Netflix Anime Review: VIVY (a darn good SciFi series)
My detailed review of VIVY, an exciting robot & scifi-themed anime that recently became available to watch on Netflix.
Second Volume of Japanese Grammar Textbook Released
I’m happy to announce Arigatai Books’ latest release, the second volume of our Japanese Grammar series: “Japanese Grammar Gatten!”. It’s designed to gradually introduce new grammar in a natural way, with many example sentences.
Adventures in stabilizing video on a Nikon Z50ii (using a DJI RS3 mini and NiYien A1)
Around two decades ago I was semi-seriously into photography, taking many thousands of pictures with a DSLR, but once I got an iPhone my passion for taking photos seems to have gradually evaporated. However, before taking a trip to Japan last year I decided to get a new camera to capture my experiences, and after… Read More »
5 ways to use 話 [hanashi] in Japanese
The verb 話す[hanasu] in Japanese means “to speak”, and the word 話し [hanashi], sometimes written as simply 話 , generally refers to something spoken (i.e. a “story”), but sometimes in ways you might not expect. In this article I will into five ways to use this word with example sentences. Let’s look an example sentence… Read More »
Ki Aikido discussions: moving with Ki
(I train and help teach a style of Aikido called Ki Aikido (more formally “Shinshin Touitsu Aikido” 心身統一合氣道) that has a strong emphasis on applying lessons learned on the mat in real life. If you want to get a summary about this style of martial art before going through this article, check out this page.) In Ki Aikido… Read More »
Japanese food culture highlight: Curry
Even though anime and literature is what originally attracted me to Japanese culture, over time there are many other things I’ve grown to love. One of them is traditional Japanese cuisine, which tends to be very different from what you eat in the US (I’m not talking about modern fast food joints and such that… Read More »
Beaverton’s newest Japanese restaurant: Ajisai
When heading to Beaverton, Oregon a few months ago, we saw that a new Japanese restaurant was being built where previously had been a Cracker Barrell. The other day I heard Ajisai was finally open, so we decided to give it a chance. (By the way, Ajisai is the Japanese word for hydrangea, a flowering… Read More »
Japanese Grammar: 5 ways to say doing something is good
In Japanese there are various ways to suggest that it would be good for something to occur, or good for someone to perform some action, each with different nuances. In this post I’ll go over five ways to do that and give example sentences. Form 1: 〜といい [~to ii] By following a verb with 〜といい… Read More »
Japanese vocabulary list: Photography-related terms
I love technology, but the problem with much of it is that it requires staring at a screen, so I end up staring at a screen during the majority of my work and play. However, photography is a special since it can use advanced technology, but at the same time requires you to actually get… Read More »
Japan Travel: do you need to know Japanese to travel in Japan?
I always enjoy talking to people about Japanese language and culture, and one of the most common questions I hear in conversations is “Can you travel in Japan with only English?”. In this article I’d like to talk about that. I’ve been to Japan around 10 times, and from my experiences there I can say… Read More »