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Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary When you feel uneasy, where do you sense it in your body? Perhaps you feel "butterflies" deep in your belly. Maybe you become lightheaded. You could even get cold feet! Two Japanese expressions about uneasiness make use of a kanji we've seen for two weeks running: 騒 (SŌ, sawa(gu): clamor, noise, disturbance; to make a fuss) Both expressions locate uneasiness in the chest: 心騒ぎ (kokoro sawagi: uneasiness)     heart + disturbance One could see this expression as referring to a disturbance in the heart. Or given the many meanings of 騒, one could interpret 心騒ぎ as noise in the heart! Not an ear-splitting noise, of course. Rather, it might... Show more

Welcome back survival phrase learners! Our title today translates to, "how is the weather today?" Fortunately, it's been sunny, so I've been unable to snap one of my own umbrella photos, but this is one I found online. Today I listened to the following lessons: SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese 29 & 30 JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrases 23, 24, & 25 The most important section in my opinion from today is about weather! As you may or may not know, it is the rainy season here in Japan this month, and it feels like it rains every day. I've been here for two weeks now, and there have only been three sunny days! It gets depressing waking up every morning to a cloudy sky, but that is the only thing that seems to be... Show more

Hello readers! Thanks for coming back and checking out blog #9! Today I continued my studies of survival Japanese with SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 26, 27, and 28, and JapanesePod101.com survival phrase lessons 20, 21, and 22. The lessons covered mainly directions and how to get different places. One Survival Phrase lesson however, expanded upon convenience stores, which is quite an adventure in itself. I thought I would blog a little bit about them today, since I have yet to try my hand at asking someone how to get somewhere (at this point, I think that it's more fun to get lost in Tokyo, since there's so many hidden treasures in this city). Though it's a plain photo, this is a picture of a common convenience store... Show more

Today I listened to a whole slew of lessons from talk about the internet to the bus stop. This included SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 20, 21, and 22, and JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrase lessons 17, 18, 19, 31 and 36. This is an example of one of the buses that stops right in front of the JPod101 HQ! It's so fun and colorful! The first thing I want to touch on and reiterate is to not be worried about your safety in Japan. One of the lessons dealt with thieves and muggers. This is rare! I know I mentioned it in my last blog and will say it again; Japan is very safe, and I have yet to feel uncomfortable at all. I venture to say that the only reason you would need to make an emergency call to 110 would be if someone got... Show more

Hey Podcasters, Today I finished up lessons 15 and 16 in JapanesePod101.com's Survival Phrases. I also did lessons 17, 18, and 19 in SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. The lessons focused on banking and shopping/using prices here in Tokyo. This is an example of a weekend crowd in Harajuku taken this past weekend. In case you missed it in the podcast, the easiest way to think about the "kokan reto", exchange rate, to date between American dollars and Japanese yen is 1:100. If something costs 600 yen, it's equivalent to $6 USD. 2500 JPY is $25 USD. You can just think about it by knocking off the two back numbers (usually zeros) put on the yen to get the dollar amount. Because I will be in Tokyo for two months, I opened a... Show more

Hello Readers! The title means, "your order please". Today I completed JapanesePod101.com Survival Phrases lessons 12, 13, & 14, and SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 11 & 16. The bulk of the material was about fast food, which is what I want to expand upon today. So far, the fasuto fudo (fast food) I have been to just happen to both be American chains; Subway and McDonalds. These are photos of a McDonalds located next to the JPod101 HQ. Can you understand the Kanji on the banner? Subway was fantastic! In America, we "eat fresh" with tuna, turkey, ham, and roast beef; just to name the staple items. At the restaurant here in Japan, you can order egg salad, shrimp and avocado, and veggie dogs for... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary How odd it is that "She's a riot!" means someone's funny. English speakers even say that something's "riotously funny." I've never been to a riot, but from the photos I've seen, nothing amusing happens at such events. Riot After an Election Photo Credit: Daniel Meyer In Japanese, too, there seems to be a fine line between riots and merrymaking. Take this word, for instance: 騒乱 (sōran: riot, disturbance)     clamor + disorder Last week we saw how 騒 (SŌ, sawa(gu): clamor, noise, disturbance; to make a fuss) plays a part in 大騒ぎ (ōsawagi), which means "shocking events." Now we see that in 騒乱, the same kanji helps to cause a riot. ... Show more

Have you ever heard of a capsule hotel? I hadn't until I starting reading up on Tokyo, and was reminded of it again this week in JapanesePod101.com's Survival Phrase lessons 9, 10, and 11 and SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese lessons 9 and 10. This is a photograph of the entrance to where I'm staying. Kapuseru hoteru, or capsule hotel, is not like any hotel people are used to in America and many other western cultures. While I have yet to stay in one, I hear they're quite the experience and am looking forward to the day I get to try it out. Here in Tokyo, the metro system stops at midnight and starts again at five in the morning. Taxis are usually very expensive making the metro the overall transportation of choice here.... Show more

Konbanwa nihongo speakers! I've just finished lessons 6, 7, and 8 from both JapanesePod101.com's Survival Phrases and SurvivalPhrases.com Japanese. The main focus of my day's lessons were how to ask, "do you speak English?" and "how do you say this in English?" Respectively, these phrases are "Eigo ga hanasemasuka?" and "Kore wa eigo de nanto iimasuka?" This is just a quick photo of an escalator in the subway that I mention. Notice the people standing on the left and scaling on the right. A lot of the talk was about the Japanese people's ability to speak English, though they shy away from doing it. I, for one, did not realize just how much the Japanese are required to study English in school. I was shocked that most study... Show more