Being busy with various things, I haven’t had a chance to read much paper-media Japanese literature in the last few months. But when I saw “The Glimmer of Ink” (墨のゆらめき）by Shion Miura (三浦しをん）in the Beaverton Kinokuniya bookstore, I decided to take another dive back into the delightful world of Japanese literature. Shion Miura is known… Read More »
In this post I want to highlight a common and important word in the Japanese language, “yoku”. It can be written in hiragana as よく, and depending on the meaning can also be written in kanji as 良く or 欲. The first meaning I would like to go over is the most common one, which… Read More »
For anyone who is even the least bit picky about what they watch, it’s easy to get annoyed by the lack of quality shows and movies available on Netflix, whether it is anime or live action productions. I try to limit the amount of time I spend watching Netflix, but with a few exceptions most… Read More »
In this post I give some highlights about the recent production of an audiobook based on Japanese literature, and I also announce a giveaway involving a few free copies of said audiobook.
Weather is part of our day-to-day lives, whether it is a rainstorm, a heatwave, or extra strong winds. And the seasons are one of the fundamental ways we categorize weather in terms of certain weather patterns. In Japan the seasons are especially important, partially because the types of foods that are available fresh differ significantly… Read More »
Often language learners will wonder how long it takes them to master, or at least become fluent in a foreign language, especially when deciding whether to start studying a language or not. And from the point of view of time management, to a certain extent that is a logical thing to want to know. A… Read More »
This is my translation of the 6th and final part of Kenji Miyazawa’s famous story “Matasaburo of the Wind”, which happens to be the same story referred to in the song “Matasaburo” by the rock band Yorushika.
Around two years ago I reviewed the first season of the Netflix drama “Alice in Borderland” (with the Japanese title 今際の国のアリス, “imawa no kuni no arisu), which you can find here. It was quite a wait for the second season, but when it finally came out I couldn’t help but watch. Fortunately, it was definately… Read More »
When learning a foreign language, it’s important to learn a little bit about a lot of things: words, expressions, culture, etc. But it’s also important to learn a lot about a few things, namely those things that occur frequently in daily life. This post, falling in the latter category, is about an expression you are… Read More »
As we learn a foreign language, we gradually improve our vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, and at the same time gain other more abstract skills that help us understand and communicate better. Often these things happen subconsciously, but you can also learn these types of skills explicitly and try to apply them to your daily language… Read More »