How to Japanese Podcast Daniel Morales

This month I looked at the 文壇 (bundan, literary world) and 文芸誌 (bungeishi, literary journals) thanks to the 120th anniversary issue of Shinchō. Murakami Haruki has a short story, but the real reason to pick up the issue is the 随筆 (zuihitsu, nonfiction essays/miscellaneous writing). Tune in to learn why, and don't forget to check out the newsletter and the blog.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

How do you improve your ability to understand Japanese sentences on your own? And to craft structurally sound Japanese sentences? I have a theory that sentence diagramming is a great step along the way, and I wrote about it this month in the newsletter. Plus, I provide a great way to increase your exposure to trending news articles in Japan. Read more over at the blog.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

The word 角ハイ (kakuhai) kind of formed in my mind without me even consciously realizing what it was, so I explored that for the newsletter and the podcast this month. Turns out, it's related to Suntory, Japan's whiskey history, and the booming highball market since 2008. Check out the blog as well, where I look at お湯割り (oyuwari, cut with hot water).
And at the end I include a grab-bag of いろいろ content, including a Mercari recommendation for all my fellow used book sickos!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

This month I continue the conversation about value in Japan with a close comparison of the 1,000-yen men's haircut and the 2,000-yen men's haircut. The former has terrible value, while the latter has great value. I also get into some good haircut vocab and talk about the interesting customs of men's barbers, which I expanded on over at the blog. For the newsletter, I wrote about the verb まとめる (matomeru, bring things together). Give it a read!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

明けましておめでとうございます！ New Year, New Murakami. We're getting a Jay Rubin translation of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in September. I talk about the market for used Birnbaum translations and go over some of the details that Rubin revealed about the translation in a talk at Wellesley last April.
I also talk about the 見積もり (mitsumori, quotes) involved in moving apartments. Check out more on Murakami over at the blog, and details on quotes/estimates and shopping for appliances at the newsletter.
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

We made it! 2023 is a wrap. Life sometimes seems busy and overwhelming, but we can have it all--including our language goals. This month I take a look at Japanese recipe creators that you can rely on for simple meals while studying the language. I also do an assessment of the state of Japanese social media platforms and their use as corpora of language usage examples. Check out the newsletter for a deeper dive on the phrase I'm looking at this month, そうこうしているうちに, and the blog for some いろいろ. See you in 2024!
Feel free to reach out with any questions or 悩み事 to howtojapanese@gmail.com.
You can also follow How to Japanese on Substack, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.