Here is a video I made entitled postcard from Japan. It uses photos of my travels throughout Japan. I also recorded the audio track which is called “You are I“. It features the beautiful voice of Sae Murakami who appeared in podcasts #11 and #12. Enjoy!

In this week’s Slang from Japan we look at “胡散臭い” (usan kusai) which refers to something that is suspicious or unbelievable. This uses two words: 胡散 usan – which means suspicious and 臭い kusai – which means smelly. It almost literally means something that “smells fishy”. For example:

彼の言うこと、胡散臭いよね。

kare no iukoto, usan kusai yo ne

What he is saying is suspicious.

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.

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

All videos