Is Tofugu the Best Humorous Blog on Japanese Culture?

by 22 Comments

The answer is no, probably not.

Still, someone kindly nominated us and we made it into the fray over at WhatJapanThinks. They are doing a “Best Japanese (culture) Blogs of the Year” poll, and we think it’d be great if you headed on over and voted. We really don’t care who you vote for; in fact, we’d love it if you took a look at the other nominees in our category. Our competition is definitely made up of cool froods who know where their towel’s at.

Best Humorous Blogs on Japan (nominees):

So what are you waiting for? Get on over to WhatJapanThinks and vote for your favorite blogs! I hope you make some discoveries of your own while you’re at it.

Update 1: On another note, we’ve made a big update to the design. It’s only about half done, but I decided to put it up because I need some help. What can we do to improve on it? What can we do to make your viewing experience more pleasant? Please comment and let us know. We actually listen (gasp?)

Update 2: Sorry for the big delay between posts. We were all in finals, but now it’s all over. Expect us to tease you with more posts than normal, only to take it away from you when we all go back to school. Ha!

Update 3: Vote or die!

  • Mathias

    Since i didn’t know any of the other blogs before I voted for tofugu. Good luck! ;-)

    I like the new design very much! Maybe you could experiment with the header background color (brownish?), but the blue as a contrast color is actually good.

    I think the left part of the header with that speech bubble and “tofugu.com” above it could be improved…in some way, i don’t know, since I’m not a webdesigner.

    Overall it’s already good as it is! Great work.

    So, while waiting for your next post I’m going to browse through those other Japan blogs.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Koichi

    Thanks for the vote and the suggestions, Mathias!

    The header area is definitely a trouble area, I was playing around with that for a long time. It definitely needs some work still

  • Mathias

    Since i didn’t know any of the other blogs before I voted for tofugu. Good luck! ;-)

    I like the new design very much! Maybe you could experiment with the header background color (brownish?), but the blue as a contrast color is actually good.

    I think the left part of the header with that speech bubble and “tofugu.com” above it could be improved…in some way, i don’t know, since I’m not a webdesigner.

    Overall it’s already good as it is! Great work.

    So, while waiting for your next post I’m going to browse through those other Japan blogs.

  • http://www.tofugu.com Koichi

    Thanks for the vote and the suggestions, Mathias!

    The header area is definitely a trouble area, I was playing around with that for a long time. It definitely needs some work still

  • http://toshogu.blogspot.com Jon

    I don’t know. That Englishman who lives in Osaka is pretty funny.

  • http://toshogu.blogspot.com Jon

    I don’t know. That Englishman who lives in Osaka is pretty funny.

  • http://surrealu.blogspot.com claytonian

    thanks for the link, suckas!

    Just kidding. You’re in my feed so you know I like you almost as much as me.

  • http://surrealu.blogspot.com claytonian

    thanks for the link, suckas!

    Just kidding. You’re in my feed so you know I like you almost as much as me.

  • Mathias

    (Sorry for the reverse double post ^^)
    In the post below substitute “something” with “someone”.

  • Mathias

    Wow, did you hire something to vote for you or something like that? ^^ j/k
    Was a big suprise to see 141 votes for tofugu (congratulations), since when i voted yesterday you had only 21.

    By the way, I like how you changed the design now. I think the lighter blue in the header section is more convenient. Also the “Tofugu.com” writing fits better as it is now, in my opinion. However, personally I liked the transition from header to content in the background better the way it was before, even though then it wasn’t even a transition, but a break with a black line. ^^ Matter of taste of course.

  • http://www.koichiben.com koichi

    Just in case any one is wondering (not so much in reply to your comment, mathias), I never asked anyone to vote for us and always asked people to look at the other blogs before voting on whichever one they wanted. I really do hope that people discover other blogs and make the Japanese blog community stronger, since it really helps all of us.

    I might be a little bit bold to say this, but what I think it comes down to, though, is that Tofugu has the best community of all the blogs. I would argue it’s even better than a lot of the bigger sites in other categories. We always have a lot of people commenting and sharing their views, and we (the writers) are always emailing back and forth with readers. I think that’s what is winning it for us right now :)

  • Mathias

    (Sorry for the reverse double post ^^)
    In the post below substitute “something” with “someone”.

  • Mathias

    Wow, did you hire something to vote for you or something like that? ^^ j/k
    Was a big suprise to see 141 votes for tofugu (congratulations), since when i voted yesterday you had only 21.

    By the way, I like how you changed the design now. I think the lighter blue in the header section is more convenient. Also the “Tofugu.com” writing fits better as it is now, in my opinion. However, personally I liked the transition from header to content in the background better the way it was before, even though then it wasn’t even a transition, but a break with a black line. ^^ Matter of taste of course.

  • http://www.koichiben.com koichi

    Just in case any one is wondering (not so much in reply to your comment, mathias), I never asked anyone to vote for us and always asked people to look at the other blogs before voting on whichever one they wanted. I really do hope that people discover other blogs and make the Japanese blog community stronger, since it really helps all of us.

    I might be a little bit bold to say this, but what I think it comes down to, though, is that Tofugu has the best community of all the blogs. I would argue it’s even better than a lot of the bigger sites in other categories. We always have a lot of people commenting and sharing their views, and we (the writers) are always emailing back and forth with readers. I think that’s what is winning it for us right now :)

  • fred

    Wow congrats on all the votes. It did just change a lot overnight. You guys have the most votes overall. Nice! As for the blog design, did you change the top again? I’m getting confused, haha. Cause I wasn’t paying too much attention as it changed. I think I like it before, the font style or something. Maybe I’m just making up things. Ha. I like how it transitions from light blue to dark blue. I need to learn how to do all this stuff. haha.

  • fred

    Wow congrats on all the votes. It did just change a lot overnight. You guys have the most votes overall. Nice! As for the blog design, did you change the top again? I’m getting confused, haha. Cause I wasn’t paying too much attention as it changed. I think I like it before, the font style or something. Maybe I’m just making up things. Ha. I like how it transitions from light blue to dark blue. I need to learn how to do all this stuff. haha.

  • http://www.gaijintonic.com Roaf

    Hey, thanks for the link, very sporting! I dig your site. I’ll stick you on my blogroll.

  • Mathias

    I must also thank you for the links now, i didn’t know any of the other sites, including WhatJapanThinks. As I browsed through them I found some very interesting stuff, which otherwise I wouldn’t.

  • http://www.gaijintonic.com Roaf

    Hey, thanks for the link, very sporting! I dig your site. I’ll stick you on my blogroll.

  • Mathias

    I must also thank you for the links now, i didn’t know any of the other sites, including WhatJapanThinks. As I browsed through them I found some very interesting stuff, which otherwise I wouldn’t.

  • Moka

    It’s maybe a bit late for the suggestions concerning the design but I’m going to post mine anyway. The cartoon characters are great for the header but how about also putting them on the sides. Like one on the left, another on the right, and lower, one on the left and at the same level another on the right.

  • Moka

    It’s maybe a bit late for the suggestions concerning the design but I’m going to post mine anyway. The cartoon characters are great for the header but how about also putting them on the sides. Like one on the left, another on the right, and lower, one on the left and at the same level another on the right.