Lately I’ve been doing a lot of articles related to audio or video stuff, and haven’t written too much about grammar or the process of learning Japanese. Part of the reason is a lack of ideas for content. That’s why when I received an email from a reader asking if I had any suggestions for… Read More »
A few months ago I published Bitter Honey, a weird and surreal piece of Japanese literature about a magical goldfish who sometimes appears in the form of a teenage girl. (Note: the story is published in both English and parallel English /Japanese for Japanese learners.) As it was a fun story to translate I thought… Read More »
Ever since ChatGPT was released in late 2022, we have been seeing massive advances in various artificial intelligence technologies of the likes that eclipses the last few decades. Suddenly, it seems that computers can do things that it only seemed could be done by humans, such as complex image and text generation, and these new… Read More »
I visited the Portland Japanese Garden in April 2024 for the first time in quite awhile, where I was treated to its many beautiful views, further enhanced due to the light drizzle that made the colors that much brighter. I took a handful of pictures so I thought I would share some of them here… Read More »
On a recent trip to Japan I stopped by a calligraphy studio in Kyoto and got a lesson with an expert. I talked about this in detail in this podcast episode here. In that studio I purchased a brush which is not available anywhere but in person, so I thought I would record video showing… Read More »
On a recent trip to Japan, I took a 1-on-1 lesson with a skilled calligrapher in Kyoto (Chifumi Calligraphy Tokyo). Having primarily studied calligraphy without a teacher, it was an extremely educational experience, not to mention fun (the featured image shows the final artwork I produced from that class). While in Kyoto, I also stopped… Read More »
On a recent trip to Japan I stopped by Kyoto, where there happened to be a calligraphy exhibit opened in the Shimadai Gallery, a relatively small museum located walking distance from Karasuma Oike Station. Having been into calligraphy (書道) pretty heavy as a hobby the last few months, I was really blown away by the… Read More »
Recently I discovered there was an extended Ki-Aikido training session being held in Osaka in the massive Asue Arena right around the time I had planned to be nearby on a family trip. While a bit nervous, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to practice Japanese in Japan while learning more about how… Read More »
I’m happy to announce a new podcast about all things Japanese, “Japanesque”.
In March of 2024 I went on a trip to Japan with my family for around a week. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Jinbocho, and Akihabara (yeah, it was a busy trip!). I’ve detailed a previous trip to Japan on this blog fairly extensively here, and for this recent trip I am not planning… Read More »