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All articles · Page 96
Japanese Time Words With and Without Ni: Getsuyōbi ni vs Ashita
Put ni after time words that name a fixed point, such as sanji ni, at three, or getsuyōbi ni, on Monday; leave it off words counted from today, such as ashita and raishū; with mornings, weekends and seasons, ni is optional.
12 min readKanji Sound Components: Phonetic Families That Predict On'yomi
Most kanji pair a meaning part with a sound part, and characters that share a sound part usually share an on reading, like the sei of seiten and seiketsu; sounds drifted over centuries, so treat the family as a strong hint, not a rule.
12 min readJapanese Bento Box Anatomy: Parts, Proportions and Types Explained
A Japanese bento is a full meal packed by area: the staple, usually rice, takes the most room, the main dish and vegetable sides share the rest, and dividers such as baran keep flavours apart and stop the food from moving.
12 min readJapanese Meal Layout: Ichijū Sansai and Where Each Dish Goes
In a Japanese ichijū sansai meal, rice sits at the front left, soup at the front right, the main dish at the back right and the side dishes at the back left and centre, with chopsticks laid across the front, tips pointing left.
12 min readJapanese Osechi Ryōri Meanings: The Tiers and the Wordplay in Each Dish
Osechi ryōri is the New Year food packed in stacked boxes, and nearly every item is a wish expressed through its name, shape or colour: kuromame for working diligently, kazunoko for many children, kobumaki for joy, ebi for long life.
12 min readJapanese Kitchen Measurements: Ōsaji, Kosaji, Kappu and the Pinch
In Japanese recipes, ōsaji is a 15 ml tablespoon, kosaji a 5 ml teaspoon and one kappu 200 ml, while rice is measured in gō of 180 ml, and shōshō and hitotsumami are two-finger and three-finger pinches.
12 min readJapanese Onigiri Fillings and Wrappers: Labels, Tabs and Nori
A convenience store onigiri label names the filling you cannot see, such as shake for salmon, ume for pickled plum or tsuna mayo, while the film with tabs 1, 2 and 3 keeps the nori away from the rice so it stays crisp.
12 min readJapanese Stove Heat Levels: Yowabi, Chūbi, Tsuyobi and IH Buttons
Japanese recipes name heat by how a gas flame meets the pan: tsuyobi (high) spreads across the base, chūbi (medium) just touches it, yowabi (low) stops halfway and torobi barely stays alight, while IH hobs turn these into numbered levels.
12 min readJapanese Sake Labels: Junmai, Ginjō and the Numbers on the Back
A Japanese sake label answers two questions, how far the rice was polished and whether distilled alcohol was added; junmai means rice only, ginjō means rice polished to 60 percent or less, daiginjō to 50 percent, and honjōzō allows a little added alcohol.
12 min readJapanese Typhoon Forecast Map: Yohō-en, Bōfū-iki and Jōriku
A Japanese typhoon forecast map answers two questions: the dashed yohō-en circles show where the centre will probably be, and the solid bōfū-iki and kyōfū-iki circles show how far storm and gale winds reach around it.
12 min readJapanese Weather Map: Fronts, Isobars and Seikō Tōtei Explained
On a Japanese weather map, 高 marks high pressure and usually fair weather, 低 marks low pressure and rain, the lines are isobars, and the four front symbols show where warm and cold air meet and which way they are moving.
12 min readJapanese Shindo Scale: What Each Earthquake Intensity Level Feels Like
Shindo is Japan's seismic intensity scale: ten levels, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 jaku, 5 kyō, 6 jaku, 6 kyō and 7, each describing how strongly the ground shook at one place, not how big the earthquake was.
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