The Japanese use thousands of Chinese characters called kanji in their writing. Kanji are used to denote nouns, adjectives, and even verb stems. They range from the ultra simple character for one (—) to characters that have so many strokes they look like smudges on the page. Proper stroke order is essential to achieve the correct balance when […]
The Acquisition of Language
Your 183-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
Britain isn’t the only nation to enjoy flavors of the month; Japanese chain restaurants, too, are extremely fond of offering “limited time only” menu selections in honor of the new month or the new season. Colorful posters bearing the images of the offering will be splashed across the restaurant’s windows from the first of the […]
Hostess Cupcake
The two year-olds have been ganging up on me lately, ever since Kazuya had the brilliant idea of asking me if class was over when it was only halfway through. Because I feigned hurt feelings, Kazuya decided this was to be our inside joke and now asks me if class is finished every 30 […]
なごり 雨
For the second straight day in a row, the rain continues to beat against my bay window, soaking everything outside. Happily, the new apartment is so close to the Supa Tamade discount supermarket that if I were to slip out for a half-price bento, I wouldn’t even need to take an umbrella. It’s not often […]
Movin’ Right Along
… and we’re moved. As it will be another week before I have my Yahoo BB! internet account set up in this apartment, I am cautiously “borrowing” a neighbor’s signal. I’ve passed some of them in the hall; they seem nice and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. So I’m buying next month’s book club selection […]
Your 242-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
As in the West, weddings are a huge industry in Japan. Thanks to the importation of Hollywood movies, Japanese weddings have come to have a lot of other things in common with the West, such as brides wearing white dresses and carrying floral bouquets. It’s common for young Japanese brides to channel Cher and undergo […]
Ice Box
Because I still haven’t had enough of the ridiculous circus that is My Life in a Japanese Micro-Kitchen, I’ve been trying my hand at baking. I have no counter so I must mix powders and sugars in a metal bowl balanced on my lap. I have no mixer so I must churn batters with a […]
Your 97-Word Mini Japanese Culture Lesson
A small assortment of random Japanese onomatopoeias, for you: The dog says: wanwan The cat says: nyaonyao The baby chick says: piyopiyo The rooster says: kokekokko The gleaming, sparkling object says: pikapika The knock on the door says: tonton The door bell says: pinpon! The crunchy snack says: sakusaku The empty stomach says: pekopeko The […]
Metric Avenue
It took me a while to get used to the Metric System. It can be difficult to retrain your brain to a whole new number scale of “hot,” “cold,” and “tall”, especially if it’s pea-sized, American and went to public high school like mine. Carnitas warned me. “Get used to it,” he said. “It’s standard.” […]
Monkey-chan
The apartment is chosen: spacious, ultra clean, as cheap as our current place, fully-furnished, and bathed in gorgeous natural light. Before making our final decision, we dealt with 3 English-speaking real estate agents and 1 Japanese real estate company; a company I’d inadvertently gotten us involved with after answering an English-language ad online that said, […]