If you notice anything else that’s particularly weird, please let us know, in the, uh, comments! Only thing I’ve noticed so far is the comment box appearing in the wrong spot (at the top instead of the bottom). Anything else? Let us know. Thanks much! Things will be back to normal any moment.

I’ve been using Twitter more and more, and I thought I’d invite all of you to follow us! I wrote about Twitter before, and how it can be used to improve your Japanese, but it also has many more “normal” uses as well. Kind of like what we’re doing over on Twitter.

Over on the Tofugu Twitter page, I do updates about Japanese news, notify people about articles that come out here, give little tips on learning Japanese, share small experiences that would help you live in Japan, and much much more. I even will reply to people who Tweet at me (that’s what they call posting…tweeting)!

Visit Tofugu’s Twitter Page

So, for this week only (Until August 12), anyone who subscribes to my Twitter will automatically be entered into a drawing where they can win Gumi candy (グミ). Five people chosen at random will get one bag of this friggin’ amazing candy each, and you’ll even be able to choose what flavor you want sent to you. Need more information about how amazing the candy is? Hit the jump and watch the video:

Also, if you watched the video, you’ll know about my other Youtube channel, which is being tromped on by Tofugu. If you’re interested, and want to listen to my poor Japanese, go and check out Koichiben on Youtube! Heh, and also in the video I mentioned you can subscribe to Koichiben on Twitter as well. And yes, it counts as two submissions (twice the chance of winning some ridiculously tasty candy!)

P.S. Oh, and one way to help manage Twitter and make it easier to follow conversations is by using Twitter programs. I use Twhirl, but you can use whatever you want.

First things I’m going to share is four Godzilla desktop wallpapers I designed for your computers. I don’t have every resolution size down there, but hopefully I will increase the available sizes when it comes out officially. Still, most standard resolutions should be supported, I think.

Godzilla Versus King Kong Desktop

Godzilla vs. King Kong: 1024×768 pixels
Godzilla vs. King Kong: 1280×800 pixels
Godzilla vs. King Kong: 1600×1200 pixels
Godzilla vs. King Kong: 1680×1050 pixels

Godzilla Versus Ghidora Desktop

Godzilla vs. Ghidora 1024×768 pixels
Godzilla vs. Ghidora 1280×800 pixels
Godzilla vs. Ghidora 1600×1200 pixels
Godzilla vs. Ghidora: 1680×1050 pixels

Godzilla Versus Mothra Desktop

Godzilla vs. Mothra 1024×768 pixels
Godzilla vs. Mothra 1280×800 pixels
Godzilla vs. Mothra 1600×1200 pixels
Godzilla vs. Mothra: 1680×1050 pixels

Godzilla Versus Gigan Desktop

Godzilla vs. Gigan 1024×768 pixels
Godzilla vs. Gigan 1280×800 pixels
Godzilla vs. Gigan 1600×1200 pixels
Godzilla vs. Gigan: 1680×1050 pixels

There you have it. I’m even using one of these desktops in a recent video reviewing the website Lang-8. They actually rotate every 15 minutes, so I always have something fresh going on in the background.

In other news, two out of three Tofugu writers have started personal blogs. If you’re feeling stalkerish, check them out here (Koichi) and here (Erin).

So as many of you know, I sent out the thank you cards in response to all of you helping me out with my thesis. Once again, Thank you very much for your help, it turned out pretty awesome! Still, I have a bunch of postcards left over, and I want to give some of them away. There were four different designs, so this is your chance to get a set of 12 (four of each design) that you can use however you want (probably for thanking people). Let’s go over the contest rules:

What is the Contest? All you have to do is take a picture with your postcard. The more creative it is, the better. I’m not going to define creative, so whether that means with a funny face, a strange location, or whatever else, I’ll leave that up to you folks.

Who Can Enter? Anyone who got a thank you postcard from me.

When is the Contest over? Two weeks from today. That would be June 25th, 2008.

How do I submit my picture? Send it to me (Koichi). Gotta do it by email: tofugu@gmail.com

Prizes? The three most creative pictures will get a set of 12 awesome Godzilla postcards. One winner will be chosen by each of Tofugu’s writers, which makes a total of three. If more than one of us wants to choose the same one, we’ll make sure there’s no overlap, and a total of three people win. Winners will be posted on this site, so if you’re too embarassed about being seen on Tofugu I can’t enter you in the drawing (though I suppose you could send me one anyways).

The book has several purposes. It’s not just a bunch of interviews with YouTubers, though that is a big chunk of it. It also includes the history of YouTube, strategies that people use to become big on YouTube, suggestions on equipment to use, etc. Basically, this book is all about doing well on Youtube, and then adds icing to that cake by interviewing people with varying amounts of success (I think I’m on the lower end of that scale).

So, if you’re interested in Youtube, it’s a pretty good book, not to mention you can read about Tofugu and Koichiben, learning all of my deepest and darkest secrets…well, not that deep, just dark, and by dark I mean not dark.

I know it’s available on Amazon, so let me throw a link at yah, if you’re interested. Here’s a video, just saying the same stuff I just said in writing

[Youtube video keeps breaking. Working on fixing it, though...]

That’s right, little guy, you’re 1 year old! Wow, has it already been a year? I mean, this is only a blip in the radar compared to Buddha’s birthday, but I think it’s big news nonetheless! Here, we made you all a birthday video, check it out after the jump!

Sorry that video was so boring, but here’s a summary of what went down in there, in case you aren’t illiterate and would rather read.

Finished the Thank you cards: If you requested a thank you card (by filling out the survey for my thesis), then you’ll be happy to know I’ve finally finished writing all the thank you cards! That’s like, almost 300 cards going out in the next couple of days. Depending on where you live in the world, it should take a week or so to get to you, hopefully. If you didn’t get one, then that means you gave me a bad address, because I wrote to everyone who requested.

Koichi’s Personal Blog: So, if anyone is interested, I started a personal blog recently. If you’re a stalker, then this’ll be your bag of tea! Check it out at boxedtofu.com, if you want to. I’ve also got a Youtube thing going at the same username.

Tofugu Store…Coming Soon: We’re working hard on a store that should come out in the next couple of weeks. It won’t be a tacky CafePress-ish store. I only want to sell cool / interesting things of high quality, so we’ll slowly be building our inventory. We’ll also have a free section, which’ll be sweet, I think. We’ll let you all know when it appears in the wild!

Ebook: Can’t really tell you much more, but I’m working on a short e-book relating to Japanese learning. It won’t be done for a while longer, but I think it’ll be really exciting when it comes out!

Finally, Thank you! It’s all of you that made all of this possible. I think we have lots of room to improve, so look forward to more innovation in the future! We’ve really enjoyed hearing from you, and we hope to hang around for another year!

Thanks!
The Tofugu Staff

]]> http://www.tofugu.com/2008/06/05/happy-birthday-tofugu/feed/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/05/25/happy-birthday-erin/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/05/25/happy-birthday-erin/#comments Sun, 25 May 2008 18:00:45 +0000 koichi http://www.tofugu.com/?p=410

Today (in some time zones) is one of our Tofugu authors’ birthdays. Can you guess who? She’s the only female, she’s one of the top three writers, and she’s somewhere in that photo up there. The other two Tofugu writers would like to wish Erin a happy and safe twenty-first birthday! Thank you for writing so many interesting articles, we look forward to more in the future!

So, just a little bit of Japan related trivia: In the United States, you can drink alcohol when you are twenty-one, just like Erin is. In Japan, though, technically you are supposed to be twenty years old before you drink OR smoke. Though, you can really be a bit younger and get alcohol in Japan. As long as you’re between 18-20 most places won’t card you, and even if they do, there is always beer and saké vending machines.

So here’s to Erin! (kanpai!)

P.S. We have no idea when Viet’s birthday is, so Viet, if it was recently, happy birthday to you too <_<;

Here is my thought process on posting. Normally, I only write about things I don’t see anywhere else (compared to a lot of blogs that just snatch and cite content from other blogs, being all sheepy). I don’t like being a sheep…and besides, why would anyone read Tofugu if they could just read another blog with the same content? I want to still stay true to that, so with that in mind, I’d love it if you told me what you are interested in. Let me know in the comments. Here are some starter questions for you if you need them:

1. What do you like about Tofugu (and want to see more of)?
2. What do you think Tofugu is lacking?
3. What sections should be expanded?
4. Would you be interested in more Japan “news” (in addition to the current cultural / language posts that Tofugu mostly consists of)?
5. Any categories you would add

Anything else? Don’t feel constrained by the starter questions. Please get as creative as you want. I’d really like to improve, and ideas from readers have traditionally made Tofugu a much better blog! I look forward to reading what you have to say!

*Also, an update on the story portion of the Nara Mascot Contest. I’ll be reading them this coming week, and hope to announce a winner next week. Sorry for the delay on this part!

That’s it. Blogging. Live the American dream, right there.

I’m hoping I can bring Tofugu back to the 4-5 posts a week blog it once was, and without cutting quality. In fact, I’m hoping to increase the quality. I really like this website, and I want it to be better than it is right now. I plan on doing more videos and coming up with more original articles (stuff you won’t find anywhere else, yeah?). I’m really excited to be able to dedicate time to blogging before reality comes to knock on my door (probably in August or September, when my savings runs out). I’ll even be writing in a couple more blogs…but more on that later.

New Theme: In case you didn’t notice, Tofugu got itself a big face lift. I’ve finally decided to give up on Interneet Explorer 6…so, if you are using it, it’s really time to upgrade to something better. As long as you’re using something newer than IE6, you should be fine. Other than that, I’m really happy with the new layout, and I hope you enjoy it. Let me know of any problems you run across. I wasn’t able to test every nook and cranny, so if you can send an email my way if something breaks, that would be wonderful.

New Site: So, I’m starting two new sites. One of them will officially start going today, and the other will start up in a couple of weeks. The first one is “Vlogly.” It’s all about learning about vlogging, and ultimately, how to make a living doing it (impossible, right?). I’ve had the honor of writing Tofugu and Koichiben for a while now, and I’ve learned a lot of stuff about blogging and vlogging. Although I’m no Youtube superstar or anything, I’m really interested in sharing what I’ve learned with anyone who might be interested in starting a vlog or improving the vlog that they already have.

The other site that I’m starting is kind of an old site: “BoxedTofu.com.”

This, basically, is a personal blog. I’ve really enjoyed writing Tofugu and Koichiben, but I’ve also always wished for a place to write about “other” stuff. Tofugu, Koichiben, and now Vlogly, all have very specific topics, so I’m excited to use BoxedTofu as my off-topic blog. I’ll probably start writing in this one a couple weeks from now.

*One thing you should know about both of my new sites (Vlogly & BoxedTofu) is that I use my first name in them (so don’t get confused). Koichi, the name I use here, is my middle name. Just an FYI so you don’t think I’m making up names here.

Thank You Cards: So, I owe a lot of you thank you cards. I’ll begin writing those next week at the pace of ten a day. That means I’ll be done with all of them in a month. Sorry about the long delay on them, but drawing and writing 300 thank you cards is a big task, no matter who you are.

So that does it for Tofugu news. I’ll start getting on track sometime next week. Thanks for reading, and thanks for watching. I really appreciate all the support thus far!

inally! The time has come to vote on Nara’s New New Mascot. I got a lot of submissions for this contest, so unfortunately I had to narrow it down to my favorite top ten to make voting easier on everyone. Also, I haven’t read any of the submissions for the “continue this story” contest, but I’ll be getting to that within the week. I hope the City of Nara sees this article and realizes the error of their ways.

The mascots will be listed after the break. Afterwards, there will be a poll that will allow you to vote on your favorite! Please vote for your favorite New New Nara Mascot by using the number/name I gave each mascot (which can be seen on each image). The winner of this contest gets a brand spanking new Japanese textbook of my choosing, so make sure you vote now! Somebody’s education is on the line!

Voting will end in one week! (That’s April 17 at Midnight my time)

Vote For Your Favorite!

***(click here to see it move)***

Vote Now!

Mascot Submissions that didn’t make it:

We love you, but we could only pick ten :(