Arcades in Japan

There was a time when arcades were popular in America, but they have slowly died out. To me, arcades were rare to find. Then, I went to Japan and my childhood revived and doubled! Japan has many arcades to be enjoyed by people of all ages. They have some arcades that are small and only house one type of machine/game and then there are huge arcades that go above and beyond. I'm going to talk about all the cool games you'll find in a Japanese arcade.

Anime Analysis: Sports Genre Anime

It's been a while since I've done an "anime analysis" post. Anime is not my main focus for my bog but I do love anime and manga, and I do enjoy talking about them so occasionally you'll see an anime related blog post. I didn't really give this "anime analysis" much thought until recently thanks to a few friends of mine from both sides of the spectrum.

I'm going to be casually discussing the workings of the sports genre in anime, and why you should not let one anime ruin your image of all the others (I'll be talking from personal experiences).

Budgeting a Japan Trip

One of the things I always hear from people is that they can't go to Japan because it's too expensive. It's really not that expensive if you know how to budget. I never knew how to budget until I got married. As the bride, traditionally, my parents paid for most of the wedding and its related festivities. They gave me a budget for my wedding that I had to follow and that's how I developed tricks to help me budget. I never thought to relate my budgeting experience with a trip to Japan, but I see how my budgeting method can help people get to Japan.

Eating at Gion Gyuzen

This is a restaurant recommendation if you ever go to Kyoto, Japan. When many people think of eating out in Japan, they usually think of sushi or ramen. There's more to Japan than sushi or ramen, and it would be a shame if you didn't get to experience that. I'm going to introduce a restaurant called Gion Gyuzen, an all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu and sukiyaki restaurant.

Japanese Duolingo Review

Right now is the age of using the computer and phone apps. Old methods of studying are no longer practiced as much as they used to be. I'm not very fond of phone apps myself, as I get bored with them easily. I'm the kind of person that learns best using flashcards and textbooks. I used plenty of apps to try and improve my Japanese. Some work and I still fiddle with today, and some I have left behind feeling disappointed with all the hype they received. Today I'm going to be talking about a new section of a not so new language learning app called Duolingo. Duolingo has just released their Japanese course on their app which is a big deal since their only Asian language they had before was Vietnamese. I tried Duolingo out for a week straight and have overall enjoyed my experience with it. Even though I am fond of it, it still has its flaws just like every other learning app.

Best Kobe Beef Experience

I am not a steak person at all. If my family was ever cooking steak I would either choose hamburgers or pizza instead. I never liked the texture of steak. But somethings that I've always heard was that Kobe beef melts in your mouth. So I decided to try it out for myself.

Stories From Japan: Something Sweet

My husband and I went to visit Nagano this last Japan trip for the first time. We had a lot of fun with the area that you can read here. When my husband and I visit Japan I'm usually using my Japanese to get us around or to talk to people if my husband doesn't start using his phone first. My Japanese is pretty good for getting around in Japan and making small conversation, but sometimes I do slip up and say the wrong thing. This is that kind of story.

Monkey Mountain in Kyoto

Animals are really popular in Japan for both locals and tourists. Not only does Japan have animal cafes but they have outdoor attractions that are geared towards animal lovers. I've already talked about the deer of Nara and the snow monkeys of Nagano. Now I'd like to talk about another place that I feel is a bit underappreciated, and that's Monkey Mountain in Kyoto.

Considering Where to go in Japan

Planning out a trip to Japan can be very stressful and require a lot of time. I'm here to make the process a little easier for you. I've already written a post about how to plan the trip that you can check out by clicking here. Right now I'm only talking about where you should go in Japan. I can easily tell you my suggestions but that's not going to help you. I'm going to help you figure out where you should go according to several factors that will play a big part in your trip. I got this topic idea from a reader who asked me a question similar to this, so thank you reader!!

Exploring Nara, Japan

Nara Prefecture is south of Kyoto and east of Osaka Prefecture. We'll be talking about the city of Nara today. It is an ancient city, as it used to be Japan's capital. It's a small city but still significant for it's history and tourist attractions.

When planning your trip to Japan keep in mind to stop by Nara. It's a stop on almost every guided tour in Japan. It won't require you to be there all day, probably just a few hours, so you won't have to book another hotel. Nara is a great day trip to take. To reduce travel time you'll want to travel to Nara from either Osaka or Kyoto, as those are the closest. When traveling to Nara, get off at Nara Station. From the station you can walk to the one place I'm recommending you to visit, and that's Nara Deer Park.

Snow Monkey Park in Nagano

When my husband and I were planning for our trip to Japan we had a few times on our to-do list that we have never done before. One of the things we wanted to do was to go up to Nagano to stay at an onsen (hot spring resort) and visit the Snow Monkey Park. Once we landed in Japan we stayed the night in Tokyo but headed out to Nagano in the morning by shinkansen (bullet train). We left at about 10 A.M. and arrived at Nagano station by noon.

My Favorite Shounen Manga

I previously wrote a blog on my favorite manga that are all shojo series which you can read here. I mostly read shojo manga because I get the whole story from the manga unlike the anime that usually stops short. It's the opposite for shounen series. I usually watch shounen anime and barely read the manga. Most of the shounen series involves fighting anyway so I rather just watch the action happen than look though pages. I will consider a series good if it has a great plot. If the series has no plot I just can't get into it. Since this is titled as favorites you know these series I'm about to mention have to be good because I'm super picky about shounen series.

Please keep in mind my list will only consist of series that I have read, so your favorite may not be on this list.

My Favorite Manga

A while ago I posted about keeping a manga collection which you can read about here. That led up to people asking what my favorite manga are. Now you can say I love all my manga because that's why I own them but I clearly love some more than others. I know this because there are series I tend to read over and over again without getting bored. So this list consists of manga I love, that I have read more than 20 times. There are manga that I can recommend to anybody!

Survival Japanese

You don't need to know Japanese to travel in Japan, but it sure does help a lot if you do know some Japanese (and it would be appreciated by Japanese people since some are scared of foreigners due to the language barrier). Unless you are a linguistic genius, it'll usually take people years to learn Japanese.
But what if you have an opportunity to go travel in Japan soon than later? How will you be able to learn Japanese in that limited amount of time? You can't, and that's why I'm here to tell you the survival Japanese you should remember. I did a post on the Japanese you should know if you're trying to learn but this article is going to be talking specifically about Japanese that will make or break you in Japan.

My Cosplay Experience

When you learn about anime, you learn about cosplay.

I would look up pictures from anime series on Google and would get cosplay pictures in the mix. I knew it existed but never thought I would get to experience cosplay for myself. It wasn't until 2010 that started cosplaying - when two college friends who were veteran cosplayers were talking about cosplaying from Ah! My Goddess, the first manga I ever read. It was a sign!

Trying Kit-Kats from Japan

As a child I always loved Kit-Kats. The chocolate had a distinct flavor than all the other chocolate candy. But then I went to Japan for the first time and my love for Kit-Kats deepened. I never knew Kit-Kats were so popular in Japan that they had more than 40 flavors existing. My goal is to eat as many different flavors of Kit-Kats as possible. I've eaten a few Kit-Kats before I started blogging: green tea, green tea sakura, pudding, sweet potato and brown rice tea. I recently went back to Japan and knew I wanted to add to my Kit-Kat experience, and I always look for flavors I know I can't get at an Asian market back home. Here are three Kit-Kats I discovered while in Japan.

The Difficulties of a Japanese Apartment

Living in Japan may seem fun at first glance, but there are some difficulties to it if you are not prepared enough for the big changes. Apartments are already difficult enough, as it is not yours to own which means you have to play by your landlord's rules, but I find apartments in Japan can be a bit more difficult because of the obvious language and cultural barriers (if present). I'm going to share with you the difficulties you should watch out for with apartments in Japan. This is not only for people who are renting a living space in Japan but also for people who are just visiting but using an apartment to temporarily stay with services such as Airbnb (I did a separate blog post on that topic).

Airbnb in Japan

During my stay in Japan this past November I got the chance to try out Airbnb for the first time. It was ideal as I was trying to lower the budget for the trip. I didn't know much about Airbnb but heard of a few other people using it and seemed to like it. I'm going to assume Airbnb will be different in other countries, so please only regard this article if you are interested in staying in an Airbnb in Japan. Staying at an Airbnb in Japan was an experience, not good or bad, just an experience that I have learned from.

Cherry Blossom Season in Japan

Spring is here! Where I'm from there's no spring season, just summer and a fake winter. As you can imagine I don't get to enjoy nice weather too often. So being able to experience spring in Japan was a special moment for me. Not only was the weather nice but I got the chance to see the cherry blossoms up close in a Japanese setting (I say this because the U.S. has cherry blossom trees that were gifted from Japan, but it's totally not the same). Cherry blossoms are a big part of spring in Japan, but there are many other things that come with the spring season that accompany these iconic flowers.

What Would I Miss if I Moved to Japan

I get asked some weird and random questions from people (at least they're weird and random to me). And I've expressed on my blog and in public to people that my chances of moving to Japan are slim to none due to the direction I've chosen for my life which I'm happy with. But I still get asked the weirdest questions even though I have stated several times that I will never be moving to Japan; it's just not in my cards. Well, that just doesn't seem to matter to some people because I just got asked by a friend a few days ago what I would miss the most if I ever moved to Japan.

Now, I've seen YouTubers from Japan talk about what they miss from their home country and that makes sense because they've been living in Japan for years, not knowing when they will or if they will be leaving. For someone like me who isn't living in Japan and does not plan to move to Japan, I'm not sure if I can really answer this question to the best of my ability. But today, I will try!

Note: I'm only going to mention things or places. Missing family and friends is a given if you have some kind of heart in your body.