Just when you thought you knew the Japanese number system along comes the next wave of number-based words to throughly throw you out of whack. The Japanese language has different counters for everything ranging from animals to pencils. While not strictly a counter, the dates of the month are based on the same building blocks but come with their own unique patterns.

I was recently in the US on holiday and on my way to LA to fly home to Australia I decided to divert through San Francisco for a day and visit Japantown or Nihonmachi (日本町), as it is sometimes known. The beginnings of Japantown date back over 150 years and by the 1940’s it was one of the largest populations of Japanese outside of Japan.

I found these school children sitting in the grounds of Osaka Castle sketching the front wall of the castle on what seemed to be a school excursion. Being Japanese, they were all sitting perfectly still and behaving themselves – far different from what I would see at home.

This was shot outside of the Western entrance to the grounds of Osaka Castle. I was busy taking shots of the outside moats and surroundings and almost got run-over by this guy in his very quiet “I Can Run By Hydrogen” machine.

I’ve gathered a handful of common computer and internet terms with their Japanese equivalents. They’re a great way to learn new Japanese words plus get your head around the occasionally complicated Katakana involved. A good way to sharpen your skills in this area is to switch your whole computer over to the Japanese for a day.

I found this sign hanging on a fence around a small public park, which also doubles as a kindergarten playground, near Tokyo Tower. Perhaps they thought subtility wasn’t going to get the message across ^_^ For the Japanese beginners out there, “とびだし” means “something that leaps” and “注意” means “warning or caution”.

Dogs getting pampered at the DogMan dog-grooming salon below Hotel Claska in the trendy Tokyo suburb of Meguro. The quiet, tree-lined Meguro area with its designer furniture stores and restaurants is a real surprise for those expecting the Ginza-like experience of Tokyo.

The Japanese Graded Readers Series is aimed at providing a fun and informative way to practice basic Japanese vocabulary and reading/listening comprehension. With it’s colourful illustrations and easy to read text, the Japanese Graded Readers Series sure beats the heck out of wading through boring lists of vocabulary and grammar.

I shot this in the area around JR Harajuku station on a busy Sunday. These contact lenses still freak me out. I wonder what they look like from the inside out?

Our Japanese word for today is – Kaiwa (会話) meaning conversation. The first kanji (会) means meeting, meet, join or party and has the readings – カイ, エ, あう, あわせる and あつまる. We’ll be using the カイ (かい) reading for today’s word.

When you think of the super high-tech, neon saturated city of Tokyo, perhaps the word tram is not the first thing to enter your mind. Me neither but I stumbled across a post somewhere on the interwebs about Tokyo’s last remaining streetcar line, the 12km Toden Arakawa Line, which dates from 1913 and decided to check it out.

So you just started learning Japanese and you’re wondering what all these crazy new terms are that you’ve never heard of before? To get you started I’ll kick you off with a quick explanation of some of the more popular terms.

CLOSED! To celebrate the iOS4 update for Japanese 101: Particles, Harvey from japannewbie.com has kindly offered zonjineko.com readers the chance to win one of 5 free codes for his superb iPhone app. Don’t worry if you miss out on the free codes as the app is also on sale from Friday 9th July to Monday 12th July 2010 at US$3.99 – close to 40% off!

A touch of 19th century England fused with 21st century Harajuku coolness lights up Takeshita-dori (竹下通り) – one of my favourites.

Piles of seaweed for sale at one of the outdoor markets along Ameyoko (アメ横) in Ueno, Tokyo. The markets were packed full of fresh produce including all types of seafood, vegetables and fruits. I saw everything from headless octupus to various parts of animals I care not to mention.

Everyone learns a different way. It’s an obvious statement but one that bears thinking about when you’re attempting to learn a language. For example, if you’re studying at school I guarantee that no-one bothered to ask you about how you wanted to learn Japanese?

Hattori-san is a well-known homeless man who has been in and around the Shibuya for more than 15 years apparently. Although some say he has recently moved to the Shinjuku area. Hopefully he is okay – seemed like a nice enough person and wouldn’t accept any help from anyone.

Let’s face it, if you’re reading this then you, like me, think that learning Japanese is great fun. However, there are certain aspects of the language such as particles that can test even the most ardent Japanophile. Surprisingly there are very few iPhone apps that cover this area of the market and even fewer that do it well. This is where Japanese 101: Particles steps in to fill the void.

Whether you’re a beginner, advanced or somewhere in between, at some point in your Japanese studies you’ve probably “hit the wall”. I’m sure you know the feeling – you’re over it, you don’t want to see another kanji or verb conjugation as long as you live.

I’m not sure what this lady was doing exactly but she walked along and then squatted down for about 10 minutes on the busy Jingu Bridge near Harajuku Station before moving on. Resting? Heart palpitations? Or old lady weirdness perhaps?

Although my life is dominated by the very latest electronics and my general distain for all things paper-based is infamous; Jack Halpern’s Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary stands out as my must-have kanji learning tool. I must admit I love this dictionary. I love the way it looks, feels and how it helps take away some of the pain along the path to memorising 2000+ kanji.

A typical Saturday morning along the insanely crowded Takeshita-dori (竹下通り) in Harajuku, Tokyo. While it’s has been done to death, I always enjoy this particular view as I remember the cameraman in the top left hand corner trying several times to climb on the back of his friend to get a photo, only to be knocked off by the endless crowd of shoppers.

This week’s Word Of The Week is – Choushoku (朝食) meaning breakfast (formal). There are two other versions of breakfast – 朝飯 (Asa-meshi) and the more polite 朝ご飯 (Asa-go-han). Why are there so many words for breakfast? If you think about it in English we have the same situation as breakfast can be known as “brekkie”.

Nestled in an area that is home to some of the most iconic brands in the world, you’ll find Condomania. In this small, triangular store you’ll find almost every imaginable type of condom for sale. There’s something there for everyone and a must-see store if you in the area and enjoy a bit of a laugh.

I stumbled on this juice bar at a train station in Tokyo and thought it would make a perfect image for my Japan Sign series. There’s a great mixture of hiragana, katakana and kanji although I’ll mainly be looking at the katakana in today’s example. First up on the left we have Banana Juice (バナナジュース), which is entirely in Katakana. Banana is written as バナナ (ba-na-na) and juice is ジュース (ju-u-su).

In terms of similar kanji, 氷 (icicle) and 永 (eternity) are very close. They’re clearly not indistinguishable but at normal reading size they can be difficult to tell apart especially for beginners. If we threw in 水 to the mix, which is the kanji for water, we could thoroughly confuse ourselves – so I think we’ll just stick with these two for today. ^_^

I found this store as I was heading back to the train station after spending a day in Nikko, which is about 2 hours north of Tokyo. It really stood out to me as it looked particularly Western amongst everything else along the street. I can’t tell you what I expected a second-hand store in Japan to look like but it wasn’t like this ^_^

After an uber-successful Winter Photo Contest, the folks over at Wide Island View have announced the 2010 Spring Photo Contest. The news gets better with the addition of prizes this year from the prize-worthy folks at White Rabbit Press, who sell the best Kanji Flashcards on the planet.

This week’s Word Of The Week is – Monogatari (物語) meaning story or tale. Monogatari is made up of two kanji – 物語 (ものがたり). The first kanji (物) means thing or object and has the readings – ブツ,モツ, もの – although we’re only interested in the もの reading for today’s example.

The iPhone app store is chock full of every imaginable application but quantity doesn’t always mean quality. While there is plenty of choice for Japanese students, many of the apps are of questionable quality and design. I have listed an overview of my top 5 Kanji learning apps, which is based solely on the trial and error of hundreds of applications since the iPhone debut in 2007.

I found this small ¥1,000 barber shop hidden somewhere in the back blocks of Ueno Station in Tokyo. The whole concept highlights the Japanese predilection for hyper-efficiency and I must admit that is exactly what I love about Japan. Although the love doesn’t extend far enough to get my haircut for ¥1,000. I’d assume you get one style here – salaryman standard.

I had spent several hours around Harajuku exploring the area and as I was heading back up Takeshita-dori (竹下通り) to Harajuku train station, this girl suddenly appeared from one of the side streets. She kindly let me take her photo and I think she looks amazing and also unique, which is harder to achieve.

This week’s Word Of The Week is – Densha (電車) meaning (Electric) Train – which in Japan is an integral part of everyday life, especially in the larger cities. A train station such as Shinjuku in Tokyo claims over 3.5 million commuters passing through its gates daily – an incredible figure.

In today’s J-Vocab series we take a look at some items that you’d expect to find around the house. The proliferation of more Western goods in Japan means that there are several loan words featured in our list including Computer (コンピュータ), TV (テレビ), Shower (シャワ) and Bed (ベッド).

This week’s Word Of The Week is – Gaikokujin (外国人) meaning Foreigner – a word that is historically well in-grained in the Japanese vernacular. Foreigner is made up of three kanji – 外国人 (がいこくじん).

Welcome to the fifth instalment of our hiragana lessons on zonjineko.com – the hiragana N line. The N line consists of na (な), ni (に), nu (ぬ), ne (ね) and no (の). There are a few important hiragana in this line that you’ll frequently see in any Japanese sentences.

One of the hundreds of signs directing people along the miles of underground walkways servicing the area around the Ginza subway system.

The size and scale of it all is awe-inspiring especially coming from what we have in Australia.

Frenchman Yann Arthus-Bertrand has amassed a stunning set of aerial views of Japan. His website also allows you to download any of the images plus there are aerial photos from over 100 countries around the world.

This week’s Word Of The Week is probably still relevant for those of us constantly studying a language. I can’t say I spend alot of time in them anymore though since the interwebs came along. Library is made up of three characters – 図書館 (としょかん). The first two kanji (図書 – としょ) form a kanji compound, which is where two (or more) kanji are joined together to form a new word.

Hmmmmm おっぱいプリン – what more does a man need than a custard pudding lovingly shaped to resemble a woman’s breast?

Asakusa is full of contradictions – run down and filthy in places and yet home to the futuristic Philippe Starck-designed Asahi headquarters. It’s also home to the stunning Senso-ji temple and surrounding shrines but Tokyo’s oldest geisha district lurks just around the corner.

In a city the size of Tokyo, even moderately-sized subway stations in the larger underground systems can be like mini-cities with long walkways off in all directions so knowing a few points of the compass in kanji will mean that you don’t end up going around in circles. Believe me, it can happen ^_^

So the news this week that the iPad will debut in the US on April 3 was pretty exciting. What’s more exciting though, is that the iPad will also be available in Australia (where I live) and Japan (where I want to live) plus Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

I came across these guys from a post on Twitter a little while ago and can’t believe how good they are. If you like your J-Rock hard and played by guys who can actually play (the bassist is amazing), make sure you check out – Nothing’s Carved In Stone.

It was a busy Sunday afternoon on Jingu Bridge in Harajuku, Tokyo. This girl kept herself fairly separate from the others and spent a countless amount of time carefully preening every inch of herself. She looked stunning with the ginger hair against her fair complexion.

I shot this image of one of the market stalls littering the Ameyoko; a busy street market that runs along the main railway line in Ueno, Tokyo. If you’re ever in Japan, you’ll see people wearing masks out in public places.

This sign is in the grounds of Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. We visited there when we last stayed in Ueno and apart from being the coldest and wettest day of our trip, it was definitely worth the visit. There’s a fair bit going on in this sign but don’t worry as we’ll go though the kanji and katakana one at a time.

I was taking photos around the Center-Gai area of Shibuya in Tokyo and this guy walked right in front of me.

I was momentarily cursing him before I realised it made for a great photo opportunity and then all was forgiven ^_^

YouTube offers an amazing array of free resources for anyone wanting to learn Japanese. From anime to cooking, sports and Japanese news broadcasts, anyone with an internet connection can get instant access to tens of thousands of videos on demand.

Here are three ways to harness the power of YouTube to improve your Japanese.

This was shot somewhere along the busy market streets of the famous Ameyoko in Ueno, Tokyo. There is all sorts of produce available including seafood, fruit and vegetables right through to shoes, t-shirts and jeans. The markets are always packed, which makes for an exciting place to visit when you’re next in Tokyo.

目 (eye) and 自 (oneself) are separated by just one small stroke and as such prove to be tricky for beginners to remember. Both kanji are part of the JLPT3 and are taught in grade one and two at Japanese schools respectively.

I took this shot of an ad hanging on a train somewhere on the Yamanote line in Tokyo. I think it’s a great real-life example of the use of Katakana for foreign city or country names.

To start you off I’ll go through the first line and then you can take it from there. We put all the first line together and get “Rondon” or London as it is known in English.

We spent a full day in Kichijoji after having it recommended and we weren’t disappointed. It has become one of our favourites places to visit while in Tokyo.

This was shot at a small shrine we stumbled upon near the main shopping area and just as we were leaving I saw the afternoon light hitting the solid stone gate and filtering through the leaves in the background.

When I first started Japanese, I struggled to memorise certain things – some I got straight away, others took time and slowed my progress.

Over a long period of trial and error, I came to the conclusion that mnemonics work very well for me. I seem to learn faster and retain information for longer as long as it is attached to some sort of story that makes sense to me.

I first caught a glimpse of this girl with the amazing white hair from a distance walking down Takeshita Dori (竹下通り) but I eventually lost her in the crowd.

When I when made my way around to Jingu Bridge just outside of JR Harajuku train station (原宿駅), she was there with a few friends and making a call on her mobile.

The ubiquity of Twitter means you can connect to the Twitterverse in so many different ways.

Having the ability to always connect to Twitter on the run means you essentially have a free Japanese resource available to you at any time and wherever you happen be.

人 (Person) and 入 (Enter) are both JLPT4/N5 and learnt in Grade 1 in Japanese schools, however for a beginner, they can be very easily mixed up.

The only visual difference between the two is the small stroke at the top of 入 (enter), which is what I use to create a story in my mind to remember the two.

When we were last in Tokyo we visited the sprawling Ueno Zoo located in Ueno Park (上野公園), about 15 minutes train ride north of Tokyo. There was plenty to see and do in the park (and also in Ueno itself) including the zoo, an amusement park, temples and much more.

Rows upon rows of laundry detergent all written in katakana – imagine the horror when your partner asks you to grab brand X and you come home with brand Y because you can’t read katakana – oh the shame!

On a recent trip to Tokyo we headed down to Yokohama’s Sea Paradise, which was about an hour’s train ride with a few changes in between.

Towards the end of a long day of piscatorial viewing, we headed over to the ice-cream shop and found 100 flavours from which to choose including some crazy Japan classics like Black Sesame, Wasabi and Pumpkin.

The T line consists of ta (た), chi (ち), tsu (つ), te (て), to (と) and the changes to the aiueo rule happen in two places. The first difference comes with chi (ち), which replaces the expected “ti” and is a mirror image of さ (sa) so don’t get confused there.

The other change is tsu (つ), which comes in place of what you may have assumed would be “tu”.

As I was leaving Shibuya train station in Tokyo I couldn’t help but notice this long pair of legs, I mean girl ^_^, sitting beneath the mural that adorns the side of the Tokyu shopping centre above the railway.

My advice to separate the two in your mind is to imagine that the line at the top of 牛 (cow) is the horn of a bull, which is similar enough to a cow to trigger the memory.

As soon as I used that idea it was very easy to separate the two in my head and I moved on to the next 1943 kanji to memorise!

After a cloudy morning it turned out to be a beautiful clear day for our visit to Osaka Castle (大坂城).

I shot this closeup view of the roof on the south side of the castle, which is what you first see as you enter the main gate. The crystal blue sky really set off the gold and white roof.

So you’ve mastered hiragana and katakana and now you’re ready to move on to kanji. Kanji is where things really start to get interesting. You’re about to begin the final piece of the puzzle as there is nothing more, in terms of written language, after kanji – except for more kanji. (^_^)

I have two Kanji Starter Kit Worksheet downloads available – one with the meanings and one without the meanings so you can test yourself by writing the correct meaning below each kanji on the printed worksheet.

It was a hot, sticky Sunday afternoon in Tokyo and the Jingu Bridge area just outside of JR Harajuku train station was crowded with bemused onlookers, mostly tourists, as it is every Sunday of the year.

Out of the almost fifty or so Harajuku girls and guys meeting that afternoon was this girl who caught my attention and this image was the result.

Lima Sky, the two man iPhone development team responsible for the imaginatively titled Kanji (one of the first kanji iPhone learning apps), has unleashed yet another gem with the wonderfully addictive KanjiPop.

This kanji sign caught my eye at Shinjuku station in Tokyo as it was quite a cool November morning and the glass waiting room (待合室) attached to the sign turned out to be a whole lot warmer than standing on the platform waiting for my train up to Nikko.

We were on our way back to the train station after a morning wandering (read: clothes shopping and visiting Loft for the 35th time) around Shibuya.

As we approached the main square outside the station there were about 10 girls/guys giving out free hugs and generally running around being very happy.

While these kanji (味 – Flavour, taste and 知 – Know, wisdom) are less alike than some of my previous examples in this series, they still can provide some confusion at the JLPT 3rd and 4th levels with the same basic box on the side and a similar looking object on the side.

The JLPT is over for another year. Some of you attended, some may have missed it, others didn’t know it was on and the rest. Well, care factor = 0.

If you spend any time reading around the interwebs this time of year, you’ll notice the great unwashed coming out of their caves and denouncing the JLPT as a waste of money and/or time.

I stumbled across a local park in Meguro, Tokyo on an afternoon photo walk and in the middle of it was a large concrete pond with one side lined by mostly old guys fishing for carp. It appeared to be a user-pay system but I can’t confirm the cost or bag limits.

I had decided before arriving in Japan on a recent visit to Tokyo that I would make the two hour trip north to Nikko at some point during our stay.

We got the usual Tokyo clouds and/or light drizzle on most days but thankfully on the morning that it counted I woke up to a spectacular winter’s day, which helped make the visit to Nikko an unforgettable experience.

So it’s only days away from the 2009 JLPT test and if you don’t know a good number of these i-adjectives by now, you’ll either need a case of RedBull to pull a few all-nighters or just resign yourself to guessing your way through the multiple choice questions.

Visiting Japan and want to discuss the weather? Or maybe you’re just looking for a few lame hook up lines for a new Japanese girlfriend.

These weather-based words will make sure you’re good to go at any time.

I shot this image in the grounds of Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) in Shibuya, Tokyo.

As a keen photographer and Japanophile, it’s days like this, when you come across such a stunning ceremony in another country, that puts a big smile on your face.

When you’re just starting to learn Japanese and in particular hiragana and katakana, the small tsu (っ/ッ) is one of those tricky little buggers that may get you a little confused. Every time I saw something like がっこう (gakkou), I thought it was reading as が (ga) っ (tsu) こ (ko) う (u).

We came across these white grapes for sale at a large department store in Kashiwa, a northern suburb of Tokyo.

While they look very tasty, I’m not quite sure they’re worth the approx. AUD$70 they worked out to be against the Aussie dollar at the time.

Featured below are the Top 100 verbs that you need to know to avoid breaking in to a cold sweat when you first flip over your test paper. If you nail these you are well on your way to a Grammar pass. Then you only have to worry about listening, reading and vocabulary (^_^)

Visually 日 (day) and 白 (white) are differentiated by just a small stroke at the top of 白. Both kanji are part of JLPT 4 and are learnt in grade one in Japan.

This week Google introduced a new look and feel for it’s online translation service, Google Translate.

For a free service it’s great but let’s just say that I wouldn’t use it to do up a resume for that job at Microsoft in Tokyo you really wanted to nail.

I took this photo in the back streets of Meguro near Gakugei-daigaku train station on a recent trip to Japan. Besides thinking it was a great image for the Japan Signs section of zonjineko, I also have a laugh every time I see a happy little character for almost any situation in Japan – even sewerage!

Perhaps it’s just me but in my past experiences with hotels, it is very rare to arrive in your room for the first time and find that it is actually better than what you expected, however that is certainly true of Room 502 at Claska.

Located on the fashionable Meguro-dori, Hotel Claska is a hip boutique hotel in the sprawling western suburbs of Tokyo. To the typical “sightseeing 3 days package tour traveller” it might be considered out of the way but with the ubiquitous Tokyo public transport system we were never more than a short bus, taxi or train ride to most major destinations across Tokyo.

I’ve read alot about the inconvenient location of Hotel Claska and most of it is unjustified. Sure, it isn’t one block away from the blazing lights of Shinjuku or Ginza but that’s the great thing about it.

These images were taken in and around JR Ueno train station and along Ameyako in Ueno, Tokyo. It was my first night shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II, which I had picked up a few days earlier at Yodobashi in Akihabara.

In 1907 the Brazilian and Japanese governments signed a treaty to grant the Japanese the right to live and work in Brazil.

The initial immigrants were lured by the promise of employment, with most Japanese-Brazilians (日系ブラジル人) settling in São Paulo, where most of the coffee plantations were located.

Many decades later, Brazil is now home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan with the most recent official figure nudging just over 1.4 million.

Today is Culture Day (文化の日 Bunka no hi) in Japan.

Culture Day was first held in 1948, to commemorate the announcement of the post-war Japanese constitution on November 3, 1946.

In this installment of Japan Signs we look at a photo I took in Tokyo a while back when a new Krispy Kreme store was opened in the Yūrakuchō district of Tokyo near Ginza.

The graphic shows the top 20 nations by internet costs and speeds around the world as ordered by the ITIF Broadband Rankings. Taking the number one spot is Japan, however, the global superpower USA languished in 15th place.

The S line signals the first of what will be many rule-breaker moments that you’ll experience as you learn Japanese, or any language really.

It consists of sa (さ), shi (し), su (す), se (せ), so (そ). The changes to our aiueo rule happens with shi (し), which takes the place of what would be “si”, however the rest of the line remains as is.

Japan’s official kanji list, known as joyo (general-use) kanji, is set to be updated for the first time in over three decades.

The current list consists of 1,945 kanji that are officially allowed to be used in newspapers and government publications as well as being required learning for all Japanese school children.

This is probably not exciting news to anyone outside of Australia but today we finally crawled back up to just shy of 84 against the Japanese Yen for the first time in twelve months.

Hopefully we can see it nudge up over 90 and then suddenly all those shiny new toys in Akihabara and Yodobashi are going to be back on my list.

Wired.com’s Daniel Feit discovers a culinary delight in the back streets of Den Den Town in Osaka – Curry Rice in a Can (カルーライス缶).

The verdict: Not so much.

When Google Japan debuted its new Street View service in August 2008, there was such an uproar that by May 2009, Google announced that it would re-shoot all of Street View data it had captured in Japan and also lower the height of the Street View car’s camera pole.

Typhoon Melor (台風１８号) has left a trail of destruction across Japan, killing two people and injuring about 30 people. Melor moved through Tokyo yesterday, leaving more than two million commuters stranded for several hours as train services were suspended following torrential rains and up to 200 kph winds.

Join me in dissecting the Japanese label of a ¥7000 bottle of 15-year-old Virgin Kentucky Bourbon.

We’ll go through and breakdown the katakana and kanji from the label and then it’s over to you to practice transcribing the rest.

I missed the news over the weekend but it seems Tokyo has lost out to Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro in it’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

It’s a shame as Tokyo, who last hosted the Olympics in 1964, would have done a great job (okay I’m biased) but after hearing that Rio is first South American city to ever hold an Olympics it is probably a fair call. The other cities in the finals race were Chicago and Madrid.

As is always the case in the land of gadgets, a new model is always just around the corner and so it was with some sense of inevitability that the much-rumoured Canon 7D was announced recently and what an announcement it was.

The 7D has a simply amazing list of features for this price range and will bring the whole DSLR Full HD video thing to a whole new market, which is going to be great for everybody.

In the leadup to the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda has introduced the U3-X, it’s own sit-down take on Dean Kamen’s famous two-wheeled Segway.

The one-wheeled U3-X, dubbed by Honda as the “world’s smallest existing transport device”, can move in any direction by the rider simply shifting their weight in the direction they wish to go.

The cyber homeless are becoming more and more prevalent in Japanese society.

For about $500 a month, out-of-work Japanese geeks can now make their home in a cyber-cafe cubicle.

The creators of the rather eerie-looking CB2 (Child-robot with Biomimetic Body), which was first introduced to the world back in 2007, say that the 130cm silicone-enveloped android is making excellent progress towards their goal of simulating a real-life 1-2 year old.

Welcome to the exciting (?) second installment of our hiragana lessons. Today I’ll be taking you through the second line of the hiragana table, which adds a “k” to the front of the vowel (a-i-u-e-o) pattern that we’ve already learnt.

Don’t stick your hand in a star shaped hole? Don’t shake hands with a star? Maybe not. It’s actually a warning sticker found on the door of trains in Tokyo and no doubt elsewhere in Japan.

Okay so maybe that’s a little bit over the top but one of the things I have learnt the hard way is to avoid romaji when you are learning Japanese. When you get to Japan you will realise there is nothing (or very little) written in romaji except for the usual train station names, some street names, store names and a few other things that are there to make life easier for foreigners.

Welcome to our very first hiragana lesson. I’ll be taking you through the first five hiragana characters, which are equivalent, in terms of letters, to the vowels in English eg a, e, i, o, u.