Today’s location is Akita・あきた・秋田 capital of Akita Prefecture・あきたけん・秋田県.
Renown for its Kanto Festival, August 3-6, attracting over 1 million people.

Yes, it’s a little fast for a Valentine’s espisode, but next week is a national holiday and we’ll be talking about that!よろしくお願いします！

Konnichiha.

I really enjoy the Japanese Culture lessons, to be honest, I actually already knew about the way Valentines Day is celebrated in Japan, even though I have never been there, but what I did not know about was ‘White Day’ a month later when the men have to give a present back to the ladies. Thank you for adding that information in to the podcast, Sakura-san. Just like in the USA we guys in the UK have to rush round buying Roses and chocolates and cards for our wife’s or girlfriends….or even someone we like and of course like Peter-san said take them out for a meal. I am not sure if it is the same in the USA but the girls also give Valentine cards to the ones they love, or ‘fancy’

But…I think I shall visit Japan every Valentines day as I love Chocolate. I have brought Meji choclate here in the UK as well as ‘Poky’ which my daughter just loves. I have to admit I like a Japanese kids chocolate, I do not know the name, but it comes in a plastic container with pictures of ‘Doraemon’ all over it. They are kind of like a Malteser but with out the honey-cone center. My Japanese friend likes an English chocolate called Galaxy…They do a white version, so Maybe I should send some to her husband so he can give to her on ‘white day’ I think she will love him even more if he gives her that…Hehehehehe!

Anyway, I was wondering if you could do seperate lessons on Japanese particles and on verb conjugations….surely I am not the only one that struggles with these two things…well I hope not…I know I am stupid…..but I hope I am not completely thick…Hehehehe!

Anyway great podcast again….I love Japanese culture and history, so I also enjoy the culture lessonsvery much.

o-genki de
Steve

Hi guys,

I am enjoying your classes.

I am hoping, if you can email me or post your pictures online. Atleast, we learners would kow how Peetaa, Suzuki, Natsuko, and Kazunori looks like. Thank You

Hoping…

-JP San

Great podcast as always. This upcoming valentinesday will be my second here in japan.

I dont really like it, and think it is more of commercialisms bullcrap… They even improved on it in japan, having another “white day”, so the guys have to go out buy some expensive stuff! @_@ Go commercialism! Look at christmas too. Most japanese aren’t christians, but they celebrate anyways. Losts of them don’t even know why it is celebrated *sigh*

Keep up the good work with the high quality podcasts!

Jonas

Jonas-san,
はねをのばす literally means spread your wings but in an idiomatic sense it means ‘relax’ or ‘let your hair dow’. There’s nothing much we can do about commecialism really. It’s the same in almost every country. The majority of people here in Thailand are Bhuddist and yet they celebrate and have fun when it comes to western festivities like Valentine’s, Christmas and Halloween’s. To look on a brighter side, this means that our world is now all connected. It’s true globalisation. Yes, these events do drain the money out of consumers, but people enjoy themselves. I think that’s the most important

Yeah… I inserted html style “pointless rant” tags around my rant… but they got removed when i posted my post… so maybe it sounded a bit harsh. I’ll be here for valentine, but I go back to norway at the end of the month, so no white day for me. Oh well… Maybe I’ll send something norwegian to my gf.

Petersan,
Thanx for correcting me! Yeah, that’s exactly what I meant to say. ありがとう　ございます！

Just have the say the bonus track is great. First thing i did this morning was download the file and listen to the file twice in a row. It really helped me review yesterdays material in a timely manner .
Minty

こんにちは、wow, great postcast!
I knew this day was comming and I was wondering if a podcast for ヴァレンタイン デー would be done, and without even asking it was right there, WOW!. This day is very dear to me, not only because I take my wife to dinner, it’s because it is also 僕の誕生日です, so I was very happy to see a podcast for this de day.

どうもありがとうございます。
がんばって下さい。

Sorry for bringing up an old post and I don’t know if anybody else commented on this.
From the podcast I think, Peter translated ガナーシュ (sp?)　as garnish. I guess it may be the NY accent, but I believe it’s supposed to be ganache (gah-NAH-sh).
A ganache, for the truffle, is bittersweet or semisweet chocolate with heavy cream or milk melted together. After melted then it’s cooled. Sometimes it’s mixed with liqueurs for that little extra something. To make the truffle, after the ganache is cooled and hardened, it is scooped and rolled in cocoa powder.
甘い物が大好き。

Looks like someone already beat me to this, but…

From your Valentine Day JCC, I thought you might like to know that truffles have “ganache” not “garnish”. It is pronounced ga-na-sh. It is a sweet soft center. Sakura said it right and you “mis-corrected” her. She is too polite. Garnish is usually decorative greens on the edges of a dish.