About Zooming Japan

Hello and Welcome - or "Irasshaimase" - to do it the Japanese way.
You are probably here because you are interested in Japan in some way. Or because I forced you to come here.
Well, either way you came to the right place! This website is obviously about Japan.

First of all this website sets its focus on traveling in Japan. You will find a lot of photos of famous tourist spots, but also places you've most likely never heard of and most foreign tourists don't know about at all (unfortunately). In fact, even Japanese people have asked me for travel tips already!
You will also find some information about what it's like to live in Japan as a foreigner. This includes work, general life, culture, food as well as all the good and bad things from a personal perspective.

For more details make sure to check out the "About" page.
Other than that I hope you'll enjoy this website and the photos. If you have any questions, suggestions or anything else to say, feel free to contact me.

About the Author / Admin / Crazy Girl ~

I'm not particularly good at writing about myself, but here we go:
I'm living in Japan. I know, I know, there are tons of us! So, what makes me special? Nothing!?!
However, I don't live in any of the usual big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. I live in the deepest "inaka", so I definitely experience a different lifestyle than some other foreigners in Japan do. The majority of foreigners here work as English teachers and again the majority of those come from English speaking countries.
I'm a German girl living in Japan teaching English. Yes, that can be confusing at times, especially because I keep mixing up those 3 languages in my head. I'm not fluent in Japanese, but I keep working towards that goal - whenever time allows. My English is not perfect either, so if you find any mistakes here, feel free to point them out to me or ... just eat them! *g*
I used to be a huge manga and anime fan when I was younger. Recently I'm more into Japanese dramas. I've also met one or two Japanese actors, watched their stage plays and movies.
If you want to continue reading and get more details, please have a look here.

About the Photos on Zooming Japan

I'm not a professional photographer or anything. Most of the time I have no clue what I'm doing and just simply use the super secret technique of "point and shoot", ahem. Mysteriously enough some photos turn out quite well nevertheless.
This is mostly thanks to Japan's awesome landscapes, shrines and temples that are just so beautiful that you can't get ugly photos out of it. On the other hand I think it's my camera that does a pretty decent job, too.
People keep asking me what kind of camera I use. Actually I use more than one - as it depends on where I go, the weather etc.:

• Camera#1: Main camera: Pentax-Kx
• Camera#2: Assitant camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
• Camera#3: Retired: Sony Cybershot DSC-W1

Feel free to take the photos for personal use (e.g. as wallpaper or icons - as long as you give me credit for it). Don't take them and use them on your website without permission! more »

About the Layout & Design

I know very little about CSS and HTML and so it took many months to finish the design of this blog, but in the end I did it.
The layout has been tested in all newest browser versions and works fine. If you use Internet Explorer 7 or an older browser version it might generally be a good idea to update.
Also, in order for the website to perform normally and for all awesome features you need Javascript to be enabled. Generally it's not a good idea to browse with Javascript disabled nowadays as most modern websites use it and aren't performing correctly if you have it disabled.
There's a good guide on how to enable Javascript for various browsers.
Just do it! I'm sure you won't regret it and it only taks a few seconds anyways.

All the graphics and other things I'm using have been given proper credit here. If - by accident - I forogt something and you find your stuff here without a credit note, please contact me immediately and I'll fix this.
Apart from those graphics everything else is copyrighted by Zooming Japan. Please refrain from copying, hotlinking or stealing. Thank you!~