Intelligent English-language Japan Blogs

Just thought I’d point our readers toward some stuff I’ve been digging lately:

Neomarxisme: I’ve been following this one for a while, but reading Marxy’s posts has proven especially cathartic these past couple of months or so. His writing on social trends in Japan lets me both vividly recall and better understand my prior experiences in Japan while making me want to get back there more and more each day. Not all posts are on Japan, especially since he turned the site into a “post-blog” (nevertheless still made up of blog posts), but the ones that make sense are usually interesting (the earlier posts are especially educational for the uninitiated).

Asia Logistics Wrap: A business blog by an honest to goodness expert in supply chains. As someone with an interest but only basic knowledge of the subject, my plan is to read through some of these posts and get whatever insight I can. He’s a Marmot reader – always a plus – and calls Thomas Barnett a “visionary” – a minus to some but meaningless to me.

The Bass Harp: Haven’t read much of this, but the concept alone deserves a mention. It’s dedicated to translations of Japanese-language public domain literature, obtained from the awesome online public domain library Aozora. Go there if you’re sick of bookies and transvestite exhibitionists!

An Eternal Thought in the mind of Godzilla: Read this blog in case you thought all so-called “American otaku” who are interested in Japan have nothing interesting to offer. The most fun part of this site has been the podcasts – my favorite is the one about the Japanese Fonzies known as The Cools.

Kaiju Shakedown: I’ve plugged (and contributed) to this site before, but this guy remains the best source of info for Asian movies that I have no intention of seeing.

So there you have it. If you’re lucky, I’ll eventually clue you into what podcasts I’m listening to and the best places to watch “Internet TV” on the web!