The Right Study Conditions
While I was at the beach this morning I wrote a post on my personal blog about the importance of getting away from your computer and office to get work done. I figured I would write a bit here on Japanese Words about how important it is to do the same thing when you are [...]
Making Japanese Mochi
I came across this video today of the traditional “pounding” of mochi, rice which is basically pounded into a soft sticky substance. The speed at which these guys do this is pretty impressive. I wonder how many times the guy has had his hand smashed. I bet they really hate when someone quites. Brings a [...]
Adventures in Miyakojima: The Pumpkin Cave
Well, we are now in the middle of June and the weather here in Miyakojima has really started to warm up. Which means it’s time for BBQs, snorkeling, diving, and all kinds of other outdoor activities. Since a lot of my friends and family don’t know what it’s like over here, I have decided to [...]
Win Free Japanese Kanji or Kana Flash Cards
I mentioned in the last post I wrote reviewing White Rabbit’s Japanese Flash cards, Japanese Kana cards, and the Kanji Poster that I would be holding a contest to give away some of the cards that White Rabbit Press was kind enough to donate. Shortly afterwords I had to leave to Tokyo for a friends [...]
Japanese Words with Sound
One of the main focus of Japanese Words has always been about learning new Japanese words. In the beginning you need to know a certain number of words to communicate in Japanese and as you get to a more advanced level you will need to more words to express more complex ideas and feelings. Today [...]
Getting Back on Track with Japanese (and Japanese Words)
Over the last month I have been pretty busy with a number of things including the holiday season, working as a volunteer diver to remove おにひとで (devil starfish) to protect the coral, and just work in general that have kept me away from my Japanese study. It has also caused me to write less on [...]
Common Japanese Words and an Easy Way to Learn Them
I have mention before that learning the the most common Japanese words first is an essential part of learning to speak Japanese quickly. You want to learn the words that you will use, not just the ones that are ordered in a book. However, wouldn’t it also be great if there was a simple way [...]
1000 Common Japanese Words for Anki or Mnemosyne
The most popular post on JapaneseWords.net has been 1000+ Japanese Words List. As the title suggests, the post contains a list of over 1000 common Japanese Words and Kanji. I am proud to announce that the list has just gotten much better. Thanks to the hard work of Michele Romanini and his wife Bika Fujioka, [...]
Read the Kanji
The last two tools I have written about (Remembering the Kanji and Reviewing the Kanji) have all been about learning the kanji. When learning kanji it’s important to not lose focus of why we are studying in the first place, “to read Japanese”. And it just so happens, that this next tool is a cool [...]
Learn Japanese with Firefox and Rikaichan
In the last couple of days we have covered Anki, an easy to use flash card program that will help you learn Japanese words and kanji quicker. We also discussed Denshi Jisho, a great Japanese dictionary. Today we will discuss two tools for reading and learning Japanese online (let’s face it, we spend a lot [...]






