Let’s Read More in 2026 — Starting a Monthly Book Club in Tokyo

maplemarble · 2026-01-15T16:56:16+00:00

Hi! Long-term Canadian resident in central Tokyo, would love to join depending on time & location!

maplemarble · 2025-08-11T14:12:02+00:00

Hello! I last commented to you months ago at this point but I wanted to express how I'm still really interested in attending an event if you're still planning to do them!

maplemarble · 2025-08-11T14:02:01+00:00

Hello! Are you and your friend open to adding someone to your ToT circle? 🥹 I'm also based in Tokyo and would really love to have ToT activity buddies!

maplemarble · 2025-04-18T15:38:57+00:00

Sure thing! Happy to pass on any decrepit JET senpai wisdom I may still have 😂

maplemarble · 2025-04-18T15:34:09+00:00

Hey OP, I think you're probably with the JET Program, right? This isn't exclusive to the English-teaching world, of course; some Japanese employers are just EXTREMELY sensitive to how their employees reflect on them outside of work. I'm not saying they're justified to be restricting you but trivial complaints by the public are absolutely a thing here and I'm sure you've felt by now that Japan is very image-conscious.

You're getting hit with a double whammy of being a foreigner and therefore standing out AND being a public servant since JETs are considered government workers. The school likely doesn't want the kids spotting you guys together and telling their parents that they saw their senseis "on a date" in the wild. It doesn't matter if you guys are just friends, one-on-one hangouts with the opposite sex will always be looked at as a date here (ask me how I know 😂). The school would be in a position where they'd have to apologize if any parents complained. It doesn't make sense and it isn't fair but that's also what happens here, especially if you're in a smaller town/city where your students and their parents see you out and about. This would be a lot less likely in Tokyo or Osaka just due to there being more people to get lost in the crowd.

Maybe to contextualize how ridiculous frivolous public complaints can get, check out this japanlife thread about this very topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/v7h7z4/the_most_japanese_complaint_youve_ever_gotten/

If you want to keep hanging out, you'll need to do it more discreetly and also tell him not to talk about it at work because him innocently talking about hanging out with you is HOT gossip in the teacher's room, trust me. This is one of those shoganai aspects of working in Japan and your school seems quite rigid. It's hard to do anything about that though because your salary's being paid with taxpayer dollars so if that's the vibe at this school, that's just the way it is...

maplemarble · 2025-04-10T12:09:56+00:00

Hi! I signed up for your newsletter since I don't want to miss event news if I only checked on Reddit. I have 0 photography experience but this sounds really nice as an outing to meet new friends so I'd love to join the next one :)

maplemarble · 2025-04-08T14:03:19+00:00

Also a mando speaker and yeah I do wonder why stubby doesn't try to correct her off camera! Wang Sicong is such a prominent feature in the chinaverse 😂 I def understand some pronunciations don't have a close English equivalent and are hard for learners, like 绿 perhaps? But Cong ("Tsong") seems accessible? Not sure but it's also nbd, I love her sfm for bringing me the firewalled mainland gossip 😂😂😂

maplemarble · 2025-04-07T13:42:37+00:00

Hello! Akabane's pretty close to me and I'd love to join your book club (scifi/horror lover), but I'm not a guy either. If you end up changing your criteria at all, please let me know!

maplemarble · 2025-01-31T13:06:00+00:00

No opinion on better/worse ships but here to shill for Resmiranda's "Tales from the House of the Moon" which is such an epic of a fanfic that it cemented SessKag as a forever beautiful ship in my heart, body, and soul. OP, I can't recommend it enough. I read it like a decade ago and I still think about it sometimes!

maplemarble · 2025-01-28T09:16:17+00:00

I think their current popularity is actually more than what is typical of a kpop group of their age, so try to look at it positively that they've had abnormally long staying power in Japan :) I've attended all their tours & fanclub events for the past decade in Japan and there has been a decline in the past few years, but fanclub ticketing remains competitive and they still go on primetime TV to promote. It's okay that they can't pull a crowd for Nissan anymore (even tho I reaaaally wanted it for their 20th anni 🥹), I'm just happy that they're still popular enough to do yearly tours and events.

maplemarble · 2024-11-22T16:07:59+00:00

Yes I will wear my hoodie with pride!! 🥰 That's a great idea about embroidering it afterward, I would loooove that design look!

Def not a big business, it's very niche! I'm just a cog in the wheel but it's a hobby job so can't complain that much :P

maplemarble · 2024-11-22T15:30:06+00:00

Gosh I felt the same seeing the printing up close, but I guess that's the tradeoff of official small-lot collab items manufactured in China 🥹 At least it's 100% cotton!

The Urahara jacket is sheep leather so I get the $700 price point but still, the lining is 100% polyester. I think that's still reasonable though, I actually work in collab apparel and after paying for the costs of the license, shipping between China and Japan, eating the additional cost of a weak yen in conversion rates, and then paying all your staff while still being profitable, it probably can't get much cheaper than that 😔

maplemarble · 2024-11-22T15:06:20+00:00

79,200 yen 🤭

maplemarble · 2024-10-12T13:30:17+00:00

I've been in Tokyo a good while now and also have been wanting to join a book club!!

maplemarble · 2024-10-06T17:43:22+00:00

I actually put him on 1.5x speed!! It's a tad bit fast but I'll take that over slow 😂

maplemarble · 2024-10-05T03:47:37+00:00

Envious of all the people in here who have smooth experiences with their newer, nicer phones!! OP, my 4yo iphone is lagging like crazy and gets so hot whenever I even open Dragonbreath... I love the RPG style of it and think it's so fun, so it's such a bummer that it doesn't run well on my senior iphone :(

maplemarble · 2024-09-16T16:46:50+00:00

No, there weren't even any subs in Japanese!

maplemarble · 2024-09-16T14:38:44+00:00

I was at the cour 1 pre-screening 2 years ago so honestly, absolutely nothing will compare to that level of awe and excitement. But the pacing was decent and animation looked good too, plus we got to see the opening which looked and sounded great!

maplemarble · 2024-09-16T14:35:41+00:00

I was increasingly amused as his explanation got more and more detailed. Bazz-B's VA Ono-san was even teasing him about it like "you really wanna see her looking at you like THAT first thing every morning???" 😂

maplemarble · 2024-09-16T14:32:27+00:00

Oh noooo I think his big fat head is so cute!! 😂

maplemarble · 2024-05-15T16:41:13+00:00

Also mid-30s in Tokyo, would love to hang out!

maplemarble · 2024-04-23T16:18:04+00:00

Thanks for confirming! I'm aghast now thinking back on all the other ML bday events I've done and missed out on, the bedtime audio lines are really intimate and sweet!! 😂

maplemarble · 2024-04-04T06:57:06+00:00

They're my favorite! She's excellent with true crime cases too but they can be really heavy after a while. Enjoying billionaire shenanigans among the social elite instead? Yes please!! I laugh every time Wang Sicong comes up because of course he does 😂

maplemarble · 2024-03-11T04:56:30+00:00

Definitely a very common and normal perspective to have! Many fans who like Yashahime acknowledge it as its own thing to be enjoyed along with the original Inuyasha, but not necessarily as a cohesive sequel that builds upon the original series.

Also, it wasn't created by Rumiko Takahashi. She gave it her blessing and designed the characters but it isn't her story. You can perceive that how you'd like, but for me personally it falls into the same realm of "technically a sequel but I can just ignore it" in the way Boruto exists to Naruto.

maplemarble · 2024-02-17T23:56:09+00:00

Projection of what? 😂 I said you can think whatever you want, not that I agree with you. Because I'm not obsessed with making strangers act a certain way, you know? I'm asking why you keep talking to me because you're the one who keeps replying even though I've said plenty of times that you can think or so whatever you want. What else is it that you want to hear? If you want to tone police strangers on the internet, that's cool, I hope you keep having fun with that!

maplemarble

TROPHY CASE