Is it cool where you live? In South Carolina, it’s still midsummer although it’s September. We wish the cool season to come soon!
There was a Japanese poet who shared the same sentiments with us eleven hundred years ago.
あなたの住んでいる地域は涼しいですか。9月なのに、南カロライナはまだ真夏です。早く涼しくなってほしい。
同じ気持ち、1100年前の人が和歌に詠んでいます。
Exceptions in Adjectives / 例外的な形容詞
There are a few exceptional adjectives, besides I-Adjectives and Na-Adjectives, which are often used in conversation. For example, “the best” and “the worst”…Here is how to use them.
イ形容詞（国文法の形容詞）、ナ形容詞（同形容動詞）以外に、よく使われる例外的な形容詞があります。例えば、「最高」や「最低」。。。使い方を覚えましょう！
How Do You Tell Na-Adjective From I-Adjective? / ナ形容詞とイ形容詞の見分け方
There are two types of adjectives in Japanese.
Learn how to tell which type an adjective is, since you need different grammatical rules to use them.
Scroll to the table in the last section if you would like to see the summary first.
“Ikemasen”, “Dame desu” and “Narimasen”: How Are They Different? / 「いけません」「だめです」「なりません」はどう違う？
“Ikemasen” “Dame” or “Narimasen” are the expressions for “it would be no good”. How are they different?
Originally posted: March 7, 2019 Revised: August 21, 2019
A Summary: How Do You Say “And” In Japanese? / まとめ記事：日本語でAND…は何という？
How do you say “and” in Japanese? In this post, we organized the various ways to express it in a spreadsheet.
日本語で「and」は何と言いますか？このまとめ記事ではいろいろな「and」の言い方を表にしました。
Revised: 2021/10/19
Finger Names / 指の名前
You have “fingers” on your hands and “toes” on your toe. In Japanese, both are called “fingers”. What are the names of each?
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One Lie Leads To Another / 嘘を重ねる
和文は英文の下にございます。ルビはいつか付けますので、またお立ち寄りください。/ The Japanese translation is below the English text. We will one day add Ruby to Chinese characters, please drop…
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The Character Looking Like Katakana “ke” / 「ケ」の形の字
Katakana “ke (ケ)” is one of the basic alphabet in Japanese. However, there is another, very popular character in the shape of ケ which is read “ka””ko” or “ga”. It is not katakana, hiragana or a Chinese character. What’s this mysterious character?
カタカナの「ケ」は基本的な文字の一つですが、もうひとつ、とてもよく使う字で、「ケ」の形をしていて、「カ」「コ」または「ガ」と読むものがあります。これはカタカナでもないし、ひらがなでも漢字でもありません。では、何でしょうか？
Canada and the Satsuma Mandarin / カナダと温州みかん
In the 20th Century, Canada was the world’s largest importer of Citrus Unshiu or the “Satsuma” mandarin from Japan.
We wanted to know how it started, and here is our fourth post on the “Satsuma” mandarin.
20世紀、カナダは日本産温州みかんの世界最大の輸出先でした。
どういう経緯でそうなったか知りたいと思いまして、「サツマ」みかんについて、4回目の投稿になりました。
How to Make “Gari” or the Sweet Ginger Pickles/ ガリ(新ショウガの甘酢漬け)
Here is a simple, fail-safe recipe of “gari”. It is known as a sushi accompaniment, but it is also a popular general palate cleanser in Japan.
これは失敗なしのガリのレシピです。ガリは日本ではお寿司に限らず、いろいろなお料理の口直しに使います。
This is a revised Facebook post of June 24, 2017.