When Shari Custer arrived in Japan with her American husband, the original plan was to stay for "five years." That was 20 years ago. During her extended time in Japan, Custer wanted to chronicle some of the little things that many overlook, and her ongoing list comprises one of her blogs: 1000 Things About Japan. Custer consistently posts about what she will and will not miss when she finally leaves Japan. Originally from Pennsylvania, Custer is subjective in her views and has no pretensions about being an authority on the best and worst of Japan. While naturally not every reader of her blog will wholeheartedly agree with each like and dislike, any resident, former resident or visitor to Japan should be able to find something here that strikes a chord. Alongside her 1000 Things blog, Custer also blogs about the never-ending snacks on Japanese Snack Reviews, which has the tag-line: Telling you more than you need to know about Japanese junk food.

What inspired you to begin this blog?

There were two things. First of all, there is a wonderful blog called 1000 Awesome Things , which notes a lot of the little things in life that we tend to take for granted and I thought it would be interesting to do the same for my life in Japan. I think things tend to slip away if you don’t take the time to notice them. The other reason was that I wanted to do a blog with a short, notational posting style since I tend to be verbose and write at length. The "1000 Things About Japan" blog format is meant to constrain my natural writing style.