Tag: Japan

It's well known that bowing is something done in Japan as a greeting or to express respect or apology. There ...

Of all the aspects of Japan I had to get used to when I came here, the educational system was ...

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the "kanji of the year," the single character that ...

Although Japan is certainly not a perfect place, in general there are benefits for gaijin who come here to live. ...

One of the themes of being an American living in Japan is discovering how much the country has taken various ...

What if you met a Japanese person who went around telling "knock knock" jokes in English all the time? It ...

If you go to Tokyo's Shibuya Station right now you can see an incredible piece of art created by late ...

Recently my kids took the Eiken Test, the primary standardized test of English used in Japan. They really dislike it ...

In Japanese politics, as elsewhere, certain words or phrases get permanently attached to politicians. When Shinzo Abe came into office ...

When a foreigner first comes to live in Japan, there are many small things they'll notice. Ceramic roof tiles on ...

We never think about idioms in our own language, but to non-native speakers, learning the meanings of phrases like "to ...

I love getting a haircut in Japan. The barber shop I use rents space inside a lobby of a large ...

While most people in the U.S. probably opt for a shower to get clean, in Japan hopping in the furo ...

One thing that's fun about having kids is all the creative observations they make. Like the time my daughter saw ...

When foreigners come to live in Japan, there are certain skills they will need to acquire. When I first arrived ...

Every visitor to Japan develops, I think, a special relationship with Kyoto, the beautiful city that was capital of Japan ...

If you want to live in Japan, there are certain skills you'll need to acquire. For example, you should be ...

It's known that the Japanese eat with chopsticks with almost every meal, deftly picking up even the tiniest morsels of ...

It's funny how so many of the foods eaten by the Japanese on a daily basis aren't very Japanese at ...

If you've listened to spoken Japanese at all you've probably heard the word desu, often pronounced with the last syllable ...

There are many good things about being in the U.S., like being able to order a taco without getting octopus, ...

We certainly had fun in Las Vegas, enjoying some quality down time. On the way back to San Diego, our ...

There have been a lot of changes in Japanese society since we started J-List in 1996. First, the old concept ...

Well, the International Day of the iPhone is here, when Apple's new 3G iPhone launches around the world. In Japan, ...