Japanese winter customs In Japan with its four seasons, there are many customs that are particular to each season and they differ from area to area. The food and plants that grow in this season and the nutritional needs of our bodies during the winter are part of the reasons behind the customs. In this Japanese language learning blog, which features a video and vocabulary list, Oosawa sensei, a...

Traditional Japanese New Year Cuisine Osechi cuisine is a traditional Japanese New Year food which has its beginnings in the Heian Period. It is loaded with symbolism and contents vary from prefecture to prefecture in Japan. Sakude sensei is a Japanese teacher at Japonin(JOI), and lives in Osaka. She introduces this wonderfully colorful and cultural Japanese cuisine or Washoku in this Japanese l...

A language blog for learners of Japanese This blog is a weekly blog from Japonin(JOI), Japanese online school. Each week, one of the Japonin(JOI) Japanese teachers writes an article about things that interest them and observations about Japanese culture, food, seasons and attractions. This week, Yatabe sensei writes a story about one thing that she finds interesting in her neighborhood. You can...

Seasonal food in Japan Japan with its four seasons has a variety of seasonal food. And Japanese cuisine or Washoku is largely dependent on the change of ingredients as the temperatures and weather change. In this blog for people who are trying to learn Japanese, is a great way for students of the Japanese language to read and listen to natural Japanese and Kinoi sensei introduces her view of aut...

Shopping in Japan In a typical Japanese shopping district you can find the usual supermarkets, clothing stores and alcohol stores along side the ubiquitous convenient stores. But the type of shop introduced here by Japanese teacher Itaya sensei in this Japanese learners' blog, might be one of the most useful type of shop in Japan. Itaya sensei reads the blog in fluent and natural Japanese, so p...