頭のいい兎 ♥

Japanese langblr. Main blog: vizzly-sama 日本語を勉強しています。32歳で、 スウェーデン人です。 友達になってくれませんか?

[shugo-chara]

Shugo Chara JJ chp 19 (RAWS)

[atamanoii-usagi]

Maybe I'll try reading this later...

[japanese-lol]

Today's phrase is "頭剃るより心を剃れ（atama soru yori kokoro wo sore）".

【Vocabulary & Grammar】

1．頭（あたま, atama） It means “head.” Here it refers to shaving one’s head, often associated with monks or symbolic purification.

2．剃る（そる, soru） Verb meaning “to shave.” Used in its dictionary/plain form.

3．より (yori) A particle meaning “rather than,” “instead of,” “more than.” Used to compare two actions or states.

4．心（こころ, kokoro） It means “heart,” “mind,” “spirit,” “inner self.” It refers to one’s inner attitude or moral character.

5．を (wo) Direct object marker. It indicates that 心 is what is being shaved (metaphorically).

6．剃れ（それ, sore） Imperative form of 剃る. Strong command: “shave!” or metaphorically “purify!” “cleanse!”

Put together, 「頭剃るより心を剃れ」 means to value inner purification over outward rituals. It reminds us that true discipline comes not from changing our appearance, but from refining our heart and mindset.

There are people who shave their heads as a sign of remorse. Visually, it may seem effective, but hair isn’t the only thing that needs to be changed. When we express regret, we should also aim to grow in our hearts.

-----

本日の一言は、「頭剃るより心を剃れ」です。 反省の意味を込めて、頭を丸める人が一定数いますね。 視覚的には、とても効果がありそうですが、本当に改めるべきは髪の毛だけではありません。 反省を表すときは、気持ちの面でも成長したいものです。

[in-tua-deep]

I know German has a lot of fun compound words but English does the same thing just with spaces or hyphens tbh

Thinking about this as I message someone about “spring-break-itis” complaining about the number of people who haven’t shown up for their appointments lol

[nihongo-ni-hon-yaku]

Not a translation, but Japanese has an established slang term for “spring-break-itis”, which I’ve seen and heard ever since I was old enough to go on the Internet:

五月病 gogatsubyou — literally “May disease”

It’s exacerbated by how the Japanese school year and fiscal year start in April.

[ruthsic]

Is it also helped by the fact that golden week occurs in May, and there's some excitement towards events/travel during that time (and hence resentment towards having to go to school/work)?

[nihongo-ni-hon-yaku]

Seems like it. Web searches for “五月病 ゴールデンウィーク” show lots of articles defining or describing May Disease as the lack of executive function after Golden Week.

[easy-japan]

明日は明日の風が吹く (ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku)

Don't stress about tomorrow. Tomorrow's wind will blow tomorrow. Anxious about what's coming next? Ashita wa ashita no kaze ga fuku sa ┐(´ー｀)┌

Vocabularies:

明日 (ashita) — Tomorrow 風 (kaze) — Wind 吹く (fuku) — To blow

Literal Meaning: "As for tomorrow, tomorrow's wind will blow." ( ´◡` )

[japanesewords]

日傘｜ひがさ｜Parasol (esp. one carried in the hand)

[atamanoii-usagi]

Basically I'm just doing 5 minutes a day to keep this streak up, so shouldn't brag about it 😅 but...

Wohoo, 2450 days 🎉

[miya-sanpo]

古い喫茶店のある交差点。谷中の入口。

[supergenial]

[translation+lyrics] Forbidden～獣を愛した少女～ by Vampire Rose

Ah yes, we’re going full cringe today. It’s a song from over 8 years ago BUT it was composed by リゼ  from Ariabl’eyeS, so of course I’d check it out. This Vampire Rose person is, well, is quite the avid youtuber and just scrolling through their thumbnails I can only imagine their life must be pretty fun dressing up like that Every Single Day, this is true, real commitment to the vampire bit. Also runs a vampire café down in Ginza with pretty decent reviews online and just, damn, MOM IT’S REALLY NOT A PHASE, this person is an actual vampire, good for them, good. Anyway, lyrics down below and see you next time.

Keep reading

[tokidokitokyo]

春の単語

Vocabulary words inspired by spring (あ～ん)

あ

雨曇り　あまぐもり　overcast weather

稲　いね　rice plant

梅暦　うめごよみ　plum blossoms (as a harbinger of spring)

遠足　えんそく　excursion, outing, trip (usually a school trip)

桜花　おうか　cherry blossom

か

花粉症　かふんしょう　hay fever, pollen allergy

帰鴈　きがん　wild geese returning north in the spring

草餅　くさもち　rice-flour dumplings mixed with mugwort (associated with Hinamatsuri)

毛虫　けむし　hairy caterpillar; pest

事始め　ことはじめ　taking up a new line of work, the beginning of things

さ

山林　さんりん　mountain forest

漆器　しっき　lacquerware

李　すもも　Japanese plum (usu. written in kana)

青春　せいしゅん　youth, springtime of life, adolescence

早春　そうしゅん　early spring

た

蒲公英　たんぽぽ　dandelion (usu. written in kana)

地水　ちすい　pond water, pond

土筆／筆頭菜　つくし　fertile shoot of field horsetail (usu. written in kana)

天気雨　てんきあめ　sun shower, sudden rain from a blue sky

踏青　とうせい　outing in spring

な

梨　なし　Japanese pear

鰊曇り　にしんぐもり　cloudy weather near Hokkaido during the herring season (from the third to the sixth lunar month)

布子　ぬのこ　clothes padded with cotton

根分け　ねわけ　dividing a plant's roots for transplanting

野原　のはら　field, plain, prairie, moor

は

春たけなわ　はるたけなわ　spring is in full swing, height of spring (esp. in April), peak of spring [oft. formulaic seasonal greeting in letters]

ひな祭り　ひなまつり　

藤　ふじ　wisteria

遍路　へんろ　pilgrimage, pilgrim

干す　ほす　to air, to dry

ま

満開　まんかい　full bloom (esp. of cherry blossom)

蜜蜂　みつばち　honeybee (usu. written in kana)

虫除け　むしよけ　insect repellent

芽吹く　めぶく　to bud

桃園　ももぞの　peach orchard

や

柳　やなぎ　willow

雪消　ゆきげ　snow melting

夜桜　よざくら　evening cherry blossom viewing

ら

落花　らっか　falling petals

緑草　りょくそう　green grass

累日　るいじつ　many days

麗日　れいじつ　glorious spring day

炉塞ぎ　ろふさぎ　closing of the winter hearth

わ

若葉　わかば　new leaves

学校を卒業する　がっこうをそつぎょうする　to graduate from school

入学試験　にゅうがくしけん　school entrance exam

[meowbrown]

ようと思う ➡️ つもり ➡️ 予定

Showing a desire to do something, from least sure to sure that you will do.

A scenario I'm imagining:

Someone asks me if I'm going to a social gathering.

行こうと思う I think I'll go. (but I might not go as well)

行くつもりだ I intend to go. (stronger than 1, but if something else pops up that is more important, I might not go)

行く予定だ I plan to go. (I'd probably already put it on my Calendar, to make sure I don't forget to attend)

[charlesoberonn]

Japanese can have one syllabic consonant, as a treat.

[atamanoii-usagi]

Studying 敬語 is exhausting!

[corvid-language-library]

FFXII vocab dump 6/??

飽く（あく）to get tired of

コウモリ bat

雇う（やとう）to employ, to hire, to take on

紋章（もんしょう）crest, coat of arms

宝庫（ほうこ）treasury

怪しげ（あやしげ）questionable, doubtful, suspicious

主人公（しゅじんこう）protagonist, main character

空賊（くうぞく）sky pirate

解放（かいほう）liberation

巨人（きょじん）giant

(The irony that he is not the main playable character despite the fact he is indisputably the main character. Like who even the fuck is Vaan)

[unusual]

Japanese is an incredibly fun and rewarding language (if you’ve ever wanted to learn it for ANY reason, most importantly including the “silly” reasons) but the fearmongering and capitalist intervention involved in the language learning process have given it a reputation as an “impossible task” for English speakers, leading to confusion and dkn learners and weird pessimist attitudes about the whole thing. In this thread I will explain how to effectively learn and retain Japanese. This is a tried, tested and true method; probably 99% of all people who try to learn Japanese give up, but everyone I’ve met who has tried and stuck with this has been at or above N3-N4 after 6 months or less including me

[unusual]

You can teach yourself Japanese for free if you have a little free time every day and a computer

1. Drill yourself on hiragana and katakana. These are the phonetic building blocks of Japanese, think of them as equivalent to english letters. This site is a good resource in general. Once you have a solid grasp on this, DO NOT LINGER HERE; move to step 2. You will master kana later.

2. Download Anki. This is a flashcard service. They have a paid app if you’re willing to invest for it, but if not, they have a mobile website (create an account and sync it with your computer).

This is the deck you’re going to download. Import it to Anki and do this every day. I have learned the hard way (twice) that skipping this is bad. If you become overwhelmed, you can change the number of new cards and reviews by clicking the cog next to the name of the deck!

3. Cure Dolly (Youtube, grammar) + transcript. She has kind of a posh accent, you might want to turn subtitles on. Watch a few videos when you feel like it but most importantly set up 4 and 5 as soon as possible

4. Yomitan (must have) is a browser extension that functions as a pop-up dictionary. you need to install dictionaries for it to work. here are some dictionaries you can use with yomitan and explanations of what they do

5. READ. DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET STUCK BEFORE THIS STEP. JUST READ!!!! Most people who fail to learn Japanese do so because they are afraid of not being ready to move on, which is counterproductive. Just read. When you were a child did you spend years on vocab and grammar before reading? No I bet you did not. Pick something to read and learn what you don’t already know by reading in Japanese.

Jiten.moe has a list of novels and visual novels that you can read on your computer sorted by difficulty. So does jpdb. There’s also this document. There’s also this document. Hey look this website is cool too

For visual novels: download LunaHook. It “hooks” to your VN and allows you to use Yomitan on words you don’t know. Turn off the translation feature, it does nothing to help you learn

For literary texts: ttsu e-reader supports epub and htmlz files.

You can also learn Japanese by watching anime, but it’s a little more convoluted and requires a lot more patience.

For manga, utilize Mangatan, but I don’t recommend this right out the gate because when you’re first learning sentence structure you’ll want something with complete sentences.

Set your computer up for mining vocab before you start reading. Once you finish your kaishi deck, you can drill your mining cards (I didn’t do mine until after finishing kaishi because it was too much).

Most importantly: reading is going to be hard at first. It is going to piss you off. You need to muscle through with this because this is where the bulk of your learning will happen. After a while you will just feel like reading because you love reading! Try not to pick something too hard for your first read, but if you’re interested in the story you might be able to muscle through something a little tougher.

Remember to consult yomitan and cure dolly where needed, that’s what it’s there for. As you can see I am quite normal about the Japanese language, so if you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to shoot me an ask and I will get back to you promptly. Japanese is not your enemy and it is not impossible. It is your friend

[dokushoclub]

Japanese Reading Resources for Absolute Beginners

A question I encounter often is "How much Japanese should I study before I can begin reading in Japanese?"

From my experience as a learner and reader myself and from managing a Japanese book club for other learners I can honestly say that you can start way earlier than you probably think!

There are many resources that only require knowing hiragana. Those texts usually teach vocabulary through pictures and only use basic grammar.

Some are even simpler than that: The Japan Foundation's Hiragana Books are great for those, who are still remembering hiragana characters. Every short book introduces only 1-2 new characters, so it's a great reading exercise for those who've just started.

The free graded reader 「どうぞ、どうも」 by the NPO Tagengo Tadoku only uses the words 「どうぞ」 and 「どうも」 to write an entire story. Again, this makes for a great exercise in reading hiragana and understanding context. Another "level 0" recommendation by the same NPO would definitely be 「しろい？くろい？」. This book uses the full range of hiragana characters but the grammar is simple and all used vocabulary is illustrated.

Another site with great resources for absolute beginners is Nihongo Tadoku Dōjō. If you have memorized both hiragana and katakana and know how the particles を and で work you will be able to read this text about stationary (ぶんぼうぐ) and understand everything by looking at the pictures!

The resources linked so far can all be accessed completely free on the linked websites. If you have the money to spare, please also have a look at the box 「スタート」 from the series reberubetsu nihongo tadoku raiburarī published by the NPO Tagengo Tadoku and ASK (affiliate link). This box includes 8 little books in very simple Japanese.

All these texts for absolute beginners will get you started reading in Japanese with very little knowledge of characters and vocabulary.

Reading in Japanese is a skill that requires practice. But once you get used to it, it can be such a valuable tool to reinforce new vocabulary and grammar. So please don't wait until you're "ready" before you start reading - start early at your own level!

[dokushoclub]

I found one more ressource for how to start reading in Japanese as an absolute beginner: NIHONGO FLIPBOOKS by the Japan Foundation Sydney.

https://classroomresources.sydney.jpf.go.jp/resources/nihongo-flipbooks/

As of today (January 2026) there are three adaptations of Japanese folk stories. I had a look at both おむすびころりん and たけとりものがたり. The stories are bilingual and the main text is in English, while character names and some nouns are in Japanese. The speech bubbles in the illustrations feature exclamations in Japanese as well. There is only hiragana, no kanji, no katakana.

So, this book series allows you to practice your hiragana character recognition while following along a Japanese folk tale in English and I believe it would also be great for reading a bilingual story together with young learners.

[atamanoii-usagi]

I wish, Duolingo! But no, I'm still at work 😂

[pheasants6]