JapanesePod101.com Blog

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

Did you know that the lowest-scoring section of the JLPT Exam is the listening section? Luckily, PlaySay's JLPT 1-4 Vcabulary and Kanji Audio Downloads, now available in the JapanesePod101.com online store, are here to save the day! New Version 1.2 Released! PlaySay's convenient audio download system will simply and practically enable you to achieve oral vocabulary competency - on the go, one word at a time, one minute at a time. Supplement your JapanesePod101.com studies, and turn your iPod or favorite mp3 player into a walking, talking, dynamic, and intelligent vocabulary flashcards study tool. Shuffle and study all individual JLPT Core Vocabulary and Kanji with audio on your iPod or other mp3 Player! A Combined... 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

Summer is here and school is out! For all of you students, we have a sizzling hot deal! Sign up for ANY Basic or Premium subscription and get 25% Off instantly! Don't wait until classes begin in Fall, start now and be ahead of the curve once school is back in session!!! This limited time offer expires on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:59pm EST.

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When you feel uneasy, where do you sense it in your body? Perhaps you feel "butterflies" deep in your belly. Maybe you become lightheaded. You could even get cold feet! Two Japanese expressions about uneasiness make use of a kanji we've seen for two weeks running: 騒 (SŌ, sawa(gu): clamor, noise, disturbance; to make a fuss) Both expressions locate uneasiness in the chest: 心騒ぎ (kokoro sawagi: uneasiness)     heart + disturbance One could see this expression as referring to a disturbance in the heart. Or given the many meanings of 騒, one could interpret 心騒ぎ as noise in the heart! Not an ear-splitting noise, of course. Rather, it might... 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