Believe or not Jamaipanese.com turns 6 today! My blog blog just keeps getting more awesome as I enjoy writing and sharing posts related to my interests and life. It is unfortunate that so many blogs are kicking the bucket as some bloggers become inactive, but thankfully Jamaipanese.com evolves with me and in many ways has been maturing as I have matured. I still look back at some of my early posts from time to time and wonder if that much time has really passed, what happened to that happy-go-lucky kid, one thing is for certain, I’m still crazy about Japan!

The last year has been highlighted by two main things, one negative and one very positive; these are the Tohuku Earthquake and my first ever trip to Japan. I’m happy Japan is recovering well from the earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear disaster. My Japan trip and my experiences have given birth to many posts which you can find here and will continue to do so for quite some time as I try to work out plans for another visit 2 or so years from now!

Almost a thousand people “like” Jamaipanese.com on facebook with hundreds more following on twitter @Jamaipanese or subscribed by RSS, email and Youtube. I’m now transfering some of thet feeling of success from dreaming about, planning to and visiting Japan to other aspects of my life such as college and I’ll have more details as things develop.

Jamaipanese.com outgrew shared hosting

So many instances throughout the year I attracted the wrath of my web host for crashing the shared server Jamaipanese.com was hosted on and taking all the other websites on the server offline. For various reasons there were a couple massive traffic spikes throughout the year such as the March 11 Earthquake in Japan, table flipping Japanese arcade game and Japanese kids on Halloween being quick example of different kinds of posts causing a traffic spike for very different reasons. I decided late last year to upgrade the hosting for my blog to VPS and things have been much better and speedier since and with a tiered upgrade option I can increase the capacity of the server as Jamaipanese.com hopefully continues to grow.

Random Stats

Jamaipanese.com was visited by over 300,000 unique visitors over the last year with it’s pages being displayed over half a million times. Firefox is barely holding off Chrome for the browser crown with Internet Explorer a distant third. Anime and photography related posts are quite popular along with posts like 10 Android Apps that made my Japan trip that much easier and Tokyo Game Show 2011 – Highlights, Booth Babes, Cosplay and Showfloor.

Favourite posts,  Best of 2011 and Sneaky Giveaway

Some of my own favourite posts over the past year include Operation Visit Japan Update the Countdown begins, 10 things I miss about Japan and lost and found in Japan Buddha edition. In case you missed it be sure to check out the Best of Jamaipanese.com for 2011. If you have your own favourite post published over the past year be sure to link it in a comment below for a chance to win a $25 J-List or Amazon.com gift certificate ;)

What’s new this year

I’ve was busy brainstorming some ideas over the end of year holidays and I’ve come u with 4 new series you can look out for (usually on a Sunday). The first one is

• Japan Snippets – A quick photo or video captured by me while in Japan as well as a short paragraph elaborating on what the photo or video represents and how it relates to me. The first Japan snippet featured Nagoya Castle at night.
• Practical Japanese – A series I have already started which I will publish a photo and/or video displaying Japanese characters whether Kanji, Katakana, Hiranga or a combination of them. I hope that seeing Japanese being used is a practical everyday sense will help expand the vocabulary of fellow Japanese learners so they may get familiar with seeing and hopefully using simple Japanese that they will most likely encounter. This also will give me a well deserved kick so I can start studying/reviewing Japanese again!
• From the Archives – Jamaipanese.com is 6 now. Close to a thousand posts have been published over the years some of which are still quite relevant or useful! Once a month or so I will handpick about 3 of these and link to them in a posts. hopefully new readers can look back at some of the past content on Jamaipanese.com and longtime readers can share my nostalgia.
•  J-Dorama Sundays- Fellow blogger and fan of Japan, Buddy Lindsey is a longtime reader and friend I met through my blog. He is an avid watcher of Japanese dramas and was kind enough to review not one, not two, not three but TWELVE J-Dramas which I’ll be posting once a month here on Jamaipanese.com. Thank you Buddy! Read the first one – Hammer Session and look out for the others throughout the year.

Looking forward to a another great year of blogging and I appreciate every reader, every comment, every reshare, every follower and persons I met through my blog. Looking forward to your continued support, meeting new people and the continued growth of my blog. Stay in touch on Twitter @Jamaipanese, Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and while you are at it sign up for a new mailing list I am starting as of today: you stand a chance of winning few goodies if you are on the list as well as getting some insider information.

Gundam fans in Japan and worldwide really do love their giant robots. Multiple showings of the Life-sized Gundam and a permanent Gundam cafe in Akihabara is not enough so the next logical step is to have a mini theme park! No, that is not a typo. Starting in April fans of the Gundam series will be able to visit the Gundam theme park – “a 16-meter-wide (52-foot-wide) hemispherical dome theater for immersive videos, a project display zone with rare production materials, an archive counter that will offer visitors information on various Gundam projects, and “photospots” for taking pictures within the world of Gundam (with characters)”. There will also be a second Gundam cafe and a character goods store. Admission is expected to be 1000 yen.

I really enjoyed my time visiting Akihabara and especially the Gundam Cafe, I had to visit not once but twice! Can you imagine how much time (probably an entire day) I’d spend at a Gundam theme park? Who else is excited about this annoucement and looking forward to visiting?

Hi5 to my Twitter pal @Blindz for bringing this to my attention. Also check out a reshare of some footage I took during my 2 trips to the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara.

Read more – ANN

I’ve read about and seen many dreamy photographs on the many Japanese castles all over the country but in the end I only managed to see one castle while in Japan – Nagoya Castle. It was at night, I didn’t even go on the grounds but just driving pass late at night and seeing it as I was up and about in Nagoya for a few days made me appreciate it. I fell in love with Nagoya as city and interestingly other than Tokyo, Nagoya would rank highly in my mind as somewhere I’d want to live in Japan if I had a choice. Visited or lived in Nagoya before? What are your thoughts on Nagoya and it’s surroundings?

Tokyo is a massive city with skyscrapers that touch the sky and a frantic buzz that goes on 24 hours a day all day everyday. Meiji Shrine is a huge temple, complex, forest and Shinto shrine in the heart of Tokyo that offers an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. In the later days of my trip to Japan I spent a a couple days just visiting (and revisiting) the various wards or attractions within the belly of Tokyo such as Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabara. My Japanese pal suggested a stop at Meiji Shrine – another place I had read about and seen pictures of and thus I jumped at the opportunity to go there in the flesh.

Built for Emperor Meiji and his Wife

Meiji Jingu is Shinto shrine built in 1920 to honour the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken. Meiji shrine in it’s entirety is over 700,000 m² and is dotted by various shrines, museums, galleries sports facilities and close to 170,000 trees of 245 species.

Lots so see, do and take photos of

I entered Meiji shrine complex from the entrance close to Harajuku and after about to hours of exploration with stops at a gift shop, pond, mythical underground spring and the main shrine courtyard I was truly exhausted. The last time I was so tired after walking was while visiting Todai-ji in Nara but it was good fun and quite educational. I learned that like Buddhism, Shintoism is a religion so deep and complex I may never understand but I respect the history, teachings and practices.

The official Meiji Jingu website does a great job of providing information about the shrine, even ceremonies and other events! Check it out at  - meijijingu.or.jp/english/

My Christmas gift to myself was Star Wars: The Old Republic the new massively multiplayer online role-playing game built by Bioware but set in the well known and loved Star Wars universe. I’ve never been much of a MMORPG player but being the inquisitive gamer I am I have dabbled with a few free and paid ones over the years, the most recent being Rift but I have never continuously played one for more than a month or two before losing interest for various reasons.

Nar Shadaa - the Las Vegas of the Star Wars story

Bioware + Star Wars

With Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) though unlike other MMOs I have tried I was actually connected to and knowledgable of the lore, I am somewhat of a Bioware fanboy having enjoyed other games they have develoepd like Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire. Since the annoucement of SWTOR many years ago I had been steadily absorbing the details and although I was a tad frustrated because it was delayed twice I knew that making a MMO is no simple task. It was one of the 7 games that impressed me post E3 2011

Make fun of my headgear and I will snipe you!

Fully Voiced Characters and Engrossing Story

Late last year I finally got the chance to try out the beta and I loved it. Fully voiced characters in a game of such a grand scale is truly no simple task but Bioware has pulled it off almost perfectly. Each class also has their own story that intertwines flawlessly with the main overall happenings in the game.I’m about a month in and can see myself casually playing this game for as long as it is frequently updated with new content.

My sleek star ship the X-70B Phantom

Jamaipanese the Imperial Agent

So Far I have only played one class in both Beta and since it’s official release – the Imperial Agent. I started out a fresh-faced nobody but after 40 levels of unrelenting service to the empire my proudest achievements are the bodies that that lay behind me and those who grovel before me. The story has truly been the highlight of my experience so far but I have dabbled in a bit of PvP and with the exception of one or two the flashpoints (dungeons) have all been memorable.

Accessible to Casual Players and fans of Star Wars  like me

SWTOR is a good game for MMO junkies, fans of Star Wars and casuals like myself. Playing a MMO doesn’t have to be the time consuming anti-social nightmare than many people think. With a little discipline the game doesn’t have to take over your life. I play on the “Sanctum of the Exalted” server on the Empire side and I am in a cool guild called PAX Imperius. Drop me a message if you plan to play and maybe we can hunt some Jedi together, I’m looking to play through the other storylines with friends if possible.

The capital of the Empire Dromund Kaas

• Buy Star Wars: The Old Republic
• SWTOR Official website
• Torhead – Useful resource
• Send me a message of you wish to play together

I really like fun J-Dramas where the characters do fun and crazy stuff, especially when it is out of the norm. Hammer Session is one of those because it definitely goes outside the bounds of what I call a traditional J-Drama.

Plot

Imagine a guy who can convince you to do or act just about anyway he wants you to. Well meet Hachisuka Goro, a swindler, he could convince penguins to buy ice and enjoy it. Unfortunately(?) he was caught and on his way to prison with a yakuza guy. However, along the way the various things happened and they escaped. While on the run they ran into, Shiba Yuusei, who was trying to burn down the school he was scheduled to start teaching at the next day. As a matter of course Goro ends up in a situation where he takes Yuusei’s place as a teacher to teach the rowdiest of the students to get them under control using his “Hammer Sessions”. Fun times ensue as he proceeds to fix everyone else’s life, the question is what about his?

Opinion

This is Kurosagi meets Gokusen when it comes to problem solving. As a big fan of Gokusen it makes the show very entertaining because some of the antics which are employed from time to time. Overall I generally enjoy high-school shows because they can be so varied in what happens to everyone and this was definitely a good twist on the average high-school drama. I will say the entire series does follow a very predictable overall arc of solving everyones problems then see about the main character, not many don’t do that these days. I do recommend this for those that are fans of Gokusen. As a final note I should mention there is a yakuza and otaku in the show too.

A quick word from Jamaipanese

This is a guest post by my pal Buddy Lindsday from JapanGaku.com. He will be making one guest post per month in 2012. Each blog post will cover a different Japanese Drama or J-drama. Show him your support by leaving a comment if you have seen or want to see any of the J-dramas he blogs about and share this posts with your friends. Look out for many more of his “J-Drama Sundays” posts which will usually be the third Sunday in each month!

It was that time of year again when the Japanese Embassy in Jamaica had their Calendar exhibition and although I was there in 2009, 2010 and 2011 I still enjoyed it again this year. It felt even more special as many of the friends I have met  through the exhibition were seeing me for the first time since my trip to Japan and were all excited to hear about my adventures in Japan and when I was planning on going again! It was fun to share my stories especially my First day Japan travel mistake rewarded with a Sky Garden in Yokohama and True Story: Lost and Found in Japan – Buddha Edition. If you met me today or heart about my blog and visiting for the first time and want to be directed to posts about my time in Japan click here.

It was also good to see fresh new faces and meet new friends and readers of my blog especially high school students and other young persons who after reading many of my posts have grown to love Japan more and more. The Japanese calendars were awarded to persons who took part in various activities such as origami, calligraphy and various Japan-related question and answer sessions. I scored by own Japanese calendar loot from writing Kanji, I chose to write the characters for day 日 and bright 明. Extra entertainment came in the form of performances by young gymnasts from the Nishida Gynastics and Fitness Center.

Sorry there are no videos this year (someone forgot the video camera) but I have lots of photos from the day for your viewing pleasure below. Didn’t make it to the Japanese Culture and Calendar Exhibition this year? There is always next year!

Todai-ji or the “Great Eastern Temple” is one of the most famous landmarks in Nara. It ranked highly on my list of “must visit” places in Japan and after being greeted on my arrival in Nara by tricky but cute deer I made my way quickly to Todaiji which was already a sight to behold before I even entered the grounds. The temple complex is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara”, together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in the city of Nara.

Great Buddha Hall

Nandaimon gate was the first stop where I saw two not so friendly looking Nio Guardian Kings. As I walked along the path leading up the main temple I saw even more deer on the grounds of the temple and was really impressed with the gardens as I followed walked through the grounds snapping photos and getting lost in a sea of tourists on a beautiful September morning.

Hundreds of tourists and guess who was the only black guy?

I then came up on the Daibutsuden or the “Great Buddha Hall” which is the largest wooden building in the world and houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha. There are various pamphlets to read and staff explaining Buddhism, it’s history in Japan, Nara as Japan’s capital and more.

Buddha Bless You

I highly recommend a visit Nara, especially Todai-ji. Nara is often overshadowed by Kyoto but can be easily reached from Osaka via the JR Yamatoji Line or from Kyoto via the JR Nara Line both free for holders of a JR Pass and taking less than an hour. While in Nara ask about the one day bus pass that allows tourists to take the city buses in-between attractions as not everyone will be able to manage all the walking.

Hard to believe all the gates and buildings are made of wood

Below are a few more photos I took while visiting Todai-ji, feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment below.

Machaco is a Japanese reggae singer I blogged about many years ago. I went on to meet her in person and she even welcomed me into her home and accompanied me to Nara and Kyoto during my trip to Japan last year. Machaco is an excellent singer not because she is my friend but because she really is talented and has been perfecting her craft for many many years. She has  helped to write, produce and recorded a new single entitled “Tomorrow Will Glow” which was recently released. All proceeds from the song will be donated to the Japan Red Cross and go towards releive efforts in the areas devastatd by the  Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear problems. Please support!

“Tomorrow Will Glow” Single to benefit the Japan relief effort.
Please Download (iTunes USA) http://goo.gl/aivOJ
是非ダウンロードお願いします！ (iTunes Japan) http://goo.gl/v8iX2

March 11, 2011 one of the biggest earthquake to ever happen originated from Sanriku in the Ocean Pacific off the coast of Iwaki prefecture. The damage caused by this huge tsunami which is said to take place once every thousand years was so enormous that it took the lives of many and destroyed historical ports and villages in a flash.

Being born in this beautiful country and experiencing such devastation made us want to help the situation. Being in members of the reggae fraternity in Japan, motivated us to record this charity song.

In the affected areas, even more than six months from the disaster, there are mountains of rubbles left untouched. Many people are still forced to live in shelters and make shift homes. There is also the scenario of the approaching long cold winter that sometimes reaches temperatures of －10℃ to －15℃（14F to 5F） which will even make the victims more desperate for continuous assistance.

The way for you to lend your support is to download copies of this song. All proceeds will be donated to the victims via Japanese Red Cross Society.
Blessed love, Machaco and Ayako ‘Iyah’ Knight

Tomorrow will glow
Produced by Mitchum “Khan” Chin and machaco
Mixed by Rohan Dwyer at Groove box
Words : Ayako ‘Iyah’ Knight
Melody : machaco
All instrumental : Mitchum “Khan” Chin
Additional keyboards : Andrew “Stringy” Marsh
Harmony : machaco
Recorded at Melody Life Studio Japan and Sam1 Studio Kingston
Art works : Karisyu
Video editor : Kazunori Ito