Blogs edited and submitted by Chiho Kamioka

Wasai : The Art of Making Kimono For formal occassions, Japanese people usually wear kimonos. The word Kimono actually just means 'something to wear' but, these garments have become an art form and a form of fashion stretching over a long history and culture. Yanaka sensei is a Japanese teacher at JOI online school, and she explains the tools used in Wasai, the art of kimono-making. Yanaka sense...

Japanese counter words When you are learning Japanese for the first time, one of the things that you first stumble upon is the variety of counter words. As you progress to learn more advanced Japanese, these words just seem to increase. The words often change grammatically depending on the numbers proceeding them, and they can alter according to the size or shape of the thing being counted. Lear...

Listen to fluent Japanese JOI Japanese online school publishes this blog written by professional Japanese teachers, every week. You can learn Japanese vocabulary and listen to fluent Japanese by watching the video. The making and reading of the video was also done by Imoto sensei too, so please listen to the way she tells about her experience and practice your Japanese listening. It is an amusi...

Japanese Manga Japanese Manga is a style of art that has grown steadily since the mid 20th century. There are many Manga artists that have become national figures in Japan. And almost everyone seems to have their favorite artists and writers. . Some Manga are written for children, but there are also a surprisingly wide range of comic books for adults as well. In this blog for Japanese learners,...

Place names in Japan There are many place names in Japan that although they are not strictly in the area, borrow the names of their more famous neighbors in their titles. This is often seen in buildings that are near famous parks or neighborhoods that use the famous names in their titles, although they are not strictly in or even near to that area. In this blog from Japanese teacher Yukiko Takan...