In the event that my lack of posts lately or my inability to respond to comments (like I ever did that anyway) hasn`t made this painfully clear, I am currently suffering from an acute case of blogger burnout. In the event that you miss me, I`d like to direct you to two foreign chicks in Tokyo whom I recently discovered: Green Eyed Geisha and Tokyo Cowgirl. There you will find informative, edgy, thoughtful, amusing and regularly updated blogs about life in Japan. In terms of awesomeness, these two blogs are currently kicking my ass quite brutally. So....I strongly recommend you go play over there instead, for the time being. I will meanwhile be keeping up my sporadic half-existence, and maybe one day I`ll find a cure for sucking.
:-) <--- me because you recommended my blog, which is of course a HUGE compliment.
Posted by: tokyo cowgirl | August 21, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Rest up. Hope you're back soon!
Posted by: bob | August 22, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Hello,
I was just having a bit of a surf when I found your blog - I had heard of your book so thought I'd have a bit of a nose.
You say that, correct me if I'm wrong, due to mental illness you lost your job when you first went to Japan. As a student of Japanese and someone who wants to come to live in Japan, the stigma that exists towards mental illness over there worries me greatly. I have bi-polar disorder and been institutionalised. I decided to email a Japanese friend recently to let her know about my condition for the first time, and suddenly she broke all contact. It worries me that this could prevent me from getting work, having friendships, etc in a country that I love. I fear that the government in Japan is looking at the hikikomori problem from too much of an economic perspective, rather than as a very serious mental-health epidemic that needs to properly addressed - and so focussing more on getting people back in full-time employment instead of cooperating with organisations who could give real emotional support, and don't treat it as weakness but as a real illness.
I look forward to hearing back from you!
Posted by: Anon, for now | August 24, 2008 at 08:09 PM