Japanese women in kimono. It seems that many Japanese people always wear kimono, carry Asian parasols on their backs, and wear sandals to walk around. This is no longer the case. The truth is that Japanese usually dress like Westerners (almost to the point of emulation). When it comes to kimono, most Japanese wear dress …
Japanese food Japanese food is quite diverse. More common Japanese dishes include noodle dishes (ramen, etc.), rice bowls (donburi), and sushi. Japanese food is generally very healthy and often contains certain types of seafood, usually white glutinous rice and vegetables. Noodle dish Soy sauce Ramen is one of the most common noodle dishes in Japanese food. …
Buddhist statues in Japan Buddhist statues in Japan The most common religions in Japan are Buddhism (Buddhism-Buddhism) and Shinto (believers-Shinto). In Japan, Buddhism and Shinto are basically combined. However, Japanese religion has become more cultural and most people only consider themselves Buddhists from tradition. This means that they know little about their professed beliefs and rarely practice …
Meet new people Students studying Japanese often ask me how to introduce myself to Japanese people. This interaction is usually very formal and is filled with several bows. The following is a typical Japanese conversation / introduction between two people who meet for the first time. Japanese Person 1: こんにちは。はじめまして。 Konnichi wa. Hajimemashite. Hello. Nice to meet you. Person …
Adjectives and adverbs -形容詞と副詞 – There are two different types of Japanese words that can be used to modify nouns (adjectives) and verbs (adverbs). One group is very similar to what is called an adjective, but it can also be combined to change the verb. These are called “dv” (short for “descriptive verb”). These are …
The second group of Japanese verbs is called a one-step verb. If it ends with the sound “iru” or “eru”, it is usually a one-step verb. Here are some commonly used Japanese verbs that look like one-tier, but are actually five-tiered. The one-step verb also follows a simple conjugation pattern that is somewhat similar to …
Need to learn how to utilize Japanese verbs. Now, before you can start making your own sentences, you need to learn how to utilize Japanese verbs. Verbs are the most important part of a Japanese sentence. In many cases, the Japanese omit everything except the verb. They are very big in omitting the obvious, and …
Japanese numbers, time, days of the week, etc. Before we get too much further into Japanese grammar and verb conjugation, I thought it would be a good idea to teach Japanese numbers, time, days of the week, etc. 一 いち ichi one 二 に ni two 三 さん san three 四 し、 よん shi (yon after 10) four 五 ご go five 六 ろく roku six 七 しち、 なな shichi (nana after 10) seven 八 はち hachi eight 九 きゅう kyuu nine 十 じゅう juu ten 百 ひゃく hyaku hundred …
Numbers, Time, and Days of the Week -数字、時刻、および曜日 – Read More »
Japanese grammar is very simple and straightforward. Japanese grammar is very simple and straightforward, but it is so different from English grammar that most English speakers are quite confused. For example, in Japanese the verb is always last. The best thing you can do when learning Japanese is to learn it from the bottom up, …
Japanese has different levels of politeness depending on who you are talking to. At least you’ve started learning the Japanese alphabet, so let’s learn basic vocabulary and simple Japanese phrases. Most Japanese words have kanji, but we usually only include kanji if the word is written that way. Japanese has different levels of politeness depending …
