皆さん、(Mina-san) Apparently armadillos hold grudges!!!! The one that caused all the problems last week was not happy about the way he was roughly escorted off the premises, and he showed up again! And, this time with friends!! Due to the loss of natural predators, their population is uncharacteristically high! This fact combined with our light security crew led to us being overun quickly! The small pack of them did quite a number on us, until we apologized profusely! The end result is that things should be much better now. If anyone is experiencing extremely slow download times with itunes please go to iTunes� --> podcasts, RIGHT click JapanesePod101.com and choose "Podcast Update". This should return download speeds to normal. We have... Show more

Mina-san, hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu!本当にありがとうございます！ We just wanted to take the time to thank all our listeners. Thanks to you, JapanesePod101.com was mentioned in the Japan Times. Thanks to YOU the listeners, our Japanese community will be exposed to a larger audience as a result of this coverage. JapanesePod101.com would like to thank YOU for the role you played in this and for increasing exposure of the language we all love! Thank you! Arigatou Gozaimasu!ありがとうございます！！

Last Friday, Dr. Lalo, a doctor from Mexico and an avid listener, stopped by JapanesePod101.com! He was vacationing in Tokyo and wanted to pay us a visit, and he found us! We were so happy to see him! We went to the local sushi bar together; he tried the UNI (sea urchin), and he loved it!! He did all the ordering himself! Dr. Lalo made sure we took some pictures to share with all of you, so "Hello listeners, here we are!" Starting from the left: Kazunori (JPod101.com's Alpha-male), Peter (holding an o-miyage (souvenir) from Dr. Lalo), Kazu (That face is on purpose!), Dr. Lalo, Natsuko, Sakura(holding another o-miyage (souvenir) from Dr. Lalo), and Hatsumi. This is just the first of many pictures and videos to come. We hope you enjoy... Show more

Learn advanced Japanese with JapanesePod101.com. Today we introduce you to Japanese riddles! This is sure to boggle your mind. Not only did we bring you a great riddle, we brought in a true pro to do the reading! You don't want to miss this chance to get used to a type of voice you probably don't get to hear everyday. Answer in the comments! Good Luck!

Learn Kanji (Chinese Characters) with JapanesePod101.com's New Kanji Corner Archive! We have realized the many requests of our sugoi listeners and have just added a Kanji Corner Archive to our website. Now if you miss a day, no problem! Just check the Archive, they're all there! To access the archive sign up below the Kanji of the day! Don't forget to bookmark the page!

Japanesepod101.com’s Travel Center was carefully designed to provide Japan-bound travelers with essential information, basic linguistic ability, as well as to tips you’d never find in book! From language education to where to go, here we offer something for everyone. Our ex-pat team has carefully sifted through their many colorful experiences and knowledge to provide you with all the information, tricks-of-the-trade, and useful language phrases necessary to make you trip the most rewarding one ever! For any Japan-bound traveler, this is a must see!

Learn about ice hockey in Japan and some of the best ice hockey fans in the world! Yes, there is ice hockey in Japan! In fact, Japan's nation team is quite strong team when compared with teams outside the perennial powerhouses of North America and Europe (Russia and Ukraine, included). More than that, ice hockey fans in Japan are absolutely AMAZING!! Today we introduce you to Asia League Ice Hockey, one of ice hockey's the best kept secrets with teams from Japan, Korea, and China, Kokudo Ice Hockey Team, and some of the best ice hockey fans in the world! You don't want to miss this edition. Asia League Ice Hockey Kokudo Ice Team�

Learn Japanese with Sasahara-sensei, the latest edition to the JapanesePod101.com team. We would like to officially welcome our new Grammar Guru, Sasahara Yuko- sensei. In our continuing quest to improve our lessons and provide our listeners with the best possible Japanese Language Learning Lessons possible, Sasahara-sensei is plays a crucial role in our structure. In addition to being a fully qualified Japanese Language teacher, she has over 5-years of experience teaching Japanese to foreigners. Her addition to our team is vital as all material we present has Sasahara-sensei's official "seal of approval."� We feel a responsibility to our listener's to provide fun and, at the same time, professional language education. We want you to feel... Show more

Learn Japanese from other listeners of JapanesePod101.com!! Today we want to thank Minty Fresh-san and Frank-san from Canada for providing two great learning resources! Minty Fresh-san provided us with this hilarious video! I didn't know if they were serious or not, until half way through. Very, very funny! (first video) You definately want to see this! Thank you Minty Fresh-san! Please keep up the great participation! Frank-san provided us with this great article related to "Osu". This is an amazing article, well written, informative and well worth the read! We highly recommend that you check it out. Thank you Frank-san! Please keep the great participation coming! Appropriate Usage of "Osu" by: Rob Redmond

From everyone at Japanesepod101.com, Happy Lunar New Year!