This is not a news story, but I think there may be some people reading the blog who are thinking about studying Japanese. This text book series (especially the one written in Hiragana and Katakana) is one of the best despite the name.
I know that “Whatever” For Busy people sounds pretty bad, but actually this book is a very good introduction. If you can do this, you can probably communicate pretty well.
The link (obviously) goes to amazon.com
Note the poll on your right asking when you think Aso is going to announce that he’s stepping down and having elections. You can read a good insider story right here, “Prime Minister Aso on the Brink in Japan” at the Big in Japan blog for some background information on some of Aso’s recent gaffs….
For non-specific reasons, the family of the girl that was the alleged victim of rape by the Okinawan marine has dropped the charges. The family cited reasons such as wanting to maintain privacy, and not wanting to go through the trouble of pursuing the case as reasons for dropping the charges. It may be that…
Companies always find creative ways around paying overtime to employees. Apparently America based companies are no different… though to be fair, because of Japanese economic policies it’s hard for foreign companies to enter Japan without some kind of Japanese base. (Hence pepsi is put out by Suntory, Walmart bought into Seiyu…). Anyway, teachers are among…
This time they throw in the term “geisha guys” for creditability. Check the article here, entitled: Japan’s ‘geisha guys’ the latest accessory CNN could report on stories about the Prime Minister’s approval rating, the murder of the taxi driver by a U.S. marine, even the murder of the Filipina hostess I wrote about just today…
A recent internet poll by the Goo search engine (link in Japanese) has rated the top 10 things that Japanese men feel show their status. Car Job Educational Background Watch Qualifications and Licenses Suit Where they shop or eat Where they live Beautiful wife or girlfriend Shoes Number five is probably unique to Japanese because…