This last week, I have been doing research on how to improve my studies in learning Japanese. Lately, I have been listening to a Japanese podcast that I can download and listen to on my mobile phone or through iTunes while working on the computer. So I decided to focus harder on kanjis and kanas. [...]
In this era of technology, you would think that we would write about a fantastic game that has a great impact and awesome graphics. But no, today we will write about a classic Japanese game. Daruma otoshi is one of those games that will always stay around. It is possible that you might not play [...]
Japan and earthquakes have a very long history together; there is no doubt about that. The truth is that Japan often suffers from earthquakes and unfortunately we are very well aware of this phenomenon. Japan is the country that is probably the most prepared for earthquakes and their impact might be far less than in [...]
Well, my project started almost a year ago. I started without knowing any Japanese. I did not know what hiragana was. As far as I knew, all the characters were called kanji and nothing else… Now I can read hiragana and katakana without problems, something that was almost impossible to believe one year ago. The [...]
The company Toyota is mainly known for its cars, but Toyota is also very immersed in the world of robotics, and is one of the companies that is more focussed on improving robots to help the elderly in the future. Japan is a country with a lot of elderly people. That is because the people live longer and the birth rate has fallen dramatically. It’s [...]
Well, there are different ways of counting with your fingers. Many Westerners think that our way is the only one, but… it’s not. We might think that our way is the best and the most comfortable one, but we are wrong again. We don’t have to go to Japan to discover that there are different [...]
Well, it’s time to learn Japanese by studying the AC commercial. Today, we will learn a bunch of new Japanese words and of course look at the Hiragana and Katakana versions of these words. Below, I repeat the lyrics of the first part of the advertisement, so you can review everything in one lesson. Konnichiwa, [...]
The dog in the video is called Mame and he takes his performance very seriously because getting his treat depends on it. Curiously, when the Japanese woman tells him to bark softer: he does! She uses the word kawaii, which is one of the most fashionable words in Japan, along with moe. The truth is [...]
The ninjas knew a number of technical movements that helped them to quietly and swiftly move around different kinds of places. One of the movements they learned was ‘nuki ashi’. This step helped them to tread on wooden floors undetected. In Japan, most floors had a special mechanism incorporated. This technique ensured a squeaky or [...]
They may seem like two totally different classes, but the backgrounds of these two military classes actually had a lot in common. The most important factors that unite them is their sense of honour; both classes lived by, and for, honour. Neither would perform an act that was contradictory to their rules and they would [...]