I started AustinOtaku.com as a way to allay my own restlessness, living in the heart of Texas, far away from Tokyo or any of the three Japantowns (nihonmachi) in the U.S.. It’s one of the annoyances of adulthood that you have to settle into a job and worry about...
I’ll admit it. I’m a geek on many fronts, including my full-time job. While anime, manga and all things Japanese consume my spare time, my full-time job is a search engine optimization manager. I look at thousands of online stats, user behavior, and...
Yesterday the Austin Japanese Culture and Language Meetup Group held a potluck lunch and Japanese dessert-making workshop. It was a hot Texas afternoon (101°F), made hotter by the fact that the air-conditioning was broken at the club house we were in. But if...
Here is Part 2 of my interview with @Ironjack about his site, EatinginaBox.com, and his techniques for planning and and preparing his bento creations. (See Part 1 here.) In this part of the interview, Ironjack reveals some of his tips and tricks for keeping portions...
What is it that makes grown men and women indulge in buying toys, such as action figures? It’s really easy to say that there is some unfulfilled desire from childhood that toys resolve for us or that, to put it more bluntly, we’re just being childish....
If you think about it, otaku in Austin are quite lucky by comparison. We could be living in a city where the only places to purchase manga are the big, national chain bookstores. Or worse, we could be in a small town without even a Borders or Barnes & Noble...
I played the role of the n00b again tonight as I attended my first Manga Meetup, which is put on by the Austin Anime Meetup Group. Fortunately, I had my friend @pickledkitten with me, so I didn’t go in completely alone. … Actually, it was a very welcoming...
Of all the places on Earth to learn nihon buyo (traditional Japanese dance), you’d hardly expect Austin, deep in the heart of Texas, to be one of them. And yet, the city serves as home to the Hanayagi Dance Academy, which is directed by Chizuko Matsumoto (also...
In addition to being the “Live Music Capital of the World” and home of the University of Texas Longhorns, Austin is also a city with lots of great food. And with great food comes great foodie bloggers, like Rob Balon and Johnny Flapjacks, who cover the...
Growing up, my family went through several years of being very poor after my parents divorced, and, as a result, we ended up having to settle for some less than desirable food (the infamous “government cheese”) and so many nights of leftovers, I often had...
