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Japanese language & culture blog
nihongoup.com/blog
44
A blog about Japanese language, culture and technology.
#30424 in All , #10 in Asia

Mickey Mouse supports gay marriage

Have you ever wondered how Mickey Mouse feels about the issue of gay marriage? He says it’s fine. Photo by ナギ (nagi) Tokyo Disneyland has officially announced that same-sex couples can have a f...

6 days ago

A burnin’ ring of fire: Volcanoes in Japan

Japan has lots of earthquakes, a typhoon season, occasional tsunamis and even nuclear meltdowns (okay, just once). There were even tornadoes a few weeks ago in Ibaraki and Tochigi Prefectures. But le...

6 days ago

The Japanese national debt: How bad is it?

Japan has a debt problem that makes the deficit of most countries look like $20 you forgot to repay your friend. It now has the worst debt in the world. As of May 2012, it was 960 trillion yen (somew...

21 may 12

Best language learning blog of 2012

The LinguaLift Japanese blog has been nominated for the best language learning blog of 2012! If you’ve enjoyed reading us, we’d appreciate if you could take a minute and cast your vote fo...

20 may 12 1 person likes this

Taking the subway in Japan

All major Japanese cities have an efficient and cost-effective rapid transit system. They are often linked to other rail systems such as commuter trains and shinkansen. Photo by soundwave Tōkyō subwa...

19 may 12

Recipe: Nattō with raw egg, scallion, nori & rice

You’ve probably heard many stories about nattō, and how these fermented beans are the most repulsive food you can find in Japan, if not in the world. Indeed, not everyone is fond of the taste, looks ...

15 may 12 1 person likes this

The oldest hotel in Japan—and the world

No, it’s not the crusty old hotel by the highway that you thought was nice and cheap and turned out to be a sleazy love hotel. It’s a ryokan (旅館 – Japanese-style inn) in Yamanashi Prefect...

14 may 12

The unbelievably delicious food of Hokkaido

Hokkaido is the northernmost island of Japan, known for its winter sports, pristine beauty, and old-time pioneer feeling. It’s also known for its amazingly delicious culinary treats and no trip...

09 may 12

Hokkaido: The wild west of Japan

Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost island and it doesn’t feel like Japan at all. It’s full of wide open spaces without a cramped urban area to be found. But it’s not just physic...

08 may 12

Whaling in Japan

Whaling in Japan has been one of the country’s most controversial issues for several years; however there has recently been growing attention on Japan’s practice from various countries and organizati...

07 may 12

7 reasons why the Japanese diet is so healthy

Japanese people have the world’s highest expectancy, with men living to be 78 and women’s average 85. Even though there are high levels of pollution, stress, smoking and drinking, they st...

04 may 12 1 person likes this

Japanese adjective declension (cheat sheet)

Last week we’ve published a Japanese verb conjugation cheat sheet. Many of you found great use in it, and we’re now releasing the second part in this series—a Japanese adjective declension chart. You...

03 may 12 1 person likes this

Quince, the Fukushima robot

One of the nice things about robots is that they can do stuff we humans can’t or don’t want to do. Last year, when the Great Tohoku earthquake damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant ...

30 apr 12

Grand Golden Week reverse sale!

To celebrate Golden Week, we’re proud to be hosting our best ever sale. It’s great, not only because we are offering the most substantial discount we have ever given, meaning that learning Japanese u...

29 apr 12

100 top resources to learn Japanese

We find ourselves often giving recommendations of products to learn Japanese with, and we thought it’d be useful to compile a list for your reference. We have included a number of our own products, o...

28 apr 12 1 person likes this

How the Sony Corporation of Japan changed our lives

When I think back on all the inventions that really changed my life, the PC, iPod and smartphone don’t rank at the top. Even the Internet doesn’t. The device that changed my life most was...

26 apr 12

Finding a place to stay in Japan

Japan has probably the widest choice of accommodation types in the world. From luxury Japanese inns, through western-style hotels and low-cost dormitories, to unique capsule hotels and extravagant lo...

25 apr 12

Japanese verb conjugation (cheat sheet)

Our cheat sheets have been some of the most popular posts on the blog for years, and we love receiving feedback and how they have been used, where in the world they are found, and teachers who swear ...

24 apr 12 1 person likes this

How Chinese is Japanese Chinese food?

Japanese Chinese food is called chuka ryori (中華料理 – Chinese food), or chuka for short. Like the Chinese food in the US where I grew up (and most other countries I can only assume), it’s a uniqu...

23 apr 12

What the heck is Konnyaku?

Konnyaku (こんにゃく) is a rubbery and somewhat flavorless food that appears in certain Japanese dishes. It has a consistency that’s like a cross between a rubber sole and Jell-O that gives your tee...

20 apr 12 1 person likes this

Top 5 applications to learn Japanese on your iPhone

I’ve often said that the best learning resources are the ones that you have, and you enjoy using. It’s difficult to come up with a list of ‘must-download applications’, as the needs of le...

19 apr 12 1 person likes this

The basics of Japanese karaoke

Karaoke is truly one of the gifts Japan has given to the world. You may not think so when you’re in a bar in Wyoming listening to some guy you don’t know work his way through a 10-minute ...

16 apr 12 2 people like this

Splendid springtime giveaway: Win an iPad 3!

It’s been 6 months since the launch of Japanese LinguaLift and whopping 3 years since the very first post has been published on this blog. Formerly called NihongoUp, the site started as a small perso...

10 apr 12

Japanese Weekly: Keeping you in the Japanese loop

You may have noticed that we’ve been posting a lot more regularly on the LinguaLift Japanese blog of late. We’re now proudly posting an average of five articles a week, ranging from notable Japanese ...

23 mar 12 2 people like this

Nobuyuki Yoshigahara: Puzzled to the end

To Nobuyuki Yoshigahara (芦ヶ原 伸之), one of the world’s best loved puzzlemasters, there was no more worthwhile way to spend his days than creating puzzles. Photo by ニコリ If you’ve busted your brains on R...

22 mar 12

Dekasegi: Japan’s abandoned people

The term dekasegi (出稼ぎ) usually means someone who goes away from home to work. It’s also used as a term for Brazilians and other Latin Americans of Japanese descent. Like the word gaijin (外人 – ...

21 mar 12 1 person likes this

Is Tokyo the capital of Japan? A quick history of Japan’s capital cities

I was pretty blown away recently to discover that some people dispute that Tōkyō is actually the capital of Japan. No, it’s not some crazy conspiracy theory. The dispute arises from the fact th...

20 mar 12 1 person likes this

Japanese can coffee: Hot coffee from a vending machine

In Japan, coffee comes in a can. Of course, you can get it in a paper cup or porcelain mug with a little saucer under it. But when you’re on the go and you’ve got just five minutes of cof...

19 mar 12 1 person likes this

Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dot hallucinations

Born in 1929 in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan, Yayoi Kusama is known today as the country’s greatest living artist. Since Kusama was around 10-years-old, she was having severe hallucinations and obs...

16 mar 12

Akira Yoshizawa: The grandfather of origami

Akira Yoshizawa, the ‘grandfather of origami,’ is acknowledged all over the world for the skill of his folding and elevation of origami from a children’s craft to a form of figurati...

14 mar 12

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