Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (よろしくお願いします) is one of those quintessential Japanese words that is highly ingrained into the culture but very difficult to translate to English.

A foreigner’s guide to Japanese honorific, humble and polite forms.

You’ve probably learned the Japanese word ちょっと (chotto), but did you know it can be used for almost any situation? While most people learn ちょっと as meaning “a little,” it actually has a much wider variety of uses for different contexts.  As we dive into how ちょっと is actually used in Japanese conversation, we will […]

In Japanese, you can say Happy New Year with various expressions, so let’s get familiar with a few phrases.

If you’ve been to Japan long enough, you’ve likely run into nanpa, or the act of trying to pick up strangers in Japanese…

Have you ever wanted to ask someone you are romantically interested in out on a date in Japan? The most straightforward way to do so in Japanese is デートしませんか (Deeto shimasen ka), which means “Would you like to go on a date?” While this is technically correct, you might notice that not a lot of […]

In Japan, streets are not named but have numbers – with the exception of the main roads. Thus, finding your way around the cities can be challenging.

Have you heard of yoji jukugo? Piece of cake, break the ice, and cut corners – these are all short idioms we use all the time, and in Japan, they have something similar called 四字熟語 (yojijukugo). A yojijukugo is a Japanese phrase consisting of four kanji. Just like in English, yojijukugo are very popular since […]