Article written by our contributor Jason Cohen. He has a master’s degree in Japanese language and worked in a variety of unique fields as a multi-cultural consultant and as a translator. Jason will explain to us the differences between Japanese and English in his point of view.

Harvest and BBQ tour – Visiting an Organic farm in Chiba Growing and selling of organic vegetables as “safe edible vegetables” has lately become very popular in Japan. With the help of Ms. Tsukada at Vegelink who does delivery service of organic vegetables from farmers to private parties , we visited the farm of Mr. […]

Have you seen those boats that look like houseboats floating on the Sumida River or Tokyo Bay? In Japanese they are called “屋形船 yakatabune.” The kanji characters mean a boat that is shaped like a roof, and they are boats with on-board facilities to hold eating and drinking parties. (日本語の記事はアルバムの下をご覧ください） What is “Yakatabune 屋形船” A […]

In our fifth interview, we asked Mr.Ajay, who came to Japan in January 2014 and took the Coto intensive course for four months, about his improvements in Japanese and how his everyday life has changed.

{Join Local Japanese Festival in Iidabashi!} Summer in Japan means festival time! A street normally filled with the coming and going of cars and people is closed off just for this day and filled with festival stands. Walk around with unique festival foods and enjoy scenes only viewable on festival days. Festivals were originally held […]

This time we talked to Nadine from Belgium who has worked in Japan for five years, and who is now married and has a seven month old baby with a Japanese man. We asked how she managed her time studying Japanese and how improving her Japanese completely revolutionized her life in Japan.

Erika came to Japan from Peru in 2003 and has since been studying Japanese while working and trying to advance her career. We asked her how her Japanese has developed since she started lessons with Coto (formerly ILS).

  Learning the NuancesPractice & ExamplesGoing Further… Did you know that both “wakarimasen” or “shirimasen” can be used to say “I don’t know” depending on the situation? Take a look at the examples below to find out when to use each phrase! Learning the Nuances “Shirimasen” can be used to simply convey that you don’t […]