Category Archives: Uncategorized

Japanese expression highlight: あるある (aru aru)

In this post I would like to go over the casual expression あるある (aru aru), which doesn’t have a literal parallel in English. I will also talk a little about where it is derived from. To give some context first to how you might see this phrase used, imagine an article titled “テレワークあるある” (terewaaku aru… Read More »

Japanese book review: 「調子いい! 」が続く姿勢と呼吸の整え方” (“Correcting your posture and breathing to realize your full potential”) by 藤平信一 (Shin’ichi Tohei)

My review of head of Ki-Aikido Shin’ichi Tohei’s latest book about improving your posture and breathing in order to maximize your potential as a person, including applications to many daily-life areas such as driving, sitting, and even washing dished. This book is strongly related to a NHK special that ran last year on similar topics.

Japanese fairy tale audiobook giveaway

To celebrate the release of Volume 6 of my series of Japanese classic fairy tales this week, I’ve decided to run a little giveaway where I give out 6 free copies of the audiobook of Volume 1 of this series. As I will be using promo codes provided by Audible, you will have to have… Read More »

Japanese Grammar: The mysterious connection between the volitional form and でしょう / だろう (deshou / darou)

In this post, I wanted to discuss an interesting connection between the volitional form in Japanese and the words “deshou” / “darou”. To begin with I will go over the meaning of each, and then see how they relate. The volitional form represents the speaker’s volition, or will, and for the verb “suru” looks like… Read More »