Introduction to Japanese Food – Okonomiyaki

I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is okonomiyaki?

Although being a Japanese comfort food, it’s less likely that you will run across okonomiyaki outside of Japan. While you may come across it on a menu at a North American Japanese restaurant, okonomiyaki can be a strange sight to western eyes.

So let’s shed some light on the mysterious okonomiyaki.

Read more

Top 5 Ryokan in Japan

As promised during our introduction to the Japanese ryokan, we’re back with a rundown of some of the best ryokan in Japan.

Ryokan can certainly vary in quality and price. And when it comes to top ryokan, you will definitely be paying a top price for a quality. With so many great ryokan to chose from, we tried to pick a few of the best from different locations throughout Japan.

So here is our top 5 picks for Japanese ryokan!

Read more

Funny Japanese Commercials Staring Famous People

It’s somewhat of a joke in Hollywood that if you want to make big cash then you should appear in at least one crazy Japanese commercial.

I guess stars seem to think that if there is a high chance that no one from the English speaking world is ever going to see them, they why not take the money and act completely ridiculous.

Well, thanks to YouTube, they can’t hide anymore…

Read more

Japanese Demystified: Book Review

I recently picked up a copy of Japanese Demystified from my local library. I had been holding off from ordering the book because the cover looked like it was going to be dummy’s guide to the Japanese language.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Read more

A Stroll Through Ritsurin Koen

Continuing our look at the top 5 Japanese gardens, this week we’ll take a stroll through the city of Takamatsu main attraction – The Ritsurin Koen

Read more

Staying at a Ryokan

You’ve probably come across the term ryokan in your travel books or perhaps you’ve had a friend suggest that you stay in one if you visit Japan.

But what is a ryokan? And how the heck do you pronounce it?

Read more

Japanese Step by Step: Book Review

When I first started learning Japanese I decided to put together a core collection of books that I thought would cover me pretty well. One of the first books I picked up was Japanese Step by Step: An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese.

The book came highly recommended from Amazon, so I was pretty sure it would be a winner. When the book arrived I started into it immediately. Since then I’ve started and restarted the book several times, never making it past 92.

Here’s why…

Read more

How to say “Goodbye” in Japanese

No one likes to say goodbye, but did you know there are different ways to say goodbye in Japanese depending on when you’re planning on seeing a person again and who the person is?

Here are a few proper ways to say farewell in Japanese without sounding like a newbie or needlessly offending anyone.

Read more

Japan Trip – Updates

Well it didn’t take us long to to book the trip to Japan. Once I found out we had Flight Centre here in Canada now, I went over and tossed them my tentative travel plans to price out. It turned out not to be such a bad price.

However, it looks like to get the best deal and fly on a top airline, we’re going to end up flying almost around the world.

Read more

1,945 Kanji in 10 Minutes

Have you ever wanted to see all the 1,945 recommended kanji for reading Japanese? Well…now you can in just over 10 minutes.

Thanks to Kiraianet for the link. Also check out Japan Today for news on what 196 new kanji were added to the jouyou kanji list bringing the total up to 2,136 official kanji characters.