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Posted by harvey in Culture, Language on 21. Jul, 2012 @ 2:48 pm | No Comments
New words! More culture! I recently learned the word “kasagumo.” I think I first heard it when I was visiting a Japanese art museum with a friend (@guideyu) and she was surprised I didn’t know the term. It bothers me when Japanese phrases come up in everyday conversation that I don’t recognize… so I looked [...]
Posted by harvey in Travel on 02. Apr, 2012 @ 6:45 pm | Comments Off
I visited Pearl Harbor during my trip to Hawaii in March. Some photos are below. You can all Google “Pearl Harbor” and read up on the events that took place just as well as anyone, so I’ll spare you the basic history lesson. The Pearl Harbor site is a well run tourist destination and is [...]
Posted by harvey in Language, Travel on 28. Mar, 2012 @ 6:04 am | Comments Off
I visited Hawaii for the first time this month and was blown away by the amount of Japanese around. There were signs in Japanese, Japanese food, Japanese tourists, white people hawking goods to Japanese tourists in broken Japanese… the whole nine yards! There are countless Japanese restaurants and even an ultra-famous Japanese Shaved Ice Place [...]
Posted by harvey in Study Abroad, Travel on 16. Mar, 2012 @ 5:05 pm | Comments Off
Hello readers! I’m not a JapanNewbie anymore, as you know… So I rely on my real JapanNewbie friends to provide insight into what life is like when you’re heading towards Japan nowadays. You may remember David from this previous post covering the intensive Japanese program at OSU. Well, David is back, and he is almost [...]
Posted by harvey in Culture, Society on 10. Mar, 2012 @ 1:38 pm | 6 Comments
bubbles Expat bubbles. Or in Japan you might call them gaijin bubbles. What are they? Why are they? Are they all bad? How can you avoid them? Here’s my two cents as someone who has lived in multiple countries, inside and outside of the bubbles. Living in an Expat Bubble You’re living in an “expat [...]
Posted by harvey in Osaka, Tokyo on 15. Jan, 2012 @ 10:49 am | 2 Comments
I have a friend who is about to head to Japan for the first time, and he wants the Maid Cafe experience. I have been to maid cafe’s before, but not anytime in the past 5+ years or so… so I’m way out of the loop. This youtube introduction of Royal Milk is pretty good, [...]
Posted by harvey in Culture, Humor, Language on 27. Nov, 2011 @ 6:02 pm | 1 Comment
What do these people have in common? Michael Jackson, birthday: August 29, 1958 Bae Yong Joon (Yon-sama), birthday: August 29, 1972 John McCain, birthday: August 29, 1936 Charlie Parker, birthday: August 29, 1920 Right! Their birthdays are the same! But what about their birthdays is special and interesting to those of us studying Japanese language [...]
Posted by harvey in Books, Gadgets, Media on 03. Oct, 2011 @ 9:51 am | 3 Comments
In an effort to boost my pitiful Chinese abilities… I got an App! A company called Rye Studio makes a series of picture book apps for iPhone and iPad that read you a story while showing you the text in Chinese. Listening to target language text being read at native speed while reading along is [...]