日本１０１ with Nathan-san

katakana-mnemonics.md

Katakana Mnemonics

These are how I taught myself katakana, they are of varying quality and usefulness, feel free to add your own if you come up with better ones. I would highly recommend bumping your browser zoom up to 200% or something to begin with, as some of these characters are laughably similar to each other and have tiny little modifier strokes on them.

n

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ン	n

Vowels

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ア	a
イ	i	looks kinda like an I
ウ	u	upside down U
エ	e	elephant pressing feet together
オ	o	line sticks out

K

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
カ	ka	kind of like a cursive k and really similar to hiragana ka
キ	ki	looks like a key
ク	ku
ケ	ke	like ku but the line keeps going
コ	ko	like a room (ロ - ro) with a wall knocked out

S

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
サ	sa	salaryman wearing a hat
シ	shi	the eyes are drawn sideways (helps comparing with ツ tsu)
ス	su	submarine with support beam
セ	se	pointing to self
ソ	so	soba noodles

T

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
タ	ta	tadpole
チ	chi	cheese on a stick (this one is dumb, but it works)
ツ	tsu	the eyes are drawn from the top
テ	te	t with elevated platform
ト	to	second stoke comes from the top

N

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ナ	na
ニ	ni	two (ni) lines, same as the number kanji
ヌ	nu	nuclear submarine that's been pierced
ネ	ne
ノ	no	arm coming down as somebody says "NO"

H

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ハ	ha	two halves
ヒ	hi	sitting person waving hi
フ	fu	mouth eating food
ヘ	he	looks like a mountain and he climbed the mountain
ホ	ho	clothesline holding stuff up / pimp with hos

M

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
マ	ma	mu rotated
ミ	mi	mi is the chinese reading of the 3 character this is similar to
ム	mu	it's kind of like a bucket so it's the one with a u in it (this one really sucks)
メ	me
モ	mo	monkey with a tail

Y

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ヤ	ya	yak head
ユ	yu	kind of like a sideways y and also kind of like a rotated u
ヨ	yo	rotated west-side gangsign yo

R

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ラ	ra	raised platform
リ	ri	when you draw it it feels similar to drawing an R and has an I component
ル	ru	running legs
レ	re	reaper's scythe
ロ	ro	a room

W - These are really uncommon, I think I've seen each of them once, ever. Don't try too hard with them.

Kana	Romaji	Mnemonic
ワ	wa
ヲ	wo	same as the hiragana, this is pronounced as "o"

Usage Notes

As with hiragana, these are modified with ゛ ゜ to change their voicing. Whenever you see a character above with a voicing modifier, it keeps its vowel component but the consonant part changes. This applies to all characters in the group like so:

xx	a	i	u	e	o
K	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ
G	ガ	ギ	グ	ゲ	ゴ
T	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト
D	ダ	ヂ	ヅ	デ	ド
S	サ	シ	ス	セ	ソ
Z	ザ	ジ	ズ	ゼ	ゾ
H	ハ	ヒ	フ	ヘ	ホ
B	バ	ビ	ブ	ベ	ボ
P	パ	ピ	プ	ペ	ポ

To remember the changes:

゜ Makes a P sound and is circular like pie

Ka	Ga
カ	ガ

Ta	Da
タ	ダ

Ho	Bo	Po	Mnemonic
ホ	ボ	ポ	HoBoPo / hobo police

Su	Zu	Mnemonic
ス	ズ	SuZu / suzuki

BONUS POINTS

ー

Pretty easy, when you see a ー that just means you make the vowel long. Eg. ラーメン - raamen - ramen

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ツ

Besides being the smiley kana, a little tsu (ッ) is used to mark a stop in voicing, as in the stop when you pronounce "attack" (at-tack) Pretty much any time you would use a double consonant or a "ck" in english you'll need one of these.

A prominent example is ホット (hotto). You will frequently encounter this in starbucks and the like where they ask you questions like "hotto desuka?" (do you want your coffee hot?) just to fuck with you.

COMBOS

Extending the example above, in ホットチョコレート (hotto chokoreeto - hot chocolate) you can see a tiny ョ (yo) following the チ (chi) character. What this means is you combine the two and drop the vowel (-i) from the chi to make "cho". You will frequently see this applied to pretty much any -i character and ya/yu/yo. Another example: キャラメル - kyarameru - caramel

-- Fin

ProTipz.md

Boring stuff to stay Safe and Sane

ATMs

7-eleven atms generally work with australian cards. can be a life saver.

JR Pass & Trains

As soon as you get to the airport you'll have to take a shuttle to get to the airport proper. Once there you can head downstairs to B1 and there's a couple of ticket offices where you can exchange your order for the actual rail pass. The staff speak English there ;) The rail pass does cover you for the NEX (the express train to Tokyo) but you have to book a seat in advance. They'll probably do it when you do the exchange.

The NEX has 2 main stops in Tokyo: 東京駅 - Tokyo Station (East side) 新宿駅 - Shinjuku Station (west side)

From there you can get JR trains all over the city. It's important to note that there are a fair few train companies in Japan, the JR pass only makes your trips free on JR trains buses and ferries. You can get the Metro trains around too, some of them are closer to key events but it's way more fun and cheaper to just exclusively use the JR ones and walk around. Metro train stations are also total catacombs of tunnels so it's very easy to get lost.

新幹線 - Shinkansen - Bullet Trains

You can get every train except for very specific tourist trains and the bullet train called のぞみ - Nozomi Unfortunately the Nozomi is the fastest and most common bullet train. You'll be alright on the others though. When I say "fastest" it realistically stops at like 3 less stations on a 4 hour journey, not a big deal.

Bullet trains at Tokyo and Osaka only stop at big terminus stations that are slightly out of the way. In Tokyo where stop at Tokyo Station and Shinigawa but NOT at the absolutely enormous Shinjuku station where practically every other JR line goes. Same with Osaka where it only stops at Shinosaka station which is across the river from the main part of the city.

You have two choices getting shinkansen, yoloing onto the train without a ticket or reserving one beforehand. It's pretty likely if you don't reserve you might either not fit or have to separate from whoever you're with. Reservations are free with your pass and generally save you a lot of headache trying to find somewhere to put all your stuff. Reserve tickets at a みどりの窓口 - Midori no madoguchi. Big green ticket office.

FUN STUFF

Places

東京 - Tokyo

渋谷 - Shibuya The huge intersection you've seen in photos and Lost in Translation is here. Also has pretty good shopping.

原宿 - Harajuku Cosplayers are here on Sundays, although you can see them all the time. There is really good fashion here. Also there's several really good sneaker shops in a very small area. http://store.kickslab.com/ Just wander around the block and you'll find a tonne of good stuff. There's also a really sick toy store here called Kiddiland.

新宿 - Shinjuku Good shopping, good food, plenty of bars. There is an area that looks like a shanty town that's actually full of really classy (and weird) bars. ROBOT RESTAURANT is here. Book it as soon as you land. You won't regret it.

秋葉原 - Akihabara - Electric Town Crazy shit. Neons, game halls, panties in vending machines. You probably know all this. I would recommend doing purikura (photo booths). It's a lot of fun.

麻布十番 - Azabujuban Expat bars, good noodle shops.

築地 - Tsukiji (ski jee) Giant fish market, get here REALLY EARLY (like 6-7am) and you can get crazy good sushi.

大阪 - Osaka

梅田 - Umeda Shopping, kind of like the CBD, there is a cool district to the north of Umeda station with cafes and stuff.

なんば - Namba All kinds of good shit. Plenty of good food. Along the river you can find a 5 storey okonomiyaki restaurant chain called Chibo. Personally my favourite. Also highly recommend to get takoyaki here. There is Amerikamura here which has good fashion. There is a shopping street that runs for kilometers north until you get to...

心斎橋 - Shinsaibashi There is a really good mexican restaurant called El Pancho on L7 of a building right next to Shinsaibashi metro station. Their happy hour goes for 5 hours and all the drinks are 1/2 price. Food is really good too. Check the sumo calendars because the Osaka colliseum is right near here. Sumo is actually really fun to watch.

海遊館 - Kaiyukan - Osaka Aquarium It's pretty sick, the spider crabs are HUGE. Makes you hungry.

Spa World Can't remember exactly where this is, but it's a big building full of themed onsens. Onsens are freakin rad. Do them wherever you can.

神戸 - Kobe

Kobe is freakin sick. You can get here in like 30 mins from Osaka. The European quarter is cool to walk around and just chill. You can go up the mountain and get a really good view. You can also get kobe beef yakiniku here for ~$60pp but it's well worth it.

京都 - Kyoto

Hire a bike. It's the best. Kyoto trains are pretty mediocre compared to the bigger cities.

9hrs There's a capsule hotel here called 9hrs. If you have some nights unbooked I would really recommend trying a capsule for a night.

Fushimi Inari This is the temple with thousands of red torii gates. My favourite. There is a market at the base of it too.

Kinkakuji Golden temple. It's ok.

Kiyomizudera Big water temple on a mountain, has a sick view. Worth a visit.

Jam Hostel Good place to stay, has a sake bar underneath it. It's right next to:

Gion Gion is fucking rad. There are heaps of good restaurants and it's beautiful. If you just hang around the area near the little stream you can get lucky and see legit geisha walking in and out of buildings. You can also book old style ryokan (japanese inns) here which is super exxy but a great experience.

Eat

Vending machines Buy any and everything.

7-eleven Same goes. You can buy booze here for really cheap.

居酒屋 - Izakaya Pretty much a pub with 300en beers. Get whatever looks good. These come in chains. My favourite chain is DomaDoma, they have a red and white logo and have hectic good french fries with a buttery salt.

つけ麺 - Tsukemen Pretty much ramen, but it comes in a bowl to the side that you dip into a broth. There is an insanely good one called Yasubee http://yasubee.com/ in Shinjuku You can pick between miso, spicy miso, salt and sesame. Order at the vending machine at the front of the store. Red is spicy. The symbols denote the size of the noodle serving. 大　- Big (real fuckin big) 中 - Medium 小 - Small The thing that costs 350en is like a value pack that adds extra meat and toppings and generally makes it even more kickass. This is my favorite food in the whole world.

焼き鳥 - Yakitori Chicken skewers and beer, pretty rad.

お好み焼き - Okonomiyaki Savory pancakes. I recommend pork or mochi cheese. They'll probably make and season it for you, I really REALLY recommend putting the nori flakes and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes, tastes baconish) on it. Go fucking crazy with sauce.

たこ焼き - Takoyaki Octopus dumplings. Use the same sauce as okonomiyaki. Get them on the riverside street at Namba There's also a really good one at Narita airport where you can score 8 dumplings and a pint for like $10.

Dictionary

hai - yes iie - no (ee ye)

kudasai - please

sumimasen - excuse me - just raise your hand and say this politely and you'll get service. it's not rude.

arigatou - thank you - anything with "ou" is pronounced like a weird long ohh. kind of like "oh" and "oo" blended. another one is Tokyo, which is actually Toukyou, it's like Tohhkyohh. It's probably easiest just to say it like "toe"

kore - this - (ko-reh) anything with just "o" is a short o, which is pronounced like the o in "top" super effective way to get stuff on a menu. point at it and say "kore o kudasai"

sore - that (so-reh)

koko - here

doko - where

nama beeru - draft beer

mo ippai kudasai - another glass please

okaikei kudasai - the bill please

豚 - buta - pork

牛肉 - gyuniku - beef

鳥 - tori - chicken (generally means bird)

魚 - sakana - fish

新幹線 - shinkansen - bullet train

駅 - eki - train station

電車 - densha - train