A few weeks ago, we discussed the bento lunch in Japan and briefly mentioned the wrappings via which a bento box is usually carried: the furoshiki. This very large handkerchief-like cloth is reusable and thus makes an environmentally-friendly way to…
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 of Japan. You can reach Nagano in about 2 ½ hours by train from Tokyo.…
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 doors. Maybe you even visited a nearby temple or shrine and saw someone wearing a…
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 nearby Asian community or in Japan itself, you must know how to properly and politely…
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 6,852 islands, most of which are very small and uninhabited. (97% of the Japanese population…
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 many others. North Korea claimed it was retaliation for a South Korean military drill that…
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 well as New Year’s, which is way more important than Christmas in Japan. Although we’ve…
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, here’s the difference between a sentence that states a fact versus the same sentence that…
Japanese “gals” — tough girls — may not be afraid to swear! As we’ve discussed in previous entries, politeness and courtesy is extremely important in Japanese culture. Just not speaking to someone with the correct conjugation of verbs could prove…
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 holiday is usually celebrated in Japan. In the West, with a number of notable exceptions,…