The Captain has fallen.
On May 18, 2017, Eric or Gaijinass passed away.
The CEO, Founder, and man behind Gaijinass.com has died.
He has been on this site pushing out his amazing writing for years. Just when things get traction, just when things start to move for Gaijinass, he was taken from us, his family and his unborn child.
If you knew Gaijinass personally and reading this post is how you’re finding out, shit man I’m sorry. Gaijinass followed incredible encryption protocols and his contacts are still and will evermore be locked away behind whatever dark password he chose.
Thank you for reading and supporting us for all these years. If you feel you like you can help financially Gaijinass’ friends have set up an INDIEGOGO fund to help pay for the funeral and other dying costs.
Goodbye Gaijinass
Gaijinass 
Sorry to hear that. He was one of the few Japan bloggers I enjoyed. Could you provide details as to how he died? I feel like I knew the guy …
That s weird. He just posted on quora that he was preparing to leave Japan for fear of getting in troubles.
My son was a delight to our family, the very definition what a military brat is growing up, fearless and full of life and love for all of his family and friends. We will live the rest of our lives with a huge void. Eventually that empty place will be filled with so many memories and an echo of Eric’s voice telling us to “get after it and drive on” and we will all do just that. Love forever ECB. Mom
Sorry to get the bad news. Also, Eric probably didn’t appreciate it either. Eric was an intelligent & witty commentator, was that rare combination of writer and active participant. I will miss reading his posts
I am surprised. I had expected him to go on, further. I wonder if the got those writers that he had wanted? Will the site continue?
I am sorry for your loss. Keep your heads up.
My God, how did this happen? I’m so sorry. What a loss.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Sheesh. He thrilled me with his posts. I’m going to miss his gaijin ass.
Sorry for your loss.
Condolences. Eric will be missed.
Fuck. Eric was one of the top Japanese culture guys on the entire internet. He was REAL, telling you the facts of life as an expat, instead of encouraging unrealistic fantasies.
My sincere condolences to his friends and family. Bad as it is for some random reader of his stuff, it’s got to be infinitely worse for you. Keep your chins up, people; he’s still with you in some way.
My deepest sympathies. That’s a real tragedy.
I just found this site today. Like others mentioned here, I’d like to know a bit about the circumstances behind his death, if you feel you could share them.
All the best,
Ken Seeroi
Japanese Rule of 7
Timothy, I am one of those writers. Eric and I were going to start doing podcasts together soon. He was finally making some money from his writing and was really positive in the last months of his life, had loads of ideas, planning for new baby and move to Hawaii, which makes his sudden death worse.
But no, there shouldnt be a continuation. Gaijinass is stamped with Erics honesty and personality. There really couldnt be a blog like this without him. He was a larger than life character in all senses. He is already badly missed. RIP
I will miss Eric and his humor on this site. My condolences to his family and friends.
At first I thought this was the man’s way of slipping off the grid, going off for his life under the radar. It has taken me a couple of days to read comments and come to grips with the reality… he is really gone!!??What the hell Eric, I am so sorry to hear this news. He is going to be sorely missed. My kind thoughts to his close friends and family, the man was a beacon in a dark place. RIP G.A.
PS. Hope the bar is open there mate.
Hey man please tell us what the FUCK happened
Pls tell me this isn’t true… It’s just some stupid joke as happen quite often these days… what heck happened to him?! 😧
Oh shit, it’s for real… what a loss man, since I moved to Japan I’ve accompanied all hes articles and learnt allot from he’s crazy experiences, since he’s Koiwa shit hole, place where coincidentally I also lived, to your new life with family in Ikebukuro… You already very missed buddy…. R.I.P. 😓
OK this might help those of you who knew Eric through this site but not in person. His wife found him collapsed in the toilet of their apartment on the morning of the 18th. Couldnt revive him and he was already dead when they took him to the hospital. Yesterday there was a funeral service and then cremation, then a party last night. Some of Erics family were there.
Eric was an ex-marine and really into kickboxing and working out in the gym. He also never did things by halves. It seems to have been too much for his heart.
For those of you who like Erics writing he was very active on Quora, and also helped me to use it too to promote our websites. If you look on articles about Japan, the Yakuza, martial arts and others you’ll find many under the name Eric Barnes.
Eric had planned to write three books and one of them was almost finished. Now that we have got into his laptop there is a tentative plan to finish the book for him. Me and one other guy may finish the text, and another friend already knows what Eric wished for the cover. I think it will be called J-Girls.
Thats as much as I can say now because it will take the three of us getting together and also seeing what state the text is in, but I think there is good chance we can do this. Also it would bring some income to Erics wife Mariko and their soon to be born daughter Pippi.
I’m not sure how long this site will stay up but I’ll try and keep you informed if this project goes ahead. I really hope so, and its what Eric would have wanted. If the book comes out I will encourage you all to buy it, not just as a way of hounering the memory of our friend, but also as support for his wife.
This may take some time – book do take a long time – so please be patient. I’ll try and let you know via this site as things develop.
I saw some activity on my RSS feed and made my way up to your comment. I hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel to complete your book, no matter what form it may be in. The extra income for Eric’s wife would be a blessing indeed.
See if your publisher can set up a preorder system, I would be into buying his book for sure. Also, if I want to send some money to your fund for his wife and baby, how do I go about doing this?
Mark I don’t know. There was a collection among friends that raised money for the funeral. My guess is that we will publish the book as ebook and POD through Amazon. Much too slow to go through a print publisher. If you want to contribute, ( thanks for that) maybe you could buy a few copies and of the book and give them to friends.
The other two people who will help with the book I only met them yesterday. So we’ll see. But I have already started the process. When we have something definite I’ll post here. First is to find the text in his computer, and do so before his wife goes back to her parents. Otherwise we cant even start. From what I heard yesterday he was hoping to publish next month so it must be fairly complete. We’ll see.
There is a generosity.com fund for Eric you can donate to:
https://www.generosity.com/memorial-fundraising/remembering-eric
I cant believe it…I have read many of his writing in Quora also….And I checked he last replied on 17th May also….thats really sad !!! Rest in Peace.
Shit, man. It feels like a punch to the gut. I only happened upon this blog today but will miss the insightful writing combined with the gaijinass’s sharp wit. I do hope this blog will not be shut down.
Shocking and terrible news. Like some others here, I had just found this site a few months ago – and in a flash, I’ll never have a chance to buy the man a drink. Thank you for the great blog. You found your place in Japan, so I suppose you’ve already found the nearest bar in wherever you are now. Peace.
I have been following Eric on Quora and never read his blog until just recently (when I made the move to Japan myself). I actually just upvoted one of his answers and decided to check the blog and found this. I lost my younger brother in a similar way a few years back so this really hit home, no one can say they know what another is going through as it’s not possible to know the extent of grief of another. I will however offer my sincere, most heartfelt condolences to his wife child, and other family.
Nice move, captain. I don’t know Eric personally, and reading gaijinass.com was my only connection with this man. But, I know how hard it must be to have gotten involved with Internet predator and I know how things just don’t seem to get solved. They are lifeless zombies so they won’t go away. *Death* in whatever form is the best way to deal with those creeps. Bravo, captain. And if for some reason Eric can still read this, I sincerely hope that he won’t be exposed to those worms of the earth ever again. I just assumed this based on the comments here. It’s them – they are pretty persistent, right? They are mostly Youtubers and those who have “job” on the Internet. So surfing around the Internet is what they do, and they seem to be everywhere…
Anyway, good luck!
I’ve been here since 2011, back in days I lived in that same shithole shared by Gaijinass in he’s first shitty job in Japan., basically that’s how I found this page .. Eric “the captain” shared he’s all adventures in Japan and useful information and I appreciate that, unfortunately he passed away few years ago…