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. If you still want an invite, AND you have access to a Japanese mobile phone e-mail address, please e-mail me the request as I am no longer checking the comments. Now to see how many people don’t read this big, bold, red update…

Update 2: If you want a Mixi invite

If you want a Mixi invite, head on over to this article on “How to get a Mixi invite” and request one over there.