Mixi.jp is Japan’s number one social networking site, much like America’s Myspace or Facebook. To get in, you have to be invited by someone who is already a member, which thankfully helps to make Mixi a lot less sketchy than Myspace (though I guess that doesn’t take much effort). I’ll be giving out invitations for people to join Mixi, but not yet! Just because you are American (or European), doesn’t mean you can get in, raise your profile flag and name the site as your own. Before you get an invitation to mixi, you have to learn Mixi’s culture. It is surprisingly different from Facebook, Myspace, or any other social networking site, and in order to be accepted into the community, you’ll have to know a few things before getting your digital feet wet.
What is different about Mixi?
- Everyone is Paranoid: The most important thing to know about Mixi is that nobody wants to be your friend. That is, the folks who use Mixi listened to their parents, and will often refuse to talk to strangers. I feel like this is quite different from Myspace, and even Facebook. When I first got Mixi, I joined a community (which you will learn about later) for everyone who went to the high school I went to in Japan. I thought I would add some people I didn’t know (but who went to the same school as me). I thought this was reasonable. I have a decent amount of “friends” on Facebook from high school or college that I’d never formally met, but still added because we shared a common educational experience. Although most people were nice about it and added me, I got a handful of people who refused my Mixi friend offer saying they didn’t know me personally, so I should stop pestering them, or something to that extent. I suppose the best way to learn is to make mistakes.
- Centered around Journal Writing: In a sense, Mixi is somewhat similar to Livejournal in that a lot of it is centered around journal writing. When you write a journal entry, all of your added friends see it on their front profile pages. Many of them read it and comment on it too. I know several people who are absolutely addicted to this feature and will get a little bit restless if they can’t read their Mixi journal articles on a regular basis.
- Communities are Big Big Big: Another big part of Mixi is their communities. Unlike Facebook groups, people are often active members. Communities don’t usually have silly names, and anything written in the community is relayed to your front page, which keeps you on top of things (as long as you don’t join too many big communities). Joining a communities might be a good way to make friends as well.
What you should know before joining Mixi:
- Everything is in Japanese: If you are just starting to learn Japanese, it won’t be easy stumbling around the controls and setting up a profile (not to mention meeting people and making friends). You should probably have a pretty good grasp on hiragana and katakana at the very least. Having some kanji knowledge would definitely be a plus. At least you can always pop stuff into Jim Breen to get English translations, but if you don’t know hiragana/katakana I wouldn’t bother for now.
- It’ll be hard to make friends (you can be my friend, though!): Like I said before, people don’t want to become friends with strangers (for the most part). Joining communities and becoming active members might be a good way to make friends. Emailing any Japanese people you know and asking them for their Mixi accounts might be another good way to network out. At the very least you can become my friend, though (the link won’t work unless you are logged on).
Mixi Top Menu:
The Mixi top menu is full of information. The most important thing, though, is that you distinguish the two menu rows from each other. Both of them are similar, but they actually have very separate functions. The top one has to do with things that are not your own. For example, if you clicked on the top menu’s “journal” button, you will see everyone else’s recent journal entries. If you clicked on the bottom one, you will see your own recent journal entries. Below is an image of the top menu, fully translated. Click on it to zoom in.
I am now going to go through each menu item and talk a little bit about each one. For sanity’s sake, I will only go through the bottom menu row, plus “search friend” and “invite friend” up in the top left.
- Home: This will just take you home, to your main page.
- Messages: This section allows you to read and send messages to your friends (or not friends).
- Journal: This will allow you to write a journal entry. This can be about pretty much anything. Think of it more like a diary, where you say stuff almost at random (at least that’s what it feels like when I read people’s Mixi Journals). Don’t say anything you want to keep private, though.
- Movies: Upload movies here. Mixi tried to make a video service to rival Youtube’s and failed. Still, there’s some neat videos in here, and people like to see your videos as well.
- Photos: Upload and manage your photos in this section. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I bet it’s pretty cool.
- Music: I’m not sure what this section is about, honestly, but it has something to do with music. Either way, it won’t affect your social networking experience too much. If anyone knows more information about this section, feel free to comment and let us know.
- Reviews: You can review places, things, etc in this section. I thought this was a pretty neat idea. You can search for products and places, too, and find out what people thought of them.
- Bookmarks: Put up your favorite websites here.
- Traffic: Who has visited your page?
- Options: A huge array of options pertaining to your account.
- Search Friends: Find friends already on Mixi.
- Invite Friends: Invite others to join you!
Left Column: Profile Picture, Friends, and Communities:
On the left column you’ll find profile pictures, friends (also known as my miku (マイミク), short for my mixi(マイミクシー), and communities. Depending on how deep you are into the system, you will either have a lot here or nothing at all. Let’s go through each section, because everything works a little bit different than you might expect. For your reference, a full sized left sidebar can be found here.
- Profile Picture: Mixi allows you to upload three profile pictures, which can be viewed if you click on a link below someone else’s image. The funny thing about profile pictures, though, is that most people don’t put up their real faces. Usually there will be some kind of animal, an actor/actress’ photo, or some inanimate object. Like I said above, though, everyone is paranoid. I would say one in every thirty people put their real images up, and that’s it. You will often see non-Japanese using Mixi with their real pictures, but that is rare as well.
- Friends: You can find your list of friends here. I always get confused because real names are not displayed (just nicknames) and the images above them are of kittens and ferris wheels. Even if it is someone I know really well in real life, most of the time I’ll have no idea who they are on Mixi, even though we are Mixi friends.
- Communities: The Communities section can be found at the very bottom. This shows off the communities you have joined. I didn’t join too many communities because then I get too many messages on my front page, which makes it too difficult to keep track of everything. Some people can handle it but I just read to slowly.
Center Column: Friend and Community Journal Entries, Reviews, Photos, Movies, Music, and Introductions:
- Newest Friend Journal Entries: When one of your Mixi friends writes a journal article, it will show up here for you to read and comment on, if you choose. Many people are very addicted to this feature.
- Newest Community Posts: When something is written within a community page that you are a part of, it will show up here. This will help you keep up to date on discussions going on in different communities. I had too many of these messages, so I left a bunch of my communities and kept only the really important ones.
- Most Recent Friend Reviews: Whenever a friend reviews a place or a product, it will show up here. These are sometimes pretty interesting to read, since you’ll learn about things you’ve never heard of before.
- Most Recent Friend Photos: Woo, photos of friends.
- Most Recent Friend Movies: Woo, movies of friends.
- Most Recent Friend Music: Woo, I don’t know what this category is. Does someone else know?
- Friend Introductions of YOU: This section is my favorite. In Mixi, you don’t write on people’s walls like in Facebook or Myspace. That space is for people to write introductions about you. Most introductions explain how the person knows you and then a little bit about your personality. Occasionally you’ll see a non-Japanese person writing on it as if it were a wall, but this is incorrect. A typical translation of an introduction post would be: “I know this person from high school. He was in my Soccer Club, and he is the type of person who gets along well with everyone,” or something like that. Just remember that this section is for you to write about other people and their personalities/abilities/etc. I think that most of these are positive things about the person, so don’t go around and say that people are real knee-biters. Here is an image of my introduction wall, click on it to zoom in:
Using Mixi to Learn / Practice Japanese:
All in all, mixi is a great way to learn and practice your Japanese. The real hard part is getting people to add you as their friend. If you can get over that boundary, you’ve got yourself an incredible resource.
- Reading Practice: Reading other people’s journal articles is a great way to practice reading. Although it isn’t formalized like a text book, people on Mixi tend to write in short, simple sentences. A lot of people write their journal articles on their phones, which means it’ll be easier for you to read. If you’ve never seen Jim Breen, take a look. It’ll help you translate journal entries in a jiffy. Mixi journals is a good (and quick) daily practice for reading comprehension.
- Writing Practice: If you really want to get into things, you can start writing regular journal entries. If you have enough Mixi friends, you can probably ask people to correct your mistakes in the comments section of your post. It’s a good (and usually sure) way to feedback and corrections on your writing, at least in my experience.
How Do I get an Invitation to Mixi?
I’ll send you an invitation if you comment below. Please note: I think there might be a lot of requests, and although I plan on getting to everyone eventually, sometimes things get busy with school and work. I’ll be giving priority to those who I see or have seen commenting more often (on other posts, not this one) over those who only commented here for the first time. So, if you want a faster return, please comment elsewhere too. Here’s a good list of articles, though anywhere (or nowhere) is fine. Also, please enter your correct email into the comment box, otherwise I won’t be able to invite you.
The Full Translation of Mixi’s Front Page:
I thought I’d translate the whole front page for you all, too, while I was at it. You can see it here in it’s full glory, or click on the image below. Both will take you to an “actual-sized” image.
Everyone, good luck with your Mixi’ing! It’s a lot of fun, which is good motivation to learn more Japanese.
UPDATE: Mixi now requires you to have a Japanese mobile email address to join! This means, if you don’t have a Japanese cell phone, you’re pretty much screwed. More information here.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Aw, that’s really sweet that you translated the whole front page. Having that many open layers on Photoshop would drive me crazy D: Anyway, don’t think I’ll get a mixi anytime soon. Do you think Fujiwar would let me turn mixi-ing into an independent study, though? I bet she would.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
too bad she’s not around anymore. I bet loftus would, though. I bet he has a mixi. I gotta look him up.
January 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
In for one..
Hey, is that your yakuza friend in your profile pic?
January 9th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Mixi! I remember seeing MySpace in Japanese and then stickam. Seems like this article took a long time. Nice! Thanks as well. Not sure if I could use mixi. It’s not likely. Would be cool though. I saw that dictionary and was surprised that I saw it before! Well, hope it helps a bunch of people!
January 9th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Nice article.
I’ve never posted here…but I would love an invite to Mixi if possible!
Thanks, koichi.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Did you ever receive my post on http://www.tofugu.com/2007/06/17/are-you-a-j-doramaholic/ ?
How do people react to those who are still learning Japanese? Constructive criticism on how to improve, or do they just respond to what you said if they understand?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I’m applying for the JET Program and have been following your site as a way to get insight to Japanese culture and have used your insight in my language self-study. This Mixi thing sounds interesting, and I would appreciate an invite if possible. Thanks.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Yeah, I’ve known about mixi but…i don’t know any Japanese people (Personally) and i Suck at making friends over the internet. otherwise i’d be on this in an instant! i like to journal…or just plain old write…:)
January 9th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
oh.. and plus… hopefully some one can answer my question…I can form some sentences, but i’m sure some people(myself included) would sometimes be lazy and use a text translator to write in Japanese…
How do those things sound like? like if i was to translate something with those, what would it end up sounding like in Japanese? (Horrible?) I know its hard to translate Japanese into English without human imagination, but what about the other way around….
Sorry for the long comment… :)
January 9th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
@Nicholas
They make you sound like a robot (and mess up your words a lot). Best not to use them.
@WOTD & Blair
Invited you both
@Marc
Ah, yeah, it looks like that post got caught in the spam feed. In response to your question, most Japanese think it’s amazing if you can say a couple of words, and because of this, they are impressed with everything, even if it stinks. That’s why you have to find someone mean or check yourself.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
“I always get confused because real names are not displayed (just nicknames) and the images above them are of kittens and ferris wheels.”
Haha~ I always get confused here too! Especially when they use random celebrities’ photos.
I actually got a mixi several months ago, but I never started actively using it until recently. You’ve helped explain quite a bit with this article! I think I’m still much more comfortable with facebook (despite the plethora of applications..) but mixi’s growing on me :)
It’s just so weird that there’s no wall to write on! But I’m getting used to that too. No wonder, then, that journal writing is the focus - that’s where people comment and interact, I suppose.
Erin, you should get a mixi :D
January 10th, 2008 at 2:08 am
I’m not into chat programs or online communities and whatnot but that was some awesome information there about Mixi. Once my Japanese gets better I might consider joining.
Incidently, I just found out about your blogs last week through a link at Japan Probe, and I must say this is the most entertaining blog I’ve ever read! I especially like to watch your videos. Keep it up!
I don’t need a mixi invitation btw.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:08 am
@viet
yep, that’s the one. He’s the guy who was dating that girl who’s in a motorcycle gang (among others at the same time, as well). He’s a crazy frood, for sho.
@Lisa
Yeah, the celebrity pictures are the ones that throw me for the biggest loop. I should have thought of that one, besides the trains, rainbows, and helium balloons that litter the other 75% of profile images.
@FryChiko
Whoa, wait, what? There was a link of us on Japanprobe?? Where’d you find that? (and double-thank you for the compliments too!)
January 10th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Koichi,
There’s like a latest headlines section at the top at Japanprobe and there was a link to your how to play ufo catcher article there sometime last week. (if memory serves correctly..)
January 10th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Interesting - didn’t even know we showed up on that list. Thanks for letting me know!
January 10th, 2008 at 10:29 am
wow great read, my limited japanese is nowhere near the level to use a wonderful site like this, but I hope you use this site in the near future.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hey,
I would love to be able to make Japanese friends,
I don’t know much of Japanese, but i think i am getting the hang of it :)
Most of Japanese people i spoke to lately on MSN were a little confused and not very talkative, so i hope ill have a better experience here :)
Sorry for long post,
Thanks in advance,
Idan
January 10th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
mixiはちょっと難しいと思う。友達がいるけど喋らないでいます。だめだ。the traffic button is so freaky. i end up playing profile tag. haha.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
お願いします ：）
January 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
hm..Mixi. sounds interesting. I could practice my reading japanese on it. if only I was invited…………
January 10th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Oh.My.God! I’ve always wanted to join ミクシィ!!!
I would really love to be invited （＾＿＾）ｖ
ありがとうございます～
January 10th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
woo mixi account, ill make one some time this week when i have time, and i lol, i started dying laughing when i came to “everyone is paranoid” hahah
January 10th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hi Koichi,
I would be really happy if you could invite me on Mixi, I’m trying to find someone that can invite me for quite some time now :-(
ありがとう!
January 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Koichi,
Thanks so much for the invite!
ありがとう！！
January 10th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
This looks like an awesome website. I would join but I just got into Facebook! xD
Maybe someday when I’m a bit more advanced in writing in Japanese… or even when I’m living in Japan, this would be nice. ^^ Awesome article anyways. Thanks for the translations as well!
January 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Is it okay if I can become a member on Mixi? I’ve been sort of catching on with my kanji-a-day segments on my blog.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:03 am
yup. Thanks for the invite koichi.
I’d start using it now…but im off to school
January 11th, 2008 at 4:35 am
hi I just stumbled over tofugu a few days ago (through one of your yt vids), and practically spend my japanese study breaks here reading through several articles. I didn’t comment before, cause I get easily distracted and when I suddenly saw another article title in the sidebar I’m like “oh what’s this *clicks*”>.<. I’m bad with getting distracted.
Anyway, I’m keeping a Livejournal and also have a myspace and was kinda looking for a japanese version of those things, that’s why I was happy to see and read through this article. thanx for explaining and talking us through the whole site with pics even.
I’m still on a beginner level regarding japanese (I force myself to spend studying for at least 3 hours a day though, i tend to get a bit uber-ambitious some days), but I’m already used to read hiragana/katakana and some kanji as well as having worked through almost half of my grammar and vocab study book. So I’m really interessted in getting into Mixi, to use it as another source to practise my japanese more as well as to maybe succeed in making friends with people. In other words….I’d love and invitation,…… please.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:00 am
arigato ^^
January 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Sadly, I’m not 18 and over…so what do I do? Am I busted or anything?
January 11th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
do you have to be 18 or over to join? I bet you could just fudge your birthday if that’s the case
January 11th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Sounds interesting, I have used Myspace and Facebook before but have not tried Mixi. I would appreciate an invitation to practice my Japanese. Thanks!
January 12th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Hi there! Pretty interesting article and website too! I didn’t know about it, sorry >__<. But I think that I could be able to do some stuff there so…Well, it’d be cool if you could send me one ^_^
Thanks ^_^’
January 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Sounds pretty interesting, they all actually listen to their parents!?!? GASP! Strange and alien territory here.. LOL! xD! I guess the selectivity is actually a good thing I really can’t stand staying on MySpace longer than it takes to check the occasional email. Regardless, this should be interesting. And if you get to avoid the OMFGSMEXNOW! people, its sooo worth it.
January 12th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
wow, i have to say, this site is really great! im planning to minor in japanese, so a lot of these tools will be really usefull! would it be possible for me to get an invite to mixi?
January 12th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
hum. if i can get around Stickam.jp i sould be able to navigate Mixi!
An invitation would be cool…it would be great actually.
Arigatou Koichi!
January 12th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I want a mixi account, but I’m not really sure I’ll use it to it’s full potential ie reading and writing. I don’t think I’ll be able to make friends on it, but it wouldn’t hurt to get an account. Please Koichi? Thank you!
January 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
i would love an account also. i need to work on my nihongo. exams are coming up.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
This sounds cool. Add me please.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I’ve always want to test my Japanese skills, An invite would be Awesome :P thanks
January 14th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Oh it’s nice that it’s by invitation only! It is probably a great way to surround yourself with the language, though like you said, getting people to friend you is probably the toughest part!
January 14th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Hey Koichi,
This is really cool. I was born in India, lived in USA, now moved to Australia when I
got married to my vietnamese wife, and our dream is to spend a whole year in Japan.
Why japan ? I have always been been fascinated by Japan, probably started after I
read all the James Clavells novels. Anyway, I have been trying hard to learn japanese
on my own - and can now read and write hiragana/katakana, and very very little Kanji :)
I can even translate J-drama to my wife when we download an episode without subtitles.
Anyway …. pls pls pls .. do send me an invite - I am very excited about the whole mixi culture :)
Thanks,
Catch22
January 14th, 2008 at 7:58 am
招待して下さいませんか？☆ミ（ ＾ o ＾ ）／ ★ミ
January 14th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
=0 thanks for the quick invite lols. Cya on Mixi then!
January 14th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
hmmm… interestingg… i want to join too. x3
January 14th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hi Koichi :)
I’ve been a Tofugu.com reader for a few months now and would LOVE to join Mixi to help with my Japanese reading/writing skills :)
Thanks so much for the invite offer!
-Xelapo
(xelapo@yahoo.com)
January 14th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
This can really help me with my Japanese. I would really like too join.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
do you have to be 18 to join?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I’ve been trying to avoid Mixi for a while now, but you’ve convinced me I should check it out. I’d be much obliged if you could send me an invitation.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am
thanks for the invite koichi!
January 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Koichi i received the e-mail, except all the typing was in characters like this “!@#@!#@#%$#^%” and weird stuff, i have all east asian languages installed on my computer, and im able to in japanese characters. Does anyone know why this happens when i get something written in japanese in yahoomail? Do i have to enable something in yahoomail or mozilla or soemthing, i can read japanese characters everywhere else but i cant receive mail. If anyone can help i’d appreciate it.
January 15th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
@kevinnwhat
Your web browser’s encoding setting is probably set wrong. Do the following (I’m assuming you are using Firefox):
1) View > Character Encoding
2) Select Unicode (UTF-8)
If that doesn’t work, try the selecting the other character encodings.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hey Koichi, I’d really appreciate an invite
So if you could spare some time to send me one I’d really appreciate it :)
Cheers.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
@Viet
thank you, my encoding was on the utf-8, but i had to put it on japanese, thank you
January 16th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Hi! I was wondering if I could please have a Mixi invite? Invite o kudasai? :)
January 16th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love an invite too. :3 Thanks in advance!
January 16th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
thanks for the invite, ill be registering soooooooooooon. kinda busy now :( Btw i used your idea (or advice) about reading articles for practice. I used to just translate alot of songs, but some songs are really hard and well in songs you dont even have to say completel sentences or anything. So i been reading japanese articles, working out alot better lol. thank youuuuuuuuuu
January 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
thank you very much for the invitation!!
January 16th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hahaha, I wonder if you all (Koichi & Co.) expected such a huge reaction to this mixi post? So many people asked for invites… it’s almost like you’re sneaking gaijin illegally into Japan.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:06 am
( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ ﾀﾀﾞｲﾏｧ
I just finally got done catching up on all the articles you posted from Christmas and the New Year. I’ve been on vacation for 3 weeks without a computer and I was going nuts not being able to get online. But anyways, I think you mentioned ミクシィ a while ago back on your older website, before you decided to make Tofugu. I took a look at the site before, but I didn’t understand anything back then. It has been a couple months now from when I started learning Japanese seriously, and I think I feel comfortable enough to try out ミクシィ.
クリスでございます～！
January 17th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
@Chris
LOL!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
heyy
i would love it if you would send me a friend request thingy :)
im from the UK and i found your videos on youtube and loved them lol
i love japan and the culture, ive been learning for a few months and i hope that this website would help me.
thankyou
x
January 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’d love a registration invite.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Hello, thanks for this and other greats posts.
I would love to get an invite too. I’m from Ukraine.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
this is a good run down for those who aren’t in the know. I thank you for informing. ciao
January 17th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Hey, thanks for the invite… thanks on behalf of all of us, haha.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:36 am
” it’s almost like you’re sneaking gaijin illegally into Japan.”
@Chris
lol that comparison completely cracked me up!
Hmm anyone else who joined through Koichi’s invitations want to friend each other so we can get started?
January 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
If you are going to become friends with each other, you need to figure out what your URL is, which can be found the following way:
Under your profile picture, click on the thing that says (in katakana) “profile.”
Then, up at the top of the page there should be something that says “here is your URL,” or something to that effect. Anyways, there is a URL up there that you have to share with people, or they won’t really be able to find you. For example, mine is:
http://mixi.jp/show_friend.pl?id=7610926
You have to be logged in to see it.
January 19th, 2008 at 3:56 am
If anyone wants to add me my URL is:
http://mixi.jp/show_profile.pl?id=16257863
PS: I think I spent almost 30 minutes deciding which area I was from for my profile. There wasn’t an option for California, so I opted for Tokyo lol (Typical)
Thanks for the invite!
コイチさまコイチさま押し置く気分ゥ！ (<- not sure if I spelled it correctly)
January 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
You CAN put down 外国 or something like that…basically a “not Japan” category.
January 19th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
招待がほしいんですが。。。
confidant@total.net
どうもありがとうございます。
January 19th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Hello!
I found you while I was looking up reviews on mixi, and your post was very helpful.
Actually the whole site is really awesome :D.
If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could I have an invite as well? It would be much appreciated :D
(alekcvavich@yahoo.com)
Thankyou!
January 19th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Damn it Koichi, you’re making me want to learn Japanese. Bah, I dunno. I have no reason to learn it, besides music/anime (which isn’t enough at all). But you make it so convenient. ):
January 20th, 2008 at 12:39 am
@Kirby:
No reason to learn it? Even if you think you won’t have a chance to use it in your lifetime, it’s still something nice to learn just to have a sense of culture and knowledge of another country. I actually found a good use today when I went to the Museum of Contemporary Arts in little Tokyo (Los Angeles) to check out the artwork of 村上隆 (Murakami Takashi). He incorporated a couple hidden messages in his artwork, and I guess I felt a little special because when I found them, I was able to read and translate (still a little sketchy on the kanji though). Even one of the tour guides ask me a question about how to say something in Japanese (She was asking me how to say “Why” and how to read a certain caption on one of his works) but none the less, I felt a sense of usefulness. It may seem like nothing, but eh, it made my day go by easier.
January 20th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Thank you for the invitation!
January 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I’m just wondering if I could have an invite? It’d be really helpful to join and hopefully get more Japanese reading practice — it sounds like a really cool site. Please and thank you! ^^
January 21st, 2008 at 5:29 am
Hi there, I was also wondering if you could give me an invite. I’m living in Saitama-ken, doing an internship and although I know a few Japanese people, I feel to awkward at the moment to ask them about such a thing as we don’t know each other for that long.
This may sound strange in comparison that I ask a total stranger now, I realize that, but that’s how I feel about it. ;)
January 21st, 2008 at 8:49 am
I just found this blog and saw this. I’d tried getting in invite from a friend of mine, but he couldn’t get it to work. I figure even if no one reads my blog there, writing it would help me use the Japanese I’m learning, and get it stuck in my head some more. If you have time one day and could drop me an invite it would make my day (and Japanese practice)
January 21st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I’d like an invite too… I am not worthy… I don’t speak Japanese… but I’d like to learn, at least to decipher the kanas (I know a little Chinese).
January 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I have elementary knowledge of Japanese and would like to get to the next level by joining mixi. I would love an invite, thanks.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Hi! Could I have an invite please? I really want to practice my Japanese!
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
@: クリストフアー
Meh, I just don’t see me learning it for any reason. I still kinda want to learn it though. Just for fun. As dumb as that sounds. It’s gonna be hard, not fun. =\
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Hi, I’d love an invite! This sounds like a fantastic way to improve my Japanese and get some cultural perspective…thanks for this article!
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Hi there,
I think Google Translate somehow can help anyone who has Japanese language problem when using MIXI. And the url is http://translate.google.com/translate_t
By the way, please send me a MIXI invitation to pasai531@163.com.
Cheers,
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 am
Thank you! I’ve your invitation.
Cheers,
SAI
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:59 am
@ Kirby
It may be hard.. really hard, but in the end it will be every rewarding.
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
yeah… so about the paranoia thing… i have met many people that “want to learn english” that live in my prefecture, in my same town even, that are not interested in having face to face conversations whatsoever. It tries my patience sometimes , i have told a few people to get lost when i spend 45 minutes typing ONE paragraph in japanese just to have them respond a few days later with: Hi. How are you. Please tell me in english. xD still, once i get their overly polite reply i cant help but laugh! mixi is great fun.
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
hey koichi! a school friend introduced me to your site, and since he did i’ve been looking through all of the information that you talk about in reference to japanese culture. it has been quite interesting and extremely informative, which is very helpful to me because i’ve been taking japanese for about 5 years now and the books we’ve used (adventures in japanese, and genki vol. 2) seem a little dated as far as their coverage of culture in japan. thanks so much for your information ^_^ *alsoooo, an invite to mixi would be really cool, so that i can further keep myself updated on the japanese language and culture :)*
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Oh yeah :). Feel free to add me as a friend. My URL is:
http://mixi.jp/show_friend.pl?id=16193663
January 24th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Hi. Can I have an invite too? =D
January 24th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Greetings folks,
I’ve taken a few semesters of Japanese and plan to study abroad in Osaka next year. I just found the site and I’ve loved looking through everything. I’d like an invite to mixi just so I can get a better grasp of the culture that I will soon come face-to face with.
Keep up the good work! =D
January 25th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Just wondering if I could get an invite!
I’ve been taking game design for over a year now and hope to broaden my horizens to Japan. Learning the language has been difficult so far, but hopefullly this site will help! Thanks for all the help togugu has tought me already! <3
January 28th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Love the site guys. I would really appreciate an invite also. I’d also like to thank you for taking the time to invite everyone.
Question. How is the grammar on a site like this? Is it anything like the terrible excuse for English you would see on a MySpace?
January 28th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
haha, yeah, certainly not the best grammar. Sending your invite now.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:37 am
are the invites still available? not to sign up, and then immediately ask for an invite, but….
おねがい〜
January 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
if people are still having trouble using mixi, all those translation sites butcher it. however, if you are a firefox user, Rikaichan is *amazing* at helping figure out all those kanji I don’t already know.
http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/
easy to setup and use.. just hover over a kanji or word you don’t know and it pops up a window with definitions and pronunciation (in kana… romaji sucks ass.).
January 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Can i please get an invite? Iv been wanting to sign up for awhile and this article really helped witht he final push :)
February 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Hi! I just found Tofugu through another blog…Great site! I’d love a Mixi invite as I’m trying to brush up on my Japanese and any additional practice I can get is always useful. Thanks!
February 1st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I am really curious about this website.
And I just relized, you have to be invited (oO) After ten mins of clicking around the wepage. And I was wondering if I could get an invite? <3
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Yeah, I need to ask my penpal if she has a mixi, and then get an invite…it would be cool if I could surprise her on there……I’ll be a mixi ninja, freaking the crap out of my penpal by popping up one day while she’s online…..>.>
But yeah, just wondering if you’re giving out invites, because i’d like one! ^_^
-Giraffe
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I stumbled upon tofugu today because of the cute kid in the panda hat on YouTube… so I’m not a devoted patron just yet, but I’ve been trying to find a way to get invited to mixi for sometime now and would appreciate an invite if you manage to get to the bottom of the list.
Thanks (^_^)
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
Hello! I am actually a beginner at Japanese (only on my second semester of it in college), but I do know hiragana and katakana well. (I’m working on the kanji.) I’ve had a number of people recommend it to me, but I’ve had no way to get on! So, I was wondering if I could get an invitation. It would be much appreciated. =D Thank you!
Yay, for google stumble which lead me to tofugu!
February 5th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I know that this article was written a while ago but I would really like to have an invite to mixi. I’ve been trying to find ways to practice Japanese since I am in the process of learning at college and I am intending on becoming an East Asian Studies major. I want to teach in Japan/go to school in Japan/ translate. Please, I would really appreciate it if you would send me an invitation.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hello! I would love to have an invite to mixi please! I am in my second semester of japanese and am trying to find new ways to improve and network!! Thank you very much,
February 6th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
can you please invite me iv been trying to get invited for 2 years now but no one will invite me
February 7th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I would appreciate a mixi invite! Thanks!!!
February 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hey there! Could I also have an invite? Would be wonderful have a website like this…
～あり！
February 10th, 2008 at 11:27 am
wow, i really want to say that your blog and videos are just great, it is a good source of practice (listening comprehension) combined with some humour and culture of Japan.
woaa i’m impressed of the long list of comments on this article, I’ll really appreciate an invitation to join Mixi too.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:36 am
about the ‘mixi music’ part: it’s like last.fm, you get a program that transfers the ID3tag info when you’re listening to music on your computer. afterwards, you can see your recently listened tracks, review them or take a look at the ranking for all mixi users. there’s also subcategories by genre and artist (http://music.mixi.jp/view_artist.pl?id=1069 p.ex.), which give recommendations for similar sounding stuff, so it’s a nice gimmick if you want to discover something new.
the thing on the front page just shows friend’ recently played tracks.
you can get the program here: http://mixi.jp/station.pl , there’s also some instruction on that page. basically, just install it, enter your email and mixi password and you should be set. (if i remember correctly)
hope that helped & i didn’t just repeat what someone said beforehand.
February 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Hi Kochi,
It’s great to have your introduction for mixi.jp.
As now I am studying Japanese, up to Level 2,
I would really like to have a chance to practice my Japanese.
Could you send an invitation to me?
My email is entered when submitting this comment.
Arigatou!
Takeshi
February 12th, 2008 at 12:01 am
i have a question, so maybe you might know about this… but i used to have a mixi when my friend invited me, and all of a sudden when i tried to login it said my account had been deleted. i had used the account maybe a day or two before, so it wasn’t inactive :-[ but anyway i would really appreciate getting an invitation as i missed it a lot and met some cool people on there.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Hi, I can’t say I can make a post everywhere but I can try in majority of the articles because not only do I want to know Japanese culture, but I also want to learn the language and know what it’s like over there. Truth be told, I’ve always wanted to be in Japan which is why I want to become a manga artist (if ever possible).
February 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
This page has been so useful! Thank you!
I would love to see what mixi’s all about, please invite me!
:)
February 12th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
been studying hard for like 8 months by myself using tae kim’s guide, kanji book and plus I used to be fluent in korean so grammar isn’t completely crazy. would love an invite to expand my knowledge
February 13th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Wow… awesome guide truly!!! [invite please *_*]
February 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Nice guide, now I just need an invite. I’m studying Japanese at the uni and would like to join mixi. If anyone could be kind enough to send me an invite, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you
latintouch@hotmail.co.jp
February 16th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
This is an awesome article, I am studying Japanese and very interested in the language. I love to join mixi too, I really appreciate it if someone can send me an invite. My email is fioreund@gmail.com. Thank you. :)
February 17th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Hey, Koichi.
I only recently discovered your YouTube videos/blogs.
I’ve always loved the culture of Japan ever since I started learning it in school.
I’m not learning it at school anymore unfortunately, but I am studying in my own time.
It’d be great if you could send me an invite to Mixi, I know it might take some time, but thanks if you do.
Looking forward to your future videos/blogs.
Thanks,
Matt.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Great article, i will come back tomorrow when i have more time.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Great article. very informative.
I have been studying Japanese on my own for nearly 6 months now using various audio CDs, computer programs, and books. But having these is just a one-way learning path. I would very much like the opportunity to join mixi.jp and some of the communities on there in order to further advance my understanding of the Japanese language and culture. If you could send me an invite to grunt_357@hotmail.com i would be very greatful.
Thanks,
Jason
February 19th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hi, I would love to join mixi too!!! would you mind inviting me too? I’ve been studying japanese for a semester now and it’s been really interesting.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:08 am
That was a really good article. I’m a Japanese major and would love to be able to practice my Japanese and meet new people. I’d like to join mixi too. E-mail atkinjsa@uga.edu. Thanks so much.
Jeremy
February 21st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
unleeeesssss someone has already said, as i understand it the music part shows what people last listened to (probs while using mixi) if they use itunes or WMP. A bit like the msn messenger shows whats playing. U have to download the software or plugin thingy then it automatically dos it, and it finds info about the artist and song ect if availaible.
could be cool for some