Updates!

Hi Folks,

I had posted up quite a few vocab list and along with a documentary for Samurai swords and "How to eat cold soba".

Hope everyone enjoy the stuff that me and my cousin (who helps me in editing out my stuff) are putting up.

Btw, I also add quite a few links under Otaku's favourite and a link : 絵本ナビ Ehon Navi under More Japanese Learning Link. Strongly recommend folks with good hiragana and basic kanji to try out this Ehonnavi as this is a website in 100% Japanese for picture books.

More post coming soon!

How to eat cold soba....

(Courtesty of Shinbashi Soba)

I was in Shinbashi Soba store when I saw this detailed explanation of eating cold soba.

This is pretty detailed on its own so I took a piece with permission from the store and decided to scan and share with you all.

Hope you guys enjoy eating cold soba as much as I do!

Basic Country List

Country List
 Japan - 日本 (にほん・にっぽん)


China - 中国 (ちゅうごく)


S.Korea - 韓国 (かんこく)


Singapore - 新嘉坡・シンガポール (しんがぽーる) Usually written in katakana


 Malaysia - マレーシア (まれーしあ)


 Indonesia - インドネシア (いんどねしあ)


Russia - 露西亜・ロシア (ろしあ) Usually written in katakana


 Germany - 独逸・ドイツ (どいつ) Usually written in katakana


 Italy - 伊太利・イタリア (いたりあ) Usually written in katakana


 France - 仏蘭西・フランス (ふらんす) Usually written in katakana


 Britian - 英吉利・イギリス (いぎりす) Usually written in katakana


 Spain - 西班牙・スペイン (すぺいん) Usually written in katakana


 Portugal - 葡萄牙・ポルトガル (ぽるとがる) Usually written in katakana


 Greece - 希臘・ギリシア (ぎりしあ) Usually written in katakana


 Turkey - 土耳古・トルコ (とるこ ) Usually written in katakana


 Eygpt - 埃及・エジプト (えじぷと) Usually written in katakana


 Australia - 豪太剌利・オーストラリア (おーすとらぃあ) Usually written in katakana


 New Zealand - 新西蘭・ニュージーランド (にゅうじいらんど)


 U.S.A - 米国 (べいこく)


 Canada - 加奈陀・カナダ (かなだ) Usually written in katakana


 Mexico - 墨西哥・メキシコ (めきしこ) Usually written in katakana


 Brazil - 伯剌西爾・ブラジル (ぶらじる) Usually written in katakana

Continent List
Africa - 阿弗利加・アフリカ (あふりか) Usually written in katakana


Asia - 亜細亜・アジア (あじあ) Usually written in katakana


America - 亜米利加・アメリカ (あめりか) Usually written in katakana


Australia - 濠州 (ごうしゅう）　


Europe - 欧州 (おうしゅう)

How to add Nationality to a country?
One can say their nationality by adding "人(じん)" as suffix.
For example,
I am a Singaporean.
私　　は　　シンガポール　人　です。
わたし　は　しんがぽーる　じん　です。

Documentary Video on Samurai Sword (Eng)

Part 1

The rest of the links are as of follows:

Part 2 : http://youtu.be/pT2gUgHfmtc

Part 3 : http://youtu.be/5pJfC_HNFdY

Part 4 : http://youtu.be/s4yaQDwxoaE

Part 5 : http://youtu.be/m-PgkNst5qY

See how the Samurai Swords of Japan are being made as well!

The pride of sword and how its unique production makes Samurai sword so unique!!!

Question Words

Basic Question words － 6W1H

• Who：誰（だれ）
• What：何（なに・なん)*
• When:　何時(いつ)
• Where:　何処(どこ)
• Which：どの
• Why：如何して(どうして)
• How：どうやって

Note on What：何 (When to use なに and when to use なん)

1. なに - General use other than rule 2 and 3
2. なん - When using 何 ですか with the purpose of asking 「What is this (N)?」
3. なんの - When の is added, it becomes what kind

Note on Whose：誰の (だれの)

1. By adding の to だれ, the question will which from who to whose in the question. Refer to Lesson 2a Possessive Noun.

Basic Colour List

いAdj

1. White - 白い(しろい) shiroi


2. Black - 黒い(くろい) kuroi


3. Red - 赤い(あかい)akai


4. Blue/Green* - 青い(あおい) aoi 


5. Brown - 茶色い(ちゃいろい)


6. Yellow - 黄色い(きいろい)

のAdj・Noun

1. Green - 緑(みどり) 


2. Pink - ピンク(ぴんく)


3. Pink - 桃色(ももいろ)


4. Purple - 紫(むらさき)


5. Crismon Red - 紅(くれない・べに・こう)


6. Orange - 橙色(だいだいいろ)


7. Sliver - 銀色(ぎんいろ)


8. Gold - 金色(きんいろ)


9. Grey - 灰色・グレー(はいいろ・ぐれー)

＊For Blue or Green colour, we usually use 青い(あおい). However, there are times where green is 緑(みどり) instead.

Do you know that you can make your color into light colour by adding a prefix?
Prefixed : Light+Colour
Light - 薄 (うす)
Example: 薄紅 (うすくれない) means light red colour

What about dull/dark colour?
There's an adjective as well for dull colour - 暗い(くらい).
If you want dull red colour, all you do is
暗い(くらい) + 赤い(あかい) = 暗い赤い(くらいあかい)

Common Japanese symbols punctuation

読点 : とうてん Tōten
Symbol ( 、)=> Comma mark - Instead of  symbol (,), Japanese language use this symbol instead.

句点 : くてん Kuten
Symbol (。) => Punctuation Mark - Instead of symbol (.), Japanese language use this symbol instead.

中黒 : なかぐろ Nakaguro
Symbol (・) => Interpunct - Used for separating Japanese words/titles/names or items to aid reading

鍵 ：かぎ Kagi
Symbol (「」) => Single quotation marks

二重鉤括弧 : にじゅうかぎかっこ Nijūkagikakko
Symbol (「...『...』...」) => Double quotation marks (to be only used within single quotation marks)

感嘆符 : かんたんふ Kantanfu
Symbol (! ) => Exclamation Mark - However, interesting enough, exclamation mark isn't common used in formal sentences as one thinks. They are usually used in casual writing, fiction and manga.

疑問符 : ぎもんふ Gimonfu or commonly known はてな Hatena
Symbol (？) => Question Mark - Another symbol that is not commonly used in formal sentences but commonly used in casual writing, fiction and manga.

濁点 : だくてん Dakuten or commonly known as てんてん tenten
Symbol (゛) => Used with both hiragana and katakana to indicate a voiced sound. For example, ta (た) becomes da (だ), shi (し) becomes ji (じ). For full list of dakuten wordings, please refer to hiragana and katakana list

半濁点 : はんだくてん Handakuten or commonly known as ○・丸 maru
Symbol (゜) => Used with hiragana and katakana to indicate a change from a ha hi fu he ho sound to a pa pi pu pe po sound.

同の字点 : どうのじてん Dō no jiten or commonly known ノマ Noma
Symbol (々) => Kanji repetition mark.

郵便 : ゆうびんYuubin
Symbol (〒) => Postal sign used in Japan

Extracted from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_typographic_symbols
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation