Japan’s Abandoned Amusement Parks [Creepy] A common misconception about Japan is that it’s so densely populated that every single town is just like Tokyo; urban, people all crammed together, few empty spaces. Not only are there still tons of rural places in Japan, but there are even abandoned places, places that were simply left behind to rot. The Japanese call these places haikyo (廃墟). Some of the creepiest of all haikyo in Japan are amusement parks. Places where poeople used to gather to have fun or go on vacation now sit vacant to rust and become overrun by nature. And while not all of Japan’s abandoned parks are as creepy as rusty ol’ clown car above, some of them come pretty damn close. Why do so many amusement parks fail? There are a bunch of different reasons why amusement parks go out of business: Bigger Parks: Places like Universal Studios and Disneyland have put a lot of smaller parks out of business.
Lots of these failed amusement parks have been either abandoned or torn down completely. [hr] Takakanonuma Greenland. Japanese Conjugation [CheatSheet] I put it up on the Japanese Resources page around a week ago (and it’s been on TextFugu a bit before that), but thought I should share it all with you here, since I think it will help a lot of you out.
Being able to conjugate nouns, adjectives, and verbs isn’t terribly difficult, but it does require some nasty memorization for beginners … and I’ve never been a fan of memorization when I can help it (much better to memorize things other ways, I think. Stuffing your brain with repetition doesn’t do the trick for most people, even when they think it does). In order to help with this I came up with a Japanese Conjugation Cheatsheet. There was some thinking behind it, too, if you want to know why the cheatsheet is set up the way it is. Simple And Not A Crutch The whole goal was to make something that wouldn’t be too much of a crutch. Really, the minimal amount of information is present. It will tell you how to do present/future, past, negative, and past negative tenses. Formal vs. The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji.
The Japanese learning industry has, for all intents and purposes, failed you. It’s not your fault that learning kanji is like hitting your face on a curb, it’s the industry as a whole. Sure, there are pockets here and there that are pretty smart about it, but they tend to be small and nobody really knows about them. Most likely, you know what your teachers says about kanji, or what Rosetta Stone Japanese (doesn’t) say about kanji, or what your textbook throws at you… But, here’s the problem, though: You’re learning kanji from native Japanese speakers, and they have no idea what it’s like to learn kanji anymore (and even if they do, they just emulate the way Japanese school children learn kanji), which really just doesn’t work.
The Japanese learning industry, on a whole, has failed us when it comes to kanji learning. But, you can learn from their mistakes, and in doing so, learn how to fix the way you learn kanji. FAILURE #1: You Learn Kanji Stroke By Stroke By Stroke… S 100 Best Resources For Learning Japanese. How To Trick Yourself Into Good (Japanese) Studying Habits. You know how it’s hard to quit bad habits? Biting your nails, drinking, eating too many cookies, yadda yadda (sure, you could take it to be the Seinfeld reference if you want)… But I bet you didn’t realize you have a ton of good habits as well. Brushing your teeth (well, not all of you have this), putting away the dishes, going running, etc. Now, I’m not saying that creating a habit to study Japanese on a daily basis is easy (it’s not!) , and that’s why I’ve compiled a few sneaky things that will “trick” you into studying Japanese and getting yourself into a good habit.
It all comes down to analyzing what makes habits into habits, and taking advantage of those things so that you can create a habit without actually having a… habit. Why Look At Habits? I think you may think the answer to this is self explanatory, but give me an opportunity to try and create a revelation for you anyways. Now, I’m not trying to get you to form (actual) good study habits.
Creating Action Associations And so on… Using Kid’s Songs to Learn Japanese. This post was written by Dave of JapanDave.com who Tweets and has a great newsletter full of amazing pictures of Japan. Kid’s songs are a wonderful resource to help you learn Japanese better. They are often overlooked because… well, they are a bit silly, but I think they are worth a second look.
I’m going to cover a bit of theory here (I promise not too much), and then look at 6 kid’s songs you might use in your studies. The How Now I can see you scratching your heads. How can stupid kid’s songs help me learn Japanese? Right? The basic problems with learning Japanese are pretty well known at this point. The effects of these two problems are so common they almost go without saying: 1) loss of motivation and 2) burn-out. How’s that work, huh? Crazy you say? (If you want to know more about Prof Arguelles and his theories, start with this video on youtube, where he discusses his shadowing approach) Still awake? 6 great Japanese kid’s songs First, Mary had a little lamb. The acorn song! Want more? 5 Step JLPT Study Method Using Japanese Newspapers for Kids. Passing the JLPT at any level requires being able to read some Japanese and of course the best way to learn to read is well….reading stuff.
The problem with reading is that it’s really hard. For most of us below the JLPT Level 1, pulling out a newspaper, book, or magazine in Japanese and just reading and understanding it is next to impossible to do in a reasonable amount of time. To be fair, those newspapers, books, and magazines are written for adults and the JLPT only tests up to a middle school level of language comprehension.
If our Japanese reading level is the same as kids, why not read like one? Using a Japanese newspaper for kids, like Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun above, I developed a 5 step study method designed to increase vocabulary and kanji identification, reading comprehension, and confidence for taking the JLPT! Read the article without any helpful hiraganaIdentify and list unknown wordsIdentify and list unknown kanjiStudy the new listsRe-read the article Dictionaries:
10 Ways to Hack Google to Become an Awesome Japanese Learning Resource. Everyone knows that the GOOG is an incredible resource no matter what you’re doing (Japanese language learning included!). Despite this, there are very few people who know about some really useful features. Some of them “hacks,” some of them just somewhat hidden. Although there are way more than ten ways to use Google for your Japanese learning (you’ll list more in the comments section, right?) , these are my favorite Google “gems” that will help you speed up your Japanese studies in no time. 1. A while back, the Official Google Blog had a really cool post about how to use Google Image Search as a visual dictionary. In English, you just say “penguin,” but in Japanese you would say ペンギン (pengin). “Is it a bird?” And yes, that conversation was totally and completely ripped from the Google blog. 2. Maybe about a year ago, I was trying to remember the verb that went with piano in order to say “play the piano.” 3.
If you’re always looking for cute Japanese cat videos, then this is for you. Jim Breen on the iPhone. I’ve always been a fan of Jim Breen’s Japanese dictionary, so when I found out that there’s an iPhone app out for it, I was really happy. Finally, I don’t have to load the entire Jim Breen page, and now, with the iPhone’s new ability to write in Japanese, all my dirty iPhone dreams would become a mobile reality. The dictionary is the little wwwJDic icon, and yes, huge M’s fan! Looking up Japanese Vocab The first thing I did was look up words, English -> Japanese. I found that it wasn’t always perfect, but neither is the original Jim Breen dictionary, for that matter. Sometimes, the web version requires you to scroll through lists and lists of results. Back to the iPhone version! The iPhone version is quite a bit worse than the real version. Here’s one that did work. I turned “Common Words Only,” since this normally helps the real version of this dictionary come up with more usable search results.
First result was correct! Translating Kanji into English Overall Impressions. Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free. [box type="tick"]Check out Tofugu’s new Japanese Resources Guide! It has the best Japanese resources and reviews for each! It’s also more updated and has more resources than this article! [/box] I’m really proud and excited to announce Tofugu’s first annual “Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free” list, which includes an e-book that’s available for download at the end of the article.
There’s also video down there for all you people who don’t like reading things! Have you ever wondered what was out there in the tubes of the interwebs in terms of improving your Japanese? #10: Twitter Twitter is a micro-blogging service that lets you input up to 140 characters to tell the world (and your friends) “what you are doing right now. . ” #9: Livestation Livestation is a program you can download off the web that allows you to watch live television from anywhere in the world (which of course includes Japanese television) . #6: Rikaichan. How to Study Japanese Over the Summer. Well, it’s that time of year, isn’t it? Some of you are getting out of school for summer break and some of you haven’t had to go to school for decades. Some of you took Japanese classes at school, and some of you are self-taught. Either way, summer makes it really easy not to continue studying your Japanese (or anything, for that matter).
I’ve thought through some tips to keep the study-love going during the lazy season. Don’t take a break This is an easy trap to fall into. Don’t Overdo it! When people get inspired or motivated, they often tend to burn themselves out as well. An Opportunity for Review When you start your “summer studies,” it might be good to take this opportunity to review, especially if you are formally taught Japanese in your school. Have a Little Fun! Pshhhh, it’s summer, enjoy yourself a little. Lang-8: I’ve been pimping Lang-8 for a few weeks now.
Start a Blog (in Japanese): It has never been easier to start a blog. Get Familiar with Culture, Current Events. AKB48′s Newest Member Totally Fake [A Beautiful Frankenstein] A very good looking Frankenstein, though. Meet Aimi Eguchi. She’s the newest member in the Japanese Idol Group AKB48… well, she’s actually kind of like the newest “members.” She’s not a clone, well, sort of. She’s a hybrid of the “best features” of six current AKB48 members. She’s made up of a mouth, a head shape, a nose, eyes, eyebrows, and hair, all from different people. Oh, and did I mention that until today people thought she was real? [yframe url=' When she was added as the newest member, this story got some news. [yframe url=' Then, people found out she wasn’t actually real… All the otaku who fell in love with her were crushed and heartbroken. I don’t think the story here is so much that she’s fake (though that’s pretty cool), I think the interesting part is the technology that went into making someone fake.
[yframe url=' See what you can come up with. Go ahead, create your own idols! Studying Japanese With Subtitles. The 20+ Best Japanese Cat Videos On The Web. Welcome back to another Saturday Timewaster! I hope the next couple hours of your Saturday are clear (otherwise, you’ll need to clear your schedule and cancel that totally unimportant appointment).
This post is all about Japanese cat videos… The best there is on the web (at least in my opinion). This Is Going To Be Tough If I could, there’d be a thousand Japanese cat videos on this blog post. Unfortunately, I have the very important task of cutting down and showing you the best Japanese cat videos on the web. Are you ready to get your time wasted? Famous Cats Let’s start with some famous cats. Maru Arguably the most famous cat in the world, Maru-chan is ridiculously cute and ridiculously popular. [yframe url=' Give Maru a box, and he’ll immediately jump in. [yframe url=' We’re talking any box. [yframe url=' Actually, maybe not any box… [yframe url=' 白ブー It gets worse, though. How to get a Japanese Scholarship. Getting to Japan is expensive. Living in Japan is expensive.
Why not let someone else take care of the monetary part of going to Japan so you can go there for free? There are a lot of people (and governments) just handing out money (I feel like the guy that wears the question-mark suit on those commercials) to help you go to Japan and other places as well. Whether you’re looking to grab some scholarships to go to Japan, college, or some other country, these tips could be applicable to you (but even more applicable to those going to Japan). Scholarships to Japan First off, I’m not going to tell you where to find these scholarships. That changes all the time and I can’t track that. What you need to do to get a Japanese Scholarship To be honest, you don’t need to do that much. Learn some Japanese: It looks good if you’ve studied a little bit of Japanese. Some things to say on your Japanese scholarship essay Just to break all this text up, here’s a video for you: What would you add?
Cat Island, Japan. It’s Like That “Cat Lady,” But An Entire Island. Post. Tofugu.com - Wonky Japanese Language and Culture.