Month: January 2009

It seems that the skill of translation can be quite separate from the ability to communicate freely in a language. ...

Sumo wrestling is the national sport of Japan, enjoying a special legal status and support from the government. Every two ...

Japan is an extremely cash-based society. Although credit cards have gotten more popular with consumers over the past couple of ...

Doing a sample post, to see if the server move worked. If so, this site will be faster and more ...

I love Japan, really I do, but there are times when I have to shake my head at the lack ...

Although Japan might be famous for sake, wine distilled from rice, the beverage most people order when it's time to ...

Japan is getting ready for Valentine's Day, that very special time when women show their devotion to the men in ...

Words sure are complex things, and it's interesting to consider why we use one word over another. This morning I ...

Big changes may be coming to Japan's online world with the announcement that Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of the infamous BBS ...

It's been said that Japan is the only country in the world that cares what its foreigners think, and I'm ...

I took a day off and went down to Tokyo yesterday to catch up with a friend over some beer ...

Here are some numbers on the 2.2 million foreigners who live in Japan and make up 1.63% of the overall ...

The word for "foreigner" in Japanese is gaijin, written with kanji meaning outside + person, making it essentially equal to ...

One of the small benefits of the Japanese language is its syllabic nature, which eliminates some of the nuance of ...

One of the most famous singers in Japan over the past two decades has been Akiko Wada, who appears on ...

Today saw the inauguration of Barack Obama, an event which was watched closely from Japan along with the rest of ...

I caught an article on the New York Times website the other day about Japan's little secret, the class of ...

Japanese films (houga) are a unique genre of cinema that I'm fascinated with, and whenever I watch one I'm captivated ...

My favorite Japanese musician is 久石ジョー Hisaishi Joe, the talented composer who created the music for Hayao Miyazaki's most memorable ...

If you want to learn about the cultural differences between East and West, I recommend marry a Japanese woman. The ...

A major category within the world of Japanese comedy is mono-mane (moh-noh MAH-neh), or comedians doing impersonations of famous people, ...

Nihongo, also known as Japanese, is the language spoken in the nation of Japan, as well as Hawaii (ha-ha). Its ...

I'm quite an old school anime fan, having gotten into it in the early 80s. Back then, there was precious ...

Sometimes part of the fun of studying a language like Japanese is "surfing" the linguistic elements that are totally different ...