Comments for Japan it UP!

Comment on Basho The Sumo Wrestler Table by she blesdd

she blesdd — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:45:11 +0000

such rude ppl. it looks well crafted and sumo is a respected art.

Comment on My Sony Digital Camera – Only In Japanese by Shenita Gigler

Shenita Gigler — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:18:07 +0000

It is my opinion diferrent because my family use another brand name.It’s relaxed and save power.But next camera I may consider this camera you present.Grate!!!

Comment on Afternoon Snack by Bob Japanophile

Bob Japanophile — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:20:34 +0000

you made me hungry
from across the sea, these pics
made my stomach squelch.

Comment on Cheap calls from Japan to America by vasionok

vasionok — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:01:05 +0000

I prefer jajah.com – same prices, but doesn’t require a headset. I personally find it weird to call through PC.

It has iPhone app, so you can call anywhere from iPhone for cents

Comment on Cheap calls from Japan to America by Jolynn

Jolynn — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:28:52 +0000

As a mother of 3 children, I completely support this issue. Thank you for writing about it.

Comment on I’m bored, do you have questions? by Will

Will — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:30:40 +0000

YouTube, the greatest invention ever, has some videos that teach Hiragana. Great for people like me who are hard headed and need things to be broken down at near molecular levels to learn.

Comment on What is considered? by Will

Will — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:59:19 +0000

I smell an opportunity. Someone should start their own business consulting these companies that sell merchandise or make signs with English written on them.

Comment on Some Good Lunch by Will

Will — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:54:05 +0000

Looks tasty to me. I think a lot of your friends who think they can’t eat fish may not realize that fish are just like cookies in one way. There’s a ton of different kinds and none of them taste the same. I don’t like the fishy taste either but there are plenty of fish in the sea that don’t have that taste. I find that the varieties with really white meat are the ones that are usually the mildest. Having said that, the egg would probably still be my favorite part. I love eggs.

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by kaethi

kaethi — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:48:19 +0000

thanks for this nice post. for americans in japan , just dive into the great japanese culture, good luck and have fun.

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:25:58 +0000

Hey, thanks for posting this! I’m really glad I found it

My friend and I are considering college in Japan (all 4 years), and we were looking for a good way to learn Japanese. Now I’m gonna tell her we should try doing what you did.

Just a quick question… My friend and I know maybe only a few words in Japanese. If we get into the schools, obviously we plan to study hard before we leave, but I doubt our Japanese will still be understandable or even usable the first months to year that we’re there. How do people there react is you go up to them and ask something in English? Will they be upset or just walk away from you? We aren’t going to be in Tokyo, we’re considering APU in Beppu, where I’ve heard not everyone will understand English outside of the schoolgrounds.

Any advice for first time Americans in Japan?

Comment on 9 things to bring when traveling Japan by OITA Daigaku bound

OITA Daigaku bound — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:41:30 +0000

Thank you SO much for posting that. I am going to Oita for 4months and the people I ‘ve been asking for info are all guys. So thank you! anything else you recommend?

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by kuz

kuz — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:45:56 +0000

yea I found it easy to learn the hiragana and katakana when I got to Japan. It took only a week. I mean it was everywhere in your face. I just had to put myself in the position of a 5 yr old and just read everything I see outloud XD My friends were giving me a hard time over it but I learned it faster than they did. They were still struggling with it after 5 months. Anyway the kanji is tough, but the more you learn the easier it gets and there isn’t any real urgency to master all of the kanjis. Its best to go at a pace you’re most fit for… Slow or fast your pick

Anyway its cool you live in Fukuoka. I use to live in Beppu. I’m probably moving back to Japan once I finish up University in the US. I am thinking Fukuoka. mainly because all of the APU alumni usually end up there and its close to Beppu(my party city!!!!) If you get a chance to goto Beppu. You might wanna check out 68

I actually enjoyed my time in APU.. I did get a bit negative, but it was mostly because of the dorm life(and me inevievitably moving out the dorms and couch surfing across beppu)

Anyway the best way to learn the kana’s is to basically write them down, and when you’re out and about read every single sign to yourself. This also works with KAnji characters, and if the kanji has furigana you can learn the pronounciations also.

Also what helped me with reading and writing. Was that I read a lot of books.. Book Off was really awesome I mean 100 yen novels. I wish books in the US where that cheap(probably can find them but its tough). Some can be really boring especially if its about Baseball(sorry but yes baseball is a very mundane sport to me). I just finished reading a book about Miles the jazz musician. Its pretty good.. Some Manga helps if you can’t just handle all of the text with no photos. I wouldn’t say be reptitive with learning the kanjis(like you would with a class). I would say first do a foundation level course, and then branch out like that and just diversify. You didn’t learn your first language by taking a class. I think learning a language is through practice, and having no fear of failure. Which sadly a classroom fails to do as you can fail a class. Also I notice with language courses especially with Americans is that it gets treated as a competition to show off how good you already are. Now if you’re great at it and you are in the class. IF I was the TA I would have you removed from the course and recommend you to take a higher level course. CAn’t waste ppl’s time like that. Anyway I am American. Japanese is my 3rd foreign language. My 1st foreign language being Turkish and 2nd being Spanish. MY 4th is currently in the works (Korean).

Comment on Why I stopped blogging by Hayato

Hayato — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:09:44 +0000

This hit right on point, why do socially awkward losers from America England and other countries come to Japan?
My theory on hearing a lot of the negative is because foreigners don’t have anyone to communicate, or have difficulty in language to voice there opinion. Usually when you speak about your feelings you talk to a close friend, having a lack of people that understand your spoken language and lack of friends due to being socially awkward. The negative foreigner can only speak to insta-freinds.
But my girlfriend always complains that I`m too “mae muki” so maybe I`m the ass hole running around preaching like Barney the dinosaur about how life is awesome when your me. hehe jk

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by Speak Japanese

Speak Japanese — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:09:13 +0000

Well done! You must have learned several hundred Kanji by now. How is your Japanese reading coming along?

Have you seen the product http://www.readjapanesefast.com/

All the best with your studies and life in japan.

Comment on Tiny Japanese Coca Cola by mallory

mallory — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:25:41 +0000

so cute!! ^.^ Hey! I’m from TX too. Right on. If I showed this to anyone they’d think it was cool and perfect for a coke-back after a shot of some whiskey.

Comment on Basho The Sumo Wrestler Table by mallory

mallory — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:23:56 +0000

I WANT THIS SO BAD!! I will get this. I will one day own this. I’ll be damned if I can’t have my guests come over, try to put a drink down on the table, step back and say “wtf”

Comment on Detox And Lose Weight At Bathtime! by mallory

mallory — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:22:18 +0000

thats absolutely disgusting. makes me think that someone was really drunk and had the genius idea to steam their fat off the same way a steam fresh rice bag works when you want to take the easy way out of doing something difficult. i like steamed rice in my microwave. not steaming flesh in my bathtub. via an airtight sweaty bag. gross.

Comment on 9 things to bring when traveling Japan by Possibly the ony girl that read this

Possibly the ony girl that read this — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:00:41 +0000

So, sorry to the guys, but this is super important info for any females traveling to Japan: I would just like to add, non-Asian girls should definitely bring enough pads so you don’t have to buy them there. While they DO sell pads in Japan, they are SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than pads you find in the US or Europe (”extra-long overnight” Japanese pads are about the size of “normal” western pads) so unless you have an extra light flow or don’t mind changing every hour, it’s better to bring your own.

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by Bob

Bob — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:56:33 +0000

kanji = hanzi (汉字)
learn the language of the country that japan stole its culture from, chinese.

btw, friends who went to japan said a vending machine outside their apartment sold kids’ anime and hentai…. from the same machine.

glad to see so many fellow japanophiles on the net =)

Comment on Clear / clean / empty the qmail queue by alec

alec — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:08:16 +0000

Hi. My server is a victim of Back Scatter. The only thing I can tell is to compile a chkusr patch with qmail and plesk and it would fix my problem. However, the compile fails due to complications with plesk. Do you know of another way to handle this?
Someone told me that using postfix instead of qmail would work but backscatter is REALLY BAD. I get up to 3 spams a second even with all services turned off. They just keep coming on in!
Any help greatly appreciated.

Comment on Cheap calls from Japan to America by Johnny Travea

Johnny Travea — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:45:46 +0000

I really like this aspect of technology, When i was in USA , i was frequently used Skype to make calls Through PC.

Technology becomes smarter day by day , now we can call to other countries at real cheap price,This is Technological advancement , and we are really lucky to use it for our beneficial. Gone are the days when we could not talk with our relatives cause of high international call price.

Comment on Valentine’s Day In Japan by MIGUEL

MIGUEL — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:26:03 +0000

ASWESOME info, can’t wait till Valentines!

Comment on Airline Review by Krista

Krista — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:04:05 +0000

Wow! Never in my life have I heard of any US carrier getting such high marks. I can see you have only flown with them thusfar, but can tell you when you make the change, you will never do it again. Once you fly Lufthansa, Swiss, or Singapore, you will never look back. The things that they cut from US carriers just to save a dollar really stand out when you fly a good airline. I want to see your “I have seen the light” blog afterwards! Flying to Tokyo w/Singapore in March-first time to japan but have a round trip ticket. Love the site!!

Comment on How I learned Hiragana and Katakana by ilya radchenko

ilya radchenko — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:37:40 +0000

Study/learning tools.

http://smart.fm
http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar

So far those are my resources. Wish I had an ipod touch. Thanks for the encouragement

Comment on Getting an accurate weather forecast by Bubba

Bubba — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:24:09 +0000

Why not go to the Japan Meteorological Agency web page, genius? It’s in both Japanese and English. Dur dee dur! Or watch the TV forecast, trouble comprehending the little icons for “sun, rain, cloudy, and snow”? Again, dur dee dur.

Clicking around takes 3 or 4 seconds at max? Attention span disorder? And you learned Hiragana and Katakana in 3 weeks, yeah right. Clicking is troublesome, but you learned 2 new writing systems in 3 weeks. How is that Kanji, dur dee dur?