This page is dedicated to updates, announcements and discussion about the Japan Blog Matsuri, a monthly blog carnival with a "Japan" theme. If you've registered for this blog and been approved as an author you can post to this page using the tag jbmatsuri.
I’ve been a bit slack with keeping the Matsuri Newsroom up-to-date, so here’s a quick run down of the latest:
1. Lee published a fantastic January Matsuri with 18 excellent submissions, all vying for cash prizes. The topic was “Famous Japanese People“.
2. To find out who the lucky winners were, read Matsuri Cash Giveaway – Winners Announced.
3. Muza-chan is hosting the February’s Japan Blog Matsuri and the topic is “Japan Top Lists”. Read the announcement for details on how you can take part.
This month’s Japan Blog Matsuri is being hosted by Lee at the loneleeplanet.
The topic is “Famous Japanese People” which has been extended to include anime and game characters, too.
To spice up the blog carnival, Lee has kindly put up 10,000 yen in cash (well, PayPal) prizes. I’ll say it again, that’s 10 THOUSAND yen!!! Incredible! That’s like 2 MILLION Vietnamese dong! 
But you better hurry up because the deadline for submissions is January 21st.
Dumb Otaku has published the last Japan Blog Matsuri of 2009. The theme was Technology and features a dozen entries covering everything from electronic baby cribs to robot schoolgirls.
http://dumbotaku.com/2009/12/22/the-technology-matsuri/
Many thanks to the host, and to everybody who hosted during the last year. Let’s hope we can keep the Matsuri running through 2010. 
If you’re interested in hosting the Japan Blog Matsuri, please see the FAQ and let me know. We have openings from February June July.
The December Japan Blog Matsuri will be hosted at Dumb Otaku and the theme this month is Technology. Read the announcement to find out more.
On that note, we need more people to host the monthly matsuri, beginning with February 2010. If you would like to host, please read the FAQ for more information and contact me so I can add you to the Blog Carnival widget thing. Thanks!
SleepyTako recently published the October Japan Blog Matsuri, featuring 11 beefy stories about hamburgers in Japan. If you haven’t already, go digest a few!
If those burgers tickle your tastebuds, you might want to soc the matsuri on JapanSoc.
Thanks to David for hosting. Looking out for a ramen-sized matsuri in November!
I’ve just posted my submission for the October Matsuri to my blog just a few minutes ago. You can see it here:
http://www.japansoc.com/Food-and-Drink/hamburgers-in-nishinomiya-my-matsuri-post/
I’ve only got few submissions now, but we got some days left. I’m looking forward to seeing some more hamburger related posts out there.
This month the topic of the Matsuri is HAMBURGERS!
I’m looking for posts that either:
1) Review a hamburger shop somewhere in Japan.
2) Tell a story about hamburgers and Japan
3) Talk about some other candy or item that meets the critira of not being an actual hamburger, but being hamburger related, and from Japan.
I guess most of the posts will fit into the 1st category.
The full announcement with more info is here:
http://sleepytako.blogspot.com/2009/10/hamburgers-october-09-japan-blog.html
I’ve only got one submission at the moment, but it’s only been out there for 3 days now. Hopefully I’ll start getting more after the weekend.
Also I’m a new contributor to this blog and I’m looking forward to contributing when I can. Thanks to Nick for giving me this opportunity to post here and host the matsuri.
-David
a.k.a. sleepytako
a.k.a. the hamburger matsuri guy
I’m having trouble logging into the BlogCarnival site and their contact form is messing me about, too, so I can’t update the widget thing. The latest info regarding future hosts is:
More info: Japan Blog Matsuri FAQ
If you haven’t read through September’s Japan Blog Matsuri yet, hop over to ALT Directory. The theme of the matsuri was “Learning in Japan”, so you should come away a little smarter than you are now!
Learning in Japan – September 2009 Japan Blog Matsuri
Thanks to Andrew for hosting.
Andrew has announced this month’s theme and needs your entries in by September 28th. That leaves a full 8 days to get your entries in. Thank Japan for Silver Week! 
The gist is – learning in Japan – English teacher tales; critique of
the Japanese education system; stories of personal growth in Japan;
tales of your own learning in Japan; or anything that contains the
themes of learning and Japan.
For full details, see the September Blog Matsuri Announcement
If you haven’t already read through the entries into this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri, you’re missing out on a great collection of money-saving tips from some of Japan’s best bloggers. Read Frugal Living in Japan, and come away much wiser and better off than you are now.
Thanks to Jamie at Frugalista Japan for hosting the Matsuri.
Jamie has announced this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri and the topic is “Frugal Living in Japan“. Now some of you may be thinking, “Wasn’t June’s Matsuri about Living on a Budget in Japan?”, and you’d be right, but let’s cut Jamie some slack because he’s been lined up to do the Matsuri for ages and his blog is dedicated to the subject of frugal living after all.
But wait, frugal living doesn’t just mean budgeting…
fru-gal -adjective
1. economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful. E.g. a frugal manager.
2. entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty. E.g. a frugal meal.
What a good opportunity for those of us living minimally in Japan to to highlight some of our resource-saving secrets! And if you’re not living in Japan yet, you could bring back to life some of the ideas on Nihon Hacks, a site that was dedicated to living-in-Japan tips, but has since slipped off the radar.
You’ve got until August 25th to get your entries in, so don’t waste any time! 
Announcement: Frugal Living in Japan |Background: Japan Blog Matsuri FAQ
