What you have to see to believe!

I have a fever and the only prescription is more VIDEO!





If you missed it on the front page, I would like to present to you Nipponster Video Search!

All Japan-related videos, all the time.

Take it for a spin!















Here's a screenshot of the search results page:





You can watch the videos right on the search results page!

Kaizen and the Nipponster Japan Toolbar

Kaizen, Baby!
We are trying to make the Nipponster Japan Toolbar better and better all the time

Kaizen (改善) - continuous improvement

If you are out of the loop when it comes to our Japan Toolbar, and the cool tools we've been working on, check out this previous post: Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

And it you haven't downloaded it yet DO IT NOW! --> Nipponster Japan Toolbar download page. We think you will thank yourself for it later ;)

The Nipponster Japan Toolbar is the first Japan Toolbar, the first Japan-enthusiasts toolbar. It is the first toolbar to bring all the gadgets a Japan-enthusiast needs together in one place: Japanese dictionaries, Kanji cards, free Japanese typing software (Japanese language support), language practice, radio language lessons, 24 hour Japanese TV, and all kinds of useful links. And don't forget Nipponster Search (the first Japan-related search engine).

So how did we improve a toolbar so chocked full of goodies?
We've added three cool new things to the Japan Toolbar:

1. More new free Japanese internet TV links
2. A web app that let's you type in Japanese without software
3. Cool gadgets from Labpixies

New free Japanese TV channels:
We've added Impress TV, Channel J, Biglobe, and NHK (English & Japanese). Here is a screenshot:



Type in Japanese without software:
A great tool to use if you do not have a Japanese OS and you don't have (or don't want to install) Japanese typing software.
It is a good idea to bookmark this link (http://ajaxime.chasen.org/index.html) on Google bookmarks, etc. (or save it somewhere like in your gmail). Here is why: Let's say you take a little trip to Australia and midway through your trip you need to email someone in Japanese. But there's a problem, none of the PCs available have Japanese typing software. Not good. But wait, now all you have to do is visit this link and you can type in Japanese without installing software! Awesome.
Here is a screenshot:



Cool gadgets from Labpixies:
There are a lot of gadget goodies but the best in my book is Labpixie TV. This is probably of more interest to foreigners in Japan, whereas the Japanese TV is interesting to people outside of Japan. Missing TV from home? LabPixie TV has programmable TV stations. Click on the first button on the right and it will take you to their website where you can choose your channel,... by country!
Screenshot:



They even have some Japanese stations on there but it is all user submitted and some of the .asp links (streaming tv links) may have been changed. They seem to get changed pretty often, that is why in our tv section we link to the homepages too.

Well, that's it for now. What's next? Video search?! (uh. oh. looks like I let the cat out of the bag...) Stay Tuned!!

And let us know what you think by giving us some feedback!
We do it for you, the Japan-enthusiasts.

-Tori

Japan on the moon and more

Changing a hot search.

Seems Japan Aerospace (JAXA) launched a lunar mission.

Some other recommendations are:


JAXA to privatize

google x-prize Jaxa

sino-japan space race


"Stay Hungry; Keep searching!"

Only 1 day left!!!

Wow!

We are just one day away from launching Daily J !

It has been a lot of work getting to this point, but well worth it.

We have had some amazing response from j-bloggers/sites.

For one:
Later today we will be interviewing Arudou Debito of Debito.org.
I'm super excited about that!

And we have made lots of new friends from contacting bloggers for interviews.

We have had a lot of encouragement from them, support and even an offer to partner up.

We want to thank everyone for their support and now for
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, it's only a day a way!

-Tori

p.s. Sorry to post so late in the day. We had a tech problem this morning and then I was away from the computer until now.

Four Days Left...(Need Feedback)

Four days until Daily J (our new blog)

We'd like take this time to talk little about what we are doing to prepare.
Also we want to get feedback from you about some things we want to do on the blog.


What preparation are into launching this new blog?
We have talked to some of our favourite Japan bloggers.
We are trying to get idea of why they blog and why it is fun for them.
Then we will put their answer on the blog.

We need feedback
We came up with the name Daily J because we plan to post everyday.
Also we want it to be essential blog, like vitamins. You need your daily dose.

But that makes a problem.
We plan to bring interviews with Japan bloggers. But how often?
We have been think one new interview a day.
But we also think that these bloggers deserve more blog time than that.

We don't know...
What should we do?

~keitaro

5 days

Only five days until Daily J !

( I can't stand it any longer! Too much suspense!!!!! )

~K

Ramen... in a Can?!

Not since sliced bread...

What a delicious invention!
Of course instant ramen has been around for awhile but you cannot take that "on the go."

Not so with Ramen-in-a-can...

Mobile Ramen! I dare say that it is the best innovation in ramen since Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles.

<-- Mr. Momofuku. Doesn't he look awesome in this picture :)

Too bad Ando missed this Ramen milestone, he died early this year (and was mourned by hungry college students everywhere :)

I wonder if Takeshi Yamada's name will go down in Ramen history...

Well, at least he got a hot search on Nipponster :)

And here it is! -->http://nipponstercom-swicki.eurekster.com/canned+ramen/

Free Internet Broadcast Japanese TV!

Extra! Extra! Nipponster Japan Toolbar just got better!

What can be better than FREE JAPANESE TV?

Free Japanese TV right on your browser!

To our loyal users:
We are dedicated to making
the Nipponster Japan Toolbar the BEST toolbar of Japanese language and entertainment resources available!

We have recently made some improvements to it.

In case you haven't downloaded it and taken it for a spin yet, it is located here.


It has Japanese internet broadcast tv stations available at the click of a button, so you can passively practice Japanese while surfing the net (or just enjoy the show).

Here is a preview of one of the free Japanese tv broadcasts!


It has Japanese internet radio stations (some with Japanese language lessons), jim breen's dictionary, and other language tools, etc. etc.

It let's you search for info about that Japanese Pop Idol (for example) that you love using Nipponster Search; from anywhere on the net!



We have been making little improvements to it here and there. We tweaked the rikai function and added Japanese text functions from Open Japan and a search Wikipedia function. All of those open up in little toolbar windows where you can type in your search etc. without having to go to the page (saving you time and hassle).

So if you haven't, TRY IT OUT!

-Tori
p.s. We are also tinkering with more features like more free Japanese TV channels, easier dictionary search functions, and later on a user chat box. All part of the mission to make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!

the "hot search" tag cloud is back! and the admins rejoice

Thank God!
the hot searches were down for about a day or more and I was really worried. Thankfully they are displaying again. I can sleep now...

-Tori

Urusaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

The hot searches are down :(

I am not yet sure what the problem is but the hot searches have disappeared from under the search box.

But I know that they will be back soon
-James