No, you haven’t made a mistake. This is still Japan Australia.
I just decided to make a few changes to the Blog.
What do you think?
After a year and a half of the same design, I thought it would be nice to have a change. I decided to go with a mountain scene which reminds me of my home in Gifu, Japan and the blue colours give it a nice calm/relax feeling.
Let me know what you think of the changes and please feel free to post any comments.
The Lotteria fast food chain in Japan has just brought out its new burger. The Tower Cheese Burger. Released on June 24th and based on its original 160 yen cheese burger you can stack up to 10 beef patties for 100 yen each. Lotteria has been promoting the new burger based on the two versions below.
Tower Cheese with 5 beef patties 700 yen about (USD $7)
Tower Cheese with 10 beef patties 1400 yen about (USD $14)
It is a whole lot of beef and cheese with no vegetables. Only extras include pickles and ketchup.
What do you think? Would you try one?
Tower Cheese with 10 beef patties
Compare the double cheese burger with the Tower Cheese with 5 pattues and 10 patties
Check out some other burgers from Japan including:
The Shin Nihongo no Kiso series of Japanese textbooks was very important in helping me successfully learn Japanese. The first book Shin Nihongo no Kiso I enables the beginner or new learner to master the basics and make simple sentences and conversation. The second book Shin Nihongo no Kiso II is for the more advanced with more advanced conversations based on real life daily situations.
Here is a breakdown of the two books
Shin Nihongo no Kiso I
100 hours study time, 25 lessons, 800 vocab items, and 75 sentence patterns
Shin Nihongo no Kiso II
100 hours study time, 25 lessons, 680 vocab items, and 64 sentence patterns
The series starts with the Shin Nihongo no Kiso Main Textbook with seperate English Translation and Grammatical notes available. The main textbook is all in Japanese, which is a great way to immerse yourself in the language, but I highly recommend getting English Translation and Grammatical notes as they really helped me. The English Translation lists the vocabulary for each chapter in romaji, kana and English as well as an English translation of the sentence patterns and example sentences from each chapter. The Grammatical Notes in English explain in detail the grammatical points and structures for each chapter with lots of examples to help you with correct usage.
I have found that my grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure and reading and writing improved dramatically using this book. It was also a great aid in studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
Jyagariko (じゃがりこ) is one of my favourite Japanese snacks. Made by Calbee the most recognised snack company in Japan, it comes in a cylinder cup with a peel-off lid as you can see from the picture. Jyagariko is basically a seasoned potato stick made from non-fried potatoes. The original flavours are salad and cheese, but now there are a multitude of different flavours and types. These snacks are really crunchy, perfectly seasoned and tasty with the original salad Jyagariko still my all- time favourite.
Check out some other Japanese Snacks in this series below
Japanese inventors have come up with a new device that blends Japan’s fascination with cuteness and its penchant for experimental high tech gadgets. The gizmo is called Necomimi, neco meaning cat and mimi meaning ears in Japanese. The gadget is fluffy cat’s ears for humans that read their brainwaves. The fluffy headwear reads user’s brain activity, meaning the ears perk up when they concentrate and flop down when users enter a relaxed state of mind. A promotional video for the gadget shows a young woman’s cat ears perk up as she bites into a donut and again when she passes a young man in a park, only to flatten as she apparently brushes off the missed encounter, relaxes and smiles.
The inventors said “We were exploring new ways of communicating and we thought it would be interesting to use brainwaves.” “Because the sensors must be attached to the head, we tried to come up with something cute and catchy.”
The company behind the product, Neurowear hopes to market the device by the end of the year.
What do you think?
Watch the video for Necomimi below
Read more about some of the lighter and more interesting stories about Japan at Only in Japan
Recently I wrote a post about the new Nintendo due to make its debut at the E3 games show in Los Angeles on June 7th. You can read the post here
The new Nintendo made its debut and is a game changer. Nintendo took the wraps off its newest game console which will be the successor to the popular Wii. The new console called the Wii U offers HD graphics capabilities as well as a new controller with a 6.2 inch touchscreen. The new controller has got the full traditional Nintendo stick and button controls on either side of the screen, triggers on the back, a microphone, speakers and an inward facing camera. The controller can be used to play a game on the TV, or play a game portably by itself without using the TV at all.
The new Wii U will be compatible with all other Wii accessories including the Balance Board as well as the Remote and Nunchuk, but will also use the new controller.
The new Wii will be available from next year. I cannot personally wait for it to arrive.
Did you know that Miso Soup is really healthy for you? Studies are confirming that Miso Soup possesses numerous health promoting benefits. It is rich in antioxidants and protective fatty acids, and loaded with healthy doses of manganese, zinc and copper. It also contains isoflavone that may have protective effects against some cancers.
New studies are also confirming that consuming Miso Soup can be an effective component in weight control. It works by reducing the accumulation of fat in the body.
Science is just now only beginning to uncover the tremendous health and wellness potential of this magnificent soup.
