１ 一 ichi
２ 二 ni
３ 三 san
４ 四 shi
５ 五 go
６ 六 roku
７ 七 shichi
８ 八 hachi
９ 九 kyuu
１０ 十 juu
１００ 百 hyaku

For learning simple numbers, maybe try a song like this

One, two and three you should be able to memorize for life in less than a minute. The others are relatively easy to remember, especially when you use a few tricks to do so. Imagine that 四 is a little puppet show with the curtains hanging down from the right and left sides. 六　looks like a little man; the small dot on the top is the head, the horizontal line makes the arms and the other two lines are legs. 八　looks very similar to the katakana for “ha” （ハ）。　十　looks just like a cross, easy enough. 五　and 九 both have interesting shapes that will stick in your head relatively easily. That leaves us with boring old 七 which shouldn’t be all that hard.

Other Related Numbers

Making bigger numbers is relatively easy. The number in the 10′s place is before the number 10 and the number in the ones place comes after. 四十八 is 48. 六十九　is 69. 100 works the same way 四百七十二　is 472. If this sounds difficult, don’t worry. Numbers above 20 are rarely written in kanji.

Dates

While the ways to use these are practically limitless, lets think of the most common and practical ways. The first is the date. In Japanese, the month is expressed with numbers, rather than names. That means January is literally called “one-month” and February “two-month”. Month is 月　(getsu) and day is 日　(nichi)

三月　　　 March
十月　 October

Time
We express o’clock with the kanji 時　(ji) and minutes with 分　（pun though pronunciation varies). 半　(han) means a half and comes at the end.

七時 7 o’clock
九時半 9:30

Year
The year is often expressed in kanji but in a relatively simple way. Rather than 千九百九十九年　（年 or “nen” means year), 1999 is written as 一九九九年。

Money
Another very useful way to make use of these characters is with money. Although prices are rarely written in kanji, you will find them written this way in some Japanese restaurants or in some stores that sell traditional Japanese goods and pastries. Yen is pronounced “en” in Japanese with the character 円。
五十円　

Stop studying in fear. Let me help.

Do you remember those charts your teachers gave you, back when you were learning hiragana and katakana? Mnemonic charts, I think they were called.

For anyone drawing a blank, there are a series of pictures that take something like the hiragana letter く (ku) and represent it as something like this:

“This is a cuckoo! It goes koo! koo!”

What I’d like to know is, why did these extraordinarily helpful devices—however inane and sometimes not-so-intuitive—have to stop at ん (nn)?

(Which is, by the way, this:

“The end!”

Kanji is exponentially more difficult to master than are its linguistic precursors: because there are exponentially more strokes, more ways to read them, more of them, and the regularity of their appearance in every day life, necessary for purposes of memorization, is nil.

And so, I bring you 漢字-gations, or Kanjigations.

Here, I will endeavor to represent kanji in memorable ways, providing multiple readings, compounds, and mnemonics in the form of pictures and phrases. My hope is that the conjugation of them all (and I mean that in the scientific sense—to link, connect) will make these letters hard to forget. I apologize to anyone who has not yet grasped the preceding alphabets, but the readings will be provided in kana only, assuming that those who enter here have dealt with it already.

Following what I’ve found to be the most useful language-learning tip—keep it fun!—even though it may be more natural to start basic, I’m going to begin Kanjigations by introducing two of my favorite (and rather simple) letters.

The two above kanji form a natural pair, and so we shall tackle them together. I love these characters because, firstly, they look more like Tetris pieces than kanji; second, their shapes represent their meaning and are thusly very easy to remember; and lastly, they are a complementary compound, by which I mean they appear to have been made for each other—the puzzle-piece compatibility is undeniable—and are, indeed, linguistically harmonious. Here are the vitals:

While these two characters are memorable enough on their own, as promised, here come the mnemonics:
Two tater tots, one of which is decollating the other.

(**Note: For the purpose of precision and personal enjoyment, some of the English vocabulary featured in these segments, e.g. decollating: to behead, may not be the most commonplace; in such instances, definitions will be provided.)

Trace the tots’ shape, and you have 凸.

Oh no! It’s Robocop!

Outline Robocop’s intimidating body, and you’ll see 凹.

There you have the readings for 凸 and 凹 when found in a compound.
Now for 凹’s verb forms, in the form of a comic: the best way to depict verb-ing.

The Action of 凹 (くぼむ ・ へこむ)

A sad story, and hopefully one you will remember. Language learning principles preach that language is better internalized once the target word and its meaning are united in physical movement; so, rather than depress or be depressed, let the sketches substitute for the uneven ground of 凸 and 凹. And refer to the review chart below to remember that kanji and their readings are more than just shapes and sounds.

アルバイト　Working your byte (German)
One of the most common non-English loanwords is the word for part time job. The word is Arubaito and comes from German but is often abbreviated to Baito. I cannot count the amount of times I’ve heard Japanese use the word baito and expect an English native to understand.

パン – Pots and Pans (Portuguese)
Another extremely popular word to mistake for English, Pan means bread, not something you cook out of. I’ve met almost native level English speakers in Japan who still mistake this word and it can be really confusing at first if you haven’t studied Spanish or Portuguese.

アンケート – survey (French)
I tried for a long time to figure out which English word this came from but Ankeeto comes from French and means survey. It can be used for casual magazine surveys about your love life or more scientific surverys about how your health and the workings of your brain.

ピエロ – Hey Pierre! (French)
This one always makes me laugh. I imagine a man named Pierre who puts on make up and dresses up as a clown on his days off. There must be someone like that out there who is studying Japanese! If that can’t help you remember the word, I don’t know what can. Piero comes from French and means clown.

ミイラ Looking at the man in the mirror (Portuguese)
It sounds like mirror but if you look into a mirror and see a miira, you’ve been dead for a long, long time. Miira means mummy and apparently comes from Portugese. Once again, if imagining a mummy looking in the mirror isn’t a good memory trick, I don’t know what is.

マロン Those are some small melons (French)
First of all, get your mind out of the gutter. I learned the word “Maron” when I went to a supermarket and asked where the melons were. You could imagine the look on my face when I was shown a bunch of nuts. Maron comes from French and means chestnuts.

コンセント　Getting Consent (???)
Contrary to my initial idea, this word has nothing to do with getting approval from someone. It means electrical outlet and I have not been able to figure out where it comes from. It has been bothering me so if anyone knows, please fill me in.

パソコン Pasacon

One of the first katakana words I learned, a very useful one and a shining example of the interesting ways that English has found its way into the Japanese language. This word is short for Personal Computer and is a must for anyone studying Japanese.

アメフト Amefuto

Ame usually means either candy or rain but in this case it is short for American. Can you guess what this word means now? I certainly couldn’t; American Football. Unlike Europe, Japan uses the same word as America, soccer, to refer to the kicking game and American Football to refer to the tackling game, although it is rarely played in Japan.

エアコン Aircon

When I first heard this word I thought someone was talking about that airplane thriller that stars Nicholas Cage as a con man. Con Air was it? The real meaning however, is not nearly as exciting. This is what “air conditioner” looks like in Japanese. Japanese air conditioners are very different from western ones. There is rarely, if ever, central air conditioning in Japan so most people really on wall units that are only good for heating up one room and leave you with a pretty nasty soar throat if you don’t keep it on low while you are sleeping. They are pretty effective if you live in a well insulated place but in my room for example, which has 3 big windows, it takes a while for them to get started.

セクハラ Sekuhara

This is a word you don’t want being used toward you. Although you might not be able to figure it out on your own, this word is short for “sexual harassment”. Though lawsuits are not nearly as common as they are in Japan as the US and Japanese men may get away with much more than they do stateside, there are a few cases where someone crosses even the Japanese line into what someone would call sekku hara. One of the most common forms of Sekku Hara in Japan is the “Chikan”. A Chikan is someone who gropes women on a crowded train. When I first came here this idea was nonsense to me but if you spend time on one of the busier lines in Tokyo during rush hour you can easily imagine how some perverted guy who lets his hormones get the best of him might try it. For this reason there are some women only train cars during rush hours.

マザコン Mazakon

Since Oedipus complex is probably one of the very first word you wanted to know when you started studying Japanese, here it is. This word is short for “Mother complex”. It is usually used more to refer to the typical Mama’s boy rather than a confused person with serious feelings for the mother.

Note:The Japanese keyboard has a JIS mechanical input, which is set by the Japanese Industrial Standards.

Benefits

The clearest advantage of word processing in Japanese is the appearance of a small dropdown menu displaying the possible kanji that correspond to the hiragana that you have just written. This means that on occasions where you know the hiragana spelling or pronunciation of a term, but cannot quite remember the kanji, you can quickly be reminded by the dropdown menu. Reinforcing your association between words and kanji characters, it can also be a tool for ironing out your spelling mistakes, particularly in the cases where your knowledge of the pronunciation of a word may still leave some ambiguity in your mind in terms of its actual spelling, such as whether a long or short vowel or a single or double consonant is required.

Take the example of the word “Tokyo”. When writing by hand, you could write the hiragana incorrectly as “ときょ/ときょう/とうきょ” and be none the wiser. Alternatively, you could know and write the kanji by hand while still believing one of the three incorrect options above is correct. In contrast, conversion of these three pieces of hiragana in digital form using the dropdown menu would leave you with something like と居, と今日, or 問う居, which should immediately raise a flag that the inputted spelling was not correct. This becomes increasingly important as your vocabulary grows and the number of words with similar spellings/pronunciations that you use in your writing increases. The dropdown menu can also introduce you to new kanji for words that you already can spell using hiragana, pronounce, and know the meaning of.

Most of the names of its many stations (駅, えき) and lines (線, せん) are derived from historical districts of what is now known as Tokyo, and some of these can serve as useful examples of important Japanese language concepts. In addition, some of them are just downright cool. For example, the name of the station of perhaps the most well-known district of Tokyo outside of Japan, Akihabara (秋葉原), translates to the decidedly poetic Field of Autumn Leaves. Here are a few more.

English: Freedom Hill – 自由が丘 (じゆうがおか)

This is a classic example of the historical usage of the particle が. What we have here is in fact not the usual ‘subject marker’ が; in classical Japanese, が had a similar function to the particle の in use today. So what we have here, written another way, is in fact 自由の丘 – “Hill of Freedom”, or “Freedom Hill”. This historical usage of が can also be seen in the title of Japan’s national anthem – 君が代 (きみがよ).

English: Mist’s Gateway – 霞ヶ関 (かすみがせき)

In the middle of this station name is a small version of the katakana character ケ. This ‘small ke’ is in fact of different origin to its larger version, and is thought to be a simplification of the kanji 箇.

It’s used when counting months (三ヶ月, three months) and countries (三ヶ国, three countries) among other things, and in such instances, is pronounced か. Curiously, it can also be found in place names, where it is pronounced が. When used in this second way, it fulfils the same role as the が discussed above. See also: Aokigahara – 青木ヶ原 (あおきがはら), a forest near Mt. Fuji, which is the world’s second most popular suicide location.

English: New Bridge – 新橋 (しんばし)

On the Tokyo Metro map, 新橋 is officially romanised as Shimbashi. However, nowadays we would be more likely to write it as Shinbashi. This is because there have existed multiple schemes for romanisation of Japanese (writing the Japanese language using the Roman alphabet), throughout history. The most well-known of these is Hepburn romanisation, which in its earliest version would render the ん in this station’s name as an m, due to it being before a ‘b’ sound. Later revisions of the Hepburn scheme render ん as n, regardless of where in a word it comes.

While Hepburn romanisation is the most widely used romanisation scheme outside of Japan, Japanese schoolchildren are in fact taught a different scheme, known as Kunren-shiki (訓練式). This is the reason why you might see a Japanese person romanise しょ as syo, rather than sho, for example.

English: Six Trees – 六本木 (ろっぽんぎ)

This infamous district’s station name serves as a good example of a Japanese counter word in action. Here, 本 is the counter for long, thin objects. Before it, we have how many objects we’re counting (六, six) and after it, what we’re counting (木, tree). Six – long, thin objects – tree. Six Trees.

English: Hands of the Mountain – 山手 (やまのて)

If 山 is やま and 手 is て, where does the の come from? There exists a convention whereby in writing, the の in names such as this is dropped, leaving only the kanji remaining. When spoken however, the の is always included. See also: the common Japanese surnames 井上 (いのうえ) and 木下 (きのした).

So, the next time you find yourself on a train in Japan, try working out what the names of the stations you pass through mean in English. There are some intriguing ones out there – 洗足 (せんぞく, Feet Washing), 池袋 (いけぶくろ, Lake Sack), and 御茶ノ水 (おちゃのみず, Tea Water) to name just three.

Prepping for the new Year – 年賀状　Nengajou

Nengajou, or New Year’s cards are seasonal greetings that are an important part of New Year’s in Japan. Although the custom has become less essential with the spread of the internet and mobile messages in the last two decades, most old folk and many young people still send these cards to friends, coworkers, and relatives. Most young people I’ve talked to send between 20-30 and some older people will send upwards of 50-100, basically to everyone they know.

お正月　Oshougatsu

New Years Eve, or Oshougatsu, is basically a family day in Japan. The trains are packed for the days leading to New Years Eve because a majority of people are heading back to their hometown. Tokyo Station was packed but there were enough Shinkansen (Bullet trains) that we managed to snatch 3 seats. Many people will eat soba noodles for dinner. Soba symbolize longevity and means good luck for the new year. Unlike in the west, most people stay home with their families on New Years. Many of them will watch special television programs while eating (and in some families drinking) together.

初詣　Hatsumoude

Hatsumoude is the years first visit to a temple. Although the religious meaning of this tradition has faded among most Japanese, they do like protecting their traditions and almost all will visit a temple within the first 3 days of the new year, many going right after midnight. This usually involves standing on a long line making a quick prayer and throwing some coins in for donations to the temple. Many temples will have festivals with lots of food stands as well.

The morning after – おおみそか　Oomisoka

The first day of the year is a feast! Families will wake up and prepare Osechi (New Year’s food). Osechi is composed of a huge variety of small dishes. Some of these dishes are commonly found in bento and many of them are only eaten on New Years. Traditionally, each of these foods have a symbolic meaning though the meaning has been lost among most. Some families choose to cook this food on their own and others will buy expensive sets from department stores (I see many sets going for 30,000 yen, about 350 dollars!). The rest of the day (or more like the next 3 days) is spent either relaxing with family or those who didn’t do it the night before will make a stop at the nearest temple.

Although countdown parties are becoming more popular, the holiday is basically a time for family to relax, eat a lot, and enjoy time together. The following days are also a chance for people to see their hometown friends. If you have the chance to experience New Years in Japan, consider yourself lucky, it is one of the most enjoyable times of the year.

I want to eat 食べたい

When you want to do something, you have to conjugate the verb with the -tai ending so the sentence becomes “Noun + wo + verb-tai”. This is a verb conjugation so obviously we can not use it with nouns. After a long day, ”食べたい！”　is how you’d say “I want to eat!”. We take the stem form of “Taberu” or “to eat” with the -tai ending「何を食べたい？」would be a casual way to ask “What do you want to eat. To make this more polite, we add a “desu” at the end 「何を食べたいですか？」　「すしを食べたいです」 “I want to eat sushi”. Easy enough, right?

I want a car 車が欲しい

When you express that you want an object or a noun, the grammar is different so please be careful. We use the pattern “Noun + ga hoshii”, so if you are working day and night to save up for a new guitar you can say 「新しいギターが欲しい」　or “I want a new guitar”. Or if you’ve been single for a long time and finally need some love and affection you can say 「新しい彼女が欲しい!」 or “I want a new girlfriend!”. You’ve friend might respond with “Ganbatte!” or “Do your best!” People tend to use Verb with the -tai when they can. 「すしが欲しい」 and 「すしを食べた」 essentially mean the same thing but it is more common to say “I want to eat sushi” than “I want sushi”, just like in English. When we want to be polite, we add a “desu” at the end.

I Miss New York

One of the most frustrating things for people who study Japanese is trying to express that you miss something. There is no verb to express “to miss” in Japanese. We have to work with what we’ve got. There are two main ways we can do this. Instead of saying “I miss New York”, we might say 「ニューヨークに戻りたい」 or “I want to return to New York”. This can be frustrating if we don’t actually want to express discontent with Tokyo. We could also say「ニューヨークは懐かしいです」 or “New York is nostalgic”. The third way to say this is 「ニューヨークは恋しいです」 or something like “New York is dear to me” but you will not hear this one often. Take your pick. “I miss you” would most often be translated as 「あなたに会いたい」.

The Internet, and sites like this one, have made self-study of foreign languages to high levels of proficiency a very real and attainable goal. But the most important thing is to keep it fun, because as soon as it becomes boring, your progress will slow, and you might end up quitting altogether. So to prevent that from happening, and to maximize the use of your time, here are a couple of Japanese ‘study’ techniques.

Watch TV

Japanese TV is a gift to learners of Japanese. For learning the language, it doesn’t matter what you watch, and in the information age, it isn’t too much of a challenge to find out about shows that you’d enjoy – and therefore want to keep watching. But, rather than simply watch, it’s best to take an active approach. The great thing about Japanese TV shows, is that a large amount of them are accompanied by large, colorful, and often animated Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Didn’t quite catch that word that made everyone laugh? There it is, in giant pink letters. Now you can easily look it up in your favorite dictionary. Why is this a good idea? Well, for that new word you just heard, you’ve got its kanji. You know that it’s a word that people use. You’ve got a sentence as an example of its correct usage. And because you learned it from a specific point in one of your favorite TV shows, rather than a decidedly less exciting vocabulary list or other such more traditional study material, by recalling that scene and that joke, you’ll be much better at being able to recall it when you see it next.

Listen to Music

Why is music good for learning Japanese? The answer lies in the repetitive nature of the way in which we consume it. We listen to our favorite songs hundreds and hundreds of times. This means that, for a song with lyrics in Japanese, you’re getting all-important vocabulary, expressions and grammar delivered right into your ear, over and over again. This repetition can be incredibly valuable. Many songs can be mini-treasure troves of new Japanese, and by investigating and understanding their lyrics, they can be an excellent study resource. No matter how nonsensical a song’s content is, you can learn from it. Whether it’s a song about unrequited love (失恋), or a yellow submarine (黄色い潜水艦) – any song can be a source of new vocabulary at the very least.

Be Inquisitive

Investing in an electronic dictionary, or a dictionary app for your smart phone, can’t be recommended enough. Equipped with this tool, you’re prepared to increase your Japanese proficiency every time you come into contact with the language. If you’re lucky enough to live in Japan, you’re surrounded by words you need to know every day. Take the packet of tissues the girl on the street hands you – maybe it has a new word for you on it! Boring commute? Figure out exactly what that advert on the train says! Waiting for noodles to boil? Read the packet! It doesn’t matter what you use; if it’s in Japanese, it’s useful to you. If you haven’t made it to Japan yet, you’re not as disadvantaged as you might think. It’s reasonable to say that the entire Japanese language is out there on the Internet – you just need to expose yourself to it. And there are thousands of Japanese people out there who want to talk to you – you just need to find them.

One notable feature of this time of year for those employed in Japan is the year-end party (bounenkai, ぼうねんかい, 忘年会; “gathering to forget the year”). Here, colleagues from specific workplaces gather together to reminisce on the year past and often drink quite a lot of alcohol (to aid the forgetting, of course). This usually takes place in the run up to Christmas, a festival that is celebrated somewhat differently from that elsewhere.

I’m dreaming of a howaito kurisumasu…

There are around one million Japanese who follow the Christian religion (kuristo-kyou, ク リストきょう, クリスト教), particularly on the southern island of Kyushu and among the Japan-based community with Korean roots. However, Christmas as an annual event is embraced by the majority here, with an emphasis on commerce and gift-giving similar to that in other countries. Much money is also spent on Christmas lighting and trees in public places, with the displays such as that in Roppongi, Tokyo, on a level with those anywhere in the “Christian world” in terms of breathtaking sparkle. One Christmas-related contrast that foreign residents may note is that this time of year is not so much focused on gathering with one’s family, but instead is about couples getting together to have a romantic meal or evening together.

A Relaxing New Year

New Year (shougatsu, しょうがつ, 正月) is when families really get together and spend a few days enjoying each other’s company without having to worry about work, school, or other pressures. The large cities in Japan become strangely quiet for a few days, owing to both many shops and offices being closed for a few days around the official national holiday (shukujitsu, しゅくじつ, 祝日) of New Year’s Day (ganjitsu, がんじつ, 元日), and many people returning to their hometowns to visit family. However, a lot of work and effort often go into the preparation for this period.

In strong contrast to Japan’s Christmas celebrations, New Year for the Japanese is often very ritualized and traditional. Activities include the first visit of the new year to a temple or shrine (hatsumode, はつもうで, 初詣), especially to hear the bells toll at midnight of New Year’s Eve. Popular shrines, such as Meiji Jinguu (明治神宮) in Tokyo, are especially crowded during this period. In addition, a range of food specific for this time of year is also consumed (osechi-ryouri, おせちりょうり, 御節料理). Another interesting tradition is the sending of New Year’s postcards (nengajou, ねんがじょう, 年賀状) to friends and family, which have a complex set of rules and customs related to the design, content, and who and when to send them. Overall, it is a fascinating time for those in interested in Japan to witness the Japanese at their most introspective (or even spiritual) and relaxed.