Evidence-led guides to Japanese language, names, culture, travel, food, anime, the Chinese zodiac and Japanese eras.
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Japanese Culture
What Happens in Japan, Month by Month
Sixteen national holidays, three weeks when the country stops, and a festival nearly every month. What each one is, when prices jump, and what closes.
Writing & Language
The First 92 Characters, in Order
Both kana sets in a working order, with the look-alike pairs flagged before they cause damage. A plan you can finish in a week without a subscription.
Travel to Japan
Flights, Airports and the First Two Hours
Nonstops leave from a dozen US cities, fares swing by hundreds between months, and Tokyo's two airports are not interchangeable. What to book first.
Japanese Phrases
Politeness Is a System, Not a List of Words
Japanese politeness runs on apology, hedging, timing and silence long before it reaches honorific verbs. Seven habits that work with plain forms.
Your Name in Japanese
Ateji: How Foreign Names Get Written in Kanji
The tradition is real and it is a sound game first. Meaning is a filter, not a starting point - and the tattoo failure mode is structural rather than linguistic.
Your Name in Japanese
How to Write Your Name Vertically in Japanese
Vertical Japanese is not horizontal text turned sideways. The long-vowel bar rotates, small kana change corner, and columns run right to left. Here is what actually changes.
Your Name in Japanese
Five English Sounds Japanese Does Not Have
L and R, both th sounds, V, the missing consonant-vowel pairs and the vowels Japanese inserts into consonant clusters. None of it is random, and all of it is predictable.
Your Name in Japanese
Katakana Name Rules, and the Names That Break Them
We tested a rule engine on 61 names with documented Japanese spellings. It scored 77 percent, and the misses were Michael, Thomas, Sean and Charlotte. Here is the autopsy.
Your Name in Japanese
How to Write Your Name in Japanese: The Complete Guide
Which script your name belongs in, how English sounds get remapped, the four adjustments that decide whether a spelling looks natural, and where the rules simply lose to precedent.
Anime & Manga
Manga Reading Order: Direction, Formats and Where to Start
Right to left at every scale, why English publishers stopped mirroring the art in 2002, the five publication formats, and whether to read the manga or watch the anime first.
Anime & Manga
What Gets Lost in the Dub
A dub is not a translation with a deadline. It is a rewrite constrained by mouth movements drawn to a Japanese script - and subtitles lose things too.
Anime & Manga
Character Names in Japanese: Meaning, Kanji and Readings
A Japanese name sounds like something and means something, and translation can usually carry only one. Plus why the same written name has several correct readings.