Nagano: History and Snow
Home of the 1998 Winter Olympics, the city of Nagano is approximately 150 miles northwest of Tokyo in the central area of the main island…
“Out with Demons! In with Luck!”: Throwing Beans for Setsubun
Earlier this month, you might have been walking down a Japanese residential street only to come across Japanese people tossing beans outside of their front…
Introductions Part 1: Names
If you’re studying Japanese, chances are one day you’ll meet Japanese people. Whether you want to practice Japanese with an exchange student, people in a…
Okinawa, the Tropical Japan
When most Westerners think of Japan, they think of one large curved island, roughly the size of California. However, Japan is actually made up of…
North Korean Attack on South Korea and How It Affects Japan
This past Tuesday (November 23rd), North Korea launched an artillery attack on a South Korean island, killing two military personnel and two civilians and wounding…
Food During Japanese Christmas
All this month (and probably a little into next month), we’re going to be taking a closer look at the Christmas season in Japan as…
“No Ga”
There are many ways to use the particle ga that we have not yet covered on this site. Today we’ll study how to say you…
~Deshou (“Probably”)
Adding deshou to the end of a sentence in Japanese turns the sentence from a statement of fact to a statement of probability. For example,…
Japanese Swear Words and Insults (Explicit Content–in Japanese!)
Japanese “gals” — tough girls — may not be afraid to swear! As we’ve discussed in previous entries, politeness and courtesy is extremely important in…
Christmas Love in Japan
Continuing from last week’s look at the typical Christmas meal in Japan, this week we’re going to take a closer look at the way the…
The Japanese Fairy Tale, Part 1
In the West, we have Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, thanks largely to European writers who regurgitated local folklore. The Japanese…
Shinjuku: Tall Buildings and Entertainment
In a first for the “Places” entries about Tokyo, we’re looking at an entire special ward of Tokyo: Shinjuku. This ward is the home of…