Later this month, we will be posting the first of a series of articles on Japanese monsters and ghosts, or obake (お化け). Obake, also known as bakemono (化け物) are a motley bunch, with unique backgrounds and personalities. They are portrayed widely in Japanese folklore and art; some have even been popularized in anime and manga. As for the Tofugu Team, we have no real reason for undertaking this project, other than the fact that we find the obake to be quirky and interesting, and hope that you will, too.

Guest Writers: Status Update & Clarification

Thanks to all of you who have submitted articles so far! We’ve discussed what we’re going to do with the guest articles, and we’ve decided to tweak our earlier post about them, so follow this link to see what’s new. The main thing to keep in mind is to write about things you think your peers would be interested in or have an opinion about. Don’t worry if you think your writing style doesn’t mesh with ours—just make sure you write coherently and with a point of view. A little humor doesn’t hurt, either.

Contacting the Tofugu Team: Feeling Chatty?

Koichi: koichiben@hotmail.com

Erin: tofugu_girl@hotmail. com

Viet: vi3thoang@hotmail.com

We’re not always online, but feel free to add us if you like. We don’t bite. Except, Godzilla, sometimes.

New Features

Guest Writers

That’s right, we’re accepting articles from anyone. That is to say, we’re accepting articles, though not necessarily publishing them. We would like your experiences shared, your opinions stated, and your knowledge out there for the world to see. You’re probably asking, “what do I get out of it?” Well, you get a little bit of fame, your picture (if you want), and a link to your website / youtube channel / blog / whatever … That way, you get a little extra credit for your work, and if people like it, you’ll get more visits. We think it’s a win-win situation for everyone, and besides, we want to hear from you!

Here are the rules (they’re pretty easy): Write your article, send it to us with any photos you want included, and wait for our reply. If you’ve done a good job, you can expect your post to be accepted, but if you wing it and write something about guppies, don’t expect us to be too nice.

Tofugu Flickr Group

We’ve made a Tofugu Flickr Group just so our readers can add their photos and share them with the Tofugu community. We’ve added a neat little badge somewhere to the right, where you can check out people’s photos. We moderate them, so if you submit you’ll have to wait a little for us to get to them.

Log In

If you’re tired of typing in your entire name, email, and website every time you comment, you’ll be happy to know that you can now create an account and log in. It doesn’t do much more than that, but some people have wanted it. It will also work with avatars, once we get them working (i.e. once the gravatar website starts working again). Anyways, go and create your new account now, if you want one.

Viet Wrote an Article!

After all these months, we finally see what Viet can do! Hopefully we see a lot more from him, or he won’t get paid when the check comes in (just kidding?). Since he wrote his article right before the big update/upgrade, we felt like it should be included in the new features. So there you have it, Viet, you are our newest feature, and you are wearing the perfect hat for the occasion.

Soon to be New Features

Forum:
That’s right, we’re working on setting up a forum. All of you with PTSD from losing nested comments will be glad to know that you will soon be able to discuss to your heart’s content. Don’t know much past that, though, it should be interesting. I’m actually kind of worried about this one, so it may be a little limited at first, but that only means you’ll have something to look forward to, right? :)

Avatars:
Hoping to get this one up in the next few days. There were some problems over at gravatar, so once those are resolves, I’ll be able to do avatar testing. For now, there are image place-holders where your avatars could and will be.

People Advertising on our Site:
I have this listed as a “to be” feature because it hasn’t happened yet. If you have a blog / website / youtube channel you want to advertise for a few days free, just contact us. We’re giving out free advertising right now, so people can test it out (and so we can test it out too). If you want to promote yourself a little bit, now’s your chance!

Tags
We’ll be adding tags to all the posts here soon, so navigating amongst categories will get easier. These will be different from “categories” and be more specific (and ridiculous). As our post numbers increase, we want to make sure people can find things that interest them.

Prizes:
I feel like we need to start giving out prizes for some reason. Don’t ask me why. Don’t ask me what we’ll give out. It just seems like a good idea right now.

Live Japanese Lessons:
This has gotten the most attention. We will be starting these up with the school year, probably in September. In the meantime, we need to know what you want. What kind of lessons are you looking for? Questions/Answer? Actual lectures? We haven’t done this kind of thing, so we’d like to know what’s best for you. Let us know, comment!

And Now…?

Well, just expect more of what we’ve been doing. If there is anything we can improve on, or anything else you’d like to see, please comment on this post and let us know. If you’re feeling shy, you can always email us as well. We really want to improve, and do it in the way you want, so getting your feedback is very important to us! Thanks again to everyone’s support, and hope to talk to you all on the non-nested comments (sorry!)