However, there are still a huge number of people who need help. Fortunately, there are many different ways you can do so. Before I get to them, I just want to give two brief reminders. First, please only give to registered charities. As sad as it sounds some people do try to take advantage of situations like this to exploit people’s good nature. Second, if at all possible please send money rather than other items. Charities generally speaking have a better idea what the people on the ground need. Not only can other items be useless, they can slowdown or even prevent the delivering of needed supplies. To understand this a little better please refer to the economist’s article, Too Much Of A Good Thing.

Now on how you can help today. I highly recommend you visit The Huffington Post’s How To Help Japan: Earthquake Relief Options page. They outline many great charities that you can give to today. However, the easiest option is to consider donating to your local Red Cross: US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

The people of Japan need your help, so any monetary donation to a registered charity working on the relief effort will be appreciated.

First the things that were pretty much the same.

5. The Trains/Public Transportation

I was very happy to see that the trains still ran on time and that Japan still has some of the best public transportation available anywhere in the world.

4. Level Of Service

Overall, the level of service still seemed very high (with one or two notable exceptions). It still amazes me that I can get better service in a restaurant in Japan than almost anywhere else on earth and I don’t have to tip for it.

3. Number of Convenience Stores and Vending Machines

I was happy that I never had to walk more than a few hundred meters to find one or the other. This made buying beer, coffee and pocari sweat that much easier.

2. Getting Involved in Weird English Conversations

This is perhaps one of the things I remember most clearly about living in Japan 3 years ago. People often came up to me to practice their English. Until, this trip my weirdest experience was having Kennedy’s inauguration address recited to me outside Osaka Castle. This time my wife and I got roped into critiquing this old man’s English sentences in Kyoto. Some of the best included “He took one look at her and walked away” and “I hitched my horse to a post.” I am not sure when he was ever going to get a chance to use these but he seemed happy with our help.

1. The Smell Of Trains and Subways

Japan’s public transportation has a very unique smell which I don’t think I noticed when I was living there. However, I noticed it almost immediately after leaving the airport. It is not a bad smell just unique and it very quickly brought back many of my memories of Japan.

The Differences

5. The Smell of Sewage

It seemed to me that there was a far stronger smell of sewage in many of the Japanese cities we visited than I remember. I am not sure if it was just the time of year but there was some serious stink going on.

4. More Vacancies in Buildings And Emptier Restaurants

Although not immediately apparent I noticed that many buildings had signs looking for commercial tenants. These were mostly on the upper stories of buildings, but it seemed like there were more of them. Also, many restaurants (except the cheapest ones) that we visited seemed emptier than I would have thought they would be. I assume both of these are a result of the current global economic problems.

3. Extreme Variation Of Prices

Another difference I noticed was the extreme difference in prices for different things. For example, we managed to get a curry rice meal set with a salad and miso soup for 380 Yen each, which was cheaper than I remember being able find anywhere last time I was there. However, we also manged to pay 900 yen for two takeaway coffees at Tokyo station. Basically, the cheap was cheaper than I remember, but the expensive was more expensive.

2. Less Modern

Another thing I noticed about Japan was that it seemed less modern than I remember. Sure there are still all the neon lights but I also noticed rusting bridges, the large number of exposed overhead electrical wires and a fairly large amount of broken concrete. I don’t think it is actually that different from when I was living there but these issues were more evident to me this time. Also, the cell phones didn’t seem nearly as impressive as I remember.

1. More English

I came into contact with more people who seemed to be able to speak passable English than I remember being the case. This was really good since I had forgotten half of my already extremely meager Japanese. I am sure part of this seeming increase was the fact that we only visited large cities or tourist attractions; whereas I was living in a semi-rural area before.

However, one place I did notice a definite improvement was at the Toyoko Inns we stayed in. I had stayed in a few before and I did not come across any staff who I would say, spoke good English. However, this time every single Toyoko Inn had at least one person working who spoke decent English. It seems that they are trying harder to cater to foreign visitors, since there were a few staying at each one we visited.

Overall, Japan was more or less the same as I remember which is what you would expect after being away for only 3 years. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how my memory compared to the actual experience. I am sure I will be back in Japan again at some point, but there are a few places I want to visit first.

Surprisingly, this is the first Japanese winner of the Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film, since the award become permanent in 1956. It also upset Waltz with Bashir, which had widely been expected to win the award and is in my opinion a far more original movie. More surprisingly, Departures did extremely well at the Japanese box office, earning more than the equivalent of $60 million USD. The reason this second point is surprising is due to the subject matter of the film itself.

Death is always a difficult subject to deal with, no matter your racial or cultural background. And from my experience, this is epically true in Japan. Departures shows in great detail, the ceremony that can go into Japanese funeral arrangements. For those off you who don’t know, ceremonies typically include (among many other things) putting chopsticks straight up in rice, which is why you should never do this at a restaurant because it is a reminder of funerals and death.

Moreover, people involved in the funeral industry are viewed as being unclean by Japanese society at large. Traditionally, this meant that people performing these tasks were separated from the rest of Japanese society and are collectively known as the the Burakumin. In the past, the Burakumin faced extreme discrimination in all aspects of their lives. This officially came to an end with the Meiji restoration, but even today, people from Burakumin backgrounds still face informal discrimination in the workplace and can find it more difficult to find marriage partners.

Departures touches on the issue of the taboo of performing funerals, but does not deal (at least as far as I could tell) with how this has related to the plight of the Burakumin. However, the fact that any Japanese movie, especially one with as much commercial success as Departures, has managed to tackle the issue of death and funerals head on is still impressive. More impressive still is the fact that it manages to do so with both tenderness and humour at the same time.

This is largely accomplished by the great cast who really make their characters come to life and feel totally real and believable. The real standout, besides Masahiro Motoki, is Tsutomu Yamazaki who plays Daigo’s boss Shoei Sasaki. He comes across as being both mournful and humours often in the same scene and is perfectly cast as a fatherly figure for Daigo.

The other major highlight of the movie is its music and scenery. As you would expect, given that Daigo is cellist, there is a lot of cello music played throughout. I found it worked really well with the film as a whole because it can be both sad and uplifting depending on how it is played. The scenery is just beautiful and is a good reminder that most of Japan is not big cities, but rugged countryside.

The only real negative thing I have to say about the movie is that some of the character realizations and conversions seemed a bit too perfectly planned. For me it made the movie a little predictable, but doesn’t detract anything from the many positives of the movie. Overall, I highly recommend you go see or at least rent Departures if you have the chance.

Still not sure? Then watch the trailer.

Also, I am not really a Japanophile. I don’t watch anime, read manga, or play many Japanese video games. Nor am I really interested in most of Japan’s art and cultural traditions like tea ceremonies, calligraphy, geisha or theater performances.

Yet, there is something about Japan that continues to hold my fascination. For instance, I love Japanese food and drinks. I’m also really interested in Japanese history (especially post-Meiji Japan), politics and people.

However, none of this really answers the question of ‘why create another blog about Japan?’ Maybe it’ll help help if I outline some of my views on the shortcomings of other blogs about Japan and what I hope to get out of this blog.

From what I have seen there are three main types of blogs about Japan. First, you have travel blogs that either focus on Japan exclusively, or more often write about it as one, of many other destinations. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with them per se, but there are only so many ways you can write about what to do Tokyo before it starts becoming a bit repetitive.

The second type of Japan blogs are those written by people living there that chronicle their day to day lives. In 99.9% of cases this means writing about the “struggles” of teaching English. Now while I have some affinity for these types of blogs, having taught English there myself, they too become repetitive. How many times have I read about the deliciousness of Mos Burger, the existence of alcohol vending machines or the fact that the Japanese have difficulty differentiating between the l and r?

Finally, you have the WTF blogs about Japan. These blogs tend to focus on the weird and wacky side of Japan. Now, I have to admit Japan can seem to be a very strange and thus amusing place. However, there are only so many times (at least if you are me) you can read examples of poorly written signs, watch clips from crazy Japanese game shows or see strange food items before you become a bit desensitized to it all.

Moreover, I think these types of blogs make Japan seem more foreign than it is and to a certain extent  promote ethnic stereotypes. Most countries operate on a variety of levels and Japan is as weird or normal as you make it. Therefore, while I certainly do enjoy the humour aspect of these blogs and Japan in general, it is not what I want to focus on.

So just what am I going to focus on? My first goal is to write about Japan-related topics that I think are important and interesting. This will probably include topics like history, economics, demographics and politics as well stuff like food, language, travel and other interesting aspects of Japanese life.

But, I also want to hear what you have to say about Japan. So, I encourage you to leave comments on any and all of my blog posts. I want you to tell me when I have it right or when I have it wrong. And even better, I encourage you to submit your own stories or articles and see them published right here.

Finally, I would love for this blog to become my full-time job. Even though I think that’s unlikely to happen in reality given the amount of competition from other blogs, I hope at the very least that this blog will be able to provide enough money for me to make regular trips back to Japan and then write about my various experiences there.

In the end this all depends on me writing good content. All I ask of you is that if you see something you like, you consider telling other people about it trough social media sites such as twitter, stumbleupon, digg, reddit or even just through e-mail.

So that’s it – my long and rambling explanation for why I am adding one more blog about Japan to the internets.