todays schedule: take pictures of Japanese appliances (air conditioning control - so we can turn it off )0 and washer/dryer (unit does both) email our absent hosts so that they can tell us how they work. Download Gimp in the process to make labels for all the buttons in photos.
Exchange JR pass vouchers
Do laundry.
Research Kyoto hostels and reserve space.

First day and a quarter

Wow! First time off the continent! Everyone is short and everything is written in Japanese. We are getting better at finding cheap food. We successfully found our way to the Friday Night Magic location, but I misread 20:00 as 6:00 so we got there so early that no one was there. We seem to constantly have just barely enough information to function. It is intense and invigorating (and I am sure at the end of my energy exhausting) to be here. There are many shrines and parks. I am really interested in learning Japanese now. But I will be a humble correspondent for those who are not with us.
The Tokyo part of this trip has been hugely facilitated by Diana Kes who has hosted us, fed us and helped us find our way around - all without never having met us before. Diana and her husband, Jacob connected with us through Dabney House (where Jacob and I lived at Caltech, but 20 years apart) She took an hour train ride to meet us at the airport. We spent a long time trying to hook up with wireless service before going through Customs because, never having travelled out of North America in my 51 years, I did not know that I needed to have a Japanese address handy for Customs and Immigration. So 20 minutes later of working through slow airport wi-fi we had her address off my gmail. Diana is also an American (Chicana to be more precise). It was amazing taking the train back through rural Japan before we got into the Tokyo suburbs. There were ride paddies and bamboo everywhere (I guess that I should have expected this). In all, I got maybe two hours of sleep before the 13 hour flight()and five the night before) and one hour on the flight
Then we dropped our bags off and Diana took us someplace to get ramen. The dish to the left was 880 Yen. You see pork, seaweed,　ごまとまご　（sesame egg - sesame: goma, tomago: egg) with scallions and grapefruit rind in the center . This was a push for me to eat as I am practically afraid of boiled eggs. It was fishy tasting (bonito flakes I assume).

We are staying in the Shinbashi District. This is an older financial center and so has been a high rent district for a long time so we go to be in two parks and two shrines today in randomly wandering and see things on maps to walk to.
Our first outing was to Atago Shrine across the street (you can see part of the word Atago on the menu in the first picture). There were steps as steep as the Hundred Steps in Fairmount Park

No JR Pass

I found out that I need to get my JR pass earlier than the day before I leave.
train schedule http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/e-norikeyin.html
http://www.hyperdia.com/
just to get an idea of our necessary travel:
Tokyo - Nagoya
On board for 103 minutes (Traveling for 103 minutes)
One-way fare:10,070 yen Distance:366.0 km
Nagoya-Kyoto
On board for 120 minutes (Traveling for 133 minutes)
One-way fare:2,520 yen Distance:147.6 km
Kyoto-Hiroshima
On board for 96 minutes (Traveling for 102 minutes)
One-way fare:10,280 yen Distance:380.6 km
Hiroshima-Tokyo
On board for 154 minutes (Traveling for 209 minutes)
One-way fare:32,890 yen

give 111520 yen for the both of us. I think I will eat the $70 for Fed Ex to Japan. I had a friend listen to me and I decided to move my Tokyo-Nagoya travel plans from Tuesday to Thursday to give my passes time to arrive.

finally some decisions

we will get JR passes from 6/7 to 6/21.
Miyajima on the 20 (sleep in Hiroshima)
Arrive Hiroishima on June 18.
Arrive Kyoto June 13 (sleep in Kyoto 13-17)
Now ot make this happen.

Sentance enders

そうですよ - It is so! rendered into an assertion by ending with よ. Use そうです and そうですか？ alot.
ね at end of a sentence gives it a sense of reflection or agreement
ね at the end of a sentence with a rising inflection gives a sense of asking for agreement.
よね with rising inflection gives asking for agreement and asserting.
ね means hey! or yo!
The sentence ender の adds emphasis or acts as a question (this all depends on your tone – upward tone is a question, downward tone is a statement – you know how to do this). Might be feminine.

のよ

This is a combination of the sentence ender の and よ, which you learned earlier.

みんな　がくせい　なのよ
Everyone is a student

The の adds emphasis and the よ makes the sentence an assertion. You may have noticed the な in there as well. This is added in here to make sure people don’t think you’re saying “it’s everyone’s student’s ….” You don’t want people to think you’re talking about something the student is in possession of.

のね

This is a combination of の and ね, which you also learned earlier.

みんな　がくせい　なのね！
Everyone is a student (aren’t they?)

The の adds emphasis to the statement, and the ね adds agreement to the sentence. Basically what you’d expect when you add these two sentence enders together.

わ

The sentence ender わ softens the sentence. It makes it sound more “female” in a way, because feminine language is thought to be softer, kinder, and gentler.

わよ

When you combine the sentence enders わ and よ you are not only adding an assertion, you’re making it sound “softer” as well.

わね

As you can probably guess, adding わ and ね to the end of a sentence adds “agreement” or “reflection” to your sentence, plus you’re making it sound softer and more feminine.

かしら

This sentence ender adds a sense of “wonder” to a sentence or phrase. As in… “I wonder if he is Japanese?” The か is the question marker, so it’s like you’re asking yourself a question.

かれ　は　にほんじん　かしら？
I wonder if he is Japanese?

When using かしら you’ll want to drop the です.
Hint: If you remember の, わ, and かしら, you’ll be able to figure out the rest (as long as you know ね and よ).

Masculine

ぞ

ぞ is a lot like よ in that it indicates assertion, though it’s a bit more casual. It’s used with casual form (which you won’t learn until the beginning of Season 3) so you’ll have to take what you can out of the example for this one and just know what ぞ does (even if you don’t understand the example).

ぜんぶ　たべたぞ！
I ate it all!

ぞ is fairly positive sounding – the next sentence ender not so much.

ぜ

ぜ and ぞ are very similar, it’s mainly the feeling that’s different. In general, it’s not very polite (so you shouldn’t use it with people you don’t know really well) and it’s a bit more forceful (remember, in Japanese, more forceful = less polite). As long as you know this is a less polite version of ぞ, you’ll be fine.

かい

かい has the same usage as か (the question marker), except it’s more masculine. It’s actually considered to be a little gentler sounding than か. This is also used with casual form, so if you don’t understand the example, that’s okay. Just make sure you understand what it does (if you understand か, then you understand this).

ぜんぶ　たべたかい？
Did you eat it all?

かな／かなぁ

かな is the masculine version of the feminine かしら. For this, you’re actually combining question marker か and な (which adds some uncertainty to what you’re saying).

すし　を　たべたかなぁ。。。
I wonder if I ate the sushi…?

Counting in Japanese/how much/money

Counting up to 99,999 is rather simple.
number |place value|one's
so 23456 = 2|10,000|3|1,000|4|100|5|10|6
100 = ひゃく
1,000 = せん (in combination with other numbers)
10,000 = まん (in combination with other numbers)

100,000 = じゅうまん (10+10,000)

1,000,000 = ひゃくまん (100+10,000)

10,000,000 = いっせんまん (1,000 + 10,000)

If you want to do 100,000,000 (that’s 100 million), you’d use the word おく (億).

100,000,000 = いちおく

1,000,000,000 = じゅうおく

10,000,000,000 = ひゃくおく

100,000,000,000 = いっせんおく

There are some exceptions:
when 4 is used a number (not the one's) it is よん
when 7 is used as a number (not the ones) use なな
300 = さんびゃく
600 = ろっぴゃく
800 = はっぴゃく
1,000 = いっせん
8,000 = はっせん
10,000 = いちまん

これ　は　いくら　ですか？　＝　How much is this? or As for this, how much is it?

“yen” is えん (円). Just add えん onto a number, and voilà! You have yourself a price. Let’s look at some examples.

1,000えん = せんえん

Possisives

As an anarchist-communist parent, I tortured my syntax when talking to my baby about possession. We were walking through my housemates room at age two. "Jessica uses this room and has it set up in a way that works for her. It is not fair to rearrange the stuff in this room while she is using it without her permission." I wonder how they would do that in Japanese.
These examples should do it:

これ　は　わたし　の　えんぴつ　です。

This is my pencil

それ　は　ひとみさん　の　くるま　です。
That is Hitomi’s car.
あれ　は　わたしたち　の　じてんしゃ　でした。
That over there was our bicycle.
The の particle adds possession as a postfix to nouns or pronouns.
There is lot here: vocab for this/that/that over there/I/we/you

Nagoya Hostels

Nagoya Guesthouse Otohaya

http://www.hostels.com/hostels/nagoya/nagoya-guesthouse-otohaya/47774
http://www.otohaya.com/eng/ - their English does not seem so good.
2.3 mile along main road. Late check-in with notice. Bike rental for 7 hours(?)
$225/$306 common vs private
map from guesthouse to PT:
http://bit.ly/jnrOd9

Oshu Plaza
slightly closer and more expensive (32 vs 28/ night)
http://goo.gl/maps/3zt3
note that it is not along a major road (highway?) to get to PT

Hostel Ann - http://hostelann.com/eng_index.aspx
1.9 miles away
map http://goo.gl/maps/GHXN
$32 night, late check in, all day bike.
I think that we will be staying at Hostel Ann

name suffixes

I've been quite recently. I have never been a great note-taker. I was suggested to add this part:

さん

This is the standard “name-ender.” You pretty much can’t go wrong with this one. If you’re not sure, use さん.

〜くん（君）

This name-ender is mostly used on younger men (even younger adults). When you’re an equal with someone, or higher rank than someone (this could be age, position, etc), and you’re talking to a guy, くん is a viable option. Then again, if you’re meeting someone for the first time or you don’t know someone very well, it’s always safer to stick with さん, even if you are older / higher ranking than someone. You’ll also see くん being thrown around to kids and boyfriends, too (because girlfriends are our bosses, you know?).

I would never use this since I hate rank, but hey, I bend over to talk to toddlers so I am not towering over.

〜ちゃん

This is mainly for girls or young children. It’s pretty affectionate in a “you’re my kid / little sis” kind of way. You’ll also see it being used with people who have known each other for a really long time (or just know each other really well). When using ちゃん, a lot of times names will be shortened too. For example, my name (こういち) is shortened to こう so that people can say こうちゃん. As a rule of thumb, you’ll usually want to shorten someone’s name to one or two syllables. Basically, you just need to choose something that sounds good. There are lots of set shortenings as well – you’ll just have to see enough of them to be able to do this easily yourself.

I could say Ro-chan or Robin-chan to my son.

〜せんせい（先生）

せんせい means “teacher,” so whenever you’re talking to your teacher you’d attach this to their name (preferably their last name). Maybe you’d call me こういちせんせい? You’ll also hear せんせい being used with doctors as well, maybe because they think they’re all that.

〜せんぱい（先輩）

This is somewhat similar to せんせい, except it’s for peers who are higher (level, rank, grade, what-have-you). You might add this to the end of someone’s name who is a grade or two ahead of you in school, or more skilled at you in some kind of trade, like woodworking, for example. Don’t confuse this one with せんせい. This is more like a hierarchy / relationship between students and people who are not the teacher.

Getting discouraged on learning vocabulary. Learning grammar and Kanji is going fine.

I finally got to make a sensible statement in Japanese! This morning, Susan said to the cat "you little monkey" I said いいえ さあ じゃありません.ねこ です.
This means "No, it is not a monkey. It is a cat." *pleased*

Checklist for Season 1 part 1

Here is a list of what I need to do to finish the first third of textfugu season 1 (of four). It boils down to finsihing one more worksheet (easy concept, just using desu). I liked doing the combo worksheet because my yo and re were not so good. To go beyond this point you need to subscibe, it is $20/month or $120 forever. I think I will do the forever at the end of this month.

1. Teaching Yourself Japanese

Figure out why you’re learning Japanese and write it down d'uh - going to Japan and its been "fun" and gaining respect for humans who speak all languages not just English

Say “hello” in the TextFugu Forums - to do when I have a question

Think of (and prevent) future excuses that can hold you back - I spend my whole life working on this crap

Set up a study area not really possible

Tell someone you’re studying Japanese to keep you accountable told many

Create a Japanese Language Learning Log QED

2. The Japanese “Alphabets”

Know what “romaji” is and how it’s used done

Know what hiragana is and how it’s used done

Know what katakana is and how it’s used done

Know what kanji is and (generally) how it’s used done

Know what the four Japanese alphabets are (can you name them?) done

3. Japanese Pronunciation With Hiragana

Download: Hiragana Chart (PDF) done

Know what the “magical hiragana pattern” is and know how to pronounce the first five hiragana characters done

Be able to recognize the “weird hiragana exceptions” done

Know how to pronounce all the main hiragana characters done

Know how to pronounce the dakuten hiragana characters (and know what dakuten are) done

Know how to pronounce the “combination hiragana” characters done

4. Reading And Writing Hiragana

Know how to piece various hiragana characters together to form simple words done

Download and install Anki done

List: Hiragana With Audio (Anki)done

Know how to read all the hiragana characters done

Know how to write all the hiragana characters done

Understand how long vowels work done

Understand how small “tsu” works done

5. Studying Your Passion

Download: Passion Chart (PDF) done

Research your “Passion Words” in Japanese and write them down on your “Passion Chart” (above) done (what a pain!)

Know how to use Jisho.org done

Create a “Passion Study List” on Anki done

6. Japanese Grammar With Yoda

Know how Yoda talks, you must. done

Be able to pronounce です properly done

Know how to form _____です sentences done

Download: です Practice + Hiragana Worksheet (PDF) done

Be able to complete the です Practice + Hiragana Worksheet do 4-14

I have made some progress, I feel pretty good about Hiragana both reading and writing. I need to do the worksheet on combos but the nice thing about combos is that the second kana is small so you know it is a combo, then you just sound it out kinda.
I made my passion list of words about hiking and climbing. I have found it hard to learn these. I have iwayama (mountain) and sandoo (trail) kyanpingu (camping) and ryukkusakku (backpack). I hope I can increase my learning rate.
I am also poised to start learning two-stroke kanji radicals.
はい - hai! yes
いいえ - iie - no
です it is
じゃありません it is not

か interrogative at the end of sentence

さくらですか?

いいえ,さくら じゃありません
みかんです
Is it a cherry blossom?
No, it is not.
It is a tangerine

I can recognize all 46 Hiragana kana, the 25 Datuken and 36 combinations! Now I need to learn some vocab and grammer!

New goal: attend Japanese-English conversation starting Sunday April 17. I should have Hiragana down by then as well as a vocabulary of 20 words about my passion hiking and climbing, as well as some sense of grammar.

Begin Studying Hiragana

Hiragana is easy to write from Romaji, the syllables just transliterate into kana. The is is multimedia flash card program called Anki that I will be using. It lets you go through a set of flash cards and give each card a proficiency so that you see the things you know least well the most often until you get it down. It also has sounds.
Below is my list of things to do to learn Hiragana, hopefully I can get through this by next weekend (4/2):

First 10 Hiragana: あいうえお、かきくけこ

1. Study your first ten hiragana using Anki – あ、い、う、え、お、か、き、く、け、こ. One thing you’ll want to do from here on out is to delete whatever you put under “Session Limit (Questions)” within the timeboxing tab (if you don’t know what this is, go back to the previous page). You need to do this because it will also now be giving you items to review, depending on how you did. You’ll want to study on Anki until you reach the kana こ. Think of it as part of your training to watch out for this kana (you’ll probably end up learning it in the process). After you answer こ, stop studying on Anki and move on to the next step.

2. Go to Drag n’ Drop Hiragana, and only drag the first ten hiragana (a-column and ka-column) into the right spaces. By only doing these ones, you’ll have to find the right hiragana amongst all the other hirgana (helping you differentiate them) and secondly force you to remember what they look like. Try this twice (refresh to restart) and see if you can do it faster the second time!

3. After you feel so-so about the first 10 kana on Anki / Drag n’ Drop, it’s time to put some of that into practice. Complete this worksheet and try to cheat as little as possible.

First 10 Hiragana Practice

This is my commenting color. I did the above and only missed three out of 38 on the hiragana to romaji part. I missed only one on the roamji to hiragana. I had the disturbing feeling that I was remembering the hiragana by column. So I would try to come up with the hiragana for e and I would need to go through a,i,u before I could remember e. I am not sure that I will be able to change the representation of them in order in my mind, hopefully when I learn more kana I will not be able to use this strategy

Hiragana 11-20: さしすせそ、たちつてと

Of course, it’s important that you review the kana you just studied while you’re learning your new kana, so we’ll make sure to do that here.

1. Start by writing out the ten kana that you know and try to do it from memory (starting with あ and ending with こ). I’ve even created a worksheet for you to make it easy. Start in the top left corner, and write (horizontally) あ, い, う, え, お in the boxes provided. Then, go to the next row and put in か, き, く, け, こ. If you have to, feel free to use your hiragana chart to help you (but try not to!).

Personal Kana Sheet

The hard part of this is keeping the cat from trying to get at the mouse it thinks that it hears in the inkjet printer

2. Now write out the ten new kana (sa-column and ta-column). These are the kana you’re about to study. Notice there’s a “dakuten” section to the right. You can ignore that for now. From your “Personal Kana Sheet” pinpoint four new kana you think you can learn and recognize (right now). They have to be kana you don’t know, but they can come from anywhere in the first twenty kana. Perhaps they have a shape that’s easy to remember, or perhaps something just sticks. The important thing is you try to learn to recognize four new kana right now before moving on to the flashcard part. You don’t have to be able to write them, just recognize.

さ- sa this is a mirror image of chi, the curve at the bottom is like the top of the s in s (I figured that with my dyslexia it would be good to learn the difference between these mirror images now), し- shi, つ- tsu, て-te the rest of these shapes are all very simple and have the two exceptions in these columns to the sound construction rules

3. Go ahead and open Anki back up again and start up the hiragana list. If you haven’t had to already, you’ll might have to tell it to “review early” (since it tries to tell you when to study things). That’s fine if you do, it won’t hurt anything (as long as you aren’t moving faster than you can learn). It’ll review the kana you didn’t know too well before, and then move on to the new kana. Stop studying when you reach the kana と (to). Once again, take advantage of looking out for it and learn the kana while doing so.

I have not been able to get Anki to give me the cards I want (or more properly only the cards that I want). So I printed out the Hiragana on Avery labels and made old fashioned flash cards.

4. Visit RealKana and check the four columns of hiragana that you know already.

Click on the katakana tab, and make sure everything here is unchecked. You don’t want to be learning katakana quite yet.

If you’re feeling adventurous, click on the “Options” tab and check all the different fonts. Just like English, there are different fonts and writing styles out there. Some things are slightly different depending on the font, and this is one way to get used to a lot of the different things out there.

Now, use Realkana to go through the first 20 hiragana characters until you feel comfortable with them (i.e. you can recognize all of them). Even better if you can do it with all the different fonts, too.

3/30/11 - The nerds among you will appreciate that I was able to learn す(su, one of the last of the first 20 Hiragana that I was able to memorize) by finally saying, oh, yeah that means super user.

3/30/11 - Wow! doing realkana with all the fonts turned on was really useful. One thing about the program is that it never ends, or at 300 it had not ended!

5. After you feel fairly decent about the first twenty kana (especially the new stuff) complete this worksheet to really solidify that knowledge, and practice writing them.

First 20 Hiragana Practice

3/30/11 - got all the Hiragana ->t; Romaji correct. Had the right idea on all the Romaji -> hiragana. I got to practice some letter. I feel good about being here.

Hiragana 21-30: なにぬねの、はひふへほ

You’re actually past the halfway point for the “main” hiragana now! Just keep going, you’re making good progress!

1. Write down your ten new hiragana on your “Personal Kana Sheet” with the other hiragana, so you can have them for reference. Choose two of them from each set of five (na-column and ha-column) and try to remember what they are. Just like last time, all you need to be able to do is recognize them. Once you think you can recognize four of them, move on to the next step.

2. Open up Anki, and complete the next ten hiragana, up to ほ. You’ll have some review from previous kana too, which is good. Make sure you’re honest with yourself in terms of what you can and can’t recognize!

3. After feeling okay about the next ten, complete this work sheet, which helps you practice reading and writing the individual kana.

First 30 Hiragana Practice

Finished the worksheet above 12:30 AM 4-2-11. Still on schedule to finish Hiragana before next Friday.

4. Visit RealKana and check the six columns of hiragana that you know already. Click on the katakana tab and uncheck anything that’s checked (you don’t want to learn katakana yet). Finally, try out the different hiragana fonts under “Options.” Now, hit the practice tab and go through the practice a few times, until you feel good about reading this kana (you should be pretty good, by this point, actually!).

Early afternoon 4-2-11. I feel pretty good about these for thirty. The multiple fonts practice in Real Kana is awesome. IT give me a sense of what is crucial the identity of the kana and what is just style. I do think that the display might be too short for some of the kana; there is a sa that looks cut off by half. It would be nice to actually see the fonts.

Hiragana 31-46: まみむめも、やゆよ、らりるれろ、わを、ん

You’re almost there! In terms of the “main” hiragana, this is the last of it. After this, you’re just learning things you already kind of know (like dakuten and combo hiragana), which means you’re pretty much all the way there. Just a few loose ends to tie up after this.

1. Write down your new hiragana on your piece of paper, along with the romaji, for reference. Pick out five new kana you think you can recognize and try to memorize them right now (don’t spend much time). Just pick the five easiest shapes and try to be able to associate the sound with them. When you think you can recognize five new kana, move on to the next step.

4-2-11 3:00 I recognize these seven: まめもよられん

2. Start up Anki and study until it gets you to ん. When you get to ん, stop and move on to the next step.

3. Go to RealKana, and this time only check columns な, は, ま, や, ら, & ん. You’re learning more this round, so I want you to focus it a little more on recent kana. Here’s an image to show you what to check (make sure you uncheck the katakana columns in the katakana tab too, if you need to).

Go through these a couple of times until you feel comfortable with them.

4. Complete this worksheet, which focuses on ま through ん columns.

Hiragana ま – ん

5. Head on back to Drag n’ Drop Hiragana. In theory, you should be able to complete the puzzle now (rather than just little bits of it). How fast can you get it done? Record your times and see if you can get done in under three minutes. If you’re really good, you might be able to get it done in under two, but don’t fret if you can’t.

Dakuten: がぎぐげご、ざじずぜぞ、だぢづでど、ばびぶべぼ、ぱぴぷぺぽ

In theory, these should be easier than what we’ve been doing so far. You already know the main characters (which dakuten use) and all you have to do is know what little symbol to put next to them (hint: usually it’s a quotation mark). That being said, I’m going to give you more things than normal to study in this section. You should be better at studying hiragana by now, and you should also know the symbols above (minus the dakuten part). I won’t say this section is easy, but it should be easier than before.

1. Start up Anki and go through the dakuten hiragana. Don’t remember what dakuten are? You can get a refresher, here. You’ll want to stop when you get to ぽ (po).

2. Complete this worksheet. This worksheet’s goal is to help you remember what a column will change to when dakuten are added to it. Focus more on remembering that “S” goes to “Z” or “T” goes to “D” rather than focusing on individual kana themselves.

Dakuten Practice

3. On RealKana, let’s practice dakuten hiragana as well as the original kana from which the dakuten came. Check the か, さ, た, は, が, ざ, だ, ば, & ぱ columns. Here’s an image to illustrate:

Make sure you uncheck any katakana columns that might be checked as well. Go through the drills like this until you feel pretty comfortable telling them apart. Can you write them out on your own now? If I said things like…

What do “K-sounds” turn into? Answer (mouseover) →

“G-Sounds”

What do “H-sounds” turn into (two answers here) Answer (mouseover) →

“B & P Sounds”

What do “D-sounds” turn back into? Answer (mouseover) →

“T-Sounds”

What do “Z-sounds” turn back into? Answer (mouseover) →

“S-Sounds”

“S-Sounds”

Could you answer all these questions? If not, be sure to drill RealKana a little bit more so you can learn the differences. Really, just learning these differences is the secret to learning dakuten, so if you can do that, you can do dakuten!

Combination Hiragana: きゃ、しゃ、ちゃ、にゃ、ひゃ、みゃ、りゃ、ぎゃ、じゃ、ぢゃ、びゃ、&　ぴゃ Columns

You probably remember a little bit about “combo-hiragana” from the last chapter. It might not have made too much sense at that point, but now we’re going to actually see it and use it in action. Sometimes, certain kana can be written smaller. When placed next to another kana, it can modify the way it sounds. Don’t worry, though, because the modifications actually make a lot of sense. For example:

き + small ゃ = きゃ (which sounds like kya). It’s almost like saying KIYA, but you drop the “i” sound.

び + small ゅ = びゅ (which sounds like byu). It’s just like BIYA, but you drop the “i” sound.

し + small ょ = しょ (which sounds like sho). It’s like SHIYO, but you drop the “i” sound.

You’ll understand better when you start using the flashcards, too (since they have audio). There are other combo hiragana as well, though you’ll learn about them more when you move on to katakana. For now, though, it’s pretty easy and straight forward, I think.

1. Fire up your good ol’ buddy Anki, and go through all the combination hiragana. This should take you through to the very end of the hiragana deck. You should know all the characters being used at this point (even in the combo hiragana), so use this opportunity to review as well. Be honest with what you did and didn’t know, too, because when you finish this deck, there will still be review for you to finish, depending on what you clicked.

2. Now let’s practice writing them. Remember, the やゆよ for these are small ゃゅょ. If you don’t write them small, they are just regular sized, and pronounced normally. It’s the difference between:

きや (kiya)　vs　きゃ (kya)

Those are two different sounds and you can’t switch them out with each other. The difference is important! Use this worksheet to practice:

Combination Hiragana

Where are we going? How do we get there?

googling around for Homeschool travel Japan
http://eligerzon.com/blog/2010/09/recap-of-worldschool-travel-tour-japan-in-summer-2010/
main page for tours:
http://eligerzon.com/traveltours.php
http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/schoolroom/japan.php

Flight info

http://www.amnet-usa.com/eng/default.htm
http://his-usa.com/en/top/Top.aspx I found PHL -> Detroit -> Nagoya $931 w/o 300+ in fees and taxes I assume.

Chat with Kyoto

A friend of mine from Dabney House lives in Kyoto (the only friend I currently have in Japan). This is a FaceBook chat from today. page down to the green text to see where it gets really interesting

Report · 2:03pm

Hey Jim - How was the porno sent? As a message? Through chat?

Report · 2:06pm

posted to your profile, I think

are you around in early mid-June when we are visiting?

Report · 2:08pm

yes, I'm around but working like 14 hrs/day during that time

my free time is Feb/Mar and Aug/Sept

how long will u be in japan in total?

Report · 2:09pm

does everyone in Japan work that hard?

Report · 2:09pm

well, I'm a total nutcase

I work my hiney off 7 moths/year

then take it easy the rest of the time

unis pay all year, so 5 months vacation

but I do science wiritng.editing all year

writing

Report · 2:11pm

I never pictured you as one who worked hard :-) but 5 months of vacation sounds nice.

Report · 2:11pm

I got this way after being in JPN

and realizing I'm so old

with no material anythings and no way to retire

after so many years of travelling and all

so tell me about your plans

so I can help you out as much as I can

I mean like how many days total in Japan, how many ppl are coming, what are important things you'd like to see/do etc

Report · 2:16pm

Takayama and the Alps, Kyoto and then Hiroshima (as an old peace activist cannot miss the bomb site with my son)

Report · 2:17pm

2 ppl? you and son?

how old is he?

Report · 2:19pm

oh, saw the rest of the message. I have not figured out days yet except the time in Nagoya. June 9 - 12. Just me and my son, my partner's sister is dying of cancer so she has to stay back. Robin is 15. I guess that I would like a mix of cultural/ nature. I really do not have a travel philosophy as I have never been away for N. America

Report · 2:19pm

Ok, now hold on

For the Kyoto part your in the best hands possible

Report · 2:20pm

I have had brief periods in my life where I worked hard and got paid alot. The last one was in 1994. I was thinking Nagoya (where the tournament occurs),

Report · 2:20pm

tournament?

Report · 2:22pm

yep, I figured the hands would be good. Robin plays a card game called Magic the Gathering, seriously. He won a tournament that qualifies him (and gets a round trip plane ticket) for the Pro Tour event in Nagoya (the winner of this get $30K US)

Report · 2:22pm

so thats why Nagoya comes into this

I live in the very last traditional Kyoto-style house on the only road that used to connect Kyoto to Tonyo. There is a stone slab in front of my house that marks where samurais used to put heads on stakes to warn visitors.

Report · 2:24pm

yep. I had never heard of it before; it does not look like a top notch destination. We are homeschooling him so want the trip to be "broadening" I realize I need to do more thinking about my goals for the trip.

Report · 2:24pm

5 minutes walk from my house is the second Zen temple and first ZXen monastary in Japan

Zen

Report · 2:24pm

Holy shit!That is cool.

Report · 2:25pm

about 15 minutes away is one of Japan's most important Shinto shrines

a quick subway ride takes you to the old Emperor's palace

Report · 2:25pm

I started a blog (mostly for language learning): http://jimgoestojapan.blogspot.com/

Report · 2:25pm

and the samurai castle

My house is rented

mY landlord is an ancient relic

he was born in this house

Report · 2:26pm

Robin did a research project on ninja for a homeschool program. Building on that would be cool too.

Report · 2:26pm

but one time a family memmber came to visit me

and my landlord allowed him to stay in a wing of the house that was nuilt for pppl to witness the coronation of hirohito

i only rent a portion of this big old place

if i could convince hm to let you two stay there a couple of days it would be really great for ouy

if not, i can try to help you find a hotel near all the good stuff

Kyoto has over 2200 temples and shrines

but my spot is next to some of the most important

Report · 2:29pm

fascinating. I don't think that I am ready to have the what do I want to do conversation yet. Did I ask you about where to look for cheap plane flights?

This is really exciting. Are you fluent in Japanese?

Report · 2:29pm

"cheap" is a word you'll need to forget in discussions involvong japan

no, I am fluent in Mandarin

My Japanese sucks

I was in China and Taiwan for 15 yrs b4 here

and wife is Chinese

we only use Chinese in my home

nut since I cam ehere I've been working in English

don't worry

you won't be expected to speak much Japanese at all

just some politeness

Report · 2:32pm

I gotta go. I need to do my taxes this afternoon. I will try to get a better picture of what we want and FB you next week (is that the best way to be in touch?)

Report · 2:33pm

reach me by messages

also XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

this is important

and I want to help

lets develop a good trip for you guys

lots of talking

later! :)

Report · 2:34pm

thanks! Let me know if you want something from the States.

Report · 2:35pm

ok! I'll think about it!...ok...I though. Could you please convince the gorvernment to stop killing everyobody? Oh, and to stop double-taxing its citizens. And by the waym could you please tell the republicans to go away?

Besides that, there are some snacks I dearly miss...

Report · 2:38pm

Well, I have raised a son who is anti-militarist and not an asshole; that is the best that i have figured out so far. The snacks on the other hand are doable. I want to bring gifts for hosts anyway.

Report · 2:39pm

for Japanese ppl, my cousin brought mint condition US silver dollars and that went over really well!

lets talk details when you have mor etime

Beginning Hiragana

I have been drilling on the Hiragana vowels: a, i, u, e, o (Romaji equivalents) They are pronounced like Spanish vowels except e (え) which is like the e in "edge" rather than the long a sound in Spanish. The 46 Hiragana characters are mostly pronounced as consonants preceding these five vowels. For example ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. Thus (in English) k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w act as consonants; not all the consonants have each of the five vowels following them.
There are some exceptions to this:
し (shi): instead of si
ち (chi) instead of ti
つ (tsu) instead of tu
ふ (fu/hu) instead of hu
yi and ye do not exist
ん (n): the only vowel less kana
under w there is only wa and wo and wo is pronounced like Romaji o

Thats it for now, off to home and men's support group.

First post: Magic in Japan

My son won a Magic the Gathering tournament last Saturday (ironically the day after the earthquake). He will be reimbursed for roundtrip planefare to Nagoya, Japan - a city that I have never even heard of. It is the fourth largest city in Japan, a ways south of Tokyo and somewhat inland. Thus it was not so damaged by the quake nor the tsunami.
Anyway I have decided to try learning some Japanese from textfugu.com. It suggested that I start a learnign blog.
The first thing that we did is talk about the four different Japanese alphabets:
Romaji an Latin alphabet transliteration. Apparently this sucks for actually learning Japanese and using it in Japan so Koichi of textfugo recommeds that we not learn it. We will be learning Hiragana first. There is also Katakana and Kanji. Kanji is based on Chinese characters, has multiple pronunciations for each (based on multiple introductions for China) and has symbols for nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Hiragana is used for suffixes (-san honorific for example) and particles ("am", "are" and "and" forms of to be of course are important) and for inflecting verbs and adjectives. Katakana looks like it is used for constructed words such as foreign, scientific and onomatopoetic words; it is also used for emphasis. He said that often menus are written katakana so maybe I will cram some right before the trip.
Thats it for now. Off to learn Hiragana!