Tokidoki Tokyo

日本語☆Japanese & Japan Things☆tracking #looktoki

[tokidokitokyo]

about me

Hi, I'm toki (she/her)!

I've been studying Japanese for 10+ years (omg) and I've had this Japanese langblr since 2019. I learned Japanese formally starting in high school and although I've never taken the JLPT, I consider myself lower advanced level (N3/N2?) except when I'm not.

I post:

beginner to advanced level Japanese content * kanji * vocabulary * grammar * joyo kanji/kyoiku kanji * kotowaza kentei test * other content

photos of Japan (mine & others')

Japanese culture/fashion/art/illustrations

random personal thoughts

unrelated things

Please feel free to talk to me about Japanese (or not-Japanese) anytime! I will do my best to answer questions related to Japanese or point you to a resource that can help.

My Japanese goals:

2025 Japanese Studies Wrapped

be better at Japanese

teach my son Japanese (he is learning hiragana)

improve my 敬語 (formal Japanese) all around

write more in Japanese and have my writing corrected

Personal stuff:

native English speaker

old enough to have a husband and a son (2020 pandemic baby)

full time working mama (adulting is hard)

my hobbies include raising my son and catering to the whims of my 3 cats

I like anime/manga/reading/movies/hiking/travel

I track #tokidokitokyo (and post original content under this tag) and I also track #looktoki

[yasumitani]

ひさびさ!!

以前と別室だけど、鉄道敷設!!

今回のメインテーマその1

数ヶ月前に買ったC541-7.5を使った疑似緩和曲線の試験

C605 - C541 - C391 - C541 - C605 の80°カーブです。

ひさびさの試運転列車を仕立てて……

アッ!!自然分離!!

畳に敷設すると、どうもね……

[tomo-ban]

強気な顔

[tokidokitokyo]

硬貨

こうか

coin; hard currency

この自動販売機に500円硬貨は使えない。 この じどうはんばいき に ごひゃく えん こうか は つかえない。 This vending machine won't accept 500 yen coins.

[tokyocandid]

Shinbashi, Tokyo

[existennialmemes]

Every Website right now: Give us a scan of your driver's license or be banished. It's for safety.

Every Website for the last 10 years: Oopsies we had another massive data breach! Tee-hee!

[translatingpostsintogerman]

existennialmemes:

Jede Webseite jetzt gerade: Gebt uns einen Scan eures Führerscheins oder ihr werdet verbannt. Es ist der Sicherheit wegen.

Jede Webseite während der letzten 10 Jahre: Upsi wir hatten noch eine riesige Datenpanne! Ti-hi!

[nihongo-ni-hon-yaku]

👤 existennialmemes:

軒並み現在のウェブサイト：追放されたくなければ、運転免許証のスキャンをご提示ください。お客様の安全のためです。

軒並みここ十年のウェブサイト：ありゃ〰また超でっかい個人情報流出起きちゃったー！ てへぺろ！

[mikudonald]

namisonpictures

artist's twitter

[tokidokitokyo]

お札

おさつ

bill; note (currency)

このお札を小銭にしてください。 この おさつ を こぜい に して ください。 Please change these bills into coins.

[kyoto4]

20260524 神社とカモ

下鴨神社をぬける。糺の森。

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

whatever it is you need good luck for, i wish you good luck. tests, job, home life, social life, mental health, physical health, love life. you name it. this post is wishing you good luck on all of that.

[moonshinemagpie]

one thing i find interesting is that, once youre maybe an intermediate learner of japanese, you can sense when a combination of sounds creates a pseudoword.

so a pseudoword is a non-word that follows a language's rules governing how sounds can be combined to form words. in English, rdjtoose is not a pseudoword because we dont start words with four consecutive consonants. but crume and promolous could, technically, be words—they're just not. they're pseudowords.

japanese has a much more limited sound system than english (or many other languages). this means that there are a lot of homophones. you would sort of think there wouldnt be that many pseudowords, because surely if there's an unused combination of sounds, they'd be put to use.

so i find it interesting when i accidentally mistype a word, like samezama instead of samazama, and i just know, on some instinctive level, in the same way i did for crume and promolous, that samezama is definitely not a word.

[moonshinemagpie]

Yang Shuang-zi's Taiwan Travelogue just won the International Booker Prize, and i thought id share the cover of the Japanese edition

台湾漫遊鉄道のふたり

I also really like the cover for this one, 四維街一号に暮らす五人 (Five People Who Live at 1 Shii Street), which has not been translated into English yet

Yang Shuang-zi's work is much more widely available in Japan; her English-language Wikipedia page doesn't even have a list of her works, translated or otherwise, and I think the one that won the Booker is the only one that's been translated into English.

I also want to add for personal reasons that Yang Shuang-zi is married to her wife, as Taiwan legalized marriage equality in 2019. I love to see queer women winning.

[tokidokitokyo]

権利

けんり

right; privilege

この法律は我々の基本的な権利を奪うだろう。 この ほうりつ は われわれ の きほんてき な けんり を うばう だろう。 This law will deprive us of our basic rights.

[moonshinemagpie]

really helpful for beginners who've nevertheless been studying Japanese long enough to start making mistakes.

[moonshinemagpie]

do any other Japanese learners ever feel like they can read the same kanji perfectly well in two different contexts, but don't necessarily consciously connect that it's the same kanji?

examples, for me:

丁寧語、丁目

I can read 丁 in both, but it didn't dawn on me for a very long time that this is the same kanji.

Another one is 息子、息抜き

欲しい, 食欲

Does anyone else know what i'm talking about, or is this maybe just because so much of my Japanese studies have been self-taught?

[charlesoberonn]

Japanese can have one syllabic consonant, as a treat.

[brehaaorgana]

Greatest hits of FIFA cultural exchanges thus far:

Learning about flyovers and pyrotechnics at American games being a thing

Non-americans discovering the size of American football stadiums....for high schools in texas. Also the size of our stadiums in general.

Going to baseball games as a side treat! Lmao.

Non-americans losing their minds over "like, 100 petrol pumps," at buc-ees.

Related: Americans often forget how huge target and Walmart is.

People discovering American BBQ

Non-americans being obsessed with mid American restaurant chains like Golden Corral and Taco Bell

A lot of them really did feel god in this chile's apparently

The rightful obsession with waffle house

New understanding of American Big Drink With Ice supremacy as summer creeps in

Begrudging acceptance of mandatory water breaks during games

Americans realizing we have a Team USA and we are not, in fact, just "hosting our friends" from around the world — mostly because we won our first match and our team is decent??? Not amazing but not the worst.

Side rant: us women's football team is legendary good and we should care about that more like. Hello???

Admitting Americans are right about air conditioning

Related: the english team did warm ups in Florida RIP, and also the there's a video of the French team just being like fuck the heat, fuck the sun, this is so hot...

Americans who do not normally care about international football but fucking love a sport and cheering so we're just hyping whatever team is nearby, like we see a party and just show up and learn the chant. Like sorry many of us don't know shit about soccer but if we see a bunch of people in viking helmets or kilts or holding a bunch of flags and cheering we're game.

TAILGATING!!!!

I already said this but American yellow school bus is an international celebrity

The Scottish drank Boston dry of beer apparently, like they quadrupled what Boston normally sells for fourth of July weekend. SAM ADAMS HAD TO GET AN EMERGENCY BEER DELIVERY.

Also the English team fans got kicked out of The Londoner pub in Dallas after drinking 5,000 beers and going over max capacity lmao

Free refill drinks, tortilla chips & salsa.

So many non-americans are going to be here for the 4th of July for our 250th anniversary which is going to be great and hilarious

Non-americans discovering ranch as a beloved condiment

Non-americans understanding American obsession with hamburger now

Japan's homebase is in Texas and the cultural differences are frankly great and also the Japanese fans are SO NICE and helped clean up the stadium after a match???

All the short videos with the eagle screech (which I think is actually a hawk but whatever)