This index is the rebuilt site's guest-post shelf. The cards above are heritage paths we kept because they still match a real topic: sake, ramen, Kyoto flavours, Nagano snow, Okinawan music, sister-state history. Each piece is new writing. None of it is a copy of the archive.
What we will consider
- Foodways: prefecture produce, sake styles, home-cook technique, history of a dish in Australia
- Travel: region literacy that cites JNTO or a prefecture official site
- Culture: film, crafts, language-in-public-life, gardens, community practice
What we will send back
- Rankings, "best of" lists, and award claims without a primary source
- Opening hours, prices, and "still open" restaurant copy
- Event dates that exist only in the pitch
- Republished interviews or profiles of private people
- Gambling, furniture, insurance and other parked-domain leftovers
How a pitch should look
A working title, a 150-word angle, and a list of URLs you will cite. If you cannot cite it, it does not belong here. The contact form is the inbox.
Old and author archives are not a masthead. They 301 away. The conversation continues on these guides instead.
A useful mental model is a newsroom inventory wall. Food columns sit beside travel columns. Culture explainers sit beside community facts that have a citation. Nothing on the wall is a live reservation. If you are an editor pitching us, tell us which tile you want to sit beside and which official URL you will hang on it. If you cannot name the tile, you are pitching a vibe, and we already have colours for those.
The cards on this page are the tiles we kept from the archive because the slugs still describe a real subject. New tiles can be added when a pitch arrives with sources. They will not be added because a public-relations calendar is lonely.
How this hub should be used
Read the sections above as orientation, then leave the page. A good use of a Japan in Melbourne hub is to open two official tabs beside it: one government or foundation source, and one presenter or university handbook. If you cannot name those two tabs, you are not finished.
We repeat the independence line because readers still arrive from archived posts that once sounded official. japaninmelbourne.com.au is not the Consulate-General of Japan in Melbourne, not JNTO, and not The Japan Foundation, Sydney. Those organisations publish the notices that matter for visas, tourism campaigns, J-Course and the Japanese Film Festival Australia. We link them. We do not impersonate them.
Facts we will repeat, and facts we will not
We will repeat a sister-state date that two government pages agree on: Victoria and Aichi Prefecture, 2 May 1980 (Embassy sister cities, Aichi partners). We will repeat that the Japanese Film Festival Australia describes itself as beginning in 1997 (JFF about). We will not repeat attendance boasts, "best in Melbourne" lists, or a restaurant's rumoured hours.
If a guest post needs a number, the number must live on a page we can link. If it cannot, the sentence comes out. That rule is why this rebuild can sit next to a Capes-tier visitor guide without copying that guide's invented confidence.
Guest posts that belong beside this hub
Food, travel and culture essays are welcome when they add a cited angle: a prefecture produce page, a handbook subject code, a museum program, a transport operator notice. They are not welcome as advertorials, as live venue lists, or as republished interviews. Send the pitch through /contact/.
Old category URLs — gourmet, event, shop, interview, beauty — 301 toward the hub that now owns the topic. If you bookmarked a CMS address from 2012, you should land on a real article with a footer, not on a soft-404 dressed as a homepage.
Accessibility, money and the unglamorous checks
Ask operators about stairs, seating, allergens, photography rules and whether a program is bilingual. Ask airlines and issuers about fares and passes. Ask Smartraveller about advice that can change with a government notice. This site will not invent those answers to look complete.
If you are a student, the University of Melbourne Japanese Studies pages and the Monash Japanese studies handbook are the enrolment truth. If you are a traveller, Smartraveller on Japan is the advice truth. If you are a filmgoer, jffau.jpf.go.jp is the program truth.
A closing note on tone
Indigo, sakura, sumi and washi are the colours of this rebuild. The tone is calmer than a tourism reel and stricter than a listings app. We would rather send you away slightly under-informed and honest than fully entertained and wrong. That is the entire editorial personality of japaninmelbourne.com.au.
What to do after you finish this page
Choose one next action that is not "open another blog". If this hub is food, walk a grocery aisle and read a label. If it is culture, open the Japan Foundation or ACMI listing that is actually live. If it is events, find the presenter. If it is language, open a handbook. If it is shopping, confirm a retailer. If it is travel, open Smartraveller. If it is the guides index, pick one heritage slug and read it through. If it is about or contact, send a source or do not write at all.
That one action is how Japanese Melbourne stays a city rather than a mood board. The footer disclaimer will still be there when you come back.