Japanese book review: 活の入れ方 (“Techniques for Motivation”) by 藤平信一 (Shin’ichi Tohei)
This is a review of the latest book authored (in part) by Shin’ichi Tohei, the head of the world organization for Ki-Aikidio.
Category Archives: Japanese Study: Advanced
Learning to Read Japanese Quickly
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 »
Japanese Pronunciation Highlight: The debate of the soft “ga”
In recent years I have been more active on Twitter/X and a little less active on this blog, though I am still trying to keep up the pace of at least one article a week. Besides the persistency of blog articles vs. the transience of Twitter posts, there is the fact that it’s much easier… Read More »
Japanese Youtube Recommendation: Taigu Osho (talks from a Buddhist Priest)
As part of my continuing education in Japanese I’m always on the lookout for good content in Japanese that is interesting, educational, or both. While watching videos is fun, in terms of budgeting my time I find I have many more opportunities to experience content going on a walk or driving, so I tend to… Read More »
Japanese Literature Release: “The Face” by Hayashi Fubo
I’m happy to announce the release of “The Face”, a surreal piece of classic Japanese literature that contains both English and bilingual Japanese/English versions.
Japanese Netflix drama review: “Tiger & Dragon” (タイガー&ドラゴン）
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 »
How long will it take me to learn Japanese?
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 »
Advanced Japanese technique: changing a thought mid-stream
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 »
Several usages of “mono”（もの）in Japanese
“Mono” in Japanese (usually written in hiragana as もの, and sometimes in kanji as 物) is a word that has the basic meaning of “thing”, generally in the sense of a physical (often tangible) thing. 店でいいものを買ったよ (mise de ii mono wo katta yo) I bought something good (=a good thing) at the store. However this… Read More »
Japanese bilingual literature book release: “Tokyo: City of Illusions” by Muro Saisei （室生犀星）
I’m prod to announce the latest release of Arigatai Books: a surreal story about a man wandering around Tokyo a century ago, published in bilingual Japanese/English with an extended translators essay.