Nihongo Notes

Sport in Japan - A Japan Blog Matsuri

After returning from Japan 2 weeks ago I've not yet found the time to write an article and I was a little stuck for ideas. I also missed the second Japan Blog Matsuri! Luckily there was a gap in the Japan Blog Matsuri schedule so I decided to step up and host it this month. This month's topic is "Sport in Japan".

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Japan here I come… again!

I was hoping to get another article written up before I leave… or at least something to post whilst I’m away. However work has gone crazy busy, I’m now planning a move to Tokyo and I’m distracted by other things… So I’ll post about my trip when I return! I’ll definitely have a lot to say [...]

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First impressions of Tokyo: A City of Contrasts

Tokyo was the first and last place of my tour of Japan in May. The best day I had there was actually my last day in Japan. I spent the day with a friend I’d made online. We’d been talking in English and Japanese for a while and she was kind enough to show me [...]

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Chris’ Japanese Diary #1

Warning, total newb Japanese ahead. I’m just going to try my best to get it right, throw it up on Lang-8 and see what reaction I get. I’m hoping that writing about similar things and repeating similar kanji will help me remember them. I appreciate any advice or corrections you can give me either here [...]

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Learning Japanese, avoiding the burnout and keeping it fun

I have a confession to make... I've hardly practiced any Japanese these last few weeks. I went away for training with work, missed a few days practice and never got back into a routine. I was already behind on my written work for my Japanese tutor. I'm now faced with a massive amount of cards in my SRS and I'm also way behind on my written homework for my tutor. I'd say to myself "Ok, tomorrow I will do a whole load of practice and get back into a routine"

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Where’d all the activity go?

Yeah, I know, I promised more posts. This isn’t one of those typical “I promise I will post soon” posts where the blogger never appears again. I’m busy building jpopjapan.com when I get free time and I expect that to continue. I’m also busy with planning for my trip to Japan in Sept and general [...]

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JPopJapan.com launches!

The reason for the lack of posts lately is due to the launch of my new site, JPopJapan.com. Why start another site? Well, I wanted somewhere to discuss good Japanese music. I googled and found a few sites but they were either old and unused or unfriendly and inaccessible. So I decided to start my own [...]

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Gaijin House Japan

Jason from JapanLinked.com contacted me recently to let me know about his new site - GaijinHouseJapan.com. Gaijin House Japan is, at its heart, a guide to guest houses - shared houses or apartment buildings where travelers and locals live together, sharing the facilities. Living in a guest house is a great way to start out in [...]

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The floating torii at Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island, Hiroshima

During my first trip to Japan I had the pleasure of staying in Hiroshima for a few days. I learnt a lot about its past and had some great nights out. On one of the days I took a trip over to Miyajima Island and visited Itsukushima Shrine with its famous floating torii.

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British Bloke’s Bento

I came back from town this weekend with a not so healthy lunch. As I was about to dig in I had a pang of guilt and thought about the healthy bentos I'd been making over the last few weeks. I ended up picturing my unhealthy lunch as a bento. For a bit of fun I actually put it all in a bento box. I think the plum balances it out nicely.

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