Japan’s writing system is probably the first thing that boggles the mind of an English speaker when they start learning Japanese. The forbidding kanji express meaning in the form of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, while the curvy hiragana fill in the gaps with word endings and grammatical functions. Where does katakana fit in? It may…

Nothing compares to the thrill of hearing your favorite songs live. However, if you’re an avid concert goer back home, you may be surprised at how different things can be in Japan. The Japanese concert is called a “live” (from live show, or live concert) and there are four huge differences from how things are…

Love them or hate them, onomatopoeia is an essential part of Japanese. Most, if not all, languages have words that imitate real sounds like plop, whizz, and woof, but Japanese takes it to the next level. Open any manga to a random page, and the background will almost certainly be dripping with katakana words. Take…

One of the best parts of learning Japanese is the chance it gives you to re-program your brain from the ground up. From strange words to alien grammar structures, everything is different. The constant discovery of new aspects of the language regularly highlights things you had previously taken for granted as universal. This process extends…

For many people, the word “hedgehog” may conjure up images of a speeding blue blur that stars in the second best selling video game series of all time, but the reality is more prickly. Capitalizing on their recent popularity, as well as the wild success of various other animal cafes, Roppongi hedgehog cafe, Harry gives…

Learning Japanese is hard. It takes a long time to slog through all the characters, learn thousands of new words and reprogram your brain to think in a totally new way. Sometimes it seems like you’ll never make it out of the textbook and into the real world. The key is practice, but the secret…

After a few years in Japan or even a few weeks for that matter, it’s easy to get temple fatigue. Once you learn about the differences between a temple and a shrine, and some of the history of Kobodaishi, they can start to blend together. Recently, however, I literally stumbled across one that brought back…

Where should you take your date on a Friday night? It’s a question everyone struggles with from time to time, but for those lucky enough to be in Tokyo the folks at the Park Hyatt have created a spot with a great mix of metropolitan sophistication and romantic atmosphere. Whether you’re looking to impress a…

The first time I went to Tokyo, I stayed for over a week. I couldn’t get enough of the city. By the end of the first few days, though, I had started to run out of tourist attractions to visit. I got in touch with my friend, a native Tokyoite, and asked what I should…

In the English-speaking world, Japanese is famous for being a difficult language to learn. One particularly challenging aspect is that English and Japanese just don’t match up. While many concrete words like eat or vegetables are easy to look up, sometimes the dictionary can be unclear, or downright deceiving. You can study that moyamoya means…