12 Japanese IME Tips
If you’re serious about learning Japanese, I’m sure you will eventually either want to or need to be able to type in Japanese on your computer. Typing in Japanese is done with software called an IME (Input Method Editor), which allows you to type Japanese phonetically (romaji) and have the your typing automatically converted to […]
Puratto Kodama: Cheap Shinkansen Tickets
If you’re following me on Twitter, you’ll know that I recently went to Tokyo for the weekend. Living in Nagoya, I frequently get hit with the urge to get out and do something new, but one of the biggest blocks to doing so is the cost of travel. Trains are either slow (local), or expensive (shinkansen), and busses are slow and uncomfortable.
But recently I came across a very interesting deal the JR Tokai Tours offers: ぷらっとこだま (Puratto Kodama). I’m not the first to blog about this discounted ticket program, but it really is a great offer and deserves repeating, and I’ll also elaborate on things a little, since I actually tried out the program myself.
4 Major Japanese pizza chains compared
Oh the hardships, the ordeals I endure for the sake of this blog. But someone had to do it, someone had to stomach 5 whole pizzas in the course of researching a completely legitimate, informative blog post.
(Translation: Lloyd used his blog as an excuse to order delivery pizza 5 times in one month.)…
Using Pandora on a Japanese iPhone
Last fall, I purchased an iPhone 3GS through Japan’s official distributor for the device, Softbank, along with a two-year phone contract. But since my credit card is based in the US, iTunes kindly directed me to the US store for all my purchases. I was excited to download Pandora (which I had heard many great […]
My trip to a cat cafe
The other day I finally got around to visiting a place that I’ve wanted to check out for some time: a cat cafe.
No, there’s no relationship to maid cafes or anything like that. It’s not even really a place to get a cup of coffee (though they do offer a small selection food and drinks). It’s a “cafe” more in the sense of an internet cafe and the system is almost identical, except instead of a room full of computers you buy time to go into a room full of cats.
Meow, as a cat lover this was purrfectly right up my alley (sorry, but I wanted to get all the puns out of the way early), so I went to check it out one morning…
10 Great Japanese iPhone/iPad apps
I switched my provider to Softbank from
Sharemo: social sharing service
Sharemo is Japanese ingenuity at its best. It’s a new kind of website, dubbed “social sharing”, where people can list things they have but don’t need around the house, and borrow or take similarly listed items from other people across the country.
Jubeat: the most awesome game ever.
It was about one year ago that I first discovered this beautiful machine at a local ゲーセン (“game center” or arcade), and I fell in love at first sight. Those big, beautiful buttons, the soothing cyber-techno atmosphere… I felt like I was dancing in the future, with my hands. This was it. This was the music game to rule all music games, it was perfect.
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