Crazy for Kanji Review
How do you study kanji? I’ve followed Eve Kushner’s posts on Japanesepod101, where she blogs about how wonderful kanji are, for a while now. So when her new book Crazy for Kanji came out, I had to get my hands on it.
If you have seen her posts, you will see a lot of familiar writing in the book, but it expands on concepts in ways that have never been achievable on the blog. There are charts, analysis, study tips, and much more, all written in Eve’s disarmingly friendly tone.
Here’s a video I made to show and describe the book. Hopefully by the time this post goes live, the HD option will be available so you can get a good look inside.
If you would like to buy the book, it is available at Amazon JP
and Amazon USA
.
If you would like to check out the other book I mention in the video, it is called Read Japanese Today (JP link
Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs and vlogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic. He writes for JibTV too.
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Categories: Books
The Terminator Door
Two kids in Fukuoka’s Chuo ward discover that the door of their local Yoshinoya gyudon restaurant makes the sound from the Terminator theme song [clip from "Nanikore Chin Hakkei"]:
This amazing discovery was made shortly after they saw Terminator 4. The store’s employees were ignorant of the amazing quality of the door, but now they know about it.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Cute Japanese kid speaks French, gets a kiss
Child actor Seishiro Kato reads a French greeting to actress Nora Arnezeder, who was in Tokyo to promote Faubourg 36 (Paris 36):
Folks who watch a lot of Japanese TV will probably recognize Kato as the child manager of a car dealership in the currently-running popular series of cute Toyota commercials.
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Categories: Celebrity News, Foreigners in Japan
Denzel Washington Japanese TV interview
Denzel Washington was in Japan this week to promote the Japan release of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Here’s an interview he did on the “Mezamashi TV” morning show:
He seemed a bit uncomfortable, but he was very friendly throughout the interview.
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Categories: Celebrity News, Foreigners in Japan
Japanese Curry King
Fast food chain Sukiya has jumped on the “mega” size food bandwagon with its new Curry King dish:
A 3X increase in rice and a 4X increase in curry. It will provide you with 2122 calories, the equivalent of 8.5 hamburgers or 13 onigiris. At 890 yen, it’s a pretty good deal.
According to an expert, fast food chains love adding “mega” items to their menu because it saves them the trouble of investing a lot of money in developing new dishes.
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Categories: Japanese Food
The story behind the Gundam wedding
Here’s a subtitled TV news report about the anime-loving couple who got married earlier this week at Odaiba Gundam:
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Categories: Otaku & Anime