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…

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?

Most people probably know and accept that copying rented media is illegal in the same way downloading music and films is. So it seems highly laudable that stores would start *renting* media. But in Japan, that’s just the case…

So I finally succumbed and bought a new camera in preparation for my next adventure in Japan. I very had nearly forsaken my photographic preferences for a Point and Shoot camera, but luckily at the last minute I found the wonder of the Ricoh GX100.

Dairantou Smash Brothers X! I finally got my hands on the Japanese Wii import about a week ago along with Mario Galaxy and the soundtrack I ordered from Club Nintendo. I have to confess, I haven’t even tried Mario Galaxy yet and I’ve spent time unlocking many of Brawl’s secrets ^_^;.

At long last! After tax problems and delays, I’m the proud owner of a brand new Dench’! My old electronic dictionary, a Canon Wordtank G55 broke about a month ago after I dropped my bag. I replaced it with the Casio Ex-word XD-GW9600! I’m a sucker for technology ^_^;. Check out the pictures!