JapanNewbie

As many of you know I’m now living in China, but I am going to be visiting Japan again in April. This gives me a chance to give the Japan Rail Pass a try! The Japan Rail Pass can only be purchased from outside of Japan, as it’s meant to give short-time visitors to Japan a [...]

Here is a guest post from Erik who is involved in the Annual Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival Planning! First a few words from me though. Believe it or not, I have never been to the D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival… I was close to going last year since I was living on the east coast, but [...]

This is quite possibly the coolest Kansai-ben thing ever. Kansai-ben is an international language. You must learn it. Near the end it busts into Yappa Sukiyanen by Yashiki Takajin, quite possibly the most famous songs in Kansai-ben ever (except maybe some of Ulfuls tracks). And… don’t miss part 2! If you’re curious about Kansai-ben check out our Kansai-ben lessons, [...]

Yet another iPod Touch or iPhone App to help you learn Japanese has been released. This one was released my my former school, IUC Japan. iKIC is available as a free limited download, and as a iKIC full paid version with more content. You can also purchase add-ons for the paid version that adds even more [...]

My good Twitter buddy @papajohn let me know that he had a new Japanese-related application called Kana Balls in the iTunes Store so I gave it a try. Fun stuff! Despite the possibly awkward name… Kana Balls is a slick application! This app will help you learn to read Japanese Hiragana and Katakana quickly. It doesn’t teach [...]