>Cold feet? We have just the solution.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikikomori/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

For a first world country, Japan sure is backwards when it comes to home building. Where else in the world do you find heated toilet seats. You know why they’re heated? Because the “bathroom” is freezing in the winter. Your ass would probably stick to the seat if it wasn’t heated. So while you’re relieving yourself, you can see your breath, and your body is shivering, your bum stays nice and toasty. Well, at least the living room stays warm.

The savior of many cold Japanese winter nights is the kotatsu. You’ve not experienced joy until you’ve sat under one of these when it’s snowing outside, and you’re reading Naruto munching on a mikan under the warmth of radiant heat. Simply stated, the kotatsu is the cornerstone of the Japanese household during the winter. From the father to the family cat, you’ll find everyone gathered underneath the kotatsu warming up their legs. Dad reads the newspaper, kids do their homework, and mom watches TV… actually the mom might get the short end of the stick, as she’s probably in the kitchen. But she’ll get the kotatsu all to herself when everyone’s away during the daytime. You go girl!

While wifey (not 2-D either) and I were living in Seattle, we were constantly contemplating getting one, but never pulled the trigger. Ordering such a large object seemed to be such a hassel, and who wants to part with a couple hundred bucks to an unknown internet vender. If I’d know about beNippon then, I would have had a kotatsu to get rid of during my sayonara sale last year.

While typical shipping costs are quite high for such as large and heavy item (about $150~200 USD) we also offer a more cost effective solution: surface. While chugging across the ocean does take some time, it is a heck of a lot cheaper compared to EMS: around $85. So for less than two Benjamins, you can have your very own kotatsu. Turning Japanese ain’t cheap, ya know! Order soon, and have your very own kotatsu before winter is over.

Check out beNippon’s selection of kotatsu and kotatsu comforters, and never spend another winter with cold feet.

>My Bookshelf Part III

>I must not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, I absolutely cannot get my wa‘s and ga‘s straight. When it comes to Japanese studies, those pesky particles have got to be one of the hardest parts of the language. And, if you really want to speak like a master of Japanese, you must learn to use particles correctly.

That’s why one of the first books I picked up when I first started working in Japan was this handy-dandy Dictionary of Japanese Particles from Kodansha. It’s not like I carry it around or anything, but I keep it by my desk when I’m writing just in case I can’t figure out what particle I should be using.

This dictionary contains the meanings and usages for over a hundred different particles, broken out in alphabetical order. It’s small and compact, so if you were really inclined you could carry it in your book bag.

A particle reference book belongs on every Japanese learner’s bookshelf. I’ve owned this one for about 10 years, but there are several others on the market. While I have not read them, I’m sure they are equally as valuable. Remember that whatever level your studies are at, getting your particles straight should be a priority. Just watch all the foreigners on Japanese TV, compare what they say to the Japanese subtitles, and you’ll see I’m not the only one who still needs to work on his (or her) particles.

beNippon fully supports your efforts to learn Japanese with a wide selection of Japanese textbooks and dictionaries. Whether your just starting or a full fledged JLPT 1 master of the universe, we’re here for you.

>**News Flash** Yoshito Dies

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This just popped up on my TV just now… the author of the world famous Crayon Shin-chan series, Yoshito Usui was found dead in the mountains in Gunma Prefecture. Apparently, he was climbing in the mountains and fell down a cliff. However, the police are still investigating, as it could have been a possible suicide.

Really sad news. Crayon Shin-chan was one of the first mangas that I read when I first arrived here in Japan many years ago as an exchange student.

>My Bookshelf Part II

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While I’ve never been a huge fan of video game systems. Portable gaming always intrigued me since the original Nintendo Game Boy came on the market. So when the DS Lite, with it’s touch screen came on the scene, I had to pick one up. Especially, when I saw all the Japanese learning software that was available in Japan. That was several years ago, and nowadays the amount of titles DS software for the learning market is huge. The dual screens with touch sensitivity makes for a great interactive learning experience.

As for learning kanji, there are loads of titles out there, and while I don’t claim to have tried them all, I fell in love with one pretty much immediately: Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshuu (now Kanzen Ban). There’s nothing flashy about it, no cool animations or characters, just down to earth learn’n. That’s the point, isn’t it?

The interface is quite simple. Your top screen has the questions, and the bottom has the drawing pad and controls. Character recognition is smooth and fast, with only a few hiccups with wrong characters.

Playing basically focuses around daily training exercises, where you practice a given set of kanji – 10 at a time. The kanji are presented in short phrases and you practice both reading and writing. To progress in the game, just test yourself. A selection of characters are selected from the level, and you’ll be asked to read and write them. When you finish the game, you should be familiar with all the Jouyou kanji.

The thing I like about this title, is that the characters on screen are quite large. Other kanji titles have quite small characters, so it’s difficult to view some of the more complex characters. Combined with a simple user friendly interface and all the learning tools you need, there’s no reason look any further than Nowpro’s Ontona no Kanji Renshuu Kanzen Ban.

Order your’s now from beNippon and have it on your doorstep in no time.

>My Bookshelf Part I

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Even though my formal Japanese education ended years ago, I continue to learn and study Japanese in my daily life here, as the language surrounds my whole existence. You get to a point however, when conversational Japanese is second nature, and you start to plateau. You’re at the point you were aiming for when you first started learning the language.

Well, it’s time to take your language to the next step, and that means going back to the basics: focusing on grammar, reading, and writing. In a previous post, you’ve read about the Kanji in Context series that I love. Now it’s time to check out my current text, one that I was using here in a community class.

I’m currently working on the New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course. If you’re beginning to study Japanese, this text is not for you. The interesting thing about this book is it is completely in Japanese, not biased towards non-speakers of English :-), there isn’t even a forward by some renowned professor or anything. Also note that most of the sections do not contain any furigana. The text is divided into 12 chapters, and according to my teachers, if you’re comfortable (know all the kanji and grammar) with the first six chapters you should be ready to take the JLPT 2-kyu, and after you’re comfortable with whole book, you should be able to pass the JLPT 1-kyu. There is definitely a lot of material covered.

The text is basically broken down into several sections (click on the images for bigger pictures).

The reading:

Here we have a short text containing all the grammar and vocab we’re learning in the lesson. Again, no furigana. The accompanying CDs will come in handy, if your kanji is as bad as mine 😉 There are a few questions to answer at the end.

Vocabulary and exercises:

After the reading, is a vocab list broken out into parts of speech. We have some furigana here, so you can look up words you don’t know. I recommend going over the list before the reading.

Grammar explanations:

Here is the main body of the text, grammar point after grammar point. Notice all explanations are in Japanese, lovely isn’t it? The bottom of the page contains additional vocabulary contained in the example sentences.

Grammar exercises:

If you managed to get through the grammar, on to the exercises. You can make your own sentences, here. I recommend copying the sentences in a notebook for writing practice. Also, try and make funny examples to keep your teacher laughing and your classmates awake.

Other activities:

Next you’ll find additional activities, related vocab, topics for essays, etc. My class rarely went into this section as we didn’t have enough time, however in a 5 credit class, you should have plenty of time to work on these sections.

Listening exercises:

Finally, there’s the listening section. You can play the reading off the CD, and answer the questions. Loads of fun for the whole family! There are also other miscellaneous sections, but I’ll leave those for you to find out about.

In talking with the teachers, they were debating whether to change the text or not, however there are not a whole lot of advanced textbooks to choose from on the market. Over the course of many years, students were complaining that this text was too difficult and boring. My opinion was quite the opposite. While the readings were definitely dated and could use a little updating, they were adequate for presenting the grammar, and suited my learning needs quite well. I needed to focus on learning kanji and high level grammar. I think the main reason that kept me interested was during the course of the day, I would constantly hear the grammar I was learning on TV dramas and the news. While most of this stuff you wouldn’t encounter during a daily conversation, it definitely is in use.

beNippon has New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course in stock and tons of material available to order for your Japanese studies. With EMS shipping you can have your books before your next exam.

>Let’s Go Go Go Go Go Go to Hakui!

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Happy September, everyone! Residents of Ishikawa can feel autumn in the air already, was there even a summer this year?!? Check out what I found during my obon vacation…

Bordering the Sea of Japan, on the Noto Penninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture lies the City of Hakui, infamous for stories of UFO sightings in its ancient past and trying to capitalize on them (it does have a quite impressive space museum). However, due to dwindling tourism it was necessary to find a new tourism base. Following in the footsteps of otaku rice and Stationmaster Tama, Hakui seems to have come up with it’s own unique scheme: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Sometime in the near past, mysterious sculptures popped up near Hakui station (put there by aliens?!?). No longer is Hakui the UFO city, it has turned into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure mecca. There are several different sculptures:

Zu zu zu zu …

Jyan!

Go go go go go…

Unfortunately, there are a couple more that I missed. I’ll have to go back and find them. These sculptures are the giongo used for sound effects in the Jojo manga. So, the cool thing to do is act out your favorite Jojo scenes around the scuptures.

Check these guys out, from the Jojo Posing School! (via Google Translate)

Find all your Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure needs at the beNippon store.

>Obon Vacation.

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Well, the summer does not seem like summer here in Kanazawa. Both June and July were cool and rainy months, and now we’re into typhoon season which means more rain. Coming into mid-August, we start hitting the festival season in Japan, and a short Obon vacation. I’ll be heading up the peninsula to visit the town I used to live in many years ago to visit the graves of my in-laws. I Hope everyone has a great week whereever you are.

>Green Cola?

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June 23rd saw the release of Pepsi Japan’s new summer flavor, Shiso. While I’m quite late to the game, I decided to try it out a little while ago. It took some searching to find it, but eventually I was able to buy it at the local FamilyMart.

Opening the bottle, it definitely smelled like shiso leaves, somewhat like fresh mint as others mention. I love to eat shiso leaves on salads, sashimi or somen noodles, so it tasted quite good at first. However, I would definitely not reach for another bottle, and actually found it hard to finish the first one. After a bit, the shiso flavor disappears and is replaced by something that reminded me of bubblegum ice cream.

Good or bad, it’s nice to see companies willing to experiment and bring new ideas to market. It’s all about trying to find the new thing. I do have one question, though… Is a cola still a cola, even though it’s green?

>Get traditional with beNippon.

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Here at beNippon, not only do we service otaku worldwide, but we also carry an assortment of household items. Being the Japan-o-freak that I am, during high-school I made it a point to make my room as Japanese as possible. No posters of bikini babes on my walls, it was Japanese art. My old desk was replaced by a homemade low desk, and I sat with a cushion on the floor. And, the focal point was my samurai sword set.

I would have loved to have some real tatami mats in my room, but it wasn’t possible back then. Now, with the beNippon at your side, you can deck your room out Japanese-style with our new selection of noren and tatami mats. We also carry goza mats, which are great for just laying around or taking to the beach.

>Kocchi-Kame Live Action

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On August 1st, the longest running manga ever made it’s way onto TBS’s Saturday evening line-up. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo, or Kocchi-Kame for short, stars Katori Shingo, Hayami Mokomichi, and the lovely Karina. As a huge fan of Japanese comedies, I’m really looking forward to watching this one, and with Shingo in the lead role of Ryo-san, it’s sure to be a hit. Judging from the first episode, he really brings Ryo-san to life.

Learn more about the Manga, or the Drama (English). The official TBS page is here (Japanese). If you’re interested in the show, you can check out the manga as well, start your historical collection today, volume 165 comes out this month!