Posted by harvey in Art, Culture, Tokyo, Travel on 05. Oct, 2012 @ 10:03 pm | 1 Comment
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 [...]
Well, another Japan blogger has beat me to self-publishing! (I really need to get on that.) Baye from Loco in Yokohama has finished his book! His blog is extremely popular so I’m sure his book will be enjoyed by many. His book is called “Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist” and [...]
Welcome to JapanNewbie.com! My goal is to get you excited about Japan and the Japanese language.
Posted by harvey in Language on 05. May, 2013 @ 2:11 am | 1 Comment
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 | 2 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 [...]
Posted by harvey in Language on 21. Oct, 2012 @ 4:32 pm | 2 Comments
I just shared my Japanese Anki Deck! It’s very personal. Basically when I see something I don’t know, I write it down, and then some day I stuff it into Anki. I have been using Anki for years, so this deck is monsterous. It has like 700+ cards and they are of no particular difficulty [...]
Posted by harvey in Media, Music, Osaka on 21. Oct, 2012 @ 10:26 am | 2 Comments
Looking for some fun Japanese music to listen to? OSAKA UP. The video features all the famous places in Osaka. Dotonbori Bridge, Tsutenkaku, Taiyou no Tou, and the entire video is in Kansai dialect. What more could you ask for? It also includes funny commentary on Osaka life, like Grandma’s who talk super fast and [...]
Posted by harvey in Food, Osaka on 01. Sep, 2012 @ 8:06 pm | Comments Off
Had some delicous steak in the Kitashinchi area of Osaka a while ago after I saw it introduced on a Japanese TV show. If you’re looking for an awesome lunch in Osaka check it out. You can walk to Kitashichi from Umeda station (closest to Nishi-Umeda) in about 15 or 20 minutes, but there is [...]
Posted by harvey in Osaka, Travel on 20. Aug, 2012 @ 9:50 pm | Comments Off
Looking for something touristy to do in Osaka? Consider a visit to the observation deck on Umeda Sky Building! The views are pretty spectacular, and it’s conveniently located near Umeda station. Admission is not too expensive either! The Japanese name is 空中庭園 which means “sky garden,” but most people will understand if you say Sky [...]
Posted by harvey in Culture, Kyoto, Travel on 17. Aug, 2012 @ 4:19 pm | Comments Off
I had the opportunity to witness Daimonji yesterday with some friends. We all met on a friend’s balcony in Sanjyo. Pretty spectacular view! The wikipedia entry on Daimonji, officially called gozan no okuribito, does a better job of explaning the event than I could ever attempt. So read it. At the most basic level daimonji [...]
