Gakuranman.com – illuminating Japan

Alrighty then. It’s high time I announced the winners to my recent competition with Flutterscape! There were a great selection of insightful entries with advice on how to best learn a foreign language which made it really tough to choose the best, but it had to be done. See below if you’re getting goodies from [...]

Flutterscape. What a marvellous idea. I wish I’d thought of it myself. Japan is packed to the brim with unique and tasty goods and usually the only way you’ll get your hands on them is through a Japanese friend or one of those dubious-looking companies.

Last July I hosted the immensely popular ‘Weird things about Japan‘ blogging festival. This time, in celebration of the new focus on Gakuranman.com, I’m holding the Spring matsuri on the topic of ‘Secret Japan‘. I want you to let me in on your hidden dirty little secrets!

How has social media and blogging affected the way companies market in Japan? In this article, I take a look at Consumer Generated Media (CGM) and the way blogs have been utilised by several companies to improve their public relations and then go on relate it to the wider context of marketing in Japan.

Free Japanese resources are plentiful on the internet, but have you ever wondered if you are getting the most out of them? While studying Japanese and working as a translator I’ve found a lot of great tools. So here’s Gakuranman’s top 5 picks for the best online dictionaries for Japanese-English translation!

Alrighty folks and folkesses! You might have been wondering what all this fuss is about with the launch of Twitter lists. What? You haven’t?? Why then you m’boy have been sleeping under a rock! Here’s the top Japan and Japanese-related people to follow on Twitter in a one handy list!

Oh yes! Finally we get information about the highly anticipated Olympus micro 4/3 camera offering. All the benefits of a DSLR camera encased within the pocket-sized goodness of a compact body. It looks like this summer may turn out to be extremely expensive…

Oh yes old chap. I’ve only gone and entered myself into the devilishly hot Japansoc Poken Contest, haven’t I? I was feeling a little tired of typing, so I threw together a rather fine montage for you on Youtube!

Fine Orient is an e-commerce site primarily focused around Japanese goods, particularly women’s kimono, but also has a large range of oriental goods, such as Chinese calligraphy, handbags and purses, japanese gifts and even some luxurious oriental-themed women’s nightwear, pyjamas and pyjama sets!

Yesterday at 1am I was up and donning my black gakuran to attend the second J-blogger conference. Wonky Tofugu’s Koichi hosted the conference on the popular live video learning platform Edufire. The focus was on the fantastic group of people that blog about all things Japanese.

It’s that time of year again where we all start to get the Christmas feeling, and Nintendo Japan is as early as the rest of them with their latest batch of lovely members-only gifts. Last year included a Platinum Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, a Super Famicom-shaped Wii controller and a calendar.

Another deep sea creature-related post that vaguely sings of bioluminescence. Behold! No longer is your USB key bound to those boring plastic cases! Accessorise your keys with a squid. And not just any squid – a Firefly Squid. I wonder if it glows blue when you plug in its tentacles?