Well, maybe it’s more frustration with the English numbers than infatuation with the Japanese.
My sister has a house that she is currently not living in. She kept the electricity on, but turned the AC very low and turned off everything else. After the first month she told me her electric bill was [...]

Very often I get emails asking how to do such and such with Japanese on the computer or where can I buy a keyboard with all 2000 kanji so I can type in Japanese, etc. I just got one (more former than latter) and thought, “You know, I should just write a blog post [...]

FREE WEB BUILDING TOOLS
I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on software specifically for building websites or working with web images. While I am certainly not ready to give up my Adobe Photoshop or Dreamweaver, I’ve been experimenting with open source or freeware software since I bought my laptop. I would have to uninstall Photoshop [...]

This morning I was listening to the radio.  The announcer who apparently didn’t have better things to talk about asked callers to call in with how to say ‘hello’ in other languages.  I had just turned on the radio when I heard a woman say:
“OHIO is hello in Chinese. Just like the state.”
A few seconds [...]

I’m working on a new project to compile useful beginner grammatical patterns eventually with sound and a little interaction.
Here is the first one.  Since the formating is large than the theme on this blog, you may want to download the PDF here:
http://www.1nichi1kai.com/download/4/

休(やす)んだほうがいい 。
yasunda hou ga ii
It would be better to rest.

(Informal Past Verb) + [...]

Upon completing the Hiragana PDF eBook, I thought I should have some sort of download manager program to manage the downloads. I found one here for WordPress. After struggling with the database (my server is still MySQL v4 and required a little extra code to get it to work), it is up and [...]

I’ve spent all morning compiling a new (and free) eBook based on our theJapanesePage.com Hiragana lessons. My eyes are a bit tired and I will have to leave the house soon, but I thought I should throw it up here for any comments and corrections. I will go through it again later [...]

There is an immutable law often felt more strongly than gravity called Murphy’s Law. If you have ever wondered how to say this law in Japanese, well, here you go:
“IF ANYTHING CAN GO WRONG IT WILL.”
Japanese: 失敗する可能性のあるものは、失敗する。
Romaji: shippai suru kanousei no aru mono wa, shippai suru
Lit. meaning: failing + possibility’s [...]

The new ad program WidgetBucks has been getting a lot of buzz—both the good kind and bad. (but who was it who said ‘any publicity is good publicity’?)
Some people have complained about being kicked out of the program (presumably for violating the T&Cs). Others have complained they haven’t actually received a penny, but from [...]

I may have mentioned the town we live in has a Japanese population of one—including my wife.
But there is a thriving community, apparently, in Orlando. A Japanese teacher emailed me about a Japan Festival in Orlando coming up next month. We may try to go down for it. She gave me a [...]