JapanNewbie



Hoshi Shinichi - Short Shorts (Nov 14)
Shinichi Hoshi (星新一) was a Japanese author from Tokyo who lived from 1926 to 1997. He is famous for writing extremely short (4 or 5 pages) science fiction short stories for adults. Many of them have a dark twist to them at the end. I was introduced three of his stories in the Japanese class that [...]


Are You a Sauce Face or Soy Sauce Face? (Nov 6)
Language and culture time on JapanNewbie! Are you a Sauce Face or a Soy Sauce Face? In Japanese the expressions 醤油顔 (shouyuu gao) “soy sauce face”, and ソース顔 (sousu gao) “sauce face” are used to describe two different types of faces. First of all, “sauce” is not just any sauce, it’s the Japanese sauce that is used [...]


Image-based Japanese Flashcards for your iPod (Nov 2)
The JLPT is less than 40 days away now, are those of you who are planning to take it ready? If you need a bit more help cramming vocabulary and kanji, PlaySay might have a solution for you. Image-Based Flashcard Examples for ANY JPEG capable device are now available. Here are the JLPT 1 images in [...]


Japan Crazy for Obama (Oct 31)
Obama Japan is for Obama! Old news, but I had never seen all these incredible videos until last night. The letter that Obama signed has some Japanese in it as well. It reads, “あなたの友人” (anata no yuujin) which means, your friend. Here is another Obama in Japan video that is umm… lower profile. Japan is for Obama! Gallup [...]


Yuko no Monogatari - Free Audio and Text (Oct 29)
Just got word from The Japan Shop that a story called “Yuki no Monogatari” 「ゆきの物語」is available online for free at TheJapanesePage.com. It’s a story, accompanied by a video that displays the Japanese and English translation at the same time. Good for studying if you’re an intermediate level Japanese learner. The first chapter is embedded here. Follow this [...]