This one is for the gamers out there. For those of you that don’t know about the Tokyo Game Show or TGS, it’s pretty much the Japanese version of the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) we have here every summer.

This year’s TGS was quite eventful, especially if you’re more into RPG’s and what not. Square Enix made a bunch of announcements on upcoming games,  from Kingdom Hearts “Birth By Sleep” to two mobile phone Kingdom Hearts titles that will be released exclusively to the superior Japanese cellphones that will probably never see a day of light over here (If we do then hurray for us!), more on FFXIII due to come out this Christmas holiday in Japan and spring of 2010 over here in the States and Europe and also PSP’s FFXIII Agito.

Speaking of PSP’s, they announced a price drop of 15% on the PSP 3000 models. It’s going to be around 16,500yen so that’ll roughly be about $180 dollars here. So if you were planning on buying a PSP anytime soon, stop right there and wait a little!

On the side note, Nintendo also announced that they will be cutting down prices on Wii consoles from 25,000yen to 20,000.  It should be dropping its price down to $199 here in the states this coming Sunday.

If you read all that then you’re probably just as big a geek I am and also that much awesome

Now for the lesson!

I will teach you how to count to Ten thousand in Japanese. It’s pretty simple, you just have to remember the exceptions and you’re set.

１ 　いち  -  Ichi
２　 に  -  Ni
３ 　さん  -  San
４ 　し／よん  -  Shi/Yon
５ 　ご  -  Go
６ 　ろく  -  Roku
７ 　しち／なな  -  Shichi/Nana
８　 はち  -  Hachi
９　　 きゅう／く  -  Kyuu/Ku
１０　 じゅう  -  Juu

１００　 ひゃく  -  Hyaku

１０００　 せん　／いっせん  -  Sen/Issen

１００００　 いちまん  -  Ichi-man

for “１１” you have to think of it like…. “Ten + one”

１１ じゅういち  -  Juu ichi

Here are a few random numbers :

１２５  ひゃくにじゅうご  -  Hyaku ni juu go

３５６２ さんまんごひゃくろくじゅうに  -  Sanzen go hyaku roku juu ni

１８７９３ いちまんはっせんななひゃくきゅうじゅうさん  -  Ichi-man hassen nana hyaku kyu juu san (Might look hard but you’ll get a hang of it!)

Here are a few exceptions!

３００ さんびゃく (it’s not ’sanhyaku’, it’s ’sanbyaku’)

３０００ さんぜん　(it’s not ’sansen’, it’s ’sanzen’)

６００ ろっぴゃく (it’s not ‘rokuhyaky’, it’s ‘roppyaku’)

８００ はっぴゃく (it’s not ‘hachihyaku’, it’s ‘happyaku’)

８０００ はっせん　(it’s not ‘hachisen’, it’s ‘hassen’)

That’s it for today folks! Feel free to ask any questions regarding numbers or anything video game related

Dewa!

(⌒∇⌒)ﾉ”"ﾏﾀﾈｰ!!

あさごはん　（Breakfast)

あさごはん  -  Asa gohan  -  Breakfast (Asa gohan literally means “morning food”, doesn’t get any simpler than that!)

This is pretty much what a typical Japanese breakfast would look like. There’s usually a bowl of rice, miso soup and some fish along with some other extras. Yes, we eat those for practically every meal and it never gets old. Although we do like to change things up a bit and have a bit more of a western type breakfast such as your usual eggs, toast and sausage/bacon.

Such as this one right here!

See! There's egg!

As you can see, we have rice even with our western version of breakfast. We Japanese people can’t go on without rice and tend to malfunction without it so we need it to keep on living. All kidding aside, we have regular western breakfasts like I just mentioned but we just have the best of both worlds at times

For today’s lesson, we’ll be looking at common greatings and good byes.

おはようございます。  –   Ohayou gizaimasu.  -  Good morning.  (Formal)

おはよう！  -  Ohayou!  -  G’morning!  (informal)

こんにちは。  -  Konnichi wa.  -  Good afternoon.

こんばんは。  -  Konban wa.  -  Good evening.

おひさしぶりですね！  -  Ohisashiburi desu ne!  -  It’s been a long time! / I haven’t seen you for a long time!  (This is somewhat neutral, you could take out the “O” and “desu ne” to make it informal)

しばらくですね。  -  Shibaraku desu ne.  – It’s been a while. (Informal)

しつれいします。  -  Shitsurei shimasu.  -  Goodbye/If you’d excuse me. (Literally it means excuse me and can be used for that as well. Formal)

じゃ/では　また！  -  Ja (or Dewa) Mata!  -  See you later!  (You can also just say “Ja” or “Dewa” on their own but it’s very informal.)

さようなら。  -  Sayounara  -  Goodbye.

おやすみなさい。  -  Oyasuminasai  -  Good night.

and that about covers our little lesson on greetings for today!

Until next time, ja!

(*￣▽￣)ﾉ~~ ﾏﾀﾈｰ♪

FOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

Many of you may or may not be familiar with Hard Gay a.k.a.  Razor Ramon Sumitani. He was a famous Japanese comedian from a few years ago and still remains to be popular. He’s known for wearing his extravagant S&M outfit going around town hip-thrusting the air. Contrary to his looks, he’s actually a good guy and always wants to help others.

Let’s start with the principals of every new language, introductions.

In Japanese :

サト　：”はじめまして～　サトです！”　 (Hajimemashite~ Sato desu!)

ジョン　：”はじめまして！ジョンです。”　(Hajimemashite! John desu.)

サト　：”どうぞよろしく！” (douzo yoroshiku!)

ジョン　：”よろしく～” (yoroshiku~)

In English :

Sato : “Nice to meet you~ I’m sato!”

John : “Nice to meet you! I’m John.”

Sato :  “It’s a great pleasure to meet you!”

John : “It’s a pleasure.”

This would probably be the most common way one would introduce themselves in Japan.

“Hajimemashite” literally means it’s the first time we meet. “Douzo Yoroshiku” means please regard me favorably. They are set phrases that go hand to hand together when meeting someone for the first time.  As you can see, Sato is being more formal by using “Douzo”. You use it when being more polite as if you’re talking to a boss, teacher, an older person or simply just to be more polite.

John says “Yoroshiku” alone which is fine and wouldn’t be considered impolite unless he’s talking to any of a certain person that fits under the ones I just mentioned. It is on a more friendly level.

The word “Desu” corresponds to the verb to be (am, are, is, etc., depending on the context.)

As the caption says “Domo Hard Gay Desu” is another way of presenting yourself but in a rather flashy way, such as to a crowd. “Doumo” is another way to say thank you so that would translate to something like “I’m Hard Gay! Thank you, thank you!”

Hello, nice to meet you all.

I’m making this blog for Japanese lessons and tidbits of miscellaneous information about Japan, Japanese people and their culture. I will soon be teaching different levels of the Japanese language from beginner to beginner-intermediate, intermediate and advanced. I will update this blog with things such as foods, gaming, sports, different kinds of media info along with little Japanese lessons with every post. This will be my first step of my journey to becoming the greatest Japanese teacher of the internet.

Enjoy your stay!

よ(＾0＾)ろ(＾◇＾)し(＾▽＾)く(＾ο＾)ね(＾ー＾)

Yoroshikune! (Best regards!)

-Sato