Learn Japanese with our free Japanese lessons in podcast format. We use examples from anime and everyday conversation to teach you Japanese that is useful for everyday life. Hitomi-sensei is from Tokyo and will teach you to speak with the most common Japanese accent. If you are watching an anime now and want to know more about a word or phrase you have heard, post a comment or send us an email.
Sorry we’ve been off for so long. Lots of “stuff” is going on in our lives. If you are a subscription donator, please send Hitomi your questions and let her know you are a subscriber - we will always make an extra effort to answer your questions ASAP. We truly appreciate your support and understanding.
I just wanted to take a moment to update everyone on the current status here. The latest news is this: Hitomi is becoming a US citizen! We’ve filed the forms and yesterday took a trip to Indianapolis for the first step in the process.
The next step will be the actual citizenship test, where she’ll be tested on civics as well as English. If she passes those tests, she’ll be scheduled to be sworn in within 90 days of the test.
It’s an interesting and exciting process.
But the question is this: If you lived in Japan and had the opportunity to become a Japanese citizen, would you?
Kazuo Kawasaki, the Japanese designer of Sarah Palin’s glasses, is grateful to the Republican vice-presidential candidate for making his product famous,…”She is very good-looking. She would look good in any glasses,” Kawasaki said Wednesday of Palin at a Tokyo store operated by Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co.
The company, based in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, usually makes 12,000 MP-704 glasses in an 18-month period.
Thanks to Palin, it has already received 9,000 global orders, mostly from the United States, in the last 10 days, says Masunaga store chief Akira Nagayama.
Kawasaki, 59, an engineering professor at Osaka University, also designs arty syringes, artificial hearts, kitchen sponges and wheelchairs - including his own that he uses after a traffic accident 30 years ago.
He believes his glasses are becoming a hit because people appreciate how scientifically and ergonomically they are designed so wearers barely feel their presence.
Kawasaki said he shares what he sees as some common political sentiments with Palin.
“I am quite right-wing,” said Kawasaki, a long-haired soft-spoken man proudly wearing the updated version of the MP-704, the MP-705. “I am a nationalist in the sense I believe in the Japanese esthetic.”
But he also can’t help feeling an affinity with Obama.
Fukui happens to have a city called Obama. Some of his former students have started a community movement supporting Obama, although none of them can vote in the Nov. 4 U.S. election.
An award-winning designer who has contributed to the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kawasaki has seen his glasses on celebrities before, including former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and actress Whoopi Goldberg.
But he has never got quite the stunning reception as he has had this time around with Palin.
“I want to say, ‘Thank you,’ to Ms. Palin,” he said with a smile. “I want people to realize how fantastic Made in Japan technology can be.”
Six silent film classics from the early days of Japanese cinema—four of them with English subtitles, one in Chinese and Korean—receive a rare public screening in Akasaka, Tokyo. Produced by Japanese film archivist Digital Meme and NPO Heart Connection, the event follows a similar festival in New York, where over 1,500 people turned out to view silent Japanese movies with live benshi narration. Among the films to be screened are Issun-boshi:ChibisukeMonogatari (“IssunBashi: The tale of Chibisuke”), made in 1929 and based on a classic fairy tale, and Tomikazu Miyata’s 1931 Koina no Ginpei Yuki no Wataridori (“Koina noGinpei, Migratory Snowbird”), starring Tsumasaburo Bando, one of the great stars of the silent film period.
Kuro Nyago: The Black Cat (1929)
Producer, Director, Drawings: Noburo Ofuji
Issun-boshi: Chibisuke Monogatari (1929)
Featuring live benshi performance by Raiko Sakamoto
Norakuro Gocho: Corporal Norakuro (1934)
Director and drawings: Yasuji Murata
Featuring live benshi performance by Raiko Sakamoto
Yaji Kita: Yasu Does Rescue (1927)
Director: Tomiyasu Ikeda
Starring: Denjiro Okochi
Featuring live benshi performance by Raiko Sakamoto
Ono ga Tsumi Sakubei: Your Sin Sakubei’s Story (1930)
Director: Sasaki Keisuke
Starring: Masao Inoue
Featuring recorded benshi performance by Shunsui Matsuda
Koina no Ginpei Yuki no Wataridori: Koi no Gimpei Migratory Snowbird (1931)
Director: Tomikazu Miyata
Starring: Tsumasaburo Bando
Featuring live benshi performance by Raiko Sakamoto
Place: Akasaka Civic Center *reception desk will be at 4th floor of the building
(along Route 246, between Akasaka-Mitsuke Station and Aoyama 1-chome Station) http://www.city.minato.tokyo.jp/e/liv/map/map03.html
Tickets: 1000 yen (Tickets are available at the door.)
Artist, designer and animator Motomichi Nakamura was recently commissioned to create a 30 second animation to promote the “Japan Cuts Film Festival”. This film festival is held annualy in New York by the Japan Society. Sadly it’s already passed this year, but you can still visit their website and read about the films that were screened and about the Audience Award Winner “Near Equal Kusama Yayoi: I Adore Myself”.
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We’re getting ready to start recording again. Let us know if there’s something specific you would like to hear in an episode.
Over on the Japancast Social Site, I’ve asked everyone to make sure they have an avatar & upload a photo. However, some people don’t want to use their photo for their avatar and don’t know how to make one. I just found a site that will let you create your own avatar in manga style. It’s easy to use and does a pretty nice job. Here is an avatar of me.
A Japanese software company is stepping up international promotion of its Web browser in the hope of carving out a 5% share over the next few years of a market dominated by Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The Sleipnir browser is well-known among Japanese technophiles, many of whom value the high level of customization that the browser allows. At the center of this customization is the ability to select either the Trident or Gecko layout engines for each Web site visited.
Trident was developed by Microsoft Corp. and is used in Internet Explorer while Gecko is used in Mozilla’s Firefox.
And, of course, Sleipnir also excels at Engrish by saying, ” Web Browser specializes in customization (For Advanced User) Improved further stability and speed of performance tuning.”
It is, according to their website, the number 1 browser in Japan. Anyone using Sleipnir?
Over on the
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