Last week I talked about “yaku/yakimasu” as a most common cooking verbs. Today, I will introduce other cooking related verbs.…
シュークリーム
Today’s Katakana Tuesday, but it is slightly different from all the others I talked about so far. Anyway, what…
九月、くがつ、長月、菊月
Oh, my, it is already September. In Australia it is considered the first day of spring. September in Japanese is…
Going home
Go （いきます） and Home （うち） are both very basic words and when the students learn them for the first time,…
BBQ day
Apparently Aug 29th is 焼肉の日 (やきにくのひ / BBQ day). The reason for that is 八 for 八月 (August) can be…
モーニング
Today is katakana Tuesday, so about an originally English word used differently in Japan. Today’s word is “morning.” It is…
トンコツ and トンカツ
They sound very similar and they both have something to do with pork but they are very different! You…
フロント
If you have stayed in a Japanese hotel, you may have seen following sentences: フロントにお預（あず）けください。 フロントまでお越（こ）しください。 The top sentence says:…
なadjectives ending in い
いadjectives all end in い but なadjectives don’t end in な. They need な to connect to the noun that follows it. There are なadjectives that end in い.Here’s a list.
ノートとメモ
The above two words are “note” and “memo” respectively. If I say I am looking for a “note” in Australia,…
Aunty or Grandmother?
A while ago, I talked about きて、きって、きいて. Today’s post is similar to that. おばさん is an aunty and おばあさん is…
ビジネスホテル
Yes this is a transliteration of “business hotel”, so what kind of hotels do you think of? A nice, functional…
はしの日
August（はちがつ）4th（し ）is はしの日 If you thought “what hashi?”, then your Japanese must be very good! Yes, it is…
August
Today is the first Friday of August. August is usually called 八月（はちがつ）but the old name for it is 葉月（はづき）. There…
Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them
BBC produced a brilliant article about the Japanese word “tsundoku” 積読（つんどく）. Please read it at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44981013 つんどく is particulary…
ハンドル
The word ハンドル is often used in set expressions like: ハンドルをにぎる（にぎる=hold/grasp） ハンドルをきる（きる=cut/switch） ハンドル is a transliteration of the English…
フロントガラス
It is pronounced as "huronto garasu" and it is the transliteration of "front glass" but what is a "front glass"?…
What is the opposite of 寒い（さむい）?
atatakai Last week, I wrote about the difference between 寒い（さむい）and 冷たい（つめたい）. 寒い（さむい） is usually used when the ambient temperature is…
七月（しちがつ）and 文月（ふみつき、ふづき）
文月（ふみつき、ふづき）is the old name for July in Japanese. The kanji 文 can be pronounced in a few different ways and…
はじめます and はじまります
Can you explain the difference between the following two sentences? (A): 授業（じゅぎょう）を始（はじ）めます。 (B): 授業（じゅぎょう）が始（はじ）まります。 (A) can be translated as “(Somebody…
