Evidence-led guides to Japanese language, names, culture, travel, food, anime, the Chinese zodiac and Japanese eras.
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Chinese Zodiac
Japan’s Eto vs the Chinese Zodiac: Four Real Differences
Japan starts the zodiac year on 1 January, calls the eighth sign a sheep and the twelfth a boar - and has one combination that cut the national birth rate by a quarter.
Chinese Zodiac
The Five Elements and the Sixty-Year Cycle
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water: how to find yours from the last digit of the year, why the cycle is sixty and not twelve, and where the elements turn up in daily Japanese.
Chinese Zodiac
Born in January or February? Your Zodiac Sign May Be Wrong
The zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year, which moves by nearly a month. Roughly one birthday in seven is in the window where year-only calculators get it wrong.
Chinese Zodiac
The Chinese Zodiac Years, Explained Properly
Twelve animals, five elements and a year that does not start on 1 January. The full system, the arithmetic to work out any year, and why 2026 is a Fire Horse.
Writing & Language
Japanese Numbers and Counters, Made Simple
Two counting systems, several hundred counters, and a handful you actually need. Plus what to say when you have no idea which counter is right.
Writing & Language
How Many Kanji Do You Actually Need?
The official answer is 2,136. The useful answers are thirty, a hundred, and a thousand, depending on what you want to read. What each threshold buys, and the official lists explained.
Writing & Language
Why Japanese Loanwords Are Not the English You Think
A mansion is an apartment, a viking is a buffet and smart means slim. Which borrowed words are safe, which are traps, and the four stages that change a word on the way in.
Writing & Language
Romaji Explained: Three Systems and Which One to Use
Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki disagree about a handful of very common syllables. How to tell them apart, which to use, and what to do about long vowels.
Writing & Language
Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji: How Japanese Writing Works
Three scripts in one sentence, each doing a job the others cannot. What each one is for, why Japanese never dropped kanji, and how to read the layout before you read the words.
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