In the new essay on 寂 (lonely; desolate; quiet), I mentioned the seven principles of 侘び寂び (わびさび: wabi-sabi), including 不均斉 (ふきんせい:...
Last month I posted here about a Tokyo Banana KitKat that my husband's colleague gave me. One thing led to another and h...
I recently came across a Japanese book on AI, and because I know that Jonathan Kirk of Kanshudo has a deep passion for the subject, I sent him the Amazon...
Long time no blog! At least it feels that way to me! And where have I been? Sitting around eating bonbons? Not exactly, but almost—at least for about three seconds.
My husband...
Let's start with a quiz!
One Joyo kanji is associated with all of these definitions:
1. to load (a gun, etc.)
2. to put into (e.g.,...
I fell in love with the TV show Halt and Catch Fire and felt a keen sense of grief when I'd seen the last episode. The characters had come to seem very much like real people to me, and...
What could the following words mean:
1. 山肌 (やまはだ) ...
I just came out with essay 2066 on 酎 (shochu), and in writing it I discovered that the Japanese have a brilliant way of repurposing...
I want to share with you one of my favorite images from the new essay 2065 on 緻 (elaborate):
...
Today on Facebook I saw pictures of people I once knew but now can't begin to recognize. For years a woman in that family was my closest friend, but we drifted very...
I've stumbled onto a treasure trove of weirdly put-together words, and as usual I'd like to share them in the form of a quiz. Have at it, matching each term to...
I'm always impressed by how the body has given rise to fascinating figurative Japanese expressions. You'll find three in the following quiz. Match each to a definition (steering clear of th...
I've developed a slight fear and loathing of certain auxiliary verbs. How cruelly named they are; "auxiliary" means "giving support; serving as an aid; helpful," and yet I o...
Last time I presented a sample sentence that puzzled me to some degree:
I’ve long been a big fan of the word 看板 (かんばん: signboard). It goes back to the early days of my Japanese studies when I came across this phrase in a Murakami essay in...
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