I've been studying Japanese for twenty years. YES. TWENTY! To celebrate the occasion I thought I'd share lessons I've learned about studying another language. jtalkonline.com/what-20-year...

I was sorry to hear the sad news that Juliet Winters Carpenter, a great Japanese-English translator, has passed away. I saw a number of people post about this on Facebook this morning, and have also received an email via the SWET mailing list.

Fun how you can check out what's trending on Bluesky and then search for those terms elsewhere because all the "related" posts are completely unrelated.

Following its successful Lafcadio Hearn morning drama, NHK has announced the spinoff series The Great Japanese Bakebake Off.

The traditional Japanese healing art of itaino itaino tondeike.

Wacky Races got a mention in a Kanagawa Shimbun front page column yesterday, so I feel obliged to share that it's called チキチキマシン猛レース in Japanese. Also mentioned were Penelope Pitstop (aka ミルクちゃん) and Dick Dastardly (ブラック魔王).

I very much enjoyed this translation of Hōjōki by Matthew Stavros, who takes an interesting approach by setting out the text in lines like poetry. I think this really works, bringing out rhythms, and I guess a greater focus on individual lines.

I'm finding a new appreciation for clumsy writing with some degree of sincerity. (In the AI era)

Great to wake up to news of Orban conceding. www.bbc.com/news/live/c2...

New review: Daniel Hahn on "The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation", in 𝐼𝑓 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝐵𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑐 www.complete-review.com/reviews/tran...

I keep vainly hoping that Anje, the new Okaasan to Issho presenter with a British dad, will suddenly for no reason say "Blimey" or "Turned out nice again."

Elton John's hit "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" goes by the Japanese title 土曜の夜は僕の生きがい, or we might say "Saturday Night is my Ikigai"

When translating, it's so important to think about whether your translated sentence makes sense. True, sometimes the original doesn't make sense. But often (more often than not?), thinking it out and double-checking the parts can reveal what the problem is.

Enjoyed a bit of a party this evening, but don't have the energy to stay up until midnight and toast the new fiscal year.

Parklife.

崩れる（くずれる）usually means something like "crumble" or "collapse," but I like that it can be applied to the weather (天気（てんき）が崩れる) to talk, for example, about a forecast of rain later in the day.

I really enjoyed There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. One of those books that starts out good and then gets better along the way. Genre: SF/horror/bureaucracy

Let's see how this plays out. Got to admit I was a bit addicted to old Twitter... www.bbc.com/news/article...

I never can keep track of when Easter is while in Japan, but here's a hint it's on the way. (April 5, it turns out). Has Japan given up on Easter tie-ins? www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ma...

A Tale Unasked is the memoir of Lady Nijō, born in 1258 and who was a court lady and later a wandering Buddhist nun. It’s the latest translation from classical Japanese by Meredith McKinney, published in October last year and very much worth a look for people interested in classical works.

Some English speakers complain about "blue" traffic lights in Japanese, but my son was telling me he didn't understand why it's called a "red" fox when it's actually orange. (I didn't go into the history of when oranges arrived in England etc., but told him that sometimes orange things are "red.")

"And find some English sentences about nature to put on the soap packet..."

Famima is all out of Nope. Curious enough to try this once, but in no hurry. Certainly eye-catching.

Peaceful times in Zushi.

Used to be able to find Vegemite fairly regularly in Kaldi, but now I imagine myself ringing around endlessly on the phone until: "You do have it? How wonderful. My name? JR Vegemite."

Japanese media very disappointed about Kokuho missing out on Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar. (By the way, it went to Frankenstein)

Just learned about American art critic, poet, and anarchist Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944). Born on Dejima to a Japanese mother and German father. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadakic...

Just playing with some Lego.

Just been enjoying the story of Amaterasu performed by puppets on TV.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Tokyo. (A random photo I forgot to post).

Almost 10,000 authors have come together to publish an empty book protesting the theft of books by tech companies to train AI models. Titled Don’t Steal This Book, it is empty of text except the names of the authors involved.. 🧵

“I never want to end up in a position where I’m one of the Ningyōzukai manipulating the arms and legs of this puppet that frankly hasn’t been relevant since the early 17th century,” said the Marty Supreme star

Lots of snow falling outside the Tokyo office window.

Not impressed with the new series of PythagoraSwitch.

So glad to see Kanako Nishi published in English, translated by Allison Markin Powell, at long last. Do read Sakura, it’s wonderful - I couldn’t put it down! #translation #booksky #japaneseliterature

Now listening to The Bends by Radiohead. It's been a while actually, but a great album.

This is a really great way to get to know about nō drama, with 24 plays included, each with their own introductions, edited and translated (very well) by Royall Tyler. Nō has been really influential on other parts of Japanese literature, so definitely worth knowing about. Published in 1992.

The main image representing the widening divide between Europe (欧) and the United States (米) caught my eye! news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/n...

Sometimes I have really banal feelings of deja vu, like "I've experienced this before" when I'm hanging up clothes or doing the washing up.

Random Japanese version of a song title: "Nowhere Man" by the Beatles is called "ひとりぼっちのあいつ."

Good to see Reform losing elections. Big win for the Greens. www.bbc.com/news/live/cp...

Japan friends, this Sunday March 1st, from 1pm we’ll be celebrating Japanese literature in translation at Human Arts Studio in Tsukuba. Some of my literary translator friends have kindly agreed to come along and read from their work - free and open to all, so do join us! #translation #literature

This is my favourite thing I've seen via social media for a while.

Happy to see that "In Our Time" is back, and catching up on the new episodes. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

"Critics say the looming deadline and a lack of communication around the changes have left people scrambling to apply for new documents." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Walking a little way along the old Tokaido highway from Shinagawa. I expect the toilets used to be more basic.

Pizza Hut beer asks in romaji if you knew that hut means "koya" (hut) and not "boushi" (hat).

I fed in some details to AI about me and it came up with this picture. I think it's pretty good.

The cat’s out of the bag! I was so delighted the judges - all women I admire greatly - chose my translation. Thank you! #translation #literarytranslation #booksky

I found a nice review of The Essential Akutagawa today, so I'd like to share here. But first, I don't think I've previously shared this earlier review on the Life She Loves blog. www.lifesheloves.com/my-asian-era...