As explained in my blog post earlier this year about my Twitter experience as a blogger I wasn’t a fan of the now super popular micro-blogging and social networking phenomenon that Twitter has grown to become now. But for about a year now I have embraced and grown to find Twitter useful with it’s reward being a place in the top five of my myriad of Firefox tabs.
Though not necessarily my personal top 10 but more like a biased list or sampling of people who make Twitter updates I find interesting enough to think my blog readers, no matter the reason for your interest in Japan, may also find interesting enough to follow. I went for a mixture of users covering all things related to Japan, like, anime, life in Japan, photography, Japanese language study, quirky stuff, news updates, Japan travel and more. Leave a comment with your twitter name and one Japan related user you recommend we follow after checking out my 10 must follow Japan related Twitter users (in no particular order) below:
10 Must Follow Japan related Twitter Users
1. @rainbowhill
Brett is a very cool Ozzy who is passionate about teaching Japanese and Japanese culture. He is one of the most popular teachers on Edufire and he compliments his great lessons with Japanese language and culture blog called Rainbow Hill Language Lab and very useful tweets on Twitter.
2. @shibuya246
Shibuya246 is another twitter user with an awesome blog. It seems living in Shibuya for a couple decades have resulted in a Rilakkuma (Relax Bear) obsession. His photo laden blog posts offer an excellent peek into the metropolis that is Tokyo as he blogs and tweets about events, Japanese culture, news, food and so much more.
3. @japansoc
Japansoc is a Digg style, Japan themed social networking website that I am a big fan of. The official Twitter profile of Japansoc keeps users abreast of the upcoming and top stories currently on Japansoc.com so that you can easily click through directly to that story and vote/comment on the item if you find it interesting enough.
4. @chrisgaunt
Chris Gaunt is fellow Japan enthusiast who I have been following for as long as I have been active on Twitter. He is one of my favourite Twitter users mainly because of how his story has developed in the last year or so. He moved to Japan with nothing but savings with the intention to get a job and live in Japan, after following his story from his arrival in Japan to almost running out of money to finding a job to now steadily improving his life in Japan.
5. @learnkanji
Most fans of Japan at some point decide to learn Japanese. Some are disciplined and make quick progress while learning while some are like me whose road to Japanese language proficiency is bumpier than a roller-coaster fueled by procrastination. Following LearnKanji is allowed me to glance at a few Japanese words every now and again as the tweets contain the kanji, hiragana, romanji and English reading for all the words posted.
6. @ricoart
Rico is a Japanese artist who has lived and worked in Jamaica for over 20 years. She attended art school in Jamaica and he fascination with and love forΒ Jamaican culture shines through in her artwork. I met her personally just by chance earlier this year while on my way to meet Morimoto-san and plan to do a interview type blogpost on Rico in the near future.
There is a wealth of Japan related travel websites available but none offers personal advice (for free) and allows travelers planning trips to Japan to direct questions to seasoned Japan travelers or expats living all over Japan. At Midday every Friday (Japan standard time) Twitter users may direct questions to the JapanDiscovered co-coordinators by simply adding the #JapanTravel hastag to their tweets. I often time follow the conversation on twitter and I know this will be a valuable resource for when I can finally make that trip to Japan I have been planning for what seems like forever a reality.
8. @JapanNewbie
Don’t let his Twitter name fool you, Harvey is no Japan newbie. Having spent many years in Japan he has returned to the States having conquered the Japanese language and is now going to graduate school. I have been following Harvey since he has been in Japan and now that he has left he still blogs and tweets about Japan, his experiences there, language learning tips and projects he is working on.
9. @dannychoo
The god father of Otaku blogging for an English speaking audience. Danny Choo is well known as one of the most popular bloggers blogging about his life in Japan and Japanese subculture mainly figures, games, cosplay and anime I am inspired by his story and how he has focused on a goal and climbed the ladder to achieve it. His blog is somewhat inspiring and I have been a reader of it for many years.
10. @JapanMike
I originally became aware of Mike after discovering some great photographs he took while in Japan teaching English for a year. Since then he has returned to the UK, started studying Japanese seriously and is now back in Japan attending College. I like Mike’s sense of humour while writing and making videos about his Japan related experiences.
Who do you recommend?
Feel free to leave a comment with your twitter name and one user who you enjoy following their updates on Twitter. If the feedback is good enough I’ll edit this post and add 5 of the Japan related ones recommended along with the Twitter user-names of the persons who recommended them.
Follow Me on Twitter
If you haven’t done so already register for Twitter,Β Follow me to read random useful (and not so useful) crap about what I am doing, reading, feeling, listening, hating, loving or killing and join in my celebrations as I close in on 5000 tweets and 1000 followers.
Caribbean List and Jamaican TweetUP
I am also thinking about doing a similar list for Jamaican and/or Caribbean Twitter users in the future. @GordonSwaby and I are also planning a local TweetUP on December 20th if we can drum up enough support. I’ll make a separate blogpost on that in another week or two.
[japan]
Thanks for including JapanSoc. One of my all-time favorite Japan-themed tweeters is… @Jamaipanese!
thanks Nick! ^^
We got all your anime and movie reviews straight from Japanland! I reccommend http://japancinema.net
@ http://twitter.com/japancinema
awesome website. I need to check it out it’s been a little while
Seriously, I don’t follow any Japan-related bloggers except you http://twitter.com/Jamaipanese I love Japan and all the things relating to it, but I’m not so crazy about it, so you’re my only source and I get what I need here, hehe [jamaica]
I hope I prove to be a reliable source ^^
You need to pick yourself a copy of rosetta stone, and hopefully you will master japanese. But you are right, it’s a hard language to learn.
Thanks for including shibuya246 and the mention of rilakkuma as well. we are very happy. I just stumbled this page as a useful resource on SU. Catch you on Twitter later. π [jamaica]
you more than deserve to be on this list. Thanks for the stumble!
Aww, you even saved the best till last! [smile]
Nice list of Japan related content providers. SU and RT!
Ndeed. Have been following for some time now…
Thanks for the mention Kirk! One of the most interesting things about blogging is meeting folks and sharing things. It’s always good to see how those relationships develop. Keep up the good stuff.
Thanks for these great resources! I also follow:
@gaijinpot
And please feel free to follow me, a novelist who writes about Japan and an American singer who sings in Japanese at:
@Wendy_Tokunaga
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Twitter – whats that – LMFAO!!!! Thanks for the info, should make for some fun times [anime]
Good list! So hard to pick just a few, let alone just one… I’d add @gakuranman, @tokyotimes, @dosankodebbie, @tokyotopia for starters.
Hope you’re feeling better, @jamaipanese!
@sandrajapandra [japan]
Cool list! I love Danny Choo!
And @jlist for random stuff about anime and Japan. Not so useful for people who live here already, of course.
dude, sounds like you need to make a top 100 list!
Good list! At least two of them are in my top 10 π
Thanks for the list. I started studying the Japanese language and culture earlier this year. This list is a huge help to me.
What about @nihongoup? ^^
I’d recommend @Yongfook and @Andy Heather!
What I enjoy about a list like this is that it encourages dialogue, unlike a simple #FF mention. It’s good to hear the reasons why people find others interesting. My post “7 J-bloggers far from Japan” was only 6 months ago but sometimes feels like an eternity with the way retweets and lists and follow friday have changed the way people use twitter. I’m glad my network is still growing with heaps of cool tweeps!
Cool! I’m going to go check them out and follow them. BTW while I really like your portmanteau (jamaipanese) and I totally support your goal, I think “jamapanese” would have been even cooler.
My first thought was to mention @Wendy_Tokunaga, who I see mentioned herself in the comments already. So I’ll add one more: @Hiroko_Tabuchi, a New York Times writer in Tokyo.
My handle is @JapanIntercult
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