爱香 and I were on the outskirts of 上海, looking for a comic called '乱馬1/2'. I had bought an English copy of 乱馬1/2 in Sydney, but now needed the Japanese version, so I could study it.. We had gone up and down 福州路, which is where the major concentration of bookshops are in 上海, but had no luck finding the original Japanese version. Our last chance to find 乱馬1/2 was to head out to 古北区, where the biggest concentration of Japanese expats and shops are. After reading a tiny ad in a Japanese magazine, we had gone up and down the same road three times, into an apartment block, back out the same apartment block, to the security guard at the front of the apartment block, and finally to a スーパー　across the road. As soon as we entered, I had a bad... Show more

Hi. My name is Max. I live in Shanghai, China and I've been studying Japanese since November of 2005. Or, as might be more appropriate 平成17年. I've always been interested in Japan. My aunt lives in Japan, so one of my cousins are Japanese. I traveled to Japan often as a kid, and was always sorry to leave. Every time I have left 東京羽田空港1 I have sworn to return. I come from a bilingual family, so when someone asks me how long I been learning, I usually dodge the question and say 'quite a while'. I haven't been reading and writing for long, but since coming to Shanghai I have seriously tried to master Chinese. At the time of my last trip to Japan, in November of 2005, I was already seriously learning Chinese. I was so interested in... Show more

Hello again. As I mentioned last week, I have begun a weekly blog that will give you a look at one of the ways in which I study vocabulary and kanji living here in Japan. While you may not be able to replicate my process if you do not live in a place with abundant exposure to the language, I do hope that you might find the method, or perhaps the tools, of some use. As I left my keitai (cell phone) at home on the charger today, I am going to start with a brief outline of the tools that I use, and a bit about their purposes. This will also explain why leaving my cell phone has any relevance to this post. So let’s start there. 携帯 (keitai)： Short for 携帯電話 (keitai denwa), this is a word that many of you are likely already familiar with.... Show more

Good evening, friends. How do you study vocabulary? Kanji? Certainly there are many ways, and surely a good number of them are effective, especially considering that we are all unique individuals who learn in different ways. In addition to being a different person than you, I also live in a different environment than many of you – Japan, in particular. Perhaps this combination of factors (or perhaps simply the living in Japan part) will pique your interest in learning more about one of the ways in which I study vocabulary and kanji. And of course, it can’t hurt to read about one of the methods of just one more student of the beautiful language that we are all studying together – Japanese. Beginning next week (yes, I plan to be quite... Show more