Gyūdon (牛丼, beef-over-rice bowl) and tonjiru (豚汁, miso soup with pork and vegetables) have much in common. Not only are they a nice combo for a quick lunch (and that it’s almost noon while I’m writing this), but on closer inspection both terms also turn out to be a little ...
Today we will introduce the difference in the meaning and usage of two nouns 角（かど）and 隅（すみ）, which are both generally ...
Hay fever season has arrived in the Kanto region to the dismay of people who, every year, suffer sneezing, runny ...
In Haruki Murakami’s 1985 novel “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World,” one of the two protagonists is a coolheaded data agent working for the monolithic “System” that protects the world from “Semiotec” data thieves. He takes on a job that’s a little ...
Today we introduce some usages of the verb 込（こ）む (to be crowded) and related vocabulary. 込む describes that a place is crowded, as in: 電車（でんしゃ）が込んでいて、すわれなかった (The train was too crowded to get a seat).
Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka earned Japan's first medals at the Sochi Winter O lympics on Feb. 11 by taking silver and bronze, respectively, in the men's snowboard halfpipe.
Satori no Sedai," or "Generation Resignation," is a term used to describe those born around the time the economy started to slide two decades ago.
Once, when telephoning the international PR office of a major electronics manufacturer, I got lucky. Without my even asking, the young woman who picked up the phone volunteered her name, saying 私は青木と申します (Watashi wa Aoki to mōshimasu, My name is Aoki). Actually it sounded ...
Buckingham Palace is advertising for a new housekeeping assistant, whose duties include running the royal baths and arranging the tea service.
Today we will introduce the usage of the two nouns that are homonyms but are written with different kanji, かんしん（感心）and かんしん（関心）, and their related expressions.
They say February is the month of love but take it from one who knows — the Japanese have become increasingly suspicious of the whole Barentain (バレンタイン, Valentine’s) thing as just another marketing ploy to open womens’ purses. And what with the consumption tax ...
Tokyo's hosting of the 2020 O lympic Games will generate up to ¥20 trillion in spillover effects for the economy, according to a projection released by a think tank on Jan. 6.
Today we will introduce various meanings and usages of adverb よく(well). よくis the adverbial form of adjective よい/いい (good) and is used as an adverb in various meanings.
A frost quake (shimo jishin, or 霜地震) is produced when soil or groundwater that has become saturated with water after a period of heavy rainfall freezes and expands after a sharp drop in air temperature. The earth subsequently cracks, creating a loud popping sound ...
It’s that time of year again, when hundreds of thousands of soon-to-be high school graduates are busy taking university entrance exams for the coming academic year. This activity is commonly known as juken (受験), and usually translated into English as “taking an examination.” The ...
