Japan on the Web

Every Spring Japanzine magazine announces its Best of the Web, a list of Japan-related blogs, forums and websites. Readers are invited to submit websites (either their own or someone else’s) for inclusion on the Japanzine website’s voting list and, although I suspected this list was simply an excuse to get people to become members of the site, I joined and submitted Big On Japan anyway.

When the 2007 list was published in this month’s Japanzine my suspicions were confirmed - most of the sites submitted on the voting list weren’t featured in the final Best of the Web list, including (boo hoo) Big On Japan. In fairness, James Hadfield (the guy who compiled the final list) made some good selections, but I thought there were some omissions that should have been included from the voting list.
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Photos of Osaka’s Korea Town

Following my article about Tsuruhashi here are more photos from my recent visit to Osaka’s ‘Korea Town’. While uploading my photos onto Flickr I also found these good Tsuruhashi photos from another user.

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Beer vocabulary and measurements in England, Australia and America

As the world’s most popular alcoholic drink, beer has countless variations of taste, strength, colour, price and ingredients around the globe. In addition, there are thousands of beer brands, numerous sizes and types of container or vessel it’s sold in, and a wealth of beer-related vocabulary. Even among England, Australia and the US – three countries that share a common language and a great many cultural similarities – there are some surprising differences when it comes to ordering a beer.
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Ume (plum) blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto

Now that it’s March hopefully Spring’s just around the corner. While cherry blossoms are famous for heralding the start of Spring in Japan, plum blossoms actually come out a little earlier.