Our Beginnings
How To Japan (HTJ) is a blog you can visit to learn about Japan from locals. We offer a wide variety of articles from many different writers with insights into touristy spots, foods, culture, language, and so on. The most notable point is that every writer is an English learner who is a member of the English learning community called “Hapa Buddies.”
Hapa Buddies is an official paid-membership community of “Hapa Eikaiwa,” an online English learning service. This community is not for studying, but is rather all about applying what they learn. As Hapa Buddies, the community members are getting actual experience using English in many ways!
At the beginning of 2021, HTJ started as a simple activity to help the Hapa Buddies make the most of their efforts toward English. Like many second language learners, spending a lot of time just studying books feels like such a waste. Hapa Buddies started to wonder, “If the time we spend on English can be useful and helpful for others, then our efforts would really pay off, wouldn’t they?” We recognized that we could help build a bridge between Japanese English learners and those hoping to gather useful and practical information about Japan. A win-win!
Our Mission
The major purpose of each HTJ article, and the motivation for each of our Hapa Buddies authors, is to share unfiltered, genuine information about Japan. Our goal is for our authors to make efficient (and fun!) use of their time, energy, and agency in learning English by sharing their personal experiences, knowledge, and wisdom!
In this day and age, there are a ton of informational sites about Japan online… It can be difficult to pick out the ones you want to rely on. Sometimes you might even come across exaggerated or shady information, most often because they are just tools that companies use to monetize their website traffic. It can be hard to sort through all the information out there, and find real, genuine, and accurate advice, recommendations, and reviews. The “non-filtered information” of various perspectives by local people in the HTJ blog will help you see authentic Japan from multiple perspectives!
Therefore, on the HTJ blog, you can find many kinds of articles, ranging from famous sites and places to very unique and surprising things about Japan. Furthermore, we occasionally offer multiple articles on the same topics. Why is this? Because everybody has different opinions on even the same things. As you know, getting information from only one perspective, like mass media, is not always objective or reliable.
On top of that, almost all of our authors would be more than happy to connect with you directly because their main purpose in studying English is communicating with people all over the world. So, please don’t hesitate to connect with them, which you can do by finding each author’s info at the bottom of each article and visiting each author’s profile page. We are confident that this blog will be a fun, engaging, and informative bridge between you and real Japan.
Thank you for visiting, and please enjoy learning How to Japan today!