HiNative

Level: All levels

I can’t tell you enough how amazing HiNative is. The app / website allows you to ask native Japanese speakers if your sentences sound, well, native. There are four types of questions you can ask the HiNative user base:

1. How do you say this?

2. Does this sound natural?

3. What’s the difference? 

4. Free question?

I personally have never asked a question on HiNative before. Why? The best part about HiNative is that you can search for peoples' past posts. For example, you can search an English phrase, like, “I hope you feel better,” and then a past post will show up that says something like: “How do you say ‘I hope you feel better,’ in the most native and natural way?” Then a native Japanese user will have likely posted a translation down below.

Tofugu did a wonderful review of HiNative. I encourage you to check it out if you’re interested in HiNative (We'll get to Tofugu in a second.).

TOFUGU

Level: All levels

Tofugu is a website jam-packed with eclectic content. The website slogan simply describes itself as a “Language and Culture” blog, but that doesn’t do the website justice. I recommend this webpage to see the types of content they produce, including free study materials, not free study materials, video series, blog series, podcasts, and much more. 

Firstly, they have blog #series, like “What I Use To Study Japanese" (check that out after this!) and “Yokai”, which is Japanese Supernatural Folklore. By the way, these blog posts aren’t being written by any random-os. Tofugu has its own eight staff, kind of like a miniature Buzzfeed, but sometimes they have guests writers, too.

Secondly, they do interviews. I went to their website to check our their most recent ones, and it looked a little something like this:

I don't know about you, but I want to read and watch EVERY INTERVIEW you see above. Don't you? And look at that artwork! Their full-time artist, Aya, is super talented. The graphics on their website are so beautiful and creative.

Tofugu describes themselves like this: Tofugu started out as a college course project in 2008. It was rooted as a Japanese language blog for English speakers. Over the years Tofugu began to find its niche and evolved into a full-time business.

They also have a newsletter. I highly recommend it. Before you skim over this section because nobody in their right mind subscribes to newsletters anymore, just hear me out. I'm a millennial, too, and I get it: we all hate newsletters. But Tofugu is the one company I'm subscribed to in the entire world because they're all, well, for the most part, millennials too, running a company and doing an incredible job at it. They consistently document fun news in Japan and how to learn Japanese in unconventional ways— they even sent me a blurb and photo of a local place interns and I always go while we’re in Tokyo, and we didn’t know anyone else knew about it!

If you’re interested, Tofugu sells Japanese study content you can purchase for a fee. The person who creates the content is someone who also studied Japanese as a young adult. He always wanted to design study material that worked for him. Now he shares that content with the rest of the world. I’ve bought and downloaded their Kanji learning set, but I never got around to actually using it! I’ll keep ya’ll updated once I finally try it.

DUOLINGO

Level = all levels

Duolingo is a free app / website that specializes not only in Japanese but many other languages; however, Japanese is one of its largest communities with over 4.05 million registered users. Duolingo reminds me of Rosetta Stone a bit- they don't teach specific grammar structures, and instead they throw you into the deep end. The primary way you learn with Duolingo is through repetition. Games and other interactive activities make that happen, which is a bit more fun than flashcards.

As someone who has taken quite a bit of Japanese already, I was frustrated when trying to test out of sections. Your answers need to be pretty exact to what they're looking for. For example, one time I typed 2PM for 二寺, and I got it wrong because they were looking for two o'clock.

Though, once I got passed this frustrating part, I was surprised by how quickly I wasn't understanding questions anymore. As someone who has taken three years of Japanese, I expected Duolingo to be too easy for me. Boy, was I wrong. Not only had I forgotten a lot of vocabulary and drew several blanks when asked, but there were new grammar points my professors never got around to teaching me-- grammar points that I knew would definitely make me sound more fluent.

JISHO

Level: All levels

You’ve hit a word that you’ve seen a thousand times. You’ve studied it, written it, spoke it, but now you’re drawing a blank. Jisho is here to save you. Or, you’ve run into a brand new word, and you want a true definition - not some fancy Japanese - English dictionary definition that is probably incorrect. Jisho is here to save you.

Jisho.org, which literally means dictionary in Japanese, is the best resource I’ve found for looking up vocabulary and kanji. The creator of jisho.org designed this website because he noticed too many flaws in typical Japanese - English dictionaries, especially incorrect connotations. Not only does Jisho.org have your typical adjectives and nouns, but it has slang, onomatopoeia, and other words typically defined as unconventional.

GENKI

Level: "I KNOW NOTHING!" to intermediate

Genki I and Genki II start from scratch. They’re the Japanese textbooks used in most 1st and 2nd year university classrooms, and they’re actually GREAT. They have a textbook and a workbook. You can also order the workbook answer key (which I’ll admit, I ordered while I was still in university and used it to check my homework).

Nowadays they also have grammar apps, verb/adjective conjugation apps, vocabulary apps, and more, which I downloaded during a winter sale for about $3 a piece. I think they're usually more expensive than that. These apps SAVED my life while I was still in school. I think the verb/adjective conjugation app is essential for success.

TOBIRA

Level: INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED

Tobira is a three-piece set—grammar book, kanji book, and textbook. It's typically used for 3rd and 4th year Japanese university students. I'll admit, I'm biased since my Japanese professors at University of Michigan wrote the book, but the book genuinely is pretty great.

In general, Tobira is great for anyone past the Genki I & II level. I love the style of Tobira because, as much as a textbook can be, it tries to immerse a reader instead of haphazardly throwing vocab and grammar translations at your face. Overall, there are fifteen chapters that primarily use Japanese articles, pictures, and news to teach you vocabulary and grammar points. There are handwritten activities before each chapter, too, which prepare you for the chapter material. These are the 15 chapter topics:

1. 日本の地理
2. 日本語のスピーチスタイル
3. 日本のテクノロジー
4. 日本のスポーツ
5. 日本の食べ物
6. 日本人と宗教
7. 日本のポップカルチャー
8. 日本の伝統芸能
9. 日本の教育
10. 日本の便利な店
11. 日本の歴史
12. 日本の伝統工芸
13. 日本人と自然
14. 日本の政治
15. 世界と私の国の未来

Chapters from https://polyglotplotting.wordpress.com. If you want a more in-depth review of Tobira, read this post.

WANIKANI

Level: BEGINNER TO ADVANCED

Have you had enough of Tofugu being stuffed in your face? Well, just one last thing, I swear—WaniKani. 

“2,000 kanji, 6,000 vocabulary, in just over a year,” is their slogan. “WaniKani is more than just flashcards. Our SRS algorithm adjusts time between reviews for each individual item, calculated by your last session. You will see a radical, kanji, or vocabulary in your reviews at the optimal time for you, not anybody else."

Manga and anime are popular in Japan and many other countries, but what about stage plays?

That’s right. Anime and manga happen in theatre form sometimes, too, ranging from the horror drama genre like Tokyo Ghoul to the sports genres like Haikyuu!!. 

写真満載の記事はこちら　　http://www.astage-ent.com/stage-musical/fairy-tail-4.html 2016/4/30 2006年より講談社「週刊少年マガジン」で連載開始。2009年のTVアニメ開始以来、劇場版アニメ、ゲームなど様々なメディアミックス化がなされている真島ヒロ著「FAIRY ...

Fairytale's stage play.

Unfortunately, stage plays never make it outside of Japan’s big cities, but don’t start crying yet! There are ways for you to see them on your computer screen. In my opinion, stage plays are one of the best forms of storytelling I’ve come across. Yeah, stage plays tell the main storyline of Fairytale or something, but they do so in innovative and artistic ways. (I mean, they have to—the directors can’t find a flying blue cat to play Happy anywhere). I was blown away by Haikyuu’s stage play. The volleyball tournaments were well crafted experimental dance numbers, and slow motion was achieved through high-tech strobe lighting systems and lifting systems. 

Please turn on CC for the subtitles. Feel free to tell me if you found some mistakes in it. Thank you. The subs is not finished yet, it's there only for a few minutes due to an error. I'm trying to fix it before putting it in again.

Haikyuu's opening sequence.

If you’re coming out to Japan soon, a resourceful English website to check out is animeonstage.com. They keep you updated with all the newest touring stage plays and where they are touring. And here’s the best part: they have a buying service not just for stage play tickets but also merchandise (DVDs, CDs, buttons, posters, programs, stickers, keychains, photobooks, magazines, cups, bags, AND SO MUCH MORE).

Common places you can see shows are at Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo: Zepp Blue Theater, and Umeda Arts Theater; however, they go to many more places. Keep up on those updates, anime and manga lovers!

Hello readers!

You may be confused by the title of this post if you come from the West. Convenience stores, in America at least, have never really been a cause for celebration. Sure, they're convenient, but they can also be kind of gross and are generally pretty taken for granted. Growing up, if I ever told someone that I ate lunch from a convenience store (in the form of some old lukewarm hot dogs or "taquitos" that had probably been left out for hours if not for the entire day), I was likely to receive a glance of disgust or concern. However, in Japan, it's a completely different story.

Japanese convenience stores are seriously one of my favorite parts about living in Japan, and I am NOT exaggerating. I promise. 

When you first walk up to a Japanese konbini, you may not immediately notice the greatness that lurks within. Take just a few steps past the automatic doors, however, and you could literally spend more than an hour examining all of the different varieties of snacks and other products which are sold inside.

To attempt to list somewhat comprehensively all of the different kinds of goods and services which you can find at your neighborhood konbini (Japanese term for "convenience store"), there are: both cold and hot foods which include small packaged snacks as well as fuller meals in the form of bento boxes and bowls of pasta/noodles (you can have any pre-packaged meal heated up for free by your cashier via a high-powered microwave), etc.; both cold and hot drinks including but definitely not limited to alcohol, coffee and sports drinks (Japan is notorious for how many different kinds of crazy but delicious soft drink products it sells via convenience stores and vending machines) ; all sorts of household and useful appliances from batteries and toothbrushes to toilet paper and beauty products; photocopiers and printers; postboxes and postage stamps (you know, like for mailing); ticket vending machines which allow you to purchase and print tickets for sporting events, concerts, theme parks, museums, and so forth; ATMs which, like virtually all of the convenience stores, are 24/7-operable and may not even charge you a service fee depending upon your bank (for international travelers, 7/11 is your best bet in this regard); and I've even heard from friends that they've been able to purchase vehicle insurance from their local kobini as well... which kind of blows my mind.

Typical snack shelf at a Japanese convenience store. I couldn't even tell you what all of these are, but I can tell you that they're likely all delicious. It's like munchie paradise.

Japanese convenience stores, which are ubiquitous to the extent that one should be visible from if not directly located on almost every single street corner in the country, are just so damn multi-faceted and, well, convenient. Ah, I almost forgot- I, along with most Japanese people, actually pay my utility bills at the convenience store as well. That's right. You can just bring your gas, water, or electric bill to your preferred local konbini, hand it to the cashier along with the cash value due, they'll stamp it to show that it's been paid, and then scan it with a device to electronically notify the utility company that your account has been balanced. It's awesome.

I think by now you're probably understanding what sets Japanese konbini apart from that run-down 7/11 you stop at for gas and a Slurpee sometimes (granted, Slurpees are pretty great...). The one thing I want to stress about konbini though, before I finish this post, is the food. It really. Is. That. Good.

A lunch I bought a few months ago from a convenience store on my university's campus. From left to right: ebi katsu omusubi (shrimp fry rice-ball sandwich), Burugaria (Bulgarian yogurt drink), and tanuki soba (soba noodles with broth and deep-fried tempura bits). It all cost me about 5 dollars... disposable wooden chopsticks free of charge.

There's really no end to the deliciousness that oozes forth from the Japanese convenience store. I think what really distinguishes the convenience store food from that in America is the variety and the freshness. Some of my personal favorite konbini snacks are onigiri (rice balls wrapped in seaweed and typically containing some variety of fish, egg, meat, or vegetable inside), Burugaria (ブルガリア) aka Bulgarian yogurt, protein bars which cost just over a dollar and have got over 10 grams of tanpaku (protein), pork cutlet and egg salad sandwiches, fried chicken bites and spicy corn dogs which somehow always seem fresh, and so much more! Celebrity chef, food critic, and travel guru Anthony Bourdain has actually gone on record stating that egg salad sandwiches from Japanese konbini are one of his favorite snacks on the planet- google it! If you're a sweet tooth, there are SO many different kinds of sweet snacks, candies and chocolates available including a constantly stocked ice cream freezer-bin with all sorts of Japanese ice cream products which can't be found elsewhere. Everyone's got their favorite, but mine are the Janbo ("Jumbo") ice cream bars which are basically giant waffle bars filled with ice cream. They're delicious and super refreshing, especially in the spring and summer.

On the note of freshness, I think it's important to note that those aforementioned hot dogs and taquitos which are likely to sit out for hours and eventually victimize some reluctant teenager or truck driver in American convenience stores would NEVER be passed off as acceptable for consumption in konbini. The food that is found on the shelves and in the hot food warmers is never allowed to sit for too long. If it's packaged, I have heard that it is not allowed to stay on the shelves for longer than a day despite the fact that it's wrapped in plastic. You can actually witness new shipments of packaged food being delivered and stocked onto the shelves at regular intervals throughout the day to any given store, even in the late hours of the night or wee hours of the morning. As for the hot food like fried chicken which is kept in warmers at the cashier counters, I suspect that the cashiers regularly do away with anything that's been sitting too long because I really can't recall ever seeing anything that looked as nasty as the hot food in American convenience stores. It always looks and tastes good, at least in my opinion.

If I included a picture of one of the awesome snack shelves, I had to include a picture of the glorious drink-wall. This is a pretty common sight in any konbini. Alcohol's nestled right up next to the soft drinks. You can usually find all 4 of the main Japanese beer brands (Sapporo, Asahi, Kirin and Suntory) as well as a million different kinds of sake, tea, soda pop, coffee, sports drinks, etc.

The awesomeness of the konbini really has to be experienced for one's self, but as I tell my friends who come to Japan on travel- don't be afraid to eat entire meals from the convenience stores! The food really is that good and there really is so much of it that you could eat from it every day and by the time you actually somehow tried everything, there would be new products on the shelves. I, as well as Japanese people, have no shame in eating entire breakfasts, lunches, and dinners by consuming only convenience store food, and guess what- they're always delicious and I can make them different every time if I want to. I'm excited by the prospect of any of you readers coming to Japan and having your first konbini experiences. Enjoy this fun and hilarious video as well as some closing facts below which didn't make it into the main post.

Thanks for reading!

-Jordan Roth

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comeonoutjapan/

Twitter: @ComeOnOut_Japan

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A funny song about convenience stores by the Japanese duo Boxers & Trunks. This song sparked a popular internet meme. Despite what may be implied in the video, old men are not constantly flipping through dirty magazines in plain view, punks are not constantly hanging out outside the store, and staff are typically very kind and helpful at Japanese konbini!

Miscellaneous Facts:

*The three main chains of convenience stores in Japan are 7/11, Lawson, and Family Mart, though there are others which are prevalent such as Sunkus (Circle K) and Ministop. 7/11 actually has more locations in Japan than anywhere else.

*Most if not all konbini have free wifi which can be accessed by selecting the network from your smartphone, opening your browser, and hitting a series of on-screen buttons which may or may not ask for you to enter basic information like your e-mail address.

*Konbini all accept credit cards for payment though many if not most Japanese restaurants do not, so it's a great option if you're low on or trying to conserve cash!

*There seems to be a common unofficial debate in Japan about which convenience store has the best fried chicken. I hear this topic discussed often by both my Japanese friends and fellow foreigners. Most commonly, Lawson chicken and Family Mart's "Fami Chicken" seem to be the given answers, though Japanese people tend to tell me that they find 7/11 to be the best and most prolific konbini chain.