August 13th, 2010 | View Comments


やっとLearning Japanese Podマグカップ届きました!(嬉しいもっといっぱい注文して、友達にプレゼントとしてあげたい思いますリカルドというとても尊敬する友達が、Learn Japanese Podファンさんためだけに、デザインしてくれました。さーて、日本勉強しながら、マグカップ何飲もうかな

At last, my new Learn Japanese Pod mug has arrived. (Happy face) I was pretty happy with the results so I want to buy more as presents for my friends. This cute logo was done my friend Ricardo who is made of pure win and awesome when it comes to design. So the next question is, what shall I drink with this new mug while studying Japanese?

Posted in Blog
May 28th, 2010 | View Comments


In today’s Fun Friday podcast, Rob from News From The Other Side taught me an interesting way to learn Hiragana and Katakana using the application Kanatap.

Hiragana and Katakana are the two basic phonetic scripts used in Japanese which beginners should tackle to start being able to read the language.

Rob found Kanatap through his studies of Hangul which could also inform people how to learn the basic phonetic scripts of Hiragana and Katakana.

Other methods include using Anki and also watching youtube videos with basic vocabulary lessons on Japanese.

We hope you enjoy the podcast.

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Posted in Fun Friday
April 17th, 2010 | View Comments

Try out your general knowledge on population statistics from Japan. There are 10 questions in this quiz.

What's the population of Japan (as of March 2009)?





What is the population of Tokyo at midday?





What is the population of Tokyo at midnight?





How many people pass through Shinjuku station everyday?





After Tokyo, what is the second largest city in Japan in terms of population?





What is the population of Osaka at midday?





Which nationality accounts for the largest single group of foreigners in Tokyo?





What is the population density of Japan?





How many Japanese people live abroad?





How many foreign residents are there in Japan?







Posted in Blog
April 16th, 2010 | View Comments

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/japanese/lj98.mp3[/podcast]

In today’s podcast, Yuki and Daniel teach us the meaning of ずるやすみ – zuruyasumi – or “skipping work”. You would have thought that in a country with a strong work ethic like Japan, this kind of phrase wouldn’t exist. Yuki proves to us that we are wrong again.

Check out the show notes here.

The Random Phrase Of The Week

じろじろ見てんじゃねぇよ。

jiro jiro mitten ja nee yo

Stop staring at me!

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All the podcasts


Posted in Podcasts
March 21st, 2010 | View Comments

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/ff100319.mp3[/podcast]

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View Learn Japanese Pod locations in a larger map

Today’s Fun Friday edition of Learn Japanese Pod was recorded at the A to Z cafe in Omotesando in Aoyama. I was joined by Jim and Sandra of Japandra fame.

The walls of the A to Z cafe are adorned with drawings by the artist Yoshitomo Nara and they even have a mock up of his studio.

In the podcast we talked about Sandra’s latest article for Japan Pulse Blog which is about Twiwari. It’s an ingenious scheme where businesses post discounts for services on Twitter.

We also talked about the renovation of Kabukiza and old theatre in Higashi Ginza which has daily Kabuki shows popular with fans and tourists. This led us on to the topic of the Tokyo Marathon as Jim took part and ran past Kabukiza. We gave a shout out to Joseph Tame who podcasted his marathon run. We mentioned Run Keeper which is a great iPhone app and time keeper for athletes.

Other points mentioned in the podcast:

Tokyo International Anime Fair
Tokyo Kawaii Exhibition @ The Design Festa Gallery
Daniel and Yuki
El Gringo and News From The Other Side
Dan Morales of How to Japanese
K-Pop boys
Smart FM
Kotoba iPhone App
Run Keeper iPhone App
Anki
Learn Japanese Pod Forums

Posted in Fun Friday, Podcasts