Mark McBennett: Person behind Japan-Zone.com
Japan Zone has been long time one of the most popular web sites about Japan & Japanese culture. The site includes information about different aspects of Japan, such as traditional entertainment, arts and food in Japan. Also the site tells interesting aspects about royal family and famous people.
End of each article there are useful links related to the topic. Japan Zone also includes active discussion forum and Japan Zone Friends service. Today I interviewed the person behind www.japan-zone.com.
Welcome Mark! Please tell me a bit of yourself
I'm 41 and was born in the year of the Tokyo Olympics, 1964. Although I was born in London, my parents moved back home to Dublin, Ireland when I was still a baby, so I grew up there.
I became interested in the Internet when I was working at a software development company here in Tokyo in 1998.
Actually another staff member was putting together the company's first web site and I just kind of watched over his shoulder every now and then. Like with the educational software we were making, it was very rewarding and exciting to write some code and see the results right away - even though I had never really been interested in computers before.
Japan Zone was started in the summer of 1999. At the time there were very few general sites about Japan and Japanese culture that were any good. There are probably even fewer now, except ones that focus more on one area. Myself and a friend had a vague idea of making this site and somehow making money from it. We had no business model (or business sense!) and so the site was never properly designed to make money. It still isn't really.
It's been a hobby for more than six years now. But these days, it has up to 200,000 people visiting it every month. So it is possible to make some money through affiliate programs. Japan Zone Friends in particular has been very popular, with an average of 50 people signing up every day.
I'm hoping to be able to start developing Japan Zone into something bigger and better in the near future, with more regular updates of content and more in-depth info on some key areas (anime/manga, travel, language etc).
What parts of Japanese culture you like yourself most?
If you live in Tokyo like I do, you sometimes think there is no real "Japanese culture." Because there is so much
western influence here, from the fashion and food to the music and movies. No geisha, samurai or ninja and you certainly can't see Mt. Fuji from most places in Tokyo like in the old woodblock prints. But when it comes time for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) or matsuri (festivals), the old customs and culture come to the surface.
For example, I'm used to the language, the local food, the daily customs like taking off your shoes ten times a day. So I sometimes forget I'm in an "alien" culture and just feel at home. But when I go to a matsuri or watch a kabuki performance, I'm seeing people really into something that I can't quite connect with. And so it's exotic and I feel like a newcomer again. I've been here since 1989, so it's nice to get that feeling again now and then.
On a completely different note, I like the service industry here, especially after having lived in Europe and traveled in the US and elsewhere. Some people say that it's not really friendly or personal, but it's just so nice to have people at the cash register or behind a counter or in a store who are so eager to please and be of service. They wrap things so beautifully if it's a gift, and the delivery people actually run everywhere!
Japan Zone has became a place hard to miss, when looking for Japanese information from Google. What has been the key points for your success?
Japan Zone ranks highly for some keywords like "anime movies" or "modern Japan" but not so well for just "Japan" or "Japanese." That's something I have to fix. In fact, optimizing the site for the search engines is my big project right now. But the site is already so big that I just don't know where to begin!
How popular is the Japan Zone Friends meeting & dating place?
Japan Zone Friends started just over a year ago and has been very popular, with millions of page views a month and an average of 50 new people signing up every day. We've had more than 18,000 people join, and Japan Zone Friends is just one part of a huge network, fed by dozens of web sites. So members get access to hundreds of thousands of members, including many who join through Japanese sites.
What would be your advice for a person traveling first time to Japan?
Be prepared for the shock of the new. If, like me, you arrive not knowing the language, everything around you looks so exotic, you feel overwhelmed by the weird writing everywhere. And yet, so much of what you see is somehow familiar. Familiar icons, familiar logos, familiar cartoon characters. But all in a different context, given a slightly different flavor.
If you arrive in Tokyo - or any of the big cities, really - you'll be overwhelmed by the crowds. And the lack of English information, unless you tune your eyes to find it, half hidden away and usually misspelled! But what you may be surprised by most is just how friendly the locals are to visitors. You're "o-kyaku-san" (honored guest) and will be treated as such.
Of course it's hit and miss, but so many people leave Japan with stories of how they were treated to lunch and offered a place to stay by someone they just asked for directions to the station. Japanese at home and Japanese abroad are almost two different species. Don't judge them till you meet them on their own turf.
Although doing things cheaply has become much easier and more common these days, Japan can still be very expensive. So plan your trip well, do your research and, if possible, speak to people who are here or have been here recently. Learning the Japanese phrases in one of the standard guidebooks (I like Lonely Planet) will go a surprisingly long way.
Oh, and of course, read Japan Zone cover to cover before you come! You'll have a great time in Japan.
Thank you Mark McBennett! Now, lets visit Japan Zone: www.japan-zone.com
