Introducing Arigatai Goods: putting appreciation first
Arigatai Books has released a set of everyday items on the theme of “Arigatai” (appreciation) with colorful logs based on sacred geometry, now available for sale on Zazzle.
Category Archives: culture
Movie review: Bullet Train (a surprising connection to Japanese literature)
I’ve had a special interest in Japanese culture for almost as long as I can remember, and can often appreciate books, movies, or TV series that try to highlight some interesting, unique, or significant part of Japan’s culture. But I’ve developed a good sense of which of these have an authentic feel and intent, and… Read More »
Anime review: “Cyberpunk Edgerunners” (a modern classic)
When I was first learning Japanese over two decades ago I watched a huge number of anime movies and series, and especially loved classics like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop. It’s fair to say Japanese anime was one of the driving factors that motivated me to seriously study Japanese language and culture,… Read More »
Round 1 arcade review (a surprising taste of Japanese culture)
As you surely know, the world has been in a pretty crazy state the last few years, and as a result traveling overseas or even out-of-state has been challenging, if not worrisome. A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to get out of Oregon for the first time in quite a long time and… Read More »
Omae (お前): a Japanese pronoun with confusing nuances
One significant difference between Japanese and a language like English is that words are more frequently omitted when they can be inferred from context. This applies to pretty much all types of speech: verbs, nouns, objects, and even particles (little grammatical helpers). In English, except for some special cases and slang usages, when referring to… Read More »
Aikido Report: The Black Belt
In this post I talk about how I achieved an Aikido black belt in only a few years, including some details on how I trained, what is required to get a black belt, and some thoughts about how the test went.
Anime Movie Review: Belle
Even though I no longer watch Anime as frequently as I did ten years ago, I still try to check out new series here and there. In particular, anime movies seem to have a much higher average satisfaction level, especially those from big production houses or directors (Studio Ghibli, Makoto Shinkai, etc.) Recently I decided… Read More »
Verbification: how (almost) anything can turn into a verb in Japanese
Japanese verbs, a core part of the language, are relatively straightforward in terms of how they are structured (most end with a “u” sound, i.e. “taberu”, “kau”, “oyogu”, etc.) and how they are conjugated (unlike English verbs, 99.9% of verbs in Japanese follow a set of clear rules). Knowing how to understand and effectively use… Read More »
Translation is a Creative Act (and how to get better at it)
In this post I talk at length about translation, touching upon how I consider it to be a creative act, but also going into some suggestions on how to be a better translator.
Japanese Literature: Using Western letters as placeholders for names
Compared to English, Japanese has countless differences in how things are expressed, including major things like word order, particles, and levels of politeness. However, if you ponder things long enough, and do enough research, you can often find something similar in English, or at least a roughly equivalent way to express things, whether that is… Read More »