Follow Japanese Profiles On Social Media

#Japanese

Usually social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are the sworn enemies of productive study time, gently beckoning you from your browser’s corner tab, but using this trick you can turn their addictiveness to your advantage: Follow a few Japanese celebrities or news outlets so that Japanese writing appears on websites that you visit often.

The extent you take this is totally up to you, add one or two profiles for an unintrusive sprinkling of kanji, or go crazy and make half of your entire newsfeed Japanese. Just make sure each one is something you’re actually interested in, and don’t add so many that using your account is no longer fun/useful. If you do you’ll end up irritatedly scrolling through and only reading your native language.

Here’s a few suggestions to get you started: @asahi (the Asahi Shimbun), @matomenaver (news aggregator Naver Matome), @pamyurin (the weird and wonderful Kyary Pamyu Pamyu) and @55_Kumamon (Japan’s mascot king, Kumamon).

Take it further: If you don’t need to trick yourself into studying, you can set up a separate account specifically for this purpose.

Listen to Japanese Music

There’s more to Japanese music than this, I promise

Japanese music is available anywhere in the world, and even things like Spotify, Last.fm, and iTunes Radio will let you listen to it for free, so there’s no excuses not to try this one.

Studies have shown that listening to music performed in your target language can help facilitate learning by subconsciously training you to recognise patterns of speech and boundaries between words. In basic terms, this means music teaches your mind to break down chunks of syllables and learn where separate words begin and end. This happens to some extent when listening to regular speech, but if words are attached to notes our brains can compartmentalise them more effectively.

Of course, the more engaged you are, the more you’ll learn from listening to Japanese music, but even having it on in the background as you do something else is beneficial. Notch it up to Hardcore Mode by listening to Japanese radio while practicing writing kanji.

Take it further: Expand on this approach by repeating segments of songs and trying to note down the lyrics (the sounds alone if you’re a beginner, the actual kanji and meaning for more advanced levels), then performing an online search afterwards to check your accuracy. If you’re confident enough you could even break out a microphone and give it a shot at karaoke. Or, quietly, into a shampoo bottle, alone in the shower.

Set Your Phone to Japanese

I take no responsibility for phones flung at walls in kanji-induced frustration

Urgh. I know, this one’s tough. There’ll be moments when you’re so frustrated you’ll want to set your phone ablaze in a sacrificial ceremony to the almighty gods of Kanji. But it does pay off.

When I lived in China I used this method to learn the different characters associated with actions on my phone. This resulted in situations where I embarrassed myself by repeatedly failing to put a new contact’s details in my phone, as well as mornings when my alarm would go off and I was unable to differentiate between “snooze” and “off,” forcing me to get out of bed in a fit of snoozeless rage (the most furious of all types of rage). After a while, though, I began to recognise those characters not only on my phone, but elsewhere. I’d use my office computer and understand commands that I’d never noticed before; I didn’t know how to pronounce them at this point, but I’d already done the (arguably) most difficult part of learning the characters.

This is an incredibly frustrating thing to try but if you persevere the spaced repetition involved in regularly seeing the same characters really helps you to retain the information.

Take it further: If you’re a real masochist, you can also go about setting your other devices and software in Japanese. Just remember to write down where the language settings section is…

Label Items With Kanji Sticky Notes

If you’re struggling with vocabulary get yourself some sticky notes and begin labeling things in your home like a family-friendly version of the movie Memento. Either include the kanji and furigana to help you memorize both, or just the kanji in order to test yourself on the pronunciation each time.

Color-coding can be a useful way of organising the information, either by categorising types of words (e.g. on the shower you could have the noun “shower”, シャワー, in one colour and the verb “wash”, 洗う, in another) or the stage of your learning (e.g. green for words you usually remember, orange for words you can sometimes recall and red for those ones that just won’t stick).

Take it further: You could take the Memento comparison more literally and have those “code red” stickers tattooed all over your silly, forgetful face… But I’d suggest just air-writing the kanji with your finger each time you see them instead.

Think In Japanese

Next time you find yourself with nothing to do, be it in a car, a doctor’s waiting room or while attempting to look busy at the office, think to yourself in Japanese. Not having your textbook is no longer a valid excuse for not studying!

An “in-head” review of the last thing you learned is probably the most efficient use of this method but anything from simple sentences about the location of things in the room to complex monologues about current events will do.

Take it further: Memorize dialogues from your textbook, then later try to go through them word-for-word in your head.

Use the Japanese Menu at Japanese Restaurants

You have to earn this

I have to admit that when I used to eat out in Japan I would rely on other people to do the ordering, or simply go off the pictures provided. Even when I’d selected something I wouldn’t bother to read the name most of the time, not when a quick point and “Kore okudasai” (this please) would suffice.

This is a huge missed opportunity though, as food words are amongst the most important vocabulary you can learn. And the brilliant thing about studying by reading menus is that it works for all levels of Japanese, beginners can practice reading hiragana and katakana, while even the most fluent Japanese speaker is bound to get tripped up by dish names every once in a while (I’m occasionally baffled by dish names in English).

Take it further: Ask for a copy of the menu (or take a picture) and take it away with you. Translate the dishes at home then test yourself next time you’re eating there. Who knows, maybe you’ll even discover a new favourite dish.

BONUS TIPS FOR READERS LIVING IN JAPAN

I’ve also included two extra tips to help people living in Japan take advantage of their surroundings and sponge up all that Japanese overflowing everywhere.

Eavesdrop On Conversations

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen in on the Japanese conversations around you. If you’re in Japan, you’re literally surrounded by listening exercises far more authentic than in any textbook. Whether in a coffee shop, on public transport or even in the office, stop tuning out other people’s conversations as background noise and start trying to decipher them.

Listening to other people’s conversations even has a few advantages over holding your own. For example, people often talk slower with more simple language when talking to non-native speakers, but by listening to others you get to feel the rhythm of a more natural conversation. And that doesn’t necessarily make it more difficult: negating a need for a response means you can focus solely on listening rather than simultaneously piecing together a reply.

As well as improving your listening ability you’ll pick up new vocabulary and, perhaps most importantly, there’s a good chance you’ll hear things you’ve been saying wrong but people have been too polite to correct you on.

By listening to various age groups and types of people you’ll also put yourself out of your Japanese comfort zone and hear how different people talk. If you work with kids for your day job or the majority of your conversations are with the opposite gender it’s important to do this in order to avoid sounding like them. Because, if nobody else has told you this yet, you almost certainly do. Sorry.

I’m not saying that you should be breaking out a newspaper with eyeholes and making everybody around you feel uncomfortable, though. Be discreet about it. Take a note from Japanese culture and “observe without watching,” or in this case “listen without gaping.” Also, if somebody is talking loudly enough to be heard by the general public it’s unlikely to concern anything they’d be troubled by a stranger hearing.

Plus, your heart is true and your motives pure. Go forth and eavesdrop.

Take it further: You probably shouldn’t take this one further, even if your motives are pure.

Translate Advertisements On The Train

Log out of Facebook, switch off Candy Crush, Farmville or whatever this month’s trashy yet surprisingly addictive game is, and start using your time on the train productively. If you can’t get a seat you may not be able to take out your textbook and study the way you’d like to, but you can get some real-world reading practice in.

Step one: Look up and select an advert. If you’re a beginner make sure it doesn’t have a huge block of text and, whatever level you are, choose one that looks at least remotely interesting.

Step two: Read. When you come across a phrase or kanji you don’t understand, use your dictionary to translate. And don’t say you don’t have one, because you were just playing Candy Crush a minute ago and if you’ve paid for that but not a dictionary we’ll have to have a serious talk.

If something comes up that your translation tools can’t make sense of, don’t give up or spend an inordinate amount of time on it, make a note and move on. You can ask a friend later.

Like setting your phone to Japanese and the sticky note method, this is especially effective because of spaced repetition. Whether you’re intending to study or not, each time you get on the train and see the same adverts you’ll be reminded of the kanji and vocabulary you learnt when you translated them.

Take it further: Before you get off at your stop, snap a picture of the advertisement. This will allow you finish translating at home or, if you’d already done, check your work and review it.

Did I miss anything? No doubt many of you have picked up a few small tricks of your own to improve your Japanese outside of the classroom.

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Bonus Wallpapers!

[1280x800] ∙[2560x1600] ∙ [1280x800 Animated] ∙ [700x438 Animated]

To me, Nara is a place that is deer dear to my heart. When I was five, my family moved from Osaka to a rural town in Nara prefecture, and I lived there until my second year of university. Nara is such a beautiful place filled with lots of memories from childhood to the springtime of my life. My parents still live there and so do many of my friends. To say the least, it is a very special place to me.

On August 8, 2013 on the LINE social network, I received a few messages from my younger brother and sister talking about an earthquake in Nara. Yet, I didn’t really care or get worried when I got them because the messages didn’t seem all that serious. Look at their conversations below:

Bro: 奈良県で地震ですか？ Was there an earthquake in Nara?
Sis: 震度一もないらしいよ It seems that it was even less than M1
Bro: おっ Huh？

However, when I went online afterward to learn more about the quake, I found that it was originally reported that a 7.8 earthquake hit in Nara, but turned out to be a false alarm. Thank God, it could have been a scary big earthquake and I wouldn’t have wanted that (of course!). I’m very glad that it was just a big mistake.

Despite being a false alarm, everyone’s mobile phones went off with emergency alerts, some trains and school elevators were stopped and even Yahoo Japan temporarily went off. My Facebook wall was filled with comments about the incident as well. Some people were thankful that it was just a mistake and that it reminded themselves to be ready for a real earthquake in the future. Others just complained about the false alert.

One of the latter was my friend from high school who was hungover when it happened. He was woken up by the alert and tried to save some water in the bathtub before an actual earthquake happened (remember, he was half asleep and hungover). Of course, he turned the tap in the wrong direction and just got drenched in cold shower water. At that point, he was finally awake enough for the earthquake, but it never happened and that made him particularly upset.

The Power Of The Nara Daibutsu

Meanwhile, one absurd conspiracy began rapidly spreading across the Internet: the Nara Daibutsu (the giant Buddha statue in Nara) was responsible for stopping the earthquake! I’m not sure who started saying this but I do have to say it does sound pretty silly. Before looking at some Nara-Daibutsu-believers’ words, let me tell you about the Nara Daibutsu first.

Nara Daibutsu

The Nara Daibutsu is one of three major Buddha statues in Japan and is located in Todai-ji Temple in Nara. It’s officially called Rushana Buddha, and was constructed in 752. Todai-ji temple has been designated a World Heritage Site as well as a national treasure.

I keep saying that it’s a “giant” Buddha statue, but do you want to know how giant it really is?

Height: 49.1 ft
Face: 17.5 ft
Eyes: 3.3 ft each
Ears: 8.3 ft
Weight: 500 tonnes

To put things in perspective, that’s twice the height of the giant in Jack The Giant Killer. Also, if you’re keeping track that’s 6.5 Yao Mings and ~8 Nic Cages. You certainly have to look up to see it.

The Nara Daibutsu is also known for its big lucky nostril. They say that if you go through the Nara Daibutsu’s nostril it will bring you good luck. There is actually an old support pillar with a hole cut exactly the same size as Buddha’s nostril inside Todaiji next to the giant Buddha statue. If you can get through this then you can get through Buddha’s nostril, at least in theory.

How lucky!

The Words Of The Believers

Regardless of whether or not the Nara Daibutsu actually stopped the earthquake, the believers’ words sound so serious that it becomes a bit silly/funny to me, so I have to share them with you all. Here’s some quotes from Twitter:

Earth quake? Yeah, I suppressed it down.

[hr]

An earthquake early warning went out
↓
M7.8 earthquake happened in Nara
↓
Giant Buddha noticed the earthquake
↓
It secretly shot a shock wave to kill the earthquake
↓
Nara people ‘There wasn’t any shake’
↓
Other prefectures people ‘Was it misinformation?’
↓
The proof: the clouds were strange [shaped like Buddha]

[hr]

Nara Daibutsu: “The earthquake happened, but I punched on the ground to offset it

[hr]

An earthquake in Wakayama and noise in the ocean near Mie prefecture → Nara Daibutsu noticed this → Nara Buddha saved…right?

[hr]

I’ve heard that even a Nostradamus book said that only Japan could avoid disaster because of the power of Nara’s Giant Buddha.

[hr]

Giant Buddha: ‘I stopped it after 9 seconds’

[hr]

Nara Giant Buddha SUGEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!(GREAAAAAAAT)!!!!!

[hr]

Giant Buddha Platinum the world

[hr]

Giant Buddha: “An earthquake is coming, right? It’s kind of a wave, right? So if you make a wave towards the opposite direction…like this ‘Ha!’…wait…something was wrong…like this ‘Haaa!!”, yeah, it seems right. Then…yeah…you got it, right?”

Nara people: “That’s amazing and we didn’t know you speak that casually.”

[hr]

Giant Buddha: ‘I stopped the earthquake’
People: ‘Wow, are you God?’
Giant Buddha: ‘No way. I’m just Buddha.’

[hr]

There are more and more quotes, but unfortunately I can’t introduce everything. According to many of them, it seems that the Nara Daibutsu stopped the earthquake by punching into the Earth to make a wave towards the very opposite direction of the earthquake and canceled it out. I’m personally happy to see that so many people are commenting on the power of Nara Daibutsu, which is the symbol of Nara where I grew up! And guess what? I succeeded in interviewing an actual monk in Nara about this Giant Daibutsu rumor!

An Interview With A Nara Monk

This is Yugaku Ikawa (井川裕覚) of Daihisen Tatsunoji Temple (悲山 立野寺) in Yagyu, Nara. He belongs to a Japanese group of Shingon Buddhism called Koyasan Shingon-shu (高野山真言宗). He started off by explaining what Buddhism is like, what kind of religion Shingon-shu is, and then talked about the Nara Daibutsu hypothesis. I translated the interview into English for you to understand.

About Buddhism And Shingon Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion to make yourself Buddha itself by coming in touch with Buddha. Buddha is not in sutra, statues or temples but inside of ourselves.

Shingon Buddhism (真言宗/Shingon-shu) is one of the few surviving Esoteric Buddhism lineages, which is called Mikkyō (密教) in Japanese. Mikkyō literally means “secret ways” and was originally started in India, spread to China and then was brought to Japan by a Buddhist monk named Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師) around 1200 years ago. By the time it came all the way to Japan, it adopted various Buddhist and other religions gods’ thoughts and became a more complex and multifaceted system. Mikkyō Monks regard gaining “this-worldly benefits” (現世利益/Genseriyaku) as the most important thing. There are so many practices to do this, including ajikan (阿字観), which is a core meditative practice. Mikkyō Monks try to experience Buddha in themselves throughout those practices and by sympathizing various Buddhas.

About The Nara Daibutsu Hypothesis And Earthquake

This time, the epicenter was reported in Nara which is not typically associated with heavy seismic activity or big disasters, so that added to the puzzlement and also caused the great [Nara Daibutsu] sensation. The Nara Daibutsu (Rushana Buddha) is not only a universe by itself but also of earthly environment, nature and all of our origins. In that kind of meaning, it could be said all the earthly activities including earthquakes are the Daibutsu’s activities as well. I would say that it’s a wonderful result of human beings’ wisdom to prove and elucidate many things scientifically. However, I would also say that it’s very important not to be into only one extreme speculation that “science is the truth” but to realize that we are allowed to live within an earth and universe such as Daibutsu and be thankful for it.

Although I say such serious things, I just find something congenial in Buddha while imagining that it is actually fighting against a plate or an earthquake like an anime character (laughs).

Finally, Japan is said to be an earthquake country, and big ones such as the Great Hanshin earthquake and the Great East Japan earthquake have occurred since I was born. I extend my sincere condolences to all the victims and wish everyone who is still suffering from the earthquake places to relax and settle down. I believe that not only recovering lifelines such as facilities and buildings but also recovering peoples hearts is very important. I wish peaceful minds for as many people as possible. I believe that the true relationships among people makes their zest for living.

[/end interview]

Since there are not any scientific evidences that the Nara Daibutsu defeated the earthquake, the reliability of the hypothesis is questioned. However, why don’t we put scientific and critical opinion aside like the monk said and close our eyes to meditate? Then, repeat the famous false Buddha quote in your mind:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

Anything could be the truth depending on your own mind, it doesn’t matter whether it’s proven or not. So now, tell me your thoughts on the Nara Daibutsu hypotheses!

For a while, it seems, he’s been accepting requests from people on Twitter for various hengao requests. He responds with hengao pictures he takes of some of the requests, many of which are quite absurd. After a while he realized he was sitting on a hengao gold mine. “What if, just like Maru, I could turn these pictures into a book that people would buy?” he maybe asked himself. “But wait, I don’t want to have to pay for all that,” he possibly continued to think. “I know, let’s work together to fund this thing!” (all these quotes are completely made up, by the way).

So, he turned the very community-based hengao Twitter request thing into a community-based funding thing. Makes total sense to me, anyways. Enough about this for now, though. You’re here for the pictures, I bet. Let’s take a look at some of the funnier faces:

I made up your emoticon

Bald Guerrilla Face (probably not the most politically correct one here…)

The face from your dream (that he tweeted about, I assume)

The moment you became ranking #1 in the AKB election

No caption

Catching a cold, getting hay fever, and contracting conjunctivitis, all at once

How thick is your bone density? Reply with a face.

If you’re interested in helping out with this project (I’ll probably throw some yens Wakki’s way after finishing this article), you can find it on the CampFire page: ペナルティのワッキーがみんなと作る変顔写真集、「フェイス」！ There are some neat prizes for funding, some of which include the book itself, special messages and signatures, and at the higher levels meeting up with Wakki to spend half a day having your way with his face (as in, making it look however you want).

Wakki thanks you, I’m sure. Also, you should try to see if he’ll do a custom face for you. Request it to him on his Twitter account. Maybe your requested face will show up in his book, should it get funded. We sent Wakki a message too, and guess what? We got a response. I now present to you “Fugu eating bad tasting tofu” -

@tofugu フェイス！

Can I say that this is truly a work of art? I’m going to print out an 8×10 glossy.

Hengao Across The Internets

It’s not just Wakki who’s doing strange faces. This is obviously something bigger than just one person. People post up hengao pics because they’re hen, and funny, and people of course love them.

Of course, maybe some before and after shots will offer some insight as to how much of a change some of these people make. It’s like the opposite of those before and after makeup commercial shots, but a lot more extreme, I think. Here’s some really good ones that I found here.

Some of these are really good, almost pro status, I’d say. But, Wakki is still the boss. There are some other “pros” out there, but they are pros in different ways (i.e. not famous for hengao). What I’m getting at is that there are a lot of examples of hengao in the celebrity scene. Sometimes it’s on purpose, sometimes it’s not. Jim Carrey, of course, has his own special page.

But, there’s Japanese celebrities as well. A lot of them, in fact. Between painful gameshows, comedic routines, feats of hengao strength, and just plain bad timing, there’s a plethora of hengao out there to get a chuckle out of. Idols, personalities, and actors, unite!

“Oohhh”

According to the subtitle she is “skilled at hengao”

Thing is, this is how Ramenz face always looks

Everything seems normal until… Aughh!

A new use for chopsticks / Pocky

Oh my gosh, so stretchy!

And, of course, you know a bit about Kyary from Kimokawaii. Not much else to say but kimo…kawaii… or just kimo.

As you can see, there’s plenty of celebrity hengao, both purposefully and not on purpose, all over the internet. It’s like a tabloid’s dream come true, except for it’s on purpose half the time.

Now It’s Your Turn To Hengao (For Prizes!)

Forever alone

So I’ve shown you all about Japanese “hengao.” I even did one for you to show you that it’s not thattt bad (see above, that Jabba the Hutt looking thing on the right is me). Now it’s your turn to give back, just as I have above (you’re welcome). But, you’re not just doing it for everyone’s amusement. You’re doing it for incredible prizes as well!

FIRST PLACE: Forever TextFugu Membership, 1 Year of WaniKani, and 1st Choice From The Prize Pool (see below)

First place will get you a TextFugu Forever account, 1 year of WaniKani (if you already have a WaniKani account, you can always use it after your current account expires), plus first choice from the prize pool, below. You can have one of three fabulous gifts, and you can get exactly the one you want. Is it Usopp and his giant hammer? Is it Wasabi KitKat Bars? Or is it Nara’s new and less-creepy mascot? Up to you.

SECOND PLACE: A Forever TextFugu Membership OR 1 Year Of WaniKani, and 2nd Choice From The Prize Pool

You can choose between TextFugu Forever or 1 Year of WaniKani. Then, you get second pickings at the prize pool, below.

THIRD PLACE: 3rd Choice From The Prize Pool

You’ll get whatever is left over in the prize pool. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be lucky and get what you wanted.

(Choose one from the prize pool)

To submit your entry, post an image into the comments below. You can attach an image via Disqus comments (what we use for comments, down below) or you can link to it after uploading it (to, say, imgur). The Tofugu people will each get 3 points to give to the various submissions. Then, on top of that, the top 3 vote getters (you can upvote comments, so upvote the ones you like) will get 3 total points for having the most votes, 2 for second most, and 1 for third most, meaning the earlier you get your hengao in the better. Some rules:

• Post your submission images into the comments.
• Submit it by July 21, 2013.
• Winners will be decided the following Monday or Tuesday.
• Be sure to put your actual email when leaving a comment / creating a Disqus account so we can contact you.
• Yes, you may do multiple submissions, but no more than three please (also remember it could dilute your chances to get more votes on one pic!).
• Before and after shots may gain you extra points.
• International submissions A-OK.

I hope you have a good time coming up with submissions. I am really looking forward to seeing them :p

Also, big thanks to our new ace researcher extraordinaire Mami for her help on this article. She also wants to wish you good luck on this contest!

Alright everyone, get to work on those hengao!

Update: Tofugu’s illustrious illustrator wants to join in on the fun.

Update: Winners have been chosen and notified (so if you weren’t notified, then… well… sorry!). We’ll show the winners in the newsletter, coming up at the end of the month, so look forward to it!

What event was so earth-shattering, so popular, that it caused so many people to get on Twitter an talk about it? Simple: a Studio Ghibli movie.

It’s no secret that Studio Ghibli is incredibly beloved by pretty much everybody ever, but especially so in Japan. Hayao Miyazaki and his animated films have always been immensely popular their home country, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that when the Studio Ghibli movie “Castle in the Sky” aired on TV for the first time in two years, people got a little excited.

If you don’t know Castle in the Sky, it’s a movie inspired partially by the classic book Gulliver’s Travels (of creepy amusement park fame) that follows the story of two children who discover a floating city from the past.

It’s a well-loved Miyazaki movie that’s been out for over 20 years now and has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. There’s even a life-sized replica of one of the guard robots at the Studio Ghibli museum in Japan!

So when Castle in the Sky started playing on TV, people from all around Japan tuned in to watch this beloved film and went to talk about it with other people online.

I don’t want to spoil this 25-year-old movie for any of you (is there a statute of limitations for movie spoilers?), but at the climax of the movie, the two main characters recite a spell of destruction that, with a single word, destroys the city in the sky: 「バルス」(“bahlus” in the English dub).

It was at that dramatic moment that people all across Japan Tweeted along with the movie, breaking over 11,000 TPS, most of them simply 「バルス」.

The last record for TPS was set at just below 9,000 (not quite over) when music royalty Beyoncé and Jay-Z announced they were expecting a baby, promising to bring into the world the most talented child in music history.

“Castle in the Sky? Whatever!”

And it wasn’t just Twitter that was hit hard by the spell of destruction. The infamous 2ch was temporarily taken down by the sheer number of threads about Castle in the Sky, and other sites like Nico Nico Douga saw a huge surge in traffic too.

So what’s the lesson here? Obviously, Miyazaki films are incredibly popular, and clearly the Japanese love their social media sites.

But what I think is coolest about all of this is how people were basically able to watch this movie together because of social networking. People way down south in Kyushu were hanging out and watching Castle in the Sky with people up north in Hokkaido. How cool is that?

P.S. You guys wanna break a TPS record with us? Follow us on Twitter.
P.P.S. Think we can’t beat Miyazaki? Then check us on Facebook or Google+.

[via watashi to tokyo]

Depending on your point of view, the snooze button can be your best friend or your worst enemy. We’ve all struggled with waking up on time, and the snooze button can often lull us into a false sense of security, making it okay to jump back into your warm, comfy bed and ignore the outside world for another ten minutes or so. One Japanese iPhone app seems to have solved this conundrum with a time-tested method: public shaming.

Japanese iPhone app OKITE might not seem that unique. At first glance OKITE (“wake up!” in Japanese) looks like just another phone alarm clock. Even old flip phones (RAZR, anyone?) had alarm clocks built in. What makes OKITE different is that every time you hit the snooze button, the app sends out embarrassing tweets to all your followers on Twitter.

OKITE punishes you with some choice tweets for continuing to hit that snooze button. It covers everything from embarrassing fashion choices (“I’m wearing a sailor suit right now”) to the shamefully boastful (“The world needs more smart people like me”). But maybe the most condemning tweet of all from OKITE is “I can’t ride a bicycle.”

Oh God how did this embarrassing picture get here I am not good with computer

But what I think is scariest thing about OKITE is that you don’t really know what it’s going to say. As far as I can tell, there’s no list of phrases it uses, so you’re really putting your life in your own hands when you sleep in. If that’s not incentive to wake up, I’m not sure what is.

The interesting cultural thing about this app is the whole public shaming thing. In America when you do something shameful it’s all about the person doing the shameful thing. “What’s wrong with you?” “Why would you do that?” etc. In Japan, it’s kind of the opposite. When someone does something shameful, it’s always “What will the neighbors think?” and “What will your classmates think?” Public shame is the most terrifying motivator of all in Japan, and this app plays right in to that.

But, will this open the way for more shame-based apps? To-do lists might post about your bed-wetting problem on Facebook if you forget to go grocery shopping, or an app might post embarrassing childhood pictures on Tumblr if you forget to call your parents.

You can find OKITE on the Apple app store here, and you can check out all the tweets with the hashtag #OKITE here.

P.S. Want to see embarrassing tweets from Tofugu & Team? You should follow us on Twitter.

P.P.S. Would you rather be able to Like the shame? Like us Facebook

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Okay, I don’t have much time. I’m in the Portland International Airport, and my flight is boarding in about 20 minutes. I also need food. Hungry. But, before I go, I need to tell you how to vote for what you want to see on TofuguTV. I’ll be sending out emails, tweets, Facebook updates, etc., and anyone following Tofugu on those things (or all of those things, especially) will receive their God given right to vote for what they watch on YouTube… or something like that. Anyways, here are your options.

Ways To Vote

There are three ways to vote… and I won’t necessarily send voting thingies out to all three things at once, meaning I might only send things to Twitter or only send something out to the people subscribed to the newsletter. That means you should sign up for all three. That’s right, you’re held hostage (maybe). Don’t worry, they’ll be awesome.

Facebook: You can vote on Facebook by following Tofugu. Watch out for the status updates!

Twitter: You can vote on Twitter by following Tofugu. Watch out for the status updates!

Email: You can vote if you receive the Tofugu Newsletter. It’s been a while since I’ve sent one out, but surely there’ll be a few over the next few weeks.

So, there you have it. If you follow all three of them, you’ll get every single opportunity to vote. If you don’t, well, you’ll just get some of the opportunities, which is cool too.

But What Are You Voting For?

While I’m in Japan filming TofuguTV, there will be times and opportunities where I’ll be like “huh, I don’t know where to go.” This might be some time where I don’t have any preference, and I’ll ask “which direction?” or it might be a time where it’s something specific, like “do you want to see this, or this?” Based on what you vote, and what you want, I’ll do those things for you. All you need to do is vote. The power is in your hands, my friends.

Also, keep watching the blog. I’ll try to update as much as possible while on the road with pictures, short videos, and things like that. After I get back, I’ll start working on the big footage. First episode should come out first week of January! So soon! Gotta love the web :)

Thanks everyone for your support, hopefully this’ll be amazing.

P.S. Want to follow TofuguTV related posts? Use the TofuguTV Tag, and subscribe to the tag feed!

P.S. Want to get status updates as they happen? Follow Tofugu on Twitter. I’ll be tweeting as much as my overly expensive AT&T data plan and wallet lets me.