Japanese word origins: the strange tale of three “hashi” (Bridge, chopsticks, edge)

If you’ve studied Japanese for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that Japanese has many homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Generally you can tell them apart from context (and there are also differences in intonation to help differentiate depending on the region, as well as kanji representation),… Read More »

A Japanese study method for ebooks, Amazon’s blocking of file exporting, and a way around it (for our books)

I recently had an interesting exchange with a user on Facebook in the Japanese Literature group, which I wanted to mention here, along with a partial solution to the problem that was exposed. Until recently, it was apparently possible to download the source file of an ebook from Amazon KDP books (via “Devices and Content”)… Read More »

Advanced Japanese practice: listening to and understanding accents (and a character from Sakamoto Days)

For beginner students I don’t recommend listening/reading a lot of Japanese where characters speak in a regional or other accent. While it’s good to have some understanding of other styles of accents beyond the typical Tokyo-dialect (東京弁), my concern is that you might unintentionally pick up something and use it without knowing it’s not typical… Read More »

Japanese Poem Translation: “Darkness and Light” by Suzuko Nakano

Suzuko Nakano (中野 鈴子) (1906-1958) was a female Japanese poet born in Fukui prefecture who has, as far as I can tell, never been translated into English. This is my translation of her poem “闇と光と” (Darkness and Light). There is very little available about her in English online, but this is her Japanese Wikipedia page.… Read More »