Japanese
Hay Fever in Japan “花粉症” (Kafunshō)
It’s February which means the hay fever season is upon us. Every year at this time, thousands of tons of cedar pollen swirls around Japan making life miserable for millions. The number of sufferers depends on who you ask but estimates range from 10% to 20% of people in Japan and that’s a lot of runny noses.
Business has been quick to cash in by providing a wide range of products designed to alleviate symptoms. These include antihistamine tablets, face masks, nose sprays and goggles which account for 20 billion yen in annual sales.
Why does Japan have so much cedar?
Between the 50s and 70s, around 4.5 million hectares of cedar trees were planted in an attempt to meet the growing need for construction materials. However, it eventually became more economical to import lumber from abroad making the cedar plantations obsolete. Even today as the forests mature the amount of cedar produced increases as do the number of hay fever sufferers. Apparently, even the monkeys are suffering. The cedar looks as if it is here to stay as government plans to reduce the plantations are not ambitious or well funded.
In the mean time the only course open to most people is to by whatever is on offer at the pharmacy and check out the pollen maps of Japan. Weathernews.jp has an excellent pollen map of Japan updated in real time. I’ll definitely be referring to it in the coming months. Wish me luck and plenty of chainsaws…
Some useful links:
General Facts on Hey Fever (Japan Times)
Tokyo Weekender on NHK
This is a video segment about the Tokyo Weekender Magazine which I am involved with. It’s a magazine for the foreign community living in Tokyo and has been going for about 40 years.
The other day, NHK came, filmed around the office and followed Kelly the editor of the magazine on her rounds. I’m in the video for about 2 seconds trying and failing to not look like a complete idiot speaking Japanese.
Some of the Japanese in this isn’t too challenging so this might be good practice for you budding students of the language. NHK was also kind enough to provide subtitles for our interviews so there is some reading practice for you too.
Enjoy.
Japanese Language Learning Links and Resources
Character and Writing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system – A Wiki article on historical development of Japanese writing system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoiku_kanji – List of kanjis to be learnt in elementary school with the pronunciations and meanings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyo_kanji – List of kanjis to be learnt up until high school with pronunciations and meanings.
http://brng.jp/50renshuu-s.pdf – printable practise sheet for hiragana and katakana
http://kanjisite.com/html/start/index.html – Kana and kanji – preparation for JLPT.
http://members.aol.com/writejapan/index.htm – katakana/hiragana and some kanji writing tutor (with stroke order animations)
http://nihongo.isc.chubu.ac.jp/komor…kanji2056.html – 2056 kanjis with stroke orders indicated by live-action video
http://kakijun.main.jp/ – Kanji stroke order database (more than 4000 characters listed)
http://hesjapanese.com/ – Kana lessons with sound and animation files
http://kanjisite.com/html/start/jlpt/4/all/index.html – JLPT kanji levels
http://www.jlpt-kanji.com/ – Another web page that helps you when it comes to kanjis for the JLPT.
http://www.kanjistep.com/ – Very cool page for kanji beginners, includes writing order, meanings, etc.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~kanji/ – kanji stroke orders
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/jouyoukanji.html – printable list of the jōyō kanji as well as a some other commonly seen ones, arranged in the order they are learnt in Japanese schools.
http://www.polarcloud.com/kanji – printable kanji flashcards
http://homepage2.nifty.com/Gat_Tin/kanji/honji.htm – Variant forms of Chinese characters; from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
http://www.realkana.com/ – practice the reading of random characters from your selected list
http://www.flickr.com/groups/brush_calligraphy/ – Flickr group to help decipher calligraphy works
Online Lessons/Tutorials:
http://www.learn-japanese.info/ – Easy to follow grammar lessons, some vocabulary. Nice for starters.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0002/ – The excellent Daily Yomiuri Online “Pera Pera Penguin” articles.
http://www.ichiban.narod.ru/nihongo/nihongo.html – Various tutorials and phrase books in Russian.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/ – Japanese lessons by NHK Radio available in 17 languages
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/cover.html – Teach yourself Japanese – Basic Japanese with a linguistics approach.
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/grammarpage.php – One hundred “watered-down, understandable, bite-sized grammar helps”.
http://jplang.tufs.ac.jp/account/login – JPLANG provides e-learning materials for learning Japanese, developed by a TUFS team.
http://www.trymango.com/language_program.php – for beginners, lots of audio, free but with a registration
http://www.basic-japanese.com/ – 34 free lessons and tools
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/ – free-to-use online study materials
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagod…/1jp/main.html – conversational topics and grammar references
http://www.japanese-online.com/ – Free lessons on particles and sentence structures: audio files available for conversation examples.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/i-yasu/bk-les.htm – 市川保子’s lessons by grammatical topics, compiled from Q&A: Japanese
http://homepage3.nifty.com/i-yasu/bk-les-e.htm – the English version of the above
http://www.pantomime.org/nihongo-tusin/note.html – frequently asked questions about Japanese: Japanese
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese – textbook project by Wiki volunteers
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~sg2h-ymst/yamatouta/intro/dousikatuyou.html – grammar of Classical Japanese: Japanese
Reading Material:
http://www.genpaku.org/ – Collaborative translation project. Usufruct granted by acknowledgement.
http://www3.cnet-ta.ne.jp/p/pddlib/ – Public domain documents including an encyclopaedia, a biographical dictionary and Japanese laws
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/ – Collection of copyright-free works. A lot of texts have phonetic guides in hiragana.
http://hukumusume.com/douwa/ – listen and read fairy-tales
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20683 – Oku no Hosomichi by Matsuo Bashō
http://eloise.cocolog-nifty.com/rodoku/ – Japanese classics in text and audio files
http://ikeda-hideo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/library_e.html – text and audio files of early modern Japanese literature
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/ja – Japanese reading materials in Project Gutenberg
http://www.esuj.gr.jp/cgi-local/Docu…d=list&lang=jp – Contemporary Japanese opinions with English translations
http://jpn.scripturetext.com/matthew/1.htm – Japanese Bible translation with cross references to other translations: courtesy 電網聖書
Pronunciation:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showp…52&postcount=9 – IPA explanations and tools, compiled by WR’s own timpeac.
http://www.paulmeier.com/ipa/charts.html – sound files for IPA symbols as revised in 1996
http://ipa4linguists.pbwiki.com/ – instructions for setting up your computer to display IPA symbols
http://www.siskiyous.edu/NCTA/Japane…iles/index.htm – sound files for Japanese syllabary and verb conjugations.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2151706_impr…unciation.html – Quick tips of phonemes (aimed at English speakers)
http://www.voiceblog.jp/ted606/ – Recitations including classic literature (texts may be found in Aozora Bunko)
http://www.voiceblog.jp/kiyo22/ – Recitations by a voice actor (texts may be found in Aozora Bunko)
http://www.env.kitakyu-u.ac.jp/corpus/texts/index.html – audio samples from very non-structured interviews
Web Services:
http://webcat.nii.ac.jp/webcat.html – Searches library catalogues in universities and research institutions.
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ – Searches journal articles by the title.
http://www.ndl.go.jp/ – Home page of National Diet Library.
http://www.google.co.jp/ – Google Japan with Web services in Japanese.
http://www.yahoo.co.jp/ – Yahoo’s Japanese portal.
http://podcastle.jp/ – Nascent technology for transcribing and searching podcasts.
Media:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/ – News from NHK, Japan’s public service broadcaster.
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ann/news/web/index.html – TV Asahi News is another good listening resource with transcripts. Enjoy!
http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl – Generates small vocabulary bubbles for Japanese news text.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/index_j.html – live streaming of NHK Radio Japan
http://news.tbs.co.jp/ – News site of TBS, a commercial network.
Dictionaries:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi – Commonly known as Jim Breen’s dictionary, supports a verb conjugator.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1R – search for kanjis by combinations of stroke counts and radicals
http://www.jisho.org/ – WWWJDIC spin-off with more user-friendly interface
http://www.online-dictionary.biz/english/japanese/ – another WWWJDIC spin-off
http://dico.fj.free.fr/traduction/index.php – French-Japanese / Japanese-French dictionary.
http://www.alc.co.jp/ – A bidirectional English-Japanese database with a search box for looking up more natural expressions.
http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/ka…nPage?OpenForm – A bidirectional English-Japanese dictionary and kanji guides
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/ – Online dictionaries offered from Yahoo! Japan Dictionary. Includes Ja-En, En-Jp and Jp-Jp.
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/ – Online dictionaries offered from Goo, another Japanese search engine. Includes Ja-En, En-Jp and Jp-Jp.
http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/ – Online dictionaries offered from Excite. Includes En-Ja, Ja-En, Jp-Jp, Ch-Ja and Ja-Ch.
http://www.englishjapaneseonlinedictionary.com/ A Romaji English <> Japanese dictionary.
http://www.trussel.com/f_nih.htm – Jeffrey’s Jp<>En Dict. Kana and Romanji input. Display results in Romanji and Kanji
http://www.j-talk.com/nihongo/search/kanjisearch.php – Kanji-English Dictionary
http://www.dictjuggler.net/tamatebako/index.html – 類語玉手箱 is an on-line Japanese thesaurus: Japanese
http://www.matsu-kaze.net/mk/kanji/ – Kanji (教育漢字)-English Dictionary by romaji input.
http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html – Kanji Dictionary, with stroke order, English meaning, On-yomi (phonetic reading), Kun-yomi (native Japanese reading), irregular pronunciations (e.g.一日 = ついたち), example sentences, and audio files.
http://www.languageguide.org/nihongo/ – thematic picture dictionary with audio
http://www.nihonjiten.com/ – Collection of numerous Japanese dictionaries
http://www.hikyaku.com/dico/onmyog.html – kanji dictionary and themed lists
Specialised Vocabulary and Phrase Books:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Japanese_phrasebook – Survival Japanese for Travellers.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-…ei/jinmei.html – list of typical nanori; special kanji pronunciations for personal names
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~suzakihp/index40.html – Japanese family names; click on 1.苗字検索 in the left pane.
http://yubin.senmon.net/ – A database of Japanese place names, searchable in kanji and hiragana.
http://gogen-allguide.com/ – etymology dictionary: Japanese
http://coe21.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/djvuchar – Chinese characters from Tang inscriptions; search by CJK allomorphs/scripts [説明書]
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ax2s-kmtn/ref/old_chara.html – Tables to match old and new kanji forms.
http://homepage2.nifty.com/TAB01645/ohara/ – Dictionary of Japan-made kanjis. Entries are provided as image files. Japanese
http://hougen.atok.com/ – User-driven database for regional dialects
http://ryukyu-lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/ – The Ryukuan language phonetic database; Nakijin, Shuri-Naha, Amami, Miyako dialects
http://sanabo.com/words/?=index – Yojijukugo (four-charactered idioms) with definitions, usages and English translations.
http://nihongoup.com/blog/japanese-color-names/ – Japanese colour names cheat sheet
http://hiramatu-hifuka.com/onyak/onyindx.html – Pronunciation dictionaries compiled by topics.
http://www.saglasie.com/tr/chemical/ – Names of chemical substances in Japanese and English; database
http://www.ffcr.or.jp/Zaidan/mhwinfo…25684600083647 – list of aromatic bases: Japanese and English
http://www.tradmedicine.com/term/syoyaku-db.html – list of crude drugs: Japanese and scientific names
http://zokugo-dict.com/ – Slang with definition and usage.
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_htsrv_tdy – Glossary of colloquial expressions
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_sit_browse – Themed list of conversational phrases
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=1 – Glossary of loan words and Japanese English
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=2 – Glossary of yojijukugo or four-character expressions
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=3 – Glossary of proverbs and clichés
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=4 – Glossary of onomatopoeias and mimetic words
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/s_kaydic?ctg_in=5 – Glossary of Japanese culture and news
http://www.geocities.jp/tomomi965/index.html – Proverbs and clichés with synonymous and antonymous expressions.
http://crlao.ehess.fr/japonais-coree…eDesIndex.html – Dictionnaire terminologique de linguistique japonaise/日本語言語学専門用語和仏辞典
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/etymdict.html – Mandarin, Middle Chinese and Japanese pronunciations; PDF
http://www.schei.com/dictionary/ – English/Japanese Japanese/English Aviation Dictionary 和英・英和航空学辞典
http://e-words.jp/ – Dictionary of information technology terms: Japanese
http://www.geocities.jp/ps_dictionary/a.htm – 英語－日本語電気専門用語辞書
http://www5.synapse.ne.jp/sio/siof1/…dic_E_top.html – Financial Dictionary (EN <> JP)
http://engeinavi.jp/fen/ – 園芸ナビ 花の園芸用語辞典 (JP <> EN)
http://www.e-bridge.jp/eb/tcontents/…edic.php?job=0 – 橋梁の英和・和英辞典 (JP <> EN)
Grammar:
http://www.jgram.org/ – Very useful web page when studying grammar for the JLPT (from 4kyū to 1kyū).
http://www.nihongoresources.com A rather successful all-in-one Japanese site. From very basic dictionary, to grammar through particles. Noteworthy: giongo (which are onomatopoeia but there’s more to it!).
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/index.html#contents – Japanese grammar reference by constructions.
http://books.google.com/books?id=l_f3b7J2zjcC – constructions compendium offered as a Google search service
http://www.jpf.go.jp/j/urawa/j_rsorc…_04_02_04.html – teaching materials by the Japanese-Language Institute
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g…ummary_r&cad=0 – Japanese by Iwasaki is a reference in a theoretical framework
Particles:
http://www.timwerx.net/language/particles.htm – Particles overview.
http://japanese.about.com/blparticles.htm – Basic particles overview at about.com.
http://home.inter.net/kenbutler/particlehome.html – A guide to the functions of structural particles in Japanese.
http://www.geocities.jp/nihongoguide/particles2.html – Verb related particles.
http://www.maedera.com/home/jgrammar…r/jgr_part.htm – Particles from a linguistic point of view.
Software:
http://abctajpu.mozdev.org/ – A Firefox add-on to enable easy input of Unicode characters: includes kana shortcuts.
http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/ – For Firefox users: Rikaichan is a pop-up dictionary – reads Japanese web-pages.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/szunvukung/kk/ – Kanji flashcard system by Peter Salvi. Uses Tcl/Tk.
http://wakan.manga.cz/ – freeware that parses Japanese text in English and Furigana and Romanji (Hepburn)
http://wakan.manga.cz/files/wakan_full_167.exe – complete download
http://nihongo.j-talk.com/parser/ – converts both Kanji and Kana into Romaji (select “Kanji to Romaji” option)
http://www.furiganizer.com/ – provides furigana to Japanese texts
http://www.popjisyo.com/WebHint/Portal_e.aspx – parses Japanese sites and provides pop-up vocabulary. Also in Chinese and Korean.
http://www.freewebs.com/horazio/freeware.htm – Pazuru Alfabet is a learning tool that helps to recognize kanas.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/…s/tradkan0.htm – Converts between Chinese and Japanese kanjis, old and new varieties.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/…s/readkan0.htm – kaňon (漢音), goon (呉音), MSC and Hanja pronunciations output
http://homepage3.nifty.com/jgrammar/…s/zen2hanz.htm – Converts between fullwidth and halfwidth forms.
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/jwpce.html – Japanese word processor, with a built-in IME for kana input and kanji conversion. Also supports dictionaries.
http://ajaxime.chasen.org/ – Online Web-based Japanese Input Method
http://japan.adventuresoftim.com/flash.asp – vocabulary flash cards
http://www.tagaini.net/ – Tagaini Jisho is a free, open-source Japanese dictionary and kanji lookup tool.
http://www.byki.com/ – a flashcard style system, the tool contains set lists of basic phrases for certain situations
http://nihongoup.com/ – Japanese educational game and reviewing tool (kana, JLPT kanji, vocabulary and particles)
About Japanese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language – Wikipedia’s general account of the Japanese language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugations – Comprehensive tables for Japanese verb conjugations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology – Basic topics of Japanese phonology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar – An account of Japanese grammar with emphasis on morphology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particle – particles galore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics – Japanese honorifics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes…ntracted_words – Japanese abbreviated and contracted words
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sound_symbolism – Japanese sound symbolism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes…raphic_symbols – typographic symbols
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation – punctuation marks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_…poken_Japanese – gender differences in Japanese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_word – list of Japanese counters and phonological alterations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb – conjugation paradigms of verbs and adjectives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambun – Kambun is the traditional conventions for translating Classical Chinese texts.
http://users.tmok.com/~tumble/qadgtj.html – Titled “A quick and dirty guide to Japanese”.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/kanaqadgtj.html – The quick and dirty guide to Japanese. (kana version)
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ – Blog, lessons and method of learning Japanese
http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ewey…nime/japanese/ – tips for common but difficult expressions
http://www.kanji.org/kanji/japanese/writing/outline.htm – Outline of the Japanese Writing System
http://kimallen.sheepdogdesign.net/Japanese/index.html – fundamental differences of Japanese from European languages
http://www.classical-japanese.net/ – Translations and grammar for Classical Japanese
http://nihon5ch.net/contents/ch5/dai…08-3-part2.pdf – list of transitive and intransitive verb pairs: PDF file
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/conditional.html – concise article on Japanese conditionals
http://www.cic.sfu.ca/tqj/GettingRig…conundrum.html – an essay on different systems for Latin transcription
http://homepage3.nifty.com/park/aspect.htm – A Study of “V-te iru” in Japanese by Taeko Tomioka
Links:
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/m.rowley/resources.html – Melita Rowley’s Japanese learning resources.
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html – Once again Jim Breen’s. This time his Japanese related web page. Ugly, but every link in that page is worth gold.
Corpora:
http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/ – searchable record of proceedings of the Diet
http://teikokugikai-i.ndl.go.jp/ – searchable record of proceedings of the Imperial Parliament
Climbing Mount Fuji
Last August I hung out at the Solar Cafe. It is part of the Earth Embassy, an organic farm and learning center for sustainable living located in Yamanashi prefecture. I was helping my friend Jake out on the farm as part of my attempt to escape the madness of Tokyo and relax over the summer holidays.
During my stay I met Hugo and Adam who climbed Mount Fuji. I shot this interview with them and asked them about their experiences. They also give some good advice about climbing Mount Fuji, what to do and what to avoid. I think the moral of the story is be prepared and don’t underestimate Fuji, it can be more challenging that you think.
Map of the video
View Learn Japanese Pod locations in a larger map
Japan Links And Resources
Japan Resources
| Site Name | Type Of Site | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Japandra | Blog | A great blog with funny observations about life in Tokyo |
| Tokyo Weekender | Blog | The online version of the Tokyo Weekender magazine. A huge amount of information on Tokyo |
| Tokyo Werewolf | Blog | A great blog on the underground music scene in Tokyo |
| Japan Probe | Blog | A website with a wealth of information and news from Japan |
| Tofugu | Blog | A blog containing info on Japanese culture and learning the language |
| Shibuya 246 | Blog | Great products, trends and photos from Japan |
| Tokyotopia | Blog | A blog/website with useful information on Tokyo |
| Rikai Chan | Dictionary | A powerful Kanji reading dictionary plugin for firefox |
| Jisho | Dictionary | One of the best Japanese-English-Japanese dictionaries on line |
| Jref Forum | Forum | A forum on Japan |
| Japan Forum | Forum | A forum on all aspects of Japan |
| Maggie Sensei | Japanese Study | Entertaining blog on learning Japanese with Maggie Sensei, a dog! |
| Kanji Koohii | Japanese Study | Great online resource for learning kanji |
| Smart Fm | Japanese Study | A very slick online course for learning various languages including Japanese. Lots of audio and dictation exercises |
| Japanese Language Proficiency Test | Japanese Study | The official website for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test |
| Anki | Japanese Study | Excellent software for learning vocabulary |
| http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar | Japanese Study | A great Japanese grammar resource by Tae Kim |
| Gaijin Pot | Jobs in Japan | Gaijin Pot is one of the most popular sites for finding jobs in Japan |
| Mainichi Daily News | News | Mainichi Daily news website |
| Japan Today | News | Japan Today news website |
| News on Japan | News | News on Japan's website |
| Japan Pod Show iTunes Subscribe | Podcasts | A great podcast created by Joseph Tame and friends on life in Japan |
| Japancast iTunes subscribe | Podcasts | A great podcast for learning Japanese |
| Rinkya | Products For Sale | Buy products from Japan |
| Flutterscape | Products For Sale | Buy and sell products from Japan |
| Hyperdia | Train Route Planner | Find your way around the Japanese rail system |
| Jorudan | Train Route Planner | Find your way around the Japanese rail system |
J-Slang 10: Donbiki
Today’s J-Slang is…
ドン引き
donbiki = to creep people out, to make people feel awkward or turned off
彼が痴漢で逮捕されたんだって。どんびきだよね。
kare ga chikan de taihou saretan datte. donbiki da yo ne.
They say he was arrested for molesting women. That’s so creepy. (It leaves me cold)
Donbiki is a phrase that refers to when people get creeped out or turned off by something. It’s used when something happens or someone says something that makes people feel uncomfortable and don’t know how to react.
彼が寒い冗談を言ったら皆がドン引きされていた。
kare ga samui joudan wo ittara mina ga donbiki sareteita.
When he told that terrible joke everyone was left cold.
Fun Friday: Japanese Language Proficiency Test
Subscribe to this podcast via iTunes
Today, Karamoon and myself sat around in Yoyogi park watching Japan enjoy it’s Friday afternoon. Karamoon explained the latest developments as well as the basics of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Listen to the podcast to find out more about the test.
Health Insurance and Visa Renewal in Japan
According to these unconfirmed sources, it seems possible that enrollment in Japan’s national health insurance system would not be a prerequisite for gaining visa application approval.
“The Free Choice Foundation has obtained a copy of an ‘internal’ Immigration Bureau document that seems to provide a measure of clarification on the issue of foreigners’ enrollment in Japan ’s social health care system as a prerequisite for visa application approval. A DPJ Lower House lawmaker, after questioning Justice Minister Chiba about Guideline Number 8, was sent the document via fax from Immigration. The lawmaker then forwarded the document to a Free Choice supporter.
Although the overall language of the document continues to be somewhat vague (in keeping with the tone of the Guidelines themselves), one very interesting declaration was made in no uncertain terms:
“Accordingly, if a health insurance ID card is not presented (to an immigration officer), that alone cannot be sufficient reason for rejection or denial of a (visa) application.”
This passage makes it very clear that not being enrolled in one of Japan’s public health insurance plans cannot of itself be sufficient cause for declining a foreigner’s application for visa renewal or change of status. It can only be used as one possibly influencing factor when taking into consideration the applicant’s individual circumstances, along with the other seven guidelines. So, if you’re an honest, hard-working foreign resident who just happens to prefer private insurance, not being enrolled in social insurance will not result in your visa application being denied.
Also;
Yesterday representatives from ASIJ, ISSH, NIS and St. Mary’s visited the Nyukan Kyokai (immigration bureau consulting organization) This membership organization is made up of former immigration officials and is established to give advice on immigration issues to member organizations. In yesterday’s meeting we asked for their advice in answering three questions:
1. The purpose of the new immigration guideline?
2. Would the new immigration guideline be implemented in April 2010?
3. What would be the best way to express our organizations concerns regarding the new guideline to immigration officials?
The answers we received were as follows:
1. The purpose of the new guideline is to encourage all citizens to join a national health scheme.
2. The new immigration guideline would definitely NOT be a factor in processing visa applications from April of 2010. Until the guideline becomes a law the immigration office will not actively use the guideline as a criteria to accept or deny visa applications. The immigration office may recommend to applicants not enrolled in a national health plan that they enroll, but they will not use the lack of enrollment as a criteria for denying or approving visas.
3. Both the immigration office and Ministry of Justice have already received numerous concerns from large organizations, including Keidanren, regarding the implementation of the new health certificate guideline therefore it is very likely the DPJ and the Ministry of Justice will review the guideline prior to making any further recommendations as to how it should be implemented or whether it should become a law.”
Aodh’s Grammar Point [04] っけ (What was it again…)
Since I’m done studying for the JLPT (or more appropriately done failing the JLPT) I thought I’d post another grammar point. This is one you hear all the time in a variety of situations when someone has forgotten something and is trying to remember or get the person they’re talking to to remember.
Noun/Verb/Adjective (Plain Form/Polite Past Form) +っけ
何だっけ。 What is it again…
新宿だったっけ。 Was it Shinjuku? I can’t remember.
病気でしたっけ。 He was sick, right? I forgot.
買ったっけ・買いましたっけ。 Did he buy it? I forgot.
行くんだっけ。 He’s going, right? I forgot.
行ったんだっけ。 He went, didn’t he? I forgot.
行くんだったっけ・行くんでしたっけ。 He was going, wasn’t he?
冷たかったっけ。 It was cold, right?
注意：イ Adjectives don’t ever use the Past Polite form (～かったです) with っけ since it can’t attach to です. Also, it’s not recommended to use the Present Tense for Verbs or イ Adjectives. It’s generally unnatural (even in English) to forget something that didn’t happen yet.
This form is only used to express something you did know, but forgot. If you remember た・だ + っけ, you’ll be ok.
Grammar Note: Plain Form
Verb: 行く ・ 行かない ・ 行った ・ 行かなかった
イ Adjective: さむい ・ さむくない ・ さむかった ・ さむくなかった
ナ Adjective: 元気だ ・ 元気じゃない ・ 元気たった ・ 元気じゃなかった
Noun: 雨だ ・ 雨じゃない ・ 雨だった ・ 雨じゃなかった
Fun Friday: Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Omotesando
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Today’s Podcast Location
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This week’s podcast was recorded by the fountains in Yoyogi park in Tokyo with Karamoon and myself. Here are some of the topics we talked about with some useful links.
1) The Learn Japanese Pod Facebook group, Mixi community, Twitter and the Forums.
2) Useful websites and blogs about Tokyo: Tokyo Heels which can be found at Tokyo Weekender
5) Japanese Pod Get Together.
This is a great chance to meet new people, learn some Japanese and hear some traditional Japanese music for free. This event is being held in conjunction with The Japanese Lounge at The Pink Cow on 7th December from 7pm.
This is a micro brew pub with some awesome little beers just off Takeshita Dori in Harajuku. The “Yabai yabai” beer is excellent.
8) Kiddy Land
9) Japanese Language Proficiency Test
Other topics included were
Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Omotesando.
Fun Friday: Absolutely Fabulous in Tokyo
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Natccu
Today’s Fun Friday was recorded at Agave in Roppongi with the lovely Liz and Kelly, authors of the “Tokyo in Heels” blog which can be found at the Tokyo Weekender Website. The music at the beginning was “Command Z” by Natccu.
The podcast was spiced up a little with a few frozen margaritas and delicious Mexican food. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it. We mostly talked about fashion in Tokyo and the sorry state of my current wardrobe.
Here is a basic timeline and list of topics we touched in during the podcast.
(00:00)
Intro music: “Command Z” by Natccu
(02:42)
Shout outs: Congratulations to Daniel and Yukki on their wedding day. I wish you both health and happiness for the future.
(03:07)
Get involved with the Learn Japanese Pod community:
LJP Facebook group
LJP Mixi group
LJP Forums
(03:32)
Clothes Shopping in Tokyo:
Kelly, Liz and I talked about the sad state of my current wardrobe. We also discussed some points about the ease of using the Uniqlo website to buy clothes. The general consensus was that knowing kanji would help you but it wasn’t absolutely necessary to work out how to use the website. They bought me a purple shirt. People…help.
(05:30)
Tokyo In Heels:
Tokyo In Heels is a new blog written by Kelly and Liz that will soon be up on the Tokyo Weekender website. It’s about fashion, shopping, cool gadgets and more for your discerning lady around Tokyo town. Tokyo Weekender is a magazine and website for expats living in Tokyo. It has lots of event and lifestyle information in it so check it out.
(06:11)
Shout out to Danny Choo
(06:44)
Shout outs: To Leviathon, Nick, Zombiehead and Isacksen for writing some awesome blogs entries on Learn Japanese Pod.
(07:19)
Sin Den: Sin Den is simply a wickedly good hair salon in Tokyo. It came up in discussion as I may be forced to get a hair cut as well as new clothes…
(07:47)
Japanese Lounge: The Japanese Lounge is an event where you can hear some great traditional Japanese music live. The venue is The Pink Cow in Shibuya and it will be held on 20th December 2009. This is also being held in conjunction with the Learn Japanese Pod Get-Together. So come along and enjoy the fun.
(08:36)
Liz’s story: According to Liz, she met an Australian friend who came over to Japan. Apparently he had listened to Learn Japanese Pod. So that’s who our listener is…
A big shout out to Matt Johnson and thanks for listening.
(10:23)
Cool blogs and websites from Japan:
Tokyo Weekender
Japandra
Tokyo Werewolf
Transit Lounge
(11:17)
Natccu live dates in Tokyo:
Thursday 3 December
Sangenjaya Heaven’s Door
With Seiji Kimura (ex-Zeppet Store/Hurdy Gurdy/Pale Green), Prague (new Sony signing) and more!
From 6.30pm; 2,000/2,500 yen
Friday 18 December (all night)
Green Green Cyclone @ Shibuya Cyclone
Rock out all night, with The Great Funny Pant Sounds, Danny Blanco, DJs and more!
From 12am (midnight) till first trains; 2,000 yen
Thursday 14 January
Chelsea Hotel, Shibuya
with GURUGURU (ex-Softball) and others!
From 6pm; 1,500/2,000 yen
Friday 22 January
Club Mission’s, Koenji
‘Three-man’ live show, with BAKUBENI and more
From 6.30pm, price tbc
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks to all those who were involved in this week’s podcast.
Learn Japanese Pod is 4 Years Old!
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.
Fun Friday for 9th October 2009
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Today’s podcast was recorded at Ocean’s Table in Lumine Est in Shinjuku. A huge thank you to Miki, Jim and Sandra who joined me on today’s podcast and made it as hilarious as ever. I humbly bow in your general direction.
Here are some points mentioned in the podcast.
Serial Trial Lesson Enthusiast
Miki told us that she has become a serial trial lesson enthusiast. This means she goes around various schools and culture centers trying out their free first introductory lessons. So far she has tried vocal training and intends to do Tahitian dance next. She said it is a good way to meet people she would not normally meet. I look forward to future reports from her.
Poster Competition
Sandra’s poster competition is underway. Please check out her blog at Japandra to find out how you can be the proud owner of a JR “Do it at home” poster. In the podcast, she also told us about an interesting cafe in Kashiwa where you get the order of the person who came before you. Check out the podcast for more on that.
We’re Still Here
Luckily, Yukki’s friend’s friend’s mother’s acquaintance’s mate who works in the secret underground government bunker somewhere in Japan was wrong about an earthquake predicted for tonight. Tokyo was supposed to be rubble after the 9th and happily the earthquake to end all earthquakes decided to stay in bed. This was a little story continued from last week’s Fun Friday.
Other News and Points of Business
Don’t forget the next Learn Japanese Pod Get Together on Sunday 18th October at The Pink Cow in Shibuya. We are doing it in conjunction with the Japanese Lounge event which will be featuring tradition Japanese musical performances. This is a great chance to make friends, learn Japanese and experience the culture. Details are here.
Joseph Tame, we’re calling you out! Let’s do a podcast together. If you don’t know who Joseph Tame is, please check out his great website and podcasts at Pokya.
Check out the Forums. Leave your comments, ideas, suggestions, questions and anything else you care to share with our growing community of Japanese learners.
Finally we have a new lesson which will be posted on Monday so stay podcasted to Learn Japanese Pod.
Featured music in podcast- Radwimps “Iin desu ka?”
Follow us on Twitter
Have a great weekend!
Fun Friday for 2nd October 2009
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This week’s Fun Friday was recorded at The Pink Cow on Friday 2nd October 2009. I was joined by Sandra, Jim, Daniel and Yukki who all injected some hilarity and fun into today’s podcast. A big thank you to all of them who put up with a badly behaved iPod recording device. And apologies to you dear listeners as the audio skips a few times at the end of the podcast.
What did we talk about today?
Here’s a list of topics we talked about with some links and other information:
1) The Learn Japanese Pod Meet Up at the Pink cow
We will be having a meet up on Sunday October 18th at the Pink Cow. We are doing this in conjunction with the Pink Cow’s Japanese Lounge event which is an opportunity for you to experience some excellent traditional Japanese music. There will be traditional Kimono wearing, Shakuhachi and Shamisen performances. So come along, have some fun, learn some Japanese and meet some great people.
Learn Japanese Pod Get Together Event Information (Facebook)
THE PINK COW MAP
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2) Earth Quake Prediction
It turns out that Yukki chan has a friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone who works in a secret underground government agency that can predict earthquakes. According to Yukki, Tokyo will crumble to the ground around 9th October. That’s good news because it means I might not have to go into work.
3) Japandra’s Amazing Poster Giveaway
Sandra of Japandra fame has just given away an anti “chikan” poster to one of her subscribers. She has her mits on a new one and will be giving it away soon in a new competition. Listen to this podcast or check out her blog for some upcoming information on that.
Sandra writes great blog containing interesting and witty observations about life in Tokyo.
4) John Cusack’s in Town
Apparently John Cusack is in town promoting his latest movie. One of Sandra’s friends is going to interview him. We tried to work out which hotel he was staying at so we could stalk him.
John, if you are reading this blog post or listening to the podcast please make it easy on yourself and come out for a drink at The Pink Cow we want to hang out.
That’s pretty much it for this week. Thanks again to Jim, Sandra, Daniel and Yukki for making this a fun Fun Friday. Stay tuned, check out the forums and send us an email with your ideas, suggestions, questions and comments to: info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com
Japanese Vocabulary list #1 Food and Flavor
School vocabulary always seemed rather limited to survival words. I have tried to create a list around a general theme each week to study to keep building on the words I know. I will be posting my vocabulary lists regularly, though they are a little behind my regular study.
たべもの food 食べ物 ：
におい smell 匂い
あじ taste / flavor 味
すっぱい sour
にがい bitter 苦い
からい spicy 辛い
しょっぱい salty
おいしい tasty / yummy 美味しい
まずい disgusting 不味い
にく meat 肉
うし beef 牛
ぶた pork 豚
にわとり chicken 鶏
さかな fish 魚
たまご eggs 卵
ぎゅうにゅう milk 牛乳
やさい vegetables 野菜
くだもの fruit 果物
まめ beans 豆
こめ rice 米
しお salt 塩
しょうゆ soy sauce
さとう sugar 砂糖
キャベシ cabbage
ブター butter
J-Slang 07: Atama ni kuru
Today’s J-Slang is…
頭に来る
atama ni kuru = to be angry, get mad, pissed off
もう頭に来た
mou atama ni kita = I’m really pissed off
ATAMA NI KURU literally means “it’s come to the head” so perhaps that sounds a little like “I’ve had it up to hear” in English. Of ocurse this is a useful phrase to express how angry you are. Another similar phrase is きれた /KIRETA which literally means something has been cut. Both KIRETA and ATAMA NI KURU imply that you have slightly lost control because you are so angry.
Learn Japanese Pod Update
It’s hot out side, the cicadas are making a racket, girls are dressed in Yukatas and letting off fireworks. It’s summer in Japan and perhaps one of the best excuses to slack off from posting anything on Learn Japanese Pod. Well, that’s the story I’m going with. However I thought I should post an update into what’s going on here at the Learn Japanese Pod Professional Recording Studio Language Learning Complex also referred to as “my kitchen”.
I think a quote from the Presidents of the United States Of America is fitting. “Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches”. It’s true as I am traveling to Yamanashi famous for peaches, beautiful lakes and of course Mount Fuji. I’m going to stay at the Solar Cafe which is part of the Earth Embassy, an organic farm and center for learning about Permaculture and sustainable lifestyles. I’ll be helping out my friend and owner Jake to do some farming, build a house and work on the Earthship project that fell by the way side recently. But I’m also going there to escape Tokyo for a while and recharge the batteries. The Solar Cafe has a spectacular view of Mount Fuji and some awesome hiking and biking trails. It’s going to be fun.
Also if you feel like paying us a visit then come along by all means. There’s a lot to do around there and the more the merrier. Don’t forget we are also doing the Learn Japanese Pod Party here on 29th and 30th August.
So drop me a line at info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com. You can also check out the Earth Embassy and Solar Cafe Facebook group or the Earth Embassy homepage for more info.
We’ll also be putting up a few podcasts soon so stay tuned! Take care and have an awesome summer!
The New Learn Japanese Pod Logo?
I wish I could have drawn this but I have two left hands. Luckily I am surrounded by some very creative and artistic types who help out. This logo was made by the talented bboykrilin a.k.a Paul Hunter, a UK based web designer, artist and illustrator.
I think he’s pretty much captured the feeling of Learn Japanese Pod here with the slightly bemused Gozilla, the ipod and the JLP dedicated bike(?) bag.
So a huge shout out to bboykrilin and his awesome sketch. I love it.
Maybe it is T shirt making time.
Learn Japanese Pod Translation Project
こんにちは、bonjour, buenas dias, hallo, 你好 and नमस्ते! Do you speak a language other than English? Would you like to be involved in a project to teach Japanese to non-native English speakers? Here’s the idea.
I’m going to make 10 introductory lessons for beginners in Japanese which cover the basic concepts, grammar and tips for getting started in the language. I then want to translate these 10 pages into as many languages as possible. I’d really like to get a Chinese translation, French, German and Spanish translations too. It would be fantastic to get a Hindi translation too.
This won’t be a huge translation project, 10 short pages at most which will be uploaded over a few weeks. This is simply a labor of love for anyone who is a huge nerd like me who loves studying Japanese and other languages.
If you are interested please leave a comment on this post or email me at info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com
ありがとう、merci, gracias, danke, 謝謝 and आभारी हुँ!
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