Welcome to the comedy world of Japan!

Manzai duo Harukaze Kota Fukuta at Toyokan in Asakusa, Tokyo.

Hello everyone. Welcome to my blog on Japanese comedy. Here I hope to write about the state of comedy in Japan as well as comedy internationally. I first encountered the world of Japanese comedy when I came to Tokyo as an exchange student in 1997. I immediately fell in love with the scatilogical nature and clever wordplay of Japanese manzai (even if I didn't understand most of it at the time). Since then my understanding of the world of Japanese comedy as well as my language ability have expanded and in the past few years I havhe even tried my hand at manzai and rakugo. Like any humor in a foreign language some things just won't translate properly into English but I hope to share what I can with an English speaking audience and expand the understanding of Japanese comedy (it's not all brutality and Downtown!). Please stop in regularly and join the discussion whenever you feel like it. By the way, the picture above was taken at the Toyokan in Asakusa, the heart of Tokyo manzai (sorry Yoshimoto). In the future I will be going to depth on this underexposed area of Tokyo culture. Bye for now!