Japanese Netflix Drama review: “Alice in Borderland” (1st Season)
I reviewed the first season of “Alice in Borderland”, a pretty interesting series (based on a manga) that is available on Netflix.
Japanese women’s literature book release: “Days and Nights” by Hayashi Fumiko
I’m proud to announce my next release of classic Japanese’s women’s literature: a collection of Hayashi Fumiko’s short stories titled “Days and Nights”.
Japanese particle combination: “made de” (までで)
I feel that grammar is the soul of a language, and in the case of Japanese, particles are one of the most important parts of grammar. In this post I’d like to go over the particle combination “made de” (までで), which may not be obvious the first time you spot it in the wild. I… Read More »
Japanese expression: “年は年だから” (toshi wa toshi dakara)
This time I’d like to go over the expression “年は年だから” (toshi wa toshi dakara), and some related topics. I chose this since this expression is a little tricky to understand, especially if you are thinking about it from an English point of view. First let’s look at a short, real-world dialogue using this: Person A:… Read More »
Self Taught Japanese: A look back at 2020 and what is to come in 2021
In this post I take a look at what STJ has achieved as a blog in 2020, and what I have achieved as a publisher (including some statistics on both). I also talk about some plans and aspirations for 2021.
Japanese anime review: “Blame!” (ブラム)
The other day I was going through Netflix and having a tough time finding a series or movie that I could really get into. After some searching I discovered the anime movie “Blame!” (supposedly pronounced “Blam!”, though the Japanese title is ブラム), and after a few minutes I was hooked, finishing off a roughly two… Read More »
Book Release: Classic Japanese Fairy Tales, Volume 4 (Mimei Ogawa)
I’m very happy to announce the 4th installment of “Classic Japanese Fairy Tales”, my translations of Mimei Ogawa’s works that are listed in both English and parallel Japanese/English formats. This volume also contains an essay by Mimei where he talks about what children’s stories mean to him.
Japanese Book Review: 首里の馬 (“The Horse of Shuri”) by 高山 羽根子 (Takayama Haneko)
In this article, I reviewed the novel 首里の馬 (“The Horse of Shuri”) by 高山 羽根子 (Takayama Haneko), a book with interesting ideas that I felt fell a little short on execution.
Happy Birthday to Juza Unno (and some inexpensive classic Japanese SF)
Juza Unno (海野十三), born Sano Shouichi (佐野 昌一), is a Japanese author from the early 20th century who used his real-world technical knowledge and experience to write a great number of science fiction works, including novels and short stories. This author holds a special place for me because not only were my first and last E-books… Read More »
実力 (jitsuryoku): “Expertability” and when skill really matters
In this I talk about the idea of classifying things in terms of whether real skill (実力) really matters or not, which I call “expertability”, and then talk about language study and translation in that context.