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Beb’s back after a rather long time away from the microphone. In this week’s lesson, Beb teaches us the meaning of 情けない – nasakenai which means pathetic, uncool or wretched.

For example:

情けない人 – nasakenai hito – a pathetic (wretched) person

情けない状態- nasakenai joutai – a sad or wretched situation

Check out the lesson for more examples and craziness from Beb and Alex.

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Learn Japanese Pod is four years old! Happy birthday to us! Four years, three apartments, two mac books and one relationship later, here we are still making podcasts for all you eager students of Japanese. I had no idea LJP would become such a great place to meet people interested Japanese and Japan. We’ve made some great friends and had a great deal of fun along the way.

Learn Japanese Pod started out under the vaguest and most pathetic of plans: “I guess I’ll just do it for a laugh”. So here’s to vague and pathetic plans. And here’s to all of you who listened to the podcast and supported it. Without your help, support, comments and general correspondences LJP would only be a mere shadow of itself and not the gargantuan, green, Tokyo skyscraper munching monster it has become.

As we are on the thankyous, a huge thank you to:

Beb: She made the podcast possible. Let’s face it, you only listen because of her don’t you?

Waka sensei: She spent countless hours recording podcasts, checking the show notes were OK and generally being cute.

Karamoon: He was the tech guy and ideas man for us. On one occassion he single-handedly saved the forums from digital oblivion.

Daniel and Yuki: They’re a cute couple. Daniel has been our audio engineer and Yuki has appeared on various shows teaching us Japanese.

You: yes YOU! Not you! YOU! Another huge shout out to all of you who listened to the show and are interested in Japanese culture.

This list is endless but for those of you who haven’t been mentioned you know who you are. Thank you, thank you, thank you and that’s three thank yous!

Here’s to another four years.

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<p><strong>What</strong>: Eating sushi with Beb</p>
<p><strong>Where</strong>: Osaka</p>
<p><strong>Why</strong>: Cos it’s so damn delish…</p>
<p align=”justify”>This video is of Beb taking me to one of her local sushi restaurants. It was cheap, cheerful, delicious and had gadgets. What more could you want from a sushi restaurant?</p>
<p align=”justify”>Since this was a Kaiten sushi restaurant, you could just take sushi from the moving conveyor belt. However they also had an LCD touch panel display for ordering special dishes. Not only that but after eating, you put your empty dishes in a slot which counted them and you were billed accordingly. One gimmick that made me laugh was the chance to win a prize after every 10 dishes you put in the slot. We didn’t win anything… However with sushi that good and cheap I couldn’t complain and Beb was in Beb heaven. </p>
<p><strong><em>Here are the names of he sushi mentioned in this video:</em></strong></p>
<p>Natto – Fermented beans</p>
<p>Ebi – Prawns</p>
<p>Tamago – Egg</p>
<p>Nama aji – Raw horse mackerel</p>
<p>Ika – Squid</p>
<p>Unagi – Eel</p>
<p>Kani miso – Crab in miso</p>
<p>Hamachi – Yellow tail</p>
<p>Teka maki – Tuna roll</p>
<p>Ohba maika – Squid with shiso leaves</p>
<p>Ikura – Salmon roe</p>
<p>Katsuo no tataki – Lightly roasted bonito</p>
<p>Dashi maki – Rolled Egg</p>
<p>Kyuri Maki – Cucumber roll</p>
<p>Tai – Sea bream</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Some other phrases in this video:</p>
<h2><strong>一番好きな寿司はなんですか？</strong></h2>
<p><em>ichiban suki na shishi wa nan desu ka</em></p>
<p>What is your favorite sushi?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2><strong>生鯵が好き</strong></h2>
<p><em>nama aji ga suki</em></p>
<p>I like raw horse mackerel</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>おいしい</h2>
<p><em>oishshii</em></p>
<p>delicious</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href=”http://learnjapanesepod.com/category/video/”>All videos</a></p>
<p><a href=”http://learnjapanesepod.com/”>Home</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

In this video, Beb teaches us some interesting gestures in Japanese. Can you guess what they mean? Answers are at the end of the video

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<Show 87 / Show 89>

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In this week’s show we learn how to use the verb おくoku.

<Show 86 / Show 88>

“Desho” is a must know phrase in Japanese and is sprinkled liberally throughout daily conversations in Japan. Check out the MP3 and show notes to find out what it means and how to use it.

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[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/lj86.mp3[/podcast]

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In this week’s lesson, Waka sensei teachers us how to say “whether or not” in Japanese. This is used a lot in daily conversation.