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Japanese language, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley Japanese language, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata

Mitsuru Nagata was born in Kyoto, and works extensively in Spain. His work combines elements of calligraphy with sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) techniques.

He performs at "live-painting" events, where he produces huge calligraphy paintings in front of a live audience.

These large-scale performances are often at festivals…

Mitsuru Nagata was born in Kyoto, and works extensively in Spain. His work combines elements of calligraphy with sumi-e  (Japanese ink painting) techniques.

He performs at "live-painting" events, where he produces huge calligraphy paintings in front of a live audience.

These large-scale performances are often at festivals:


I love the simplicity of Nagata's work, like this stunning commission, with the traditional thatched roof home in the background:

おかえりなさい　(o kaeri nasai)　"Welcome home"

(Calligraphy is a good opportunity to get your eyes used to vertical writing, too!)

If hiragana's not your thing, there's plenty of complex kanji to get your teeth into too.

Like this new year's post, with a pug for the year of the dog (2018):

謹賀新年　(kinga shinnen)　"Happy New Year"

I love the movement in these videos, and the combination of precision brushwork and watery ink.

This one's a promo for one of Nagata's live performances in Spain - a beckoning cat saying おいでね！　(oide ne!)　"Please come!"

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Learn Japanese, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley Learn Japanese, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (part 1.5 bonus!) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

I can't believe I wrote an entire blog post about calligrapher Emi Yogai and forgot to include this amazing pun…

I can't believe I wrote an entire blog post about calligrapher @yogai888emi and forgot to include this amazing pun.

タイ料理が食べタイ

tai ryouri ga tabe-tai

"I want to eat Thai food."

What's the Japanese word for "Thai?" it's タイ (tai). And how do you say "want to eat" in Japanese? You stick -tai on the end of the verb.

It's funny, right?

Cute, too ♡

Read more in this series:

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata

Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 3) - Isawo Murayama

Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 4) - Uchiyama Kenichi

First published 25th Jan 2018; updated 30th Nov 2021

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Learn Japanese, Japanese language, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley Learn Japanese, Japanese language, Japanese Culture Fran Wrigley

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

I absolutely love kanji - Chinese characters that are also used in Japanese writing.

But calligraphy is not my strong point. My writing is good, but not particularly beautiful.

I have, however, recently become slightly obsessed with instagrammers who post Japanese calligraphy photos.

So I thought it might be fun to share some with you!

I first discovered @yogai888emi via this adorable story about falling asleep on the train…

I absolutely love kanji - Chinese characters that are also used in Japanese writing.

But calligraphy is not my strong point. My writing is good, but not particularly beautiful.

I have, however, recently become slightly obsessed with instagrammers who post Japanese calligraphy photos.

So I thought it might be fun to share some with you!

I first discovered @yogai888emi via this adorable story about falling asleep on the train.

↓　Look at those lovely clean lines. I immediately had serious handwriting envy.

If kanji's not your thing, you can find beautiful hiragana and katakana on her page too.

↓　ハナゲ　(hanage) "nose hair"

There are videos, too, if you like watching calligraphy. I do - I find it super relaxing.

↓　煮える　(nieru) to boil, to be cooked. This one's from the height of summer!

You can find heaps more of her work at @yogai888emi's instagram page. I hope you enjoy exploring it as much as I do.

Just looking at calligraphy won't make your handwriting more beautiful though - unfortunately!

Read more in this series:

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1.5 bonus!) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata

Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 3) - Isawo Murayama

Amazing Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 4) - Uchiyama Kenichi

First published 25th Jan 2018; updated 30th Nov 2021

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This is the English version of an article I wrote last year which is now published in a Japanese book! 日本語多読 上 ～広がり深化する多読 (Nihongo Tadoku Jou: Hirogaru Shinka Suru Tadoku) is an introduction to Japanese extensive reading that incorporates new practices, research, and knowledge.

How I discovered Tadoku
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Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 4) - Uchiyama Kenichi
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Uchiyama is a designer from Yokohama, Japan.

He posts clean, minimalist Japanese handwriting on a separate handwriting Instagram account.

I'm not even sure if you can call it calligraphy, it's so gloriously simple. But he's got nice handwriting, and I love having it in my feed.

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Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 3) - Isawo Murayama
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 3) - Isawo Murayama

Hello and welcome to the third instalment of "Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram", where I introduce amazing artists making Japanese calligraphy - and sharing it online.

Isawo Murayama is a busy mum-of-four who makes time to create new pieces daily.

Her work feels a bit like a diary - together with her descriptive Instagram captions, her calligraphy offers up a little slice of her day-to-day life.

Traditional Japanese calligraphy uses a brush which is dipped into ink, but Murayama uses a 筆ペン (fude-pen) or "brush pen".

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Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 2) - Mitsuru Nagata

Mitsuru Nagata was born in Kyoto, and works extensively in Spain. His work combines elements of calligraphy with sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) techniques.

He performs at "live-painting" events, where he produces huge calligraphy paintings in front of a live audience.

These large-scale performances are often at festivals…

Read More →
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (part 1.5 bonus!) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (part 1.5 bonus!) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

I can't believe I wrote an entire blog post about calligrapher Emi Yogai and forgot to include this amazing pun…

Read More →
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯
Amazing Japanese Calligraphers on Instagram (Part 1) - Emi Yogai 恵美・曄涯

I absolutely love kanji - Chinese characters that are also used in Japanese writing.

But calligraphy is not my strong point. My writing is good, but not particularly beautiful.

I have, however, recently become slightly obsessed with instagrammers who post Japanese calligraphy photos.

So I thought it might be fun to share some with you!

I first discovered @yogai888emi via this adorable story about falling asleep on the train…

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Potatoes are tabemono, but they're not ryouri.

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Did you know Japan has the most umbrellas per person, of any country in the world? For every person in Japan, there are 3.3 umbrellas.

At least three of them are mine, left outside shops and restaurants…

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One day, I left my umbrella in the stand outside the 100-yen shop. It was quite a nice umbrella - a neat little folding one, and it had been a present from my brother, so I went back to the shop the next day.

My little blue umbrella wasn't in the rack, so I asked at the till.

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Watching British comedies dubbed into Japanese might not be the "purest" way to listen to Japanese. But if you enjoy it, it's definitely worth doing. Dubbed films are easy to watch, too, assuming you've seen the film before and know the plot already.

Anyway, there's a little scene in the Hotto Fazzu dub that's a nice example of Japanese plurals in action, so I thought I'd share it with you.

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Tadoku - Let's Read! Course Introduction Video (and transcript)
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Tadoku (多読), also called Extensive Reading, is the practice of learning a foreign language by reading lots of easy books. It's a really fun way to explore the Japanese language, without feeling pressure to understand every word.

This footage is from the 2019 Tadoku Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Tadoku course.

Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!

Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript. Click "CC" to turn on the subtitles 👍

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Games in Japanese - Course Introduction Video (and transcript)
Games in Japanese - Course Introduction Video (and transcript)

On Games in Japanese (日本語でゲーム), we practise communicating in Japanese by playing games!

This footage is from the 2019 Games in Japanese Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Games in Japanese course.

Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!

Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript.

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How Do You Say "Nice to Meet You" in Japanese?
How Do You Say "Nice to Meet You" in Japanese?

Hurray! You've met another Japanese-speaking person. Time to introduce yourself.

But how do you say "It's really nice to meet you" in Japanese? The first phrase you'll want is:

はじめまして。Hajimemashite. "Nice to meet you"

Hajimemashite literally means "we are meeting for the first time". So you can only use it the first time you meet someone.

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How to Read The Japanese News (Or Any Japanese Website!) with Rikaichan

When I first moved back to Brighton from Japan I had a lot of time on my hands. I also didn't have a job, so I was desperate for free Japanese reading material.

So I started borrowing Japanese books from the library.

This plan was not exactly a success. It turns out reading Twilight in Japanese is only slightly more entertaining than reading it in English.

But we are really lucky to live in a world where, if you have internet access, you can read just about anything you want in Japanese online. And the news is a great place to start.

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Why Does Everybody Forget Katakana?
Why Does Everybody Forget Katakana?

I'll let you into a secret. I used to hate katakana.

Students of Japanese tend to start with its two phonetic alphabets. We start with hiragana, the loopy, flowing letters that make up all the sounds of Japanese.

Then we move on to katakana - all the same sounds, but in angular blocky font.

Hiragana seems fairly straightforward, I think. And when you start learning Japanese everything you read is written in hiragana, so by reading you constantly reinforce and remember.

Katakana? Not so much.

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A Year of Monthly Japanese Learning Challenges
A Year of Monthly Japanese Learning Challenges

How do you keep practising Japanese, even when it doesn’t seem relevant? How do you stay motivated, when your life and your motivations change?

At the beginning of 2019, I decided to set myself a series of monthly Japanese study challenges. I’d do one every other month, and blog about it.

In January, I tried to speak Japanese every day for a month. This was probably the hardest challenge, from a logistical perspective. I don’t live in Japan, and we don’t speak Japanese at home (much). At the time, I was also working another job three days a week, where I wasn’t using Japanese at all. So speaking Japanese every day was, quite literally, a challenge.

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What's the Difference Between Mina and Minna (And Why Does It Matter Anyway?)
What's the Difference Between Mina and Minna (And Why Does It Matter Anyway?)

If you watch Japanese TV or anime (or are paying attention in class) you've probably come across the Japanese word mina-san (皆さん) meaning "everybody".

But what's the difference between mina and minna? What's mina-sama all about? And ... does it actually matter?

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How to Learn Hiragana and Katakana using Mnemonics
How to Learn Hiragana and Katakana using Mnemonics

I finally got around to going through the mid-course feedback from my students and drawing up plans to incorporate some of what you asked for into the rest of the course. Several learners mentioned the importance of learning the kana early on.

Learning to read Japanese can be a daunting task. The Japanese language has three distinct "alphabets" (four if you count romaji!) and learning kanji is a task that takes years. You can learn the kana (hiragana and katakana) pretty quickly, though, if you use the most efficient way to memorise them - mnemonics.

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Plateaus in Language Learning and How to Overcome Them
Plateaus in Language Learning and How to Overcome Them

Do you remember the first conversation you ever had in a foreign language?

The first three years I was learning Japanese I basically studied quite hard for tests and barely opened my mouth. I liked kanji, and what I saw as the oddness of the Japanese language. Three "alphabets"! A million different ways of counting things! I liked hiragana - so pretty! I studied hard and thought my university Japanese exams were easy.

Then, on holiday in China, I met a Japanese woman (at a super-interesting Sino-Japanese cultural exchange club, but that's a story for another time). I tried to speak to her in Japanese. And I couldn't say anything.

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A Trip to Japanese Vegetable Farm Namayasai, or, Why I Had a Shungiku Omelette for Breakfast this Morning
A Trip to Japanese Vegetable Farm Namayasai, or, Why I Had a Shungiku Omelette for Breakfast this Morning

Did you know there's a dedicated Japanese vegetable farm right here in Sussex?

I spent a Saturday with the Brighton Japan Club at Namayasai, near Lewes. Namayasai a Japanese vegetable farm owned by Robin and Ikuko, from Devon and Japan respectively, and is a Natural Agriculture farm - a specific type of organic farming that uses no pesticides / herbicides / artificial fertilisers.

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Three Favourite Japanese Jokes
Three Favourite Japanese Jokes

The worst job interview I ever had started with the interviewer asking me to tell him a joke.

I sat there flustered for a while before mumbling something about a man walking into a bar. The interviewer rolled his eyes.

I didn't get the job.

Sitting in a smokey cafe after the interview I remembered The Michael Jackson Joke which is probably the best beginner-Japanese joke of all time. I should've told him that one! Although he probably would have rolled his eyes at that too...

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"How Did You Learn Japanese?"
"How Did You Learn Japanese?"

When I tell people I'm a Japanese teacher they quite often ask: how did you learn Japanese? And I don't find this question particularly easy to answer.

Sometimes I give a quick answer which is that I used to live there.

But you can live in Japan for years and not learn Japanese.

I've met lots of people like this (and there's nothing wrong with that, unless learning Japanese is the reason you moved to Japan).

The long and more honest answer to "how come you speak Japanese?":

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