| 7:15am | Japanese Grammar and Your Friend "Ne" | | | | Recently I wrote about some of the interesting grammatical particles that exist in Japanese, which "mark" the various parts of a sentence, including the subject/topic, the object, and so on. There's a related group of sentence-ending particles that change the tone of the overall sentence, such as ka,... |
| 7:14am | Japan, Land of a Thousand Islands | | | | Japan is an archipelago consisting of more than 6800 islands, which was created by the volcanic activity that gives the country its earthquakes and wonderful hot springs. There are four main islands: large Honshu ("main province"), slightly bigger than Great Britain; southernmost Kyushu ("nine provinces,"... |
| 7:09am | Japan Drives on the Other Side | | | | I do like my current life, living in Japan yet getting to visit the U.S. frequently to attend fun anime conventions and stock up on American peanut butter and tortillas. But flitting between the two countries means being at peace with driving on the opposite side of the road, thanks to Japan's long tradition... |
| 6:59am | Cool Products Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... | | |
| 6:04am | Otakon Recap Pictures | | | | Well, Otakon 2009 is behind us, and what a show it was. I met about zillion anime fans and shook a lot of hands, making some really fun memories in the process -- a major shout-out to everyone who dropped by to say hello. I also got to meet a cool 92-year-old guy named Smitty who had decided to visit... | | |
| 5:42am | Politeness in Japan: Humility and Exhaultation | | | | Japan is a country that believes in getting along harmoniously -- a good idea, considering that they have half the population of the U.S. crammed into an area the size of New Mexico. The Japanese have evolved a system of politeness that acts as a guide in many formal and business and some day-to-day... |
| 5:41am | The Law of Scarcity When Living in Japan | | | | When you pass a Subway sandwich shop, do you enthusiastically head inside, happy to be able to eat such a rare treat? When I'm in Japan I often do, since there aren't any of them in my home prefecture of Gunma, located about 100 km northwest of Tokyo. When I make a trip into Japan's capital or to the... |
| 5:41am | Love, Do You Remember? | | | | It's time to mark a very special anniversary which has meant a lot to many of my generation. While you might reasonably expect me to write about the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and mankind's first historic walk on the moon, which will have been covered by others, I'm actually talking about... |
| 5:36am | Cool Products Monday, July 20, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... |
| 5:44am | J-List will be at Otakon -- will you? | | | | ;color:#3b3b3b">Today's update is being written beside the lapping shores of the Chesapeake Bay, as I get ready to attend Otakon 2009. I'll be there in a semi-unofficial way at booth 331, with a subset of our awesome products from Japan including PC dating-sim games and some funky Hello Kitty vibrating... |
| 5:42am | Tipping in Japan | | | | Unlike other nations in Asia, the Japanese have no custom of tipping for good service, and no matter how good a particular customer experience was (or wasn't), you're never expected to leave a tip. In fact, doing so would probably result in the server in question chasing after you to return the cash... |
| 5:42am | Japanese Grammar Overview | | | | The Japanese language is, of course, very different from English -- about as different as you can get, as languages go. Instead of a subject/verb/object word order, it's subject/object/verb, although the subject is frequently left off if it's clear from the context to make things extra-challenging for... |
| 5:41am | Election Time in Japan (Ugh) | | | | Bad news for anyone in Japan who likes sleeping late in the mornings: election season will be starting at the end of August, which means lots of politicians riding around in speaker cars shouting things like, "My name is Tanaka! I will work hard for you! Thank you for your vote!" Japan has a British-style... |
| 5:41am | Cool Products Friday, July 17, 2009 | | | | Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see... | | |
| 7:53am | More on Japanese Sound Words | | | | Last time I talked about the sound words in Japanese and how they're a little different from the onomatopoeia we use in English. There are actually two kinds of these sound words in Japanese: giseigo ("imitation voice words") which mimic an actual sound like a bird cawing, and gitaigo ("imitation condition... |
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