Japan blog mini-reviews: part 1
As promised, and in the spirit of Xmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/we-respect-Jesus-in-a-Buddhist-sort-of-way, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (perhaps) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!
Neojaponisme: Reading this blog makes my brain hurt, but in a good way. I also suspect that there is some great underlying in-joke behind the site, but I just can’t quite see it. However, there’s one great article on the front page about concrete facades that you see everywhere in Japan, and which I dislike intensely, so it was interesting to learn how they came to be and how they are seen.
Japankino: It’s in German and it’s about Japanese film. Sadly, that’s as much as I can tell you about it!
News.3Yen.com: I love Taro’s use of Photoshop on the stories, and I did think that the whale hats were an example of that, but it does seem to be real! A quirky look at the lighter side of Japan. This blog always seems to be under the radar for some reason, and I feel it should be more popular than it appears to be. Maybe it’s just that I don’t see it popping up in the Google searches that I do?
Once Upon A Tokyo: A personal blog of an English teacher working in a Tokyo school, mostly featuring stories on strange or fun items found in Japan.
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Candadai Tirumalai said,
December 20, 2007 @ 22:55
Regarding your comment “we- respect- Jesus-in-a-Buddhist- sort- of way”: Despite their differences (the Buddha came from a princely family, Jesus from a more humble one), I believe they shared salient characteristics: a profound spirit of compassion; renunciation of what the world considers important, the centrality of salvation (which is seen differently in the two religions).
Taro 3Yen.com said,
December 21, 2007 @ 17:55
Hey thanks for the nice words about my news blog News.3Yen.com.
I’ll glad somebody out there even notices my “use of Photoshop” to create composite realistic photos. While you said that, “the whale hats were an example of that [use of Photoshop], but it does seem to be real.” Saaa, actually one of whale hat photos was fudged a bit. In the photo of the trainer girl, she had large, overhanging mandible angle* that I removed with Photoshop.
*A large jaw “angle” considered a huge beauty flaw by Japanese but English lacks the word to succinctly describe it. Mandibular Angle Reduction is a important plastic surgery proceedure in Japan. See:
http://www.veriteclinic.com/treatment/e_faceline/01.html