Blogs About Japan

Blogs

One of the best sources in English (and French) about Japanese game culture are the blogs maintained by expatriates or researchers on the subject. Here is a list of some I have consulted:

• Brian Ashcroft: http://kotaku.com/people/ashcraft/ - Ashcroft is one of the editors for Kotaku and writes on things Japanese. You can read only his posts here. He also posts to Culture Smash on Kotaku.
• Jean Snow: http://jeansnow.net/ - Snow is Executive Director of the PechaKucha organization and he co-wrote Arcade Mania. His blog has a category on games.
• Danny Choo: http://www.dannychoo.com/ - Choo lives in Tokyo and has a small web/TV company. He consults with Japanese companies and has a TV series culture:japan. He has a number of posts on popular culture, anime and above all dolls/figures.
• Laurence Eng: http://www.lainspotting.com/ - Eng has a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and writes about technology and otaku culture.
• Matt Alt: http://altjapan.typepad.com/ - Alt is a translator writer with a nice blog about Japanese culture. He has a games category.
• Jérémie Pelletier Gagnon is writing a column on Japanese Game Culture in the new blog Kinephanos (a French blog on cinema and popular culture).

Gaming Sites

Many gaming sites have features or columns on Japan.

• Escapist: http://www.escapistmagazine.com - they have a couple of tags that you can use to see articles related to Japan including Japanese Culture and Japanese Gaming Culture
• Kotaku: http://kotaku.com - A gaming site that has a columnists like Brian Ashcroft who cover Japan (see above.)
• Culture Smash: http://kotaku.com/culturesmash - A thread of posts on Kotaku about Japanese pop culture. "Culture Smash is a daily dose of things topical, interesting and sometimes even awesome—game related and beyond."
• Gamespot: http://asia.gamespot.com/ - Gamespot has an Asia blog.

General Sites

Another source of information are general information sites for tourists. Many of these started as blogs, but now have multiple contributors. Here are some with useful articles:

• Japan Zone: http://www.japan-zone.com/ - A web site with information for people visiting Japan. It includes short articles on Japanese culture.
• Japanator, the otaku's companion: http://www.japanator.com/ - A companion to Destructoid that has news and features about games, anime, cosplay and so on.
• T-ONO (The-O Network Online): http://www.t-ono.net/ - A site dedicated to the Japanese content industry.