In Japan, as well as some other Eastern cultures, rice is eaten daily and products made from rice are very abundant: rice wine, sweets made from rice (mochi), even rice paper. Rice is not only relatively inexpensive and nutrient-rich, but it can be made quite easy at home in a device called a “suihanki” (炊飯器), or rice-cooker.… Read More »
“Seiza” is a Japanese traditional way of sitting which has been around since the Edo Period (17th century), and involves kneeling so that ones knees touch the floor, with feet are folded underneath, resting roughly below the spine. See this page for a picture of people sitting in a group in seiza. There are different variations… Read More »
Japanese, like many other languages, has a large set of terms to refer to different family members (お姉さん, お兄さん, etc.). One special thing about these words is that many of them can even be used to refer to a non family member, including someone you just met on the street and are meeting for the first… Read More »
When learning about a foreign culture, sometimes you experience a shift of perspective where what you thought you knew was wrong, or at least incomplete. One place this is common is where your only knowledge about a foreign culture is through the biased lens of another country (probably where you were brought up). One important… Read More »
As part of the process of immersing myself in Japanese without actually leaving in Japan, I take advantage of pretty much any media I can get my hands on and usually to try to decipher at least a phrase or so (or longer if I have the time). Today I happened to be drinking a… Read More »
Recently I had the opportunity to visit a relative in Arizona who had Dish Satellite TV (http://www.dish.com), and happened to contain a single channel of Japanese broadcast TV. At first I thought that it was cool such a channel could be seen in America, but after all in the age of the internet nearly any… Read More »
Although I would bet there are many people who haven’t heard the term “sequential voicing” or “連濁” before, the basic concept of it is quite easy to learn, and will help you better guess the meaning of certain words plus make remembering them easier. First a little terminology. When writing in Katakana or Hiragana there… Read More »
One thing great about cultures of the world is that each has it’s own set of foods, and usually there are some that haven’t quite become popular outside that country. For Japan, the wide variety of fish products and the many ways they can be used in cooking is very unique. When I first heard… Read More »
Having spent no more than a few weeks in Japan in my lifetime, I usually hesitate to speak too much about Japanese culture because I have so much to learn and so little to teach. However, the topic I have selected this time – 挨拶 – is something I feel I have enough experience with… Read More »
お互い (“otagai”) is a Japanese word which is a little tricky to translate into English directly, but roughly means something along the lines of “each other’s”, “one other’s” or “mutual”. A common expression which uses this phrase is the following: お互い頑張りましょう Let’s each try our best Notice that this is a little different than “一緒に (issho… Read More »