Practical Japanese is a new series I am starting where from time to time I will publish a photo and/or video displaying Japanese characters whether Kanji, Katakana, Hiranga or a combination of them. I hope that seeing Japanese being used is a practical everyday sense will help expand the vocabulary of...

Train enthusiasts in Japan are ecstatic as East Japan Railway Company (JR East) official debuted the E5 Series Shinkansen or “Hayabusa” today which will be operating on the Tōhoku Shinkansen Line from Tokyo to Shin-Aomori with major stations like Sendai and Morioka. Hayabusa is Japanese...

Aomori Prefecture is at the northern tip of Honshū, Japan’s main island and is now home to two brand new train stations and fully connected to the country’s high speed rail network. The Tohoku Shinkansen Line has expanded to Shin-Aomori Station which now connects it to Japan’s capital...

I saw something recently that made me realize realize something very very important – I love Japanese trains more than Star Wars O.o! I experienced a geekgasm when I saw the Star Wars chopsticks a while back but the new Shinkansen ones have the aspiring densha otaku (Japanese train enthusiast)...

The BBC’s website has been a very important resource for me over the years for not only news related to Japan but through some interesting features, photo galleries and more recently videos I have been exposed to many things I couldn’t read in a book and can only get better by experiencing...