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Gaijin Learning Japanese

It's Not Really as Hard as it Seems

Category: Pop Culture

Thoughts on Idols

Posted on August 25, 2022August 25, 2022 by bakatsundoku

I mentioned a couple of posts back about a video by Sakura Gakuin, where they were singing a song called “Graduation Toss” and where they pretty much were finding it impossible to hold it together.  You could see it on their faces throughout the song.  One girl was just about

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Personal, Pop Culture Leave a comment

The Three Japanese Cultures

Posted on June 12, 2022 by bakatsundoku

Hi!  It’s been a while since I posted here, so I have a lot to say.  Truth be told, I don’t really think I’m fond of the blogging method of expressing myself, but I haven’t come up with anything better yet.  I’m working on it, though!  First, an update. The

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Japanese, Personal, Pop Culture, Social Justice Anime, cosplay, cultural appropriation, culture, japanese, kawaii, otaku Leave a comment

Japanese: a Failed Experiment – Part Deux

Posted on November 14, 2021November 14, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I attempted to write this post previously but it took on a tone I didn’t like, so I’m going to try to redo it.  Last time I talked about why I consider learning Japanese a personal failure.  Now I want to talk about why I don’t think it is. Oh,

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Japanese, Personal, Pop Culture AKB48, idol culture, Japan, japanese, Morning Musume Leave a comment

What I Musically Love about Japanese Music

Posted on September 14, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I may be able to extract a post for Texihabara on this subject from this, but I kind of want to be a little freer here. There is something about Japanese music that fascinates me.  Well, several things, really. Babymetal has a song, “Da da dance”.  It’s an extraordinarily high energy

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Pop Culture babymetal, Da da dance, JMetal, Karate, music Leave a comment

Am I Otaku?

Posted on September 8, 2021 by bakatsundoku

Am I Otaku or even weeaboo? This is a question I’m asking myself more and more lately.  I mean, I guess I fit some of the definitions.  I like JPop – enough so that I’m maintaining an entire website about it, and other pop culture things.  I’m familiar enough with

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Personal, Pop Culture Anime, cosplay, Jpop, manga, otaku, weeaboo Leave a comment

Shichirin

Posted on February 7, 2019September 9, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I’ve been thinking some about Ariana Grande’s misadventures with tattoos and the Japanese language, and having learned a little more about the precise mistake she made, I have a little more to say, for what it’s worth. The Japanese approach to language is maddening in some ways. Its compound words,

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Japanese, Pop Culture Ariana Grande, japanese, tattoo Leave a comment

Ariana Grande’s BBQ Grill has Seven Rings

Posted on February 1, 2019September 9, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I’m sure, by now, if you pay attention to anything Japanese or related, you’ve found that a major US pop star with lots of beauty and very little talent has decided to get a tattoo with Japanese kanji. It is supposed to say “seven rings”, which I assume is the

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Japanese, Pop Culture Ariana Grande, japanese, kanji, stupid, tattoo, 日本, 日本語 Leave a comment

Gauging Progress

Posted on September 2, 2018September 6, 2021 by bakatsundoku

The very first thing I watched in Japanese – and the thing that made me feel like I wanted to learn it, was this video: It is a rather cute video of a bunch of Morning Musume girls (this was 13 years ago!) taking a faux English lesson. When I

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Japanese, Pop Culture English, japanese, language, Morning Musume Leave a comment

5 Reasons J-Pop sucks

Posted on August 31, 2018September 6, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I’ve posted previously about what I like about J-Pop, but I don’t like everything about it!  As with everything, it has its good sides and bad sides.  Here, in my opinion, are the bad sides. The Music Can Be Uninteresting I’ve posted previously about how I think that J-Pop is

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Pop Culture AKB48, J-pop, japanese, Morning Musume, music 1 Comment

Why J-Pop?

Posted on August 18, 2018September 6, 2021 by bakatsundoku

I was actually trained as a classical pianist. Yes, it’s true.  I went to college and everything.  I learned how to either play or appreciate much of the repertoire – in point of fact, if I put my mind to it, there are piano concertos that are not out of

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Personal, Pop Culture idols, J-pop, music Leave a comment
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