Herro – welcome to Tofugu! We’re a wonky Japanese language and culture blog that started up in 2007. We write about things we are particularly interested in (in regards to Japan) and always try to write way more than the bare minimum (as in, we’re not a news blog … we want good, interesting and useful content).
We Love To Write About Things Japan
Sometimes we have guest writers too, but these are the main folks who write at least once a week. If you get to know us, you’ll notice that we like writing about certain things more than others, but when you combine us all (like that Power Rangers robot) you get something cooler than all the pieces separated out.
Koichi
Koichi is the main writer, the founder, the head boo-ba, and covers mostly Japanese language related stuff on Tofugu (but sometimes will write about other stuff too). Koichi has been studying Japanese for ten years now (that’s like, a lifetime), taught Japanese for two, and is now working on a Japanese textbook for self learners of Japanese. He’s lived in Japan, plays kendo, loves baseball (go Mariners!), playing with film, and chillin’ with friends.
Email: koichi@tofugu.com
Twitter: @mechakoichi
John
John was a Tofugu intern, but because he’s so awesome and knows about things Koichi and Hashi don’t know about, he got upgraded to a regular author, writing on Tofugu approximately once a week. He recently graduated from college and spends most of his time looking at numbers for big companies. When he isn’t doing that, he enjoys music (especially electro, post-hardcore, and J-pop), watches lots of Japanese programming (TV, movies, drama, anime, you name it) and plays video games (he’s not too good at Starcraft yet, but we’re working on it). He studied abroad in Kobe, Japan and really loves the place.
Email: johnd@tofugu.com.
Hashi
Hashi wears many hats at Tofugu and has been a writer, actor, designer, and coder for the site (among other things), though his “official” title is Tofugu Editor (because he edits things, or something). Hashi has studied Japanese language, history and culture which should be reflected in his posts. He’s a recent college graduate and longtime denizen of the Pacific Northwest. His interests are in music (everything from jazz to dubstep to post-punk), film, bicycling, video games (especially Starcraft), the open web, and lots of other sweet things.
Email: hashi@tofugu.com
Twitter: @tofuguhashi
Viet
Viet’s from the old days… Like, really old days of Tofugu, when it first got started. He does programming and design for Tofugu / TextFugu most of the time, but he also has to write some too (all of us have to write, it’s the law of the land). Viet enjoys Japanese media, music, and so on, playing video games, and hanging with friends. You’re sure to see some cool applications from Viet appear that will help you with Japanese learning in the near future.
Email: viet@tofugu.com
We Also Work On…
…several other interesting things, all of which tend to have the goal of “helping others to learn Japanese more effectively blah blah blah etc etc.” We’ll spare you the biz words and talk.
Textfugu
TextFugu is an online Japanese textbook specifically for self-learners of Japanese. For those who are teaching themselves Japanese (i.e. no teacher in sight) we’ve made (and continue to work on) TextFugu just for you and nobody else. It’s simply written (all that linguistic mumbo-jumbo has been pushed casually down a set of stairs), it makes learning Japanese interesting and fun, it’s getting updates all the time, has a community that will help you out, and it’s made in a way that will help you avoid quitting (because really, that’s the main thing that stops people from learning Japanese, right?).
If you have any questions about TextFugu, definitely feel free to contact Koichi about it and he’ll answer all your questions, crazy or uncrazy.
Other Projects Coming Someday
We’re working on all kinds of cool things, mostly for ourselves, but if we find something particularly cool, we’ll share them with you as well. If you follow the Tofugu blog, I’m sure you’ll know about these cool things as they happen :) Alternatively, you can sign up for the newsletter to know what’s going on as it’s going on. It’s pretty cool if you’re hoopy and froody enough.