Everyday Japanese Podcast

My mom just got a passport, and I'm the reason why.

In this episode, I talk about Oyakoko (親孝行 — caring for and giving back to your parents) and its opposite, Oyafuko (親不孝）. We look at the kanji together, visit a street in Fukuoka with an unexpected name, and pick up everyday expressions like 門限を破る (to break curfew). I also share three small ways I think we can show our parents we care, plus a proverb most people in Japan know. Take your time and listen along!

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

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Yusuke(もしもしゆうすけ）once saw a young employee walk in late — Starbucks cup in hand, smiling — and we ended up talking about what's really shifting in Japan's workplaces. Is the younger generation just more relaxed, or is something bigger changing? We get into generational gaps, punctuality, paid leave, and power harassment — and what it all means for the future of Japanese work culture. It's the kind of conversation you'd have over coffee, not in a classroom. Come listen in!

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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If you're learning Japanese, you've probably watched a lot of channels made for learners. But you might also wonder what Japanese people actually watch — I get asked this a lot!

So this time I'm just talking about four channels I watch myself. A bookshow, a literary critic, a cook, and one small channel about Tokyo that honestly I half wanted to keep to myself.

It's a pretty relaxed episode. Everything I mention is linked here:

https://www.sayurisaying.com/japanese-youtube-channels-i-actually-watch

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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It's not something people here talk about — so I asked. Tatsuya is back, this time to compare how married couples in Japan handle their finances: the old 小遣い制 kozukai-sei (the wife manages the salary and hands her husband monthly spending money), what 按分 anbun means (splitting shared costs proportionally, not 50/50), and why some couples end up with three wallets.

We also get into travel, workation, and one small purchase worth far more than it cost.

Unscripted Japanese for intermediate learners and up!

Tatsuya also teaches Japanese online. If you're looking for a teacher, check out his trial lesson and Instagram in the links below! 🗓️ https://calendly.com/tatsuya-diginjapan/trial-30minute-lesson

https://www.instagram.com/tatsuyajapanese/

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🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

🩷 Support this podcast

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"Human dock." That's what 人間(にんげん）ドック literally says. So what do you think it actually means? Maybe some of you are thinking "human and dog."

I went for one recently, and in this episode I talk through the whole morning, from the changing room to sitting down with the doctor at the end. I also get into how it's different from the kenko shindan (健康診断), the free yearly checkup that companies arrange, and the one test I'd rather not do again.

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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It started with a mountain of negi — green onions — piled onto a bowl of udon at a self-serve topping station. In this episode, Yusuke(もしもしゆうすけ） and I talk about where the line is, why shops now have to post rules that used to go without saying, and what that shift says about Japanese society today. If you've ever felt like something quietly changed in how people treat shared spaces, this conversation is for you!

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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We all have those little happy moments — too small to tell anyone about, but that quietly make your day. Lately I've been wanting to hold onto them, so I built a quiet website to collect them: Hokkori Biyori. (Hokkori is that warm feeling when your heart softens; biyori means a lovely day for something.) It's a collection of short true stories, about 100–150 characters each, drawn from my own life and the people I've met along the way, no likes, no sharing buttons, just a calm space to keep these small moments.

In this episode, I talk about why I made it, and read a few of the stories aloud, including one written by a student of mine🤍

Visit the site: hokkoribiyori.org

手動のオルゴール https://hokkoribiyori.org/story/hand-crank-music-box

言葉のいらない仲 https://hokkoribiyori.org/story/wordless-bond

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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If you could never drink alcohol or coffee again, which would you give up? For me the answer was easy — I don't drink — but the question led somewhere I didn't expect. Both drinks bring people together, but in completely different ways. I talk about 無礼講 bureiko (setting aside rank and formality over drinks), シラフ shirafu (being sober), and 飲みニュケーションnominication (bonding through drinking), plus two stories: friends in their 40s who quit alcohol and lost their circle, and an awkward moment at my new hobby club.

☕ Mentioned in this episode: I talked about people who choose not to drink in Episode #164, Sober Curious Lifestyle. If you'd like to hear more on that, it's here:

https://www.sayurisaying.com/sober-curious-lifestyle/

🎙️ This episode is part of the Japanese Podcast Relay — other hosts are answering the same question in their own episodes. Listen to all of them here:

⁠https://ruby-s.net/jpr/⁠

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

🩷 Support this podcast

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After spending two months in India, I landed in Japan craving one thing: a warm bowl of udon. I'm originally from Kagawa, known as Udon-ken (Udon Prefecture — where udon is practically a way of life), but these days I live in Fukuoka, the city famous around the world for tonkotsu ramen. Here's the surprising part: when I asked people here "udon or ramen?" — the answers weren't what you'd expect from the ramen capital of Japan.

In this episode, I take you through Fukuoka's udon culture — the famously soft noodles that locals joke "never run out," the sweet and savory niku udon made with Kyushu's distinctive soy sauce, gobo-ten (burdock root tempura — the topping you'll find everywhere here), and my slightly embarrassing but genius way of ordering at a local udon chain. I also finally share something I was too nervous to talk about while living in Kagawa: what udon really means to people from the Udon Prefecture.

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

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In part 2 of this series, YUYU throws out a question that really got me thinking: is AI becoming our new god? We talk about how easy it is to lean on ChatGPT when we don't know what to do, why that habit can quietly turn into something risky, and where the line is between using AI as a tool and letting it think for us. We also get into journaling as an alternative way to work through uncertainty without outsourcing it.

🎧 Full transcript, video, and more: https://sayurisaying.com

Search by episode number (e.g., “EP 120”) to find what you need!🐧 Join the Penguin Family for bonus content & support the show! Your support helps keep this podcast alive and means a lot to me. Thank you for considering!

🩷 Support this podcast

https://sayurisaying.com/support