5-yen coins These are 5 yen coins. A 5 yen coin is the only Japanese coin which does not carry…
コンセント
Every Tuesday, I’m planning to write about a katakana word which has a very different meaning from the original English…
~あいだに vs ~うちに
~あいだに and ~うちに can both be translated as “while ~” but they are not always interchangeable. This post explains when to use which.
Japanese children clean their own classroom every day.
After the game in which Japan beat Colombia at the world cup, footage of Japanese soccer fans collecting their own…
きます、はきます、します、つけます、かけます
What is the one English phrase that can be used for all of the above 5? The answer is…
きて、きって、きいて
When I first started teaching Japanese, I did not understand why Australian students had so much trouble distinguishing among きて,…
六月二十日(ろくがつはつか)
My students tell me remembering dates in Japanese is a nightmare. Yes, I understand. But don’t worry, even if you…
バイキング – All you can eat in Japan
It is often used in a context like ランチバイキング and ケーキバイキング. If you know Katakana, I don’t think it is…
the difference between あいだ and あいだに
あいだ can be used like a English conjunction “while” but adding に afterwards or not changes the nuance quite a bit. This post explains how.
蹴鞠(けまり) – Ancient soccer game in Japan!
The World Cup soccer is on. I wonder how far Australia and Japan can go? Did you know that the…
ごはん、ライス、米(こめ)、玄米(げんまい)、籾(もみ)、稲(いね)
If you are an HSC Continuers’ course student, I hope you understood the first 2 or 3 of these words.…
梅干し(うめぼし, umeboshi) – pickled plums
Last week I talked about 梅雨(つゆ、the rainy season). Some of you may have wondered why 梅雨 has the character 梅…
ストーブ
If you can read Katakana, I’m sure you can figure out ストーブ is “stove,” but do you know what a…
When to use "-san" after somebody’s name and when not
In Japan it is considered extremely rude to call somebody’s name, first name or last name without an honorific title (suffix) afterwards. So what should you do?
Aren’t you making a mistake of believing that this is the correct way of bowing in Japan?
The image below is the cover photo of a CD from a famous actor in Japan. Aren’t you making a…
Expressions with 虫(むし)
The other day, I talked about 虫歯/むしば (carious teeth). It seems ancient people in Japan thought 虫(むし) caused a lot…
ばんごはんのあと、べんきょうするつもりです。
つもり is used to state an "intention." So the above sentence means “I’m planning to study after dinner.” You usually…
梅雨(つゆ、ばいう)
Anytime this week, the Japan Weather Association is going to announce the start of 梅雨(つゆ、ばいう)in the main island(本州/ほんしゅう)of Japan. 梅雨(つゆ、ばいう)is…
六月四日は虫歯の日
The heading reads ろくがつよっかはむしばのひ and it means “4 June is the day of carious teeth.” In fact, in Japan, the…
この vs これ
This post explains the difference between これ (a pronoun) and この (a prenoun adjectival – 連体詞/れんたいし). The same applies to それ and その, あれ and あの, etc.