You sure about that? - How to Japanese - September 2024
Sep 23, 2024 • Subscribe
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確認
The most useful kanji compound - How to Japanese - August 2024
Airbag Expressions – 確認
This month in the newsletter I wrote about 確認 (kakunin), a really useful word in so many different ways. Give the podcast version a listen here: While writing…
Is どこにありますか？ more polite than どこですか？ #learnjapanese
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The Green Music Box (緑はるかに, Umetsugu Inoue, 1955)
A lonely little girl finds herself dragged into conspiracy when her father is kidnapped by spies in Umetsugu Inoue’s bizarre musical adventure.
ka no you ni かのように - Meaning in Japanese
What ka no you ni かのように means in Japanese. Grammar and examples.
あとになってわかったこと
Collector's Mindset - How to Japanese - February 2025
A Madder Red (茜色に焼かれる, Yuya Ishii, 2021)
A single mother and her son face the myriad injustices of the modern society with dignity and grace in Yuya Ishii’s quietly seething pandemic-era social drama.
Let Him Rest in Peace 友よ、静かに瞑れ (1985) Director: Yoichi Sai
Let Him Rest in Peace, by director Yoichi Sai, is a solid noir set in an Okinawa shot with Western-genre stylings. Let Him Rest in Peace 友よ、静かに瞑れ (1985)…
Angry Son 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kasho Iizuka
A rewrite of my review for the very worthwhile topical film Angry Son, a meaty drama about the mixed-race experience (Filipino-Japanese) in Japan! 世界は僕らに気づかない Dir: Kasho Iizuka [Osaka…
Angry Son (世界は僕らに気づかない, Kasho Iizuka, 2022)
A resentful young man comes to a better understanding of his place in the world while searching for his estranged father in Kasho Iizuka’s sensitive coming-of-age drama
![Featured image for Crumpled だからなに (2025) Director: Chihiro Yuki, Hikaru Yabuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20250319/1742412357.99953.143003.jpg)
Crumpled だからなに (2025) Director: Chihiro Yuki, Hikaru Yabuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]
In their co-directorial/writing debut Crumpled だからなに (2025), Chihiro Yuki and Hikaru Yabuki deliver a tersely-shot short where strong physicality defines the emotional journey. [Osaka Asian Film Fe…
井上俊之による『君たちはどう生きるか』- ロングインタビュー
伝説的アニメーター井上俊之による宮崎駿の新作『君たちはどう生きるか』についてのロングインタビュー
We’re Millennials. Got a Problem? International (ゆとりですがなにか インターナショナル, Nobuo Mizuta, 2023)
Seven years on from the hit TV series, the guys are in a very different place.
![Featured image for Boy, Sprouted 少年、なにかが発芽する Director: Yuko Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220317/1647527914.33016.61114.jpg)
Boy, Sprouted 少年、なにかが発芽する Director: Yuko Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Boy, Sprouted is an off-beat family film that everyone can watch. 少年、なにかが発芽する Director: Yuko Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Kimi shinitamo koto nakare / 君死に給うことなかれ (‘Don’t Die Before Your Time’, 1954)
Obscure Japanese Film #115 Yoko Tsukasa 1940. Baggy-suited university professor Wataru (Ryo Ikebe) falls for Kumiko (Yoko Tsukasa), the nurs...
からだの美
Yōko Ogawa’s 2023 collection からだの美 brings together sixteen short essays on the theme of bodies and physicality. The three primary topics are sports, performing arts, and animals. The…
Basic Japanese Sentence Structure No. 14 かかる to take time #learnjapanese
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While Yet a Wife / 妻の日の愛のかたみに / Tsuma no hi no ai no katamini (1965)
Obscure Japanese Film #141 Ayako Wakao Chieko (Ayako Wakao) and Kitahara (Eiji Funakoshi) are country schoolteachers who get married and a...
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 2 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
In Volume 1, we met Ohsawa Aya, a fashionable girl in most ways – except for her retro taste in music. When she walks into a shabby CD…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 3 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Up until this volume, there has been almost no conflict of any kind in Arai Sumiko’s school and music Yuri series. In Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 1 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Aya is a high school student who loves music of the 90s-00s. She’s content to sit and listen to the Foo Fighters in her ear buds, but when…
けど vs から #learnjapanese
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Real-life Japanese vs Textbook Japanese #1 ですから・ますから
Learn Japanese with Yuta: https://bit.ly/4dObqAy Support me on Patreon: https://goo.gl/aiWNd5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatYuta Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatyuta/ Facebook: https://bit.ly/381qpHS Blog: http://www.yutaaoki.com/blog/
掌に眠る舞台
Yōko Ogawa’s 2022 collection 掌に眠る舞台 contains eight stories connected by the broad theme of “stages.” Some stories are about the world of performing arts, while others take an…
Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister (なぜ君は総理大臣になれないのか, Arata Oshima, 2020)
Arata Oshima follows idealistic politician Junya Ogawa over 17 years in order to explore why his goal of becoming prime minister remains forever elusive
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021) Director: Yoshihiro Mori
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021), by director Yoshihiro Mori, is a well-acted and well-shot drama about a 40-something man in contemporary Japan looking back at his life (v…
Is 行かせて ikasete the Te-form of いかせる ikaseru? #learnjapanese
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宮園かをり (Miyazono Kaori)
Who is Miyazono Kaori? Miyazono Kaori is a gifted violinist with a free-spirited personality and an unconventional approach to music. Her vibrant energy and bold demeanor mask a…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me? (先生、私の隣に座っていただけませんか？, Takahiro Horie, 2021)
A mangaka and her cheating husband become locked in a cat and mouse game of ambiguous revenge in Takahiro Horie’s deliciously cynical anti-rom-com
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta Drama CD, Special Edition (ドラマCD 気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Last week, I was able to review the upcoming Yen Press release of Sumiko Arai’s popular manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.…
神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods (an original Podcast) coming IN 2022
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
Mondays: See You “This” Week! (MONDAYS／このタイムループ、上司に気づかせないと終わらない, Ryo Takebayashi, 2022)
Harried office workers must get through to their dejected salaryman boss if they’re to escape a workplace time loop in Ryo Takebayashi’s zany corporate comedy.
The Various Forms of うかがう
The newsletter and podcast are online: This month, the core topic I looked at was how easy and broadly useful is 伺う (ukagau) is, especially for folks struggling…
~ni shite ～にして - Meaning in Japanese
The meaning in Japanese of ~ni shite ～にして. Examples and grammar.
~ni suru ～にする - Meaning in Japanese
What ni suru にする means in Japanese. Grammar and examples.
you ni ように - Meaning in Japanese
What you ni ように means in Japanese. Grammar and examples.
Chainsaw Man, Gabriel DropOut, Cells at Work!, Ya Boy Kongming!, Gabriel Dropout Specials
~ni naru ～になる - Meaning in Japanese
The meaning in Japanese of ni naru になる. Grammar and examples.
"Would it be Okay to Add か as a Question Particle in かわいいくない?" #learnjapanese
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ご多忙かと存じます
The Language of Job Hunting - How to Japanese - August 2022
Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 1 (ヒトゴトですから!)
Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 1 (ヒトゴトですから!) , by Yuni is a very funny, outrageous and ever-so-slightly enraging workplace comedy manga. Komori Mio is a self-proclaimed sales ace. She’s got…
Hitogoto Desukara!, Volume 2 (ヒトゴトですから!)
In Volume 1 of Yuni’s office life drama, we met Komori Mio a woman who has been transferred into Human Resources instead of getting promoted in sales, at…
Shadow of Fire (ほかげ, Shinya Tsukamoto, 2023)
The ruins of a firebombed city become a purgatorial space haunted by the tortured souls who cannot escape the traumatic wartime past in Shinya Tsukamoto’s eerie voyage through…
Mother (おかあさん, Mikio Naruse, 1952)
A teenage girl struggles to understand her self-sacrificing mother in Mikio Naruse’s subversive take on the hahamono
__ませんか vs Wouldn't You Like ___ #learnjapanese
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Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 3 (ヒトゴトですから!)
The life of an employee in Human Resources is a never-ending push for making things better, at least according to Yuni’s Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 3 (ヒトゴトですか)ら! This whole…
Between Us (藍に響け, Yasuo Okuaki, 2021)
A sullen young woman learns how to connect through the power of taiko in Yasuo Okuaki’s intense manga adaptation