The unexpected ways in which Japanese words ‘make it’ into English
Have you scrolled to the end of the emoji keyboard, looking for those peskily faraway hearts, and accidentally sent a mysterious “NG”? Asked a friend in Japan if they want …
Have you scrolled to the end of the emoji keyboard, looking for those peskily faraway hearts, and accidentally sent a mysterious “NG”? Asked a friend in Japan if they want …
With バレンタインデー (barentain dē, Valentine’s Day) taking place on Feb. 14 and ホワイトデー (howaito dē, White Day) coming on March 14, it would seem that women get a lot of …
Banana Yoshimoto burst onto the Japanese literary scene in 1987 with her mega-hit novel, “キッチン” (Kitchin, Kitchen). It was so explosively popular that literary critics actually started to think that …
During this year’s ホリデーシーズン (horidē shīzun, holiday season), パーティ (pātī, parties) and 飲み会 (nomikai, drinking parties) are officially coming back. In the past four years, quiet おうちクリスマス (ouchi kurisumasu, at-home …
Nagoya – On Oct. 23, publisher Sanseido did what it would usually do for an upcoming title: It uploaded the basic details of the book, along with sample pages, to …
There is an expression in Japanese, 「ウサギの昼寝」(usagi no hirune, “a rabbit nap”). It describes a moment of carelessness that leads to unexpected misfortune. It was a rabbit nap that caused …
You may have learned that “I” is 私 (watashi). And while this is a handy all-around term to use when referring to yourself, a 2019 survey showed that over 30% …
Oct. 11 marks one year since Japan reopened its borders to individual tourists. Since then, the relatively new word インバウンド (inbaundo, inbound) has been making frequent appearances in the news. …
One of the benefits of living in a Japanese city is the transportation network. A wide range of people use trains, subways and buses to get where they’re going, and …
This year will be remembered as the year that 人工知能 (jinkō-chinō, artificial intelligence) and 生成AI (seisei-ēai, generative AI) went mainstream. この技術の進歩が喜ばしい事かは意見が分かれるところですが、多くの人の生活を変えるであろう事は確かです (Kono gijutsu no shinpo ga yorokobashii koto ka wa …