Coming to Japan, one of my goals is to learn Japanese. Though I had traveled here before, I never made much of an attempt to learn Japanese beyond the very basics (thank you, hello, etc). 

My journey to learn actual Japanese in early 2020 after I became shortlisted to the JET Program - at that time it became clearer that I would be going to Japan at some point, but little did I know it would be over a year before I actually made the trip. 

My first task was to learn the Japanese alphabets. For the uninitiated, Japan uses two main written alphabets plus kanji. The first two alphabets are hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is the main alphabet used for Japanese words whereas katakana is used for foreign loan words, or in other words, words that are used by Japanese but are not originally Japanese.

(Please note that my use of "alphabet" might be slightly incorrect here - there might be a more proper term for what hiragana and katakana are, but I will continue to use alphabet for now.)
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Both hiragana and katakana contain 46 characters (you can think of these similar to letters). And, while there may be some exceptions, you will find the same sounds represented across hiragana and katakana. For instance, the sound "a" (pronounced like "ah" in English) is represented as あ in hiragana and ア in katakana. The difference, though, is in usage - you would use the katakana "a" (e.g. ア) if you were writing a foreign loan word whereas you would use the hiragana "a" (e.g. あ) if you are writing a native Japanese word. 

There are many words in Japanese that are not originally Japanese - such as the Japanese word for "coffee" which is "ko-hi" or in katakana コーヒー. Because the Japanese borrowed this would from Dutch traders in the 1600s, they write it using katakana and not hiragana. Again, showing that the word has foreign roots. (see video pronunciation of "coffee" below)

The train station sign above shows an example of Kanji and Hiragana - at the bottom you see the train station name in English (also known in Japan as romaji) - Akihabara. At the top, you will see "Akihabara" represented in kanji - 秋葉原. And in the middle, you will see the same word, but this time in hiragana - あきはばら. The kanji and the hiragana mean the exact same thing - Akihabara.

You could also write this in katakana as well (it would be アキハバラ) but you would never see it written this way because Akihabara is a true Japanese word, thus no need to write it in katakana. Also, another thing to notice - the Kanji spelling uses only 3 symbols, whereas writing it in hiragana uses a total of 5 symbols, thus kanji would be a quicker, shorter way of writing the same thing, hence why kanji is used in many situations (it is more efficient).

I will not talk a lot about romaji much here outside of what I mentioned earlier, but you can think of romaji as yet another way to write Japanese. It is a way to transcribing the sounds of Japanese hiragana and katakana into English/Roman script to make it easier for English speakers to figure the word out. Knowledge of romaji is not common in Japan (I have been with several cab drivers who do not know romaji). But, if you are interested, you can find out more about romaji here.

So, for instance, taking the sounds of what I mentioned earlier in hiragana (あきはばら), you could translate each hiragana character into its English/romaji sound equivalent to get Akihabara. However, to say Akihabara properly in Japanese, you would still need to know proper Japanese pronunciation (for instance the final "ra" sound is actually pronounced more like "la") but it would make things easier for you (ah-key-ha-ba-la).
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I wrote a bit more about my experience learning Japanese beyond what is here, but I will save that for a "Part 2" that I will post next week. So, stay tuned for that!

​All the best,

  As I mentioned in my prior blog post, I flew to Japan this past weekend and will be spending about two weeks in hotel quarantine before traveling onward to my JET Program teaching placement in Kobe. In this post, I want to talk a bit more about some things that we learned during orientation so far that I found interesting.
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Elementary school students will also work in the cafeteria on different shifts, serving their classmates their meals. And, then, there's the cleaning shift during which students (and teachers) clean their schools. ​

   Outside of learning about schools, we are also learning about COVID protocols and different notable Japanese laws. In regards to drunk driving, we were informed that if we're a passenger with a drunk driver, we can be held legally responsible as well for his or her drunk driving - as the passenger has an obligation to stop this situation from occurring. 
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   Additionally, no level of alcohol in your system while driving is considered "legal." Furthermore, marijuana use is strictly prohibited and strongly punished. 

   As for COVID, many Japanese wear masks year round due to pollen allergies in the spring/summer and then for illness prevention (flu & colds) in the winter. Our presentation specifically said that mask wearing has no negative perception in Japan. In fact, you're more likely to encounter negative perceptions if you are NOT wearing a mask! The screenshot below is from this video that we watched about COVID in Japan.​
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  Also, since the JET Program does not require any formal teaching certification, we are also attending training sessions that give us advice about how to present information to various grade levels and what to expect when we get to the classroom. 

That is all for now! I have included a few links below to several cultural resources. Also if you would like to receive my newsletter, please visit this page to subscribe, or subscribe on the right side of this page! Through the newsletter, you will get all the latest information about my experiences in Japan and abroad. 

All the best,
Tom

CULTURAL RESOURCES!
​As I come across different resources, I will share them on my website here. 
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New since the last update, I came across this website that has short videos about different aspects of Japanese culture! Check it out! A few of the specific videos that I watched and enjoyed are below. 
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   For those that have not yet heard, I have moved to Japan to participate in the JET Program as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)! I will be living and working in Kobe, Japan, which is near Osaka and is about a 2-3 hour bullet train ride south of Tokyo. I am still awaiting details of my specific job duties, but it sounds like I will be working with elementary school students to start. My hope with the program is to learn Japanese and get connected with the Japanese baseball community. 

Below are a few photos of the meals and how they are left at our doors!

   Additionally, each day, we must visit a desk downstairs to get our temperature checked and receive important information (today, for example, we received a new book about Japanese culture!). We also undergo COVID PCR testing twice during quarantine - once a week, roughly. 

​   While sequestered, we also carry with us a special phone that monitors our location  - we are also prompted to report our location, health condition and participate in video calls every so often that confirm what we report.  The video calls last about 30 seconds, during which time we record our face and surrounding locations (helps prove we are where we say we are!). We will return the phone at the completion of our time at the hotel. 

    I will also will include here a quick tidbit that shows part of Japanese culture - someone in my cohort across the hall was having an issue with her toilet. Hotel staff visited to help fix the issue and as they entered her room, the staff removed their shoes! You'll see a photo of the staff member's shoes sitting out side the door below.