Japanese Bilingual Reader Release: “Kantan! Read Japanese Stories Like a Native (Volume 3)”
I’m happy to announce Arigatai Books’ latest release: a bilingual reader featuring a story by Hayashi Fumiko, an important woman Japanese author.
The Power of Relaxation Off and On the Mat (discussions on Ki-Aikido)
“Just relax!” You’ve probably heard this phrase used before, often in situations when someone is stressed out or panicking due to stress or other factors. Or they may be overreacting about something that is in reality not a big deal. Just taking a few breaths can make a huge difference in our mood and outlook,… Read More »
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.
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 Literature Audio Narration: “Bitter Honey”
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 »
Japanesque 5: With recent AI advances, does learning a foreign language make sense anymore?
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 »
Japanese Grammar and More: Episode 14 (The potential tense)
In this episode of my podcast for learning basic Japanese grammar, I go over the potential form and a few related conjugations. I also go over a casual way of asking “Really?”
Portland Japanese Garden 2024: photo album
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 »
Calligraphy brush unboxing: Ikkyuuen Umihotaru (“Sea Firefly”)
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 »
Studying calligraphy in Japan
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 »