Foreigner Radio Taisou Fun
Posted by harvey in Society, Working on 12. Mar, 2010 | 1 Comment
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, [...]
State-sponsored Cute: Kawaii Ambassadors
Posted by harvey in Culture, Society on 14. Jan, 2010 | 10 Comments
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 [...]
Japanese Learner Interview with @sandkatt-part 2 of 2
Posted by harvey in Books, Language, Travel, Working on 08. Dec, 2009 | 4 Comments
Hey everyone! This is Part 2 of our interview with @sandkatt. Be sure to check out Part 1 if you missed it!
Following you on Twitter it’s obvious that you have a firm grip on Japanese. You read casual Japanese Twitter speak, and can reply in Japanese quickly as well. Your grammar is also very clean [...]
Japanese Learner Interview with @sandkatt-part 1 of 2
Posted by harvey in Books, Language, Travel, Working on 06. Dec, 2009 | 8 Comments
Hey everyone, let’s get to know the JapanNewbie crowd a little better. I want to introduce you to @sandkatt. The following is part one of a two-part interview exploring @sandkatt’s road to Japanese proficiency.
@sandkatt in Hiroshima
Sandkatt is a Japanese learner I noticed on Twitter. I noticed her because her Japanese is really good! Surprisingly so… [...]
An Introduction to Visual-kei with Megamasso
Posted by harvey in Art, Culture, Music, Society on 18. Oct, 2009 | 3 Comments
I bet many JapanNewbie readers know more about Visual-kei than I do. Basically it’s a genre of music, usually rock, in which the “visuals” are extremely important in that the band members wear a variety of flamboyant and elaborate costumes.
Don’t take my word for it though – here is an exclusive interview arranged by Realway [...]
Hiroshima Dialect Japan Election Puns
Posted by harvey in Language, Society on 22. Aug, 2009 | No Comments
A revolutionary election is coming up in Japan August 30th and all kinds of advertisements are posted around the town. This advertisement I found in Hiroshima is a bit tricky to understand! See if you can get the joke.
I don’t really know Hiroshima-ben at all, but here is what my friends and I figured it [...]
Marriage Hunting – Japanese Slang and Society
Posted by harvey in Culture, Society on 24. May, 2009 | 18 Comments
That says “konkatsu”. This word isn’t in your dictionary, but if you’ve been studying Kanji for quite some time and know a bit about Japanese society you can probably guess what it means. By the way, “konkatsu” was nominated for the 2008 流行語大賞, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I’ll explain this “konkatsu” slang [...]
The Year of No Money in Tokyo
Posted by harvey in Books, Tokyo, Working on 11. May, 2009 | 3 Comments
Wayne Lionel Aponte, the author of the recently published The Year of No Money in Tokyo, sent me a copy of his book to read and review. This was my first casual summer vacation read, and it was an interesting ride. This book did not strike me as a masterpiece, but Wayne’s experience and personal [...]
