また明日。

Does anyone know when the Tokyo Sky Tree will be finished?

That was a very helpful explanation. I’ll practice those tips.

Arigato gozaimasu,

Steve from St. Louis

Now, very slowly, say “doe” out loud. I want you to notice where your tongue is when you say it (should be against the roof of your mouth near the front). Now say “low.” Your tongue should be further back. To say the Japanese ろ（ro）, position your tongue right in between the “doe” and “low” positions, and with just the tip, try to say a really light “doe”, minus the heavy thump for the “D” sound, and minus the final “u” sound that creeps in to the hard English “O.” Your tongue should gently flick forward as you say it. That’s ろ（ro）. For ど（do）, use the standard “doe” tongue position (roof of mouth / front) and give it a nice “D” thump, but not as big as if you were saying an English “D.” Your D-thump should sound like a mix between ‘doe’ and ‘toe.’

Once you have this down. you should be able to say ら（ra） and だ（da）without a problem. れ（re） and で（de）are tough though. The tongue does the same thing, but it’s probably the vowel sound that throws off English speakers. Try connecting your D-thumps and R-thumps to the soft ‘e’ sound from “breakfast” or “egg” as practice. For りょ（ryo） and りゅ（ryu）, follow your thumps by a very very short “yo” or “you,” respectively.

Practice these in front of a mirror, and then test yourself again on the recording tool. Let me know how it goes Steve.

For those of you who are interested in studying Japanese pronunciation even deeper, I recommend this fantastic book called 「日本語の発音教室：Introduction to Japanese Pronunciation - Theory and Practice」published by Kurosio. It’s only in Japanese, but you’ll be able to read it if you’re at an intermediate level. Not to worry if your reading is not there yet, listening closely to Naomi-sensei is just as good a substitute.

Do you have any tips on pronouncing rolling “r’s” in Japanese? I find certain sounds difficult to differentiate when I try the voice recording — yo and ryo, ro and do, ra and da, re and de etc. I look forward to traveling to Japan next month. Ooto-ya de tabete mitai desu.

Arigatou gozaimasu,

Steve from St. Louis

90, 80, 70 - mobile phones
3 - Tokyo (23 wards)
1655 - some places in Hokkaido
etc.

For landlines, the rule is that regional code + local code equals 5 digits. So a phone number in tokyo would be written/read as 03-1234-5678 (you’re supposed put a zero in the beginning for all domestic calls). A number in some places in Hokkaido could be 01655-1-2345. Like I said, tricky. It’s best to see how they write numbers where you live and go along with that.

@Venom- Yeah, I used to think that Tokyo Tower was just a knockoff of the Eiffel Tower, and although in some ways it is, it’s still breathtaking to see something so huge in such a cramped city.