steel buttocks capable of withstanding hours on a local train seat. Tokyo people have been known to hit as far south as Nagasaki, though they lost all use of their legs in the process.

If you're flying anywhere, you'll want to hit up Flight Finder (www.flightfinderjapan.com) for the cheapest deals, but make sure you check the weather with the JMA (www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html) before you leave home. Jorudan (www.jorudan.co.jp/english) is still tops when it comes to scheduling your domestic travel arrangements, while Japanzine recently spent a pleasant weekend in Miyajima and found our traditional accommodation requirements best served by Japanese Guest Houses (www.japaneseguesthouses.com). For other ryokan specialists, try the Japan Ryokan Association, who have a new and detailed website presented in several fashionable languages (www.ryokan.or.jp/index_en.html).

Last but not least, the curse of the unreadable Japanese map has finally been lifted thanks to the efforts of Diddle Finger, who have English-friendly versions of Google Japan's charts over at www.diddlefinger.com. Yokatta!

Tragically Hip

One of the problems with falling into this category is that by the time you've logged onto any given site, it's like soooooo passe, darling! Here at the JZ office, we get a lot of the lowdown on the underground from Japan Onchi (japonchi.wordpress.com), a seemingly one-man blogging operation that aims to right the wrongs we've all suffered at the hands of J-Pop. Good job he's doing too, with plenty of info on Japanzine faves The Boredoms (or whatever they're called these days) and Tenniscoats, amongst others of their ilk. Keikaku (keikaku.net) still has the potential to regain the crown, though their once prodigious output is showing signs of slacking. For a very extensive but Tokyo-only exploration of Japanese music events, Tokyo Gig Guide (www.tokyogigguide.com) is the place to be.

If it's improvisation you're into (and who isn't these days, sweetie) then Yoshiyuki Suzuki's Improvised Music from Japan (www.japanimprov.com) is about as encyclopedic as it gets, though the site is so html it'll put your grandmother in mind of her first web experience.

No edition of Best of the Web can be allowed to pass without mention of the machine-like Jean Snow (jeansnow.net). When it comes to all things design and pop culture, he gives other bibles such as Pingmag (www.pingmag.jp) a serious run for their money. Either way, a daily dose of both will keep you as hip as it's possible to be. We don't usually advise mixing your drugs, but when they're of such impossibly high quality... what's a scenester to do?

We're also happy to name-drop Midnight Eye (www.midnighteye.com), who keep the flag flying for J-movies so all you groovies can appear knowledgeable and in-the-know. If anything, they could do with including a listings function - but that's missing the point, innit.

We're also big fans of the gaijin music scene, of course (see our Gaijin Sounds callout in the music section), and sometime JZ  scribe Jon Nice is cooking up a meaty little cyber-stew over at TADA Music (www.tadamusic.org), a site that hosts information on venues, events and gigs nationwide, with slight emphasis on foreign performers. It's a work in progress, but it's nice to see a site offering albums completely free of charge. All you have to worry about is finding time to listen to it all.

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