Kogarashi No. 1 – What is it?

Have you ever heard the words, “Kogarashi Ichi-Gou” around October or November? If you are watching weather reports on TV in Japanese, you may have. It refers to a specific kind of wind, found this time of year. A specific definition of “Kogarashi Ichi-Gou” is “the 1st wind from North with the velocity of more…Read More »

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An “izakaya” is a type of restaurant in Japan where traditional Japanese food is served. Depending on the restaurant, the menus may be quite different; some specialize in seafood while others may have a lot of fried food. However, one thing that many of these establishments have in common is something called “oto-oshi”. In Osaka…Read More »

3 Meanings of “Sumimasen”

“Sumimasen” is one of the first phrases you may have learned in Japanese. But did you know there are 3 meanings associated to this phrase? 1) Sorry. 2) Excuse me. 3) Thank you. Most likely, you have learned the first definition as it is often described in various textbooks for Japanese. However, once you go…Read More »

May Sickness

In Japan, April is generally the beginning of the school year for all students from kindergarten to university. Therefore, most students who graduated from college will enter into the real world in April as well. Because of this, many Japanese corporations set April as the beginning of the fiscal year. It is no wonder that…Read More »

The First 20 Words You should Know in Japanese

Learning Japanese may seem scary and difficult with all the Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. You may not even know where to begin. Unlike English and many other languages, the fundamental sound structure of Japanese repeats a consonant and a vowel alternately, which creates the unique sound and rhythm of the language. After enough time listening…Read More »