Konichiwa Readers! Today I did a bunch of lessons from JapanesePod101.com survival phrases and SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. Respectively, lessons covered 41-45 and lessons 39-43. The lessons while teaching new phrases and words, covered much of the same areas I've already blogged on (restaurants, shopping, etc.). One of the lessons that was different however was one about going to the movie theater. At the top is a photo of Mori Tower, the center structure of the Roppongi Hills development. Below is an area on the observation deck, floor 53, of Mori Tower. The seats are able to detect how close you're sitting to the person next to you. The closer, the warmer the color. The further away, the cooler the color. They really... Show more

Hello fellow JapanesePod101.com Users! Today's title means, "clap your hands twice!" (thanks for your help with that Ben!) This is a reference to practices performed at a Buddhist jinja, or shrine. This should give you a hint for today's topic. At the top is a photo of one of the many shrines found in Ueno Park. Below is a photo of the Meiji Shrine. The Honden is visible just through the large entryway. I did quite a few podcasts this morning! Covered in JapanesePod101.com's Survival Phrases were lessons 37-40 and in SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese I covered lessons 35-38. While these podcasts touched on many subjects, the one I'm going to address today is shrines. Here in Tokyo, there are shrines and temples... Show more

Hey Bloggers! Today, I listened to podcasts 34 and 35 from JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrases. I followed it up with lessons 33 and 34 from SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. In today's blog, I'm going to touch on two different things, as the lessons were a bit scattered and touched on different things themselves. The first thing to address is taking photographs. A couple weekends ago, I went to Ueno, an area of Tokyo full of museums, shrines, parks, and even a zoo. It's more of a traditional area, but it's lovely and a lot of fun. Walking along the sidewalk, there were huge hydrangeas in full bloom. It was gorgeous! This is a photograph of the Hydrangeas I was talking about. How perfect are they?! I was there with one of... Show more

Hi Everyone, Today, I'm doing something a little bit different than usual. I've made a Camtasia video instead of my usual written blogs. Just press play! I should probably mention that this is not my best work. It was my first time ever playing around with the program, so I sound a bit stressed and stiff and I'm reading from a script (I promise I am more fun than how I sound in this example!). You can also probably hear all of the hustle and bustle of the JPod101 office in the background. As always, we are busy busy busy. Anyway, with that forewarning said, enjoy! If you want to leave me any comments, please do. Thanks.

Moshi Moshi! Today I did lessons 48 and 49 from JapanesePod101.com's survival phrases and lessons 31 and 32 from SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. The focus was all about cell phones. These photos are of a typical cell phone here in Japan. Notice this one's screen turns horizontally for the owner to watch TV. The little charms hanging on the side are very popular for both men and women. I have a cell phone here in Tokyo. It is a puripeido keitai denwa, or prepaid cell phone, from Soft Bank, one of the cell phone carriers here in Japan. It is a standard flip phone that has photo and video capabilities. For a prepaid phone, it's actually pretty neat. On my first day here, I went to Soft Bank to get it and they... Show more

Today I did all of the lessons related to a major part of Tokyo; none other than the metro system. These lessons go from 26-30 on JapanesePod101.com's survival phrases and SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 23, 24, and 25. These are some photos of the metro. Nothing too amazing by the looks of it, but incredible once inside. The Tokyo Metro system is like a living arterial network that zig zags and wraps itself across the entire area of what makes up Tokyo and beyond. It's so weird to be walking through ancient shrines and beautiful gardens that have been in place since the 1600s, and think that there are probably three lines of trains at different depths passing underneath you all at once. This is what makes Tokyo... Show more

Welcome back survival phrase learners! Our title today translates to, "how is the weather today?" Fortunately, it's been sunny, so I've been unable to snap one of my own umbrella photos, but this is one I found online. Today I listened to the following lessons: SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese 29 & 30 JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrases 23, 24, & 25 The most important section in my opinion from today is about weather! As you may or may not know, it is the rainy season here in Japan this month, and it feels like it rains every day. I've been here for two weeks now, and there have only been three sunny days! It gets depressing waking up every morning to a cloudy sky, but that is the only thing that seems to be... Show more

Hello readers! Thanks for coming back and checking out blog #9! Today I continued my studies of survival Japanese with SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 26, 27, and 28, and JapanesePod101.com survival phrase lessons 20, 21, and 22. The lessons covered mainly directions and how to get different places. One Survival Phrase lesson however, expanded upon convenience stores, which is quite an adventure in itself. I thought I would blog a little bit about them today, since I have yet to try my hand at asking someone how to get somewhere (at this point, I think that it's more fun to get lost in Tokyo, since there's so many hidden treasures in this city). Though it's a plain photo, this is a picture of a common convenience store... Show more

Today I listened to a whole slew of lessons from talk about the internet to the bus stop. This included SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 20, 21, and 22, and JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrase lessons 17, 18, 19, 31 and 36. This is an example of one of the buses that stops right in front of the JPod101 HQ! It's so fun and colorful! The first thing I want to touch on and reiterate is to not be worried about your safety in Japan. One of the lessons dealt with thieves and muggers. This is rare! I know I mentioned it in my last blog and will say it again; Japan is very safe, and I have yet to feel uncomfortable at all. I venture to say that the only reason you would need to make an emergency call to 110 would be if someone got... Show more

Hey Podcasters, Today I finished up lessons 15 and 16 in JapanesePod101.com's Survival Phrases. I also did lessons 17, 18, and 19 in SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. The lessons focused on banking and shopping/using prices here in Tokyo. This is an example of a weekend crowd in Harajuku taken this past weekend. In case you missed it in the podcast, the easiest way to think about the "kokan reto", exchange rate, to date between American dollars and Japanese yen is 1:100. If something costs 600 yen, it's equivalent to $6 USD. 2500 JPY is $25 USD. You can just think about it by knocking off the two back numbers (usually zeros) put on the yen to get the dollar amount. Because I will be in Tokyo for two months, I opened a... Show more