Ohazassu Podcast

Learning kanji can feel impossible, especially when a single character can have four, five, even six different readings.

In this episode I chat about a few things that helped me over the years: thinking of kanji as words rather than letters, how radicals start to make sense once you know your first hundred or so, why each new kanji makes the next one easier, and the little memory trick I used to stop mixing up the Japanese word for corn.

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Is Nagoya the smartest place to stay in Japan? After about 15 years living here, I think it's one of the most overlooked travel bases in the country.

From Nagoya you can reach Kyoto in about 35 minutes, Osaka in about 45, Tokyo in 1 hour 40, and places like Takayama and Matsumoto in around 2 hours. Hotels are usually cheaper than in Tokyo or Osaka, and you still get all the conveniences of a major city without the crowds.

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Why does Japanese feel so hard, even after years of study? I break down 5 real reasons so you finally understand what you're actually up against. Coffee tangent and word of the day included.

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After 15 years living in Nagoya, Japan, I've picked up a few habits I never had back in Australia.

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Until around 2017, Twitter (now X) had a character limit of 140 characters. According to the info I've found, that number wasn't just pulled out of a hat; it was chosen because in the past you could tweet from your mobile phone, but there was an SMS limit of 160 characters.

They allowed up to 20 characters headroom for the username and ended up with 140.

In around 2017, the character limit was doubled to 280. People tweeting in Japanese and other Asian languages didn't really feel restricted with the 140 limit, but people tweeting in English or other Western languages sometimes struggled.

Let's take a closer look and use this as an opportunity to see how different Japanese and English are in terms of how much space they occupy.

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New fees come into effect on October 1, 2026. Please refer to official information below, go to your local immigration office, or consult a professional.

Official Japan Govt Website: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/01_00644.html

Official Japan Govt Poster (English): https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001469199.pdf

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I used to think most loanwords in Japanese came from English. All that changed in around year 9 or 10 when my teacher told me the word we just learned was from German. In this episode I cover a few of the other languages that Japanese has borrowed words from, along with an example or two from each.

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That was probably the most amount of rain I've ever seen! Massive delays in Nagoya and surrounding cities today due to heavy rains.

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As an Aussie, I used to think we were the masters of abbreviation. Japan: Hold my beer!

Let's check out just how much the Japanese abbreviate their words. It's pretty impressive! In some cases, they even abbreviate their abbreviations.

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Went for my annual health checkup today and thought I'd share a bit of info about the system and what I like about it compared to Australia. As always, there's a Word of the Day at the end of the video as well. Thanks for tuning in!

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