Liv wrote a piece about why sometimes it’s easier to pretend that you don’t understand Japanese in Someone’s Knocking at the Door.

Nick tell’s us about the struggles of having a foreign name in Japan in What’s my name?

Jaimapanese talks about his strategy to learn Japanese with a combination of Anime, Manga and video games and claims that “Learning Japanese is complicated but not difficult“.

My contribution was a few handy kanji for travelers.

More serious students of the language will enjoy some of the other submissions to “The Language of Japan” Japan Blog Matsuri, but I must admit that some are a bit over my head – I’m barely a beginner!

For people like me, whose foreign language skills aren’t even close to fluent,  10 places to find someone who speaks English is a good resource written by Mary Jo at Fly Away Cafe.  There are actually more than ten as additional suggestions can be found in the comments on the article.

That’s it for this weeks Nihon on the Net.  If you have a craving for news in between editions be sure to check out JapanSoc, Japan’s #1 Social Bookmarking Site.  It keeps me up to date with what others are reading and talking about in the world of Japan news and opinion and I would encourage you to participate if you want to read more than what I can present here once a week.

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

Prime Minister Fukuda will give up wearing a tie to help save the environment and try to improve his flailing popularity.

Also in fashion, a look at how Japanese fashion was influences by the opening of Japan to the west 150 years ago. We might see flapper skirts and ‘hakama pants” in New York next year.

A Tokyo crane operator tells us about his job and how cranes get up on top those tall buildings under construction in Reaching from the skies.

Lastly, take a moment to check out some information on Tokyo’s newest subway route, the Fukutoshin line, which is set to open on June 14th.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia, Hihakama

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

The Japanese have brought native Noma horses back from the brink of extinction and you can now see one of these adorable miniature horses at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

As incomes rise, more Asians turn to cosmetics that promise a lighter skin color.

Neon orange paint balls are the newest crime-fighting innovation in Japan. I’m not sure how effective they will be as the robbery victim needs to have a good arm in order to hit the perpetrator with the orb so that the authorities can track the suspect down!

Video footage of the rush hour on a Tokyo train platform.  Anderson Coopers’ commentary is cute and, for you trivia lovers, the ‘pushers’ are called oshiya in Japanese.

Photo Credit:  FLickr, white beauty

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

Don’t forget to participate in the poll in the sidebar and leave me a comment at “What do you want to know about Tokyo?“. I’ll be featuring some of the questions and providing answers throughout the month of June.

Anime and Manga are hot in Hollywood – but other American cities are getting in on this popular trend as well.

The Mob in Japan – a true tale of a foreign crime writer who now fears his safety and that of his family because of his reporting on the Yakuza.

The New Age Of Japanese Baseball Player Media Coverage is interesting reading. It provides a some historical perspective on Japanese players in the MLB and also discuss the process that those players need to go through to be eligible to play n the United States.

How Toyota used kaizen, the Japanese principle of slow and steady improvement, to sell 160,000 more cars than GM in the first quarter of 2008. In a culture where it is commonly believed that the top down approach to management is prevalent, Toyota receives and implements about 1 million ideas a year mostly from the workers on the factory floor.

Identifying underage smokers with facial recognition software could be implemented when you try to purchase cigarettes from vending machines in Japan.

Lastly,is Japan growing opium poppies?

Photo Credit: Anime Los Angeles 2008

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler