JapanesePod101.com Blog

Emily is busy working on a secret project, so I (Ben) get to do another blog. This last weekend I climbed 富士山 (Mt. Fuji). Last Friday night, my girlfriend and I left Shinjuku on a 7:50pm bus bound for the Kawaguchiko 5th Station. The bus trip took a little over 2 hours, getting us to the trailhead a little after 10:00pm. We came rather prepared. Alisa (my girlfriend / hiking partner) spent a good part of the day running Fuji preparation errands. She made 14 おにぎり (onigiri) with her grandma, bought Soyjoys and Powerbars, and since we planned on hiking in the dark, she also bought two headlamps. We each were packing rain coats and heavier clothes (since it gets below freezing at the top). I carried our fluid supply of 4 liters of water and... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary In the last blog, we saw this word: 身長順 (shinchōjun: in order of height)     body + length + order I love all the sharp geometry in these kanji—the way a few diagonals offset the neat horizontals and verticals. But aside from that, here's what jumped out at me when I found this word in the dictionary: 順 (JUN: sequence, compliance) I'd never seen this kanji before. And I was intrigued that river (川) + head (頁) could mean "order." There's order at the head of the river? The Etymology of 順 ... The Meaning of 頁 ... If you want to put things in order, then 順 is your kanji. This character isn't sexy or mysterious. Rather, it's... Show more

Hello JapanesePod101.com Community! My name is Ben Jensen, and I'm interning here at the JapanesePod101.com offices in Tokyo. Emily is a pretty busy person, so I get to make a blog appearance today. About two weeks ago, my girlfriend’s grandmother Mama-chan, who lives here in Tokyo, offered me a ticket to go see Noh. I’ve studied a little about Japanese culture, and I had always heard that Noh is hard to understand—even for Japanese people—and that there is very little action and very few props. Apparently it’s pretty common for audience members to fall asleep. In any case, I thought it would be worth seeing at least once, and it would be a rare opportunity, so I graciously accepted the offer. Hosho Nogakudo viewed from the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Long time no see! Speaking of length, last time we looked at 長 (CHŌ, naga), which usually means "long" or "chief." In that discussion, we encountered the following word: 足長 (ashinaga: long-leggedness)     legs + long And we saw how this compound puts the long legs in daddy longlegs: 足長おじさん (ashinaga-ojisan: daddy longlegs) Although people usually write ojisan (uncle) in hiragana, you can also represent this word with 叔父さん, which breaks down as uncle + father. On Daddy Longlegs (the Spiders) ... Other Animals with Length to Them ... Something Really Odd ... What happens if we take those long legs and turn them on... Show more

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Hello Readers! It is with excitement and sadness that I've made it through SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese and JapanesePod101.com survival phrases! I'm excited that I've completed all of the lessons and have learned a ton of Japanese in the process, yet I'm sad that this is the end of the line for my survival phrase blogs. It's been a rapid pace, perhaps faster than what I would have done otherwise, but I was excited to get these blogs out to you, the readers, so I worked hard to learn and reflect, to help you out and keep you more informed. I hope you've enjoyed reading along as much as I've enjoyed sharing my experience with you. If nothing else, hopefully you learned something about Japanese culture that you hadn't known before. ... Show more

Hi Readers! I'm nearing the end of my survival phrase Japanese training. Today I did lessons 46-50 on SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese, and 32 and 33 on JapanesePod101.com survival phrases. A lot of today's lessons dealt with allergies and being sick. I can speak about a few things related to this. These photos were taken at Tokyo Disney Sea. It poured all day! With weather like this, it's important to try to keep from getting sick! Fortunately, I have not been sick in Japan to the point that I have needed to take any drugs (prescription or over-the-counter), so I cannot tell you about any experiences spent in a doctor's office or pharmacy. I can however say something that has interested me and the group I've traveled here... Show more

Thanks for stopping by again readers! Today I did lessons 44 and 45 from SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese and lessons 46 and 47 from JapanesePod101.com survival phrases. The JapanesePod101 lessons dealt mainly with currency exchange. Since, I've already written a blog talking about money here in Japan, instead I'm going to blog with reference to the SurvivalPhrases lessons. They dealt with eating habits. This photo is of two guys in my group eating Korean food. In this setting, everything was cooked in the pot in front of them. This is one example of the many varieties of ways to eat the different foods here in Tokyo. In Japan, fish and meat are staple items in the diet. This is no different than in most countries, but in the... Show more

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

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Welcome to summer! With the longest days upon us, it seems fitting to take a look at the character for "long": 長 (CHŌ, naga(i): long) This kanji can also mean "chief, head, leader," but today, for the most part, I'm only interested in its length. I love how 長 elongates the following things in the most charming of ways:   穴  (ana: hole)          長穴  (naga-ana: slot)     円  (en or maru: circle)        長円  (chōen: ellipse, oval)     靴   (kutsu:... Show more