I want to introduce a new series. I think I'll call it...

Ask Me About Japan

Or maybe not. I'm not sure. I'm still thinking about names. At any rate...

In this series I will take questions submitted to me and answer them to the best of my ability. For example, the other day Hive account@violetmed asked me if it was true that eating and drinking while walking was considered rude in Japan^†. I occasionally get questions like this in comments to my posts or in reply to other comments I leave.

Many of you know I am somewhat active on Quora, which is a question and answer site—similar to Yahoo Answers, but with higher quality answers^‡. Once or so a week when I have time I will log onto the site and see if anyone has asked me anything worth answering or if there are any interesting unanswered questions; if so, I will answer anything that doesn't require much research^§.

I have lived here in Japan over a dozen years and have built up some knowledge of the area. I read a lot, ask questions of everyone I meet, and observe.

So I propose a Q&A about all things Japan. Ask me questions in the comments. Anything at all that you are curious about. I will pick out all good questions and will answer them in this series.

Perhaps other Japanese people on Steemit and other expats living in Japan can join in too. After all, I could always be wrong in my answer. I try not to be, but it happens. Also, what is true in central Japan, where I live, may not be true in Okinawa or Hokkaido or Tokyo, making other answers also very valuable.

If I spot other answers to the same question, I can edit my post to also include links to their answer. We can all use the same tag to also make it easy. Something like #askmejapan.

What do y'all think?

But I may not do this either. I'm still thinking about things, so please give me suggestions and ideas. Let me know your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Also, give me any questions you may have about Japan.

Footnotes

†: It is still considered rude among older people, but it is no longer uncommon to see. In bigger cities, such as Nagoya, it is normal enough to see, if not common (tho not nearly as common as in the US).
‡: On the other hand, many of the questions asked are equally dumb, but most of the worst get downvoted and disappear.
§: It's not that I'm opposed to research—I actually very much enjoy it—but I don't get paid for my answers on Quora, so I don't want to invest too much time and indeed I try to stop myself from doing so when I notice I am putting too much effort into writing answers.

	David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.