If you’re planning on visiting Japan, you should make the trip twice! Once in the spring to experience the cherry blossoms, and again in autumn to witness the beautiful sight of the tree leaves turning red (momiji)! While cherry blossoms symbolize new life and fresh beginnings, momiji, written as 紅葉, marks the start of the […]

Hiragana, katakana, and kanji make up the Japanese writing system. When you start learning Japanese, figuring out how to read and write can feel overwhelming; after all, Japanese is completely different from the Roman alphabet! You then learn that there are three different writing systems used all at once. How is that even possible? Not […]

Sports and Health Day in Japan is more closely associated with exercise, the community and healthy-eating, but is there anything else we should pay attention to?

Did you know the Japanese language makes more use of passive language than English? Read about how to use the Japanese passive voice here!

Congratulations! Whether it’s something you’ve achieved or a win for someone you care about, celebrating life’s big and small moments is a universal experience. Acknowledging these moments verbally is just as important. The most common way to say “congratulations” in Japanese is おめでとう (omedetou). But just like in English, there are many other ways to […]

Welcome to Coto Radio, a Japanese learning podcast by Coto Japanese Academy, Japan’s No. 1 Japanese language school. Each episode, our host combines captivating storytelling with engaging conversations, all delivered in clear, natural Japanese. Japan is known for many great things: fresh food at convenience stores, high-tech bidet toilets, and an amazing transportation system. Cheap […]

Japanese horror are not just cheap thrills but are some of the most influential movies ever made from Godzilla to cinematic masterpieces.

As summer humidity fades and fireworks and matsuri festivals come to an end, Tokyo enters one of its most enchanting seasons: autumn. While spring’s cherry blossoms often steal the limelight, the city’s fall foliage, known as momiji, offers a quieter, equally mesmerizing beauty. From brilliant crimson maples to golden ginkgo trees, the changing leaves transform […]