Posted by harvey in Art, Culture, Music, Travel on 05. Nov, 2013 @ 1:29 am | Comments Off
This summer I went to the Earth Celebration on Sado Island, a three-day festival centered around the amazing taiko-drumming of Kodo. Sado Island (佐渡島 sadogashima) is the home of Kodo (鼓童), the most well-known taiko drumming group in Japan, and probably in the world. I had seen Kodo perform indoor concerts, once in Kobe and [...]
One of the stops on my trip to Tokyo with @GuideYu a few months ago was to a Tenugui shop in Harajuku called Kamawanu. Tenugui are a traditional Japanese multipurpose cloth. To name just a few of the many uses for tenugui, back in the Edo period people would use tenugui as small towels, or [...]
Summertime in Japan means festivals and fireworks displays! I’m staying in Osaka now so I was able to check out Yodogawa Fireworks festival. There are also fireworks during Tenjin Festival, which I also went to, but locals all agree that Yodogawa Fireworks display is more spectacular on the fireworks front. At Japanese fireworks events, usually [...]
I had the opportunity to roam around Tokyo with Yuko (@guideyu and @guideyu_) from Guide-Yu.jp! Even though I lived in the Yokohama/Tokyo area for more than a few years, I learned a lot during our day-long tour and saw a lot of neat areas of Tokyo that I had maybe passed through but never really [...]
I went to Tenjin Matsuri (天神祭) in Osaka again this year! This year the festival was on July 24th and 25h. Every year the festival is held around Tenmabashi station area and events are centered around the river and Tenmangu Shrine. I have been to Tenjin Matsuri in the past, multiple times in fact, but [...]
Gion Matsuri is here again! I have been a few times before, in 2004 and in 2005 it seems from my old blog entries… quite some time ago… Gion Matsuri is a multi-day event. This time I went for Yoiyama. During Yoiyama the floats are all lit up and line the streets of Kyoto. The [...]
This is another guest post from my friend, Yuko (@guideyu and @guideyu_) from Guide-Yu, the super personalized Japan tour guide! Yuko is awesome. She’s Japanese – but she also is an avid Kabuki fan, makes Japanese sweets in her spare time, and even dances traditional Japanese buyou! A true fan of Japanese culture. Today she [...]
This is a guest post from my personal friend, Yuko (@guideyu and @guideyu_) from Guide-Yu, the super personalized Japan tour guide! Yuko is awesome. She’s Japanese – but she also is an avid Kabuki fan, makes Japanese sweets in her spare time, and even dances traditional Japanese buyou! A true fan of Japanese culture. Today [...]
Expat Bubble FAIL How to Increase your Chances of Getting Stuck in an Expat Bubble. Living in a foreign country and tired of constantly being bombarded by foreign sounds, smells, and events? Don’t you just wish you could curl up inside an expat bubble and never come out? Well you’re in luck. This article is [...]
I took a vacation to Hawaii and was surprised at all the Japanese people, language, and culture thriving on the island! Many signs are bilingual English-Japanese, and there are even shops that accept Japanese yen in Waikiki. A few nights ago we went to a karaoke shop that had more Japanese songs than English on [...]
I went to the Osaka Motor Show! (I was in Japan last week, back in Shanghai already though.) This was my first motor show, but it was basically what I expected. A geeks paradise. Cars, girls, lots of guys with cameras, and an excuse to point your camera at anything and take 100,000 photos in [...]
Welcome to JapanNewbie.com! My goal is to get you excited about Japan and the Japanese language.
Posted by harvey in Travel on 29. Jul, 2014 @ 10:43 am | Comments Off
If you’re near Hiroshima, or if you just love rabbits and want to make a trip to Japan to see more of them, consider going to Okunoshima! 大久野島 We made Okunoshima the destination for a two-family with kids trip and it was a good time. It’s basically an island rabbit petting zoo where the rabbits [...]
Posted by harvey in Media, Movies, Music on 28. May, 2014 @ 1:31 am | Comments Off
I recently re-watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, and noticed the old-school Japanese song that plays during the credits. Did some Googling and learned that it is “Urami Bushi” by Meiko Kaji. (Life is almost too easy with Google…) Meiko Kaji was a singer and actress and appeared in more than 100 films. Here [...]
Posted by harvey in Language, Media, Tokyo on 08. Sep, 2013 @ 1:58 pm | Comments Off
Now that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been announced it’s time to beef up your Olympic vocabulary! Kanji Hiragana Romaji English 国際オリンピック委員会 こくさいオリンピックいいんかい kokusai orinpikku iinkai Tokyo Olympic Committee 開催地 かいさいち kaisaichi place where an event will be held 五輪 ごりん gorin Olympics (lit. 5 rings) 夏季五輪 かきごりん kaki gorin summer olympics 安定した財政 あんていしたざいせい anteishita [...]
Posted by harvey in Language on 21. Jul, 2013 @ 7:08 pm | 2 Comments
Foreign languages sound fast when you are new student, and Japanese is no exception. The news is an excellent learning resource, but dang those newscasters talk fast! “News in Slow Japanese” is a blog, podcast, and YouTube series that aims to give you a “slow news” resource to aid your language learning. Here, go ahead [...]
Posted by harvey in Media, Movies on 02. Jun, 2013 @ 10:53 pm | Comments Off
Hey Everyone, Public Service Announcement. Best Buy is having a sale on some of the Criterion Collection movies, which includes some Japanese classics by Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. For example, I see Floating Weeds (浮草 Ukigusa) by Yasujiro Ozu, and Ikiru (Live) by Kurosawa, on DVD for just $9.99. That’s a steal! I also [...]
Posted by harvey in Language on 05. May, 2013 @ 2:11 am | 2 Comments
Hello everyone! I have been playing with @tuzen’s Kanji Solitaire App for iOS over the past week. This app is a great idea, and a much needed fresh approach to kanji study. There are lots of kanji Apps out there, but none like this. Kanji Solitaire App is a kanji puzzle game where you slide [...]
Posted by harvey in Crazy Consumers on 24. Feb, 2013 @ 8:16 pm | 3 Comments
I had a chance to go check out the life-sized Gundam Model in Tokyo this month! I’m not gonna lie. I have never watched a full episode of Gundam. I am not a true Gundam fan. I do however appreciate a giant robot anime every now and then… So, I’m not a “true” Gundam fan… [...]
Posted by harvey in Language, Music on 06. Jan, 2013 @ 5:06 pm | 1 Comment
Thanks to geeking out on Evangellion I recently stumbled upon this classic Japanese song called 365-step March. This song is appears in EVANGELION:2.0 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE when the new character Mari is fighting an Angel near the beginning of the movie. Being the crazy character that she is, Mari sings this song as she [...]
