Writing your address in Japanese is essential for living in Japan, from completing administrative procedures at the Japanese city hall to using postal services. The first thing you might notice about Japanese addresses is that they start with the largest unit (region/city) and end with the smallest (street name). So, in order to write an […]

Finding an apartment or a place to live is essential if you want to live in Japan; however, you will need to know some essential Japanese phrases to get the place you want. If you plan to live in Japan, apartments are among the cheapest and most readily available options, but they can be a […]

The first thing you’ll do when you arrive in Japan is get something to eat, but there’s one problem: how do you actually order food in Japanese at a restaurant?

Ever heard the seemingly endless stream of slang from kids born after 2010 and wondered what the Japanese equivalent of Gen Alpha slang sounds like? Recently, Gen Alpha slang has been taking the internet by storm, so you might need to learn it to keep up with your friends and interact with Japanese digital spaces. […]

Many people are surprised to learn that Japanese hand gestures don’t always mean what they expect — and in some cases, they mean the exact opposite of a similar gesture back home. Body language might seem more universal than spoken language, but it’s still shaped by culture, and Japan has plenty of its own unique […]

Interested in someone at the office, at university, or at your local bar, but don’t know how to flirt in Japanese? Or maybe you just want to make your friend groan with a cheesy one-liner. Either way, you might be wondering: do pick-up lines even work in Japanese? It takes confidence to ask someone out, […]

Have you ever been stuck in a situation where you wanted to compliment someone, but didn’t know how to express it naturally in Japanese? Knowing how to homeru (褒める) — the Japanese word for “to praise” or “to compliment” — is one of the simplest ways to make friends and form genuine connections. But getting […]

In Japan, you might run into plenty of situations where you will need to say “I don’t understand,” especially if you’re just starting to learn Japanese. The most common and straightforward way to say “I don’t understand” in Japanese is わからない (wakaranai) in casual speech, or わかりません (wakarimasen) in its polite form. But Japanese actually […]