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Welcome to JapanNewbie.com! My goal is to get you excited about Japan and the Japanese language. Love it!

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Ferriss on how he learned Japanese, and other stuff

Posted by harvey in Language on 13. Mar, 2010 @ 11:34 am | 1 Comment

Ferriss on how he learned Japanese, and other stuff

I found this TED Talk with Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, where he happens to mention his approach to learning foreign languages, and specifically Japanese.

Pretty interesting. I had no idea he was an old school Japan-head.
I think his idea of focusing on the joyo Kanji is a good idea. It certainly [...]

Foreigner Radio Taisou Fun

Posted by harvey in Society, Working on 12. Mar, 2010 @ 8:15 am | 1 Comment

Foreigner Radio Taisou Fun

A friend of mine had the pretty rare experience of working in a company that still does the Radio Exercises (ラジオ体操) before starting work each morning.
The video says it all.

Japan is a quirky place.
I once worked in a company which still had the ラジオ体操 music play over the loud speakers each morning and after lunch, [...]

Have Japan Rail Pass, will Travel

Posted by harvey in Travel on 07. Mar, 2010 @ 10:47 am | No Comments

Have Japan Rail Pass, will Travel

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 [...]

Study Joyo Kanji on your iPhone with iKIC

Posted by harvey in Gadgets, Language, Media on 12. Feb, 2010 @ 4:55 am | 2 Comments

Study Joyo Kanji on your iPhone with iKIC

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 [...]

Rock in Direct Translation with Osama

Posted by harvey in Language, Media, Music on 04. Feb, 2010 @ 6:06 am | 1 Comment

Rock in Direct Translation with Osama

Get ready for Highway Star and Smoke on the Water Japanese Style!

Highway Star in DIRECT translation.
The musician went by the name of Ousama 王様 (king) and was a musician engaging in this style called “chokuyaku rock” 直訳ロック. Here is Ousama on Wikipedia (Japanese). The focus of this music is on the lyrics, because they’re just [...]

More Mameshiba Advertisements

Posted by harvey in Food, Humor, Language, Media on 25. Jan, 2010 @ 7:16 am | 3 Comments

More Mameshiba Advertisements

These are just too funny. Sure I could have tweeted it… but this deserves more permanent placement.
Be sure you catch the Kansai-ben speaking mameshiba commercial that I posted earlier!
- Harvey

State-sponsored Cute: Kawaii Ambassadors

Posted by harvey in Culture, Society on 14. Jan, 2010 @ 3:43 am | 10 Comments

State-sponsored Cute: Kawaii Ambassadors

There’s no doubt that there are some quirky aspects to Japan and Japanese culture, but how about state-sponsored quirkiness?
Meet Misako Aoki (青木美沙子), one of Japan’s three Cute Ambassadors who were appointed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs February 2009.

Cute Ambassador: Misako Aoki

Misako Aoki, in all her ultra-cute Lolita garb, performs an official function [...]

Meet the Complaints Choir of Tokyo

Posted by harvey in Media on 07. Jan, 2010 @ 2:08 am | 1 Comment

Meet the Complaints Choir of Tokyo

I heard that @Durf translated some stuff for the Mori Art Museum related to this video.
Awesome.

This is awesome. Actually though, I sent my seasons greetings via email. I’m sorry.
- Harvey

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