The Japanese are known for their video games, with a long line of classics like Street Fighter, Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, or even Dance Dance Revolution. While in the last decade or so the number of non-Japanese game companies has increased, the Japanese have continued to put out great quality games at a great pace, and… Read More »
One topic I’ve written several posts on is how pronunciation is so important when learning Japanese, and I had given a link to an online accent dictionary that I see a few people had checked out. I also noted that I owned a physical accent dictionary, but had never really used it much. I decided… Read More »
I decided to take a break from my usual lineup of Japanese podcasts and download a few episodes of a podcast I’d heard once or twice before, “青春あるでひど”. The title is made up the word 青春 (seishun), which means roughly means “youth” and あるでひど which is probably a reference to アルデヒド (aldehyde) which is a common… Read More »
This book I picked up at the same time as 影の現象学, and the two works are similar in that I misunderstood both to be fiction when in fact they were nonfiction academic books. This book is a collection of short essays from the mathematician and popular essayist Masahiko Fujiwara, whose parents were also popular authors.… Read More »
One thing that always amazes me about Japanese manga and anime culture is how they can take a hobby and build a story around it, getting really deep into details about that specific field of interest. One such example is Hikaru no Go which focuses on the complex board game Go, and another is basketball-themed manga Slam… Read More »
When I first saw this Manga in Book Off in New York I was a little hesitant to check it out. Not only was the cover drawn in an unappealing color scheme, but the story seemed to revolve around Buddha and Jesus – and it was clear this wasn’t a particularly serious work. But I had… Read More »
I’m a huge fan of Lego bricks, so when I came across Japanese-made bricks called ‘laQ’ in New York’s Kinokuniya, I couldn’t help buy a small box. There was a variety of different sets, but I choose one of the smaller ones so it would fit in my luggage without any problem – the mini… Read More »
This book is one of the few I picked up in the used Japanese book section of a Japanese market in South Florida, along with this one which I reviewed the other day. My wife had shown it to me and said I might enjoy it, so I picked it up and looked it over.… Read More »
There are some aspects of Japanese culture you aren’t likely to come across until you live with a Japanese family – whether that is in Japan or elsewhere. One of those is ふりかけ (furikake), which literally means “sprinkle” and is a Japanese condiment which is commonly sprinkled on top of rice. There are many varieties with… Read More »
In many ways studying a foreign language is like an adventure – besides the many new words and phrases one encounters, there is the content itself which usually comes from a foreign culture. So you never know what to expect, except that your experience will be different than things written or spoken in your native… Read More »