Edwin Arce

"I've lived in Japan on-and-off for the last five years, travelling to (almost) every corner of the Land of the Rising sun. I've deepened my love of the language with big hauls from Sapporo book stores, by chatting in Shinjuku coffee shops, drinking in Osaka "snack bars," exploring distant Okinawan islands, and hitching rides with monks in Aomori. Japanese is a wide and deep language, and I'm always eager to dive in deeper."

Let’s take a look at one of the more distinctive physical acts many people recognize from Japanese culture: dogeza. While the term itself is probably unfamiliar, you’re probably at least passingly familiar with its meaning, that of prostrating yourself on the ground, in an extreme form of bowing. In this article, we’ll cover the full …

Let’s look at a word that it seems like everyone loves to use in Japan. Tread carefully, however, this word (like, it seems, all words in Japanese) carries more nuance than you might at first expect. Those pitfalls are pretty easy to overcome, though, and in this article I’ll be guiding you on how to …

Anyone who’s a fan of animation is probably a fan of Studio Ghibli films, and anyone who’s a fan of Studio Ghibli films has heard the name “Princess Mononoke.” It’s one of the most popular animated films of all time. Heck, it’s one of the few Japanese animated films that Roger Ebert truly loved. But …

We’ve got another one for all the anime and j-drama fans out there in this article. And, even better, it’s also a reasonably common word in real life. But if you watch anime or J-dramas even occasionally then you definitely have heard the word we’re covering: masaka. Almost always said with a dramatic thousand-yard-stare off-camera, …

We’re going to tackle boku-no in this article and come to understand it through and through. To do this we’ll learn a little vocabulary, a little grammar, and a little history. Step one: Let’s give the simple, straight-forward answer. What does boku-no mean? Boku means “me” or “I.” No is a particle indicating possession …

We’ve talked a little bit about waifus in the past, those fictional, female objects of affection so beloved by the otaku crowd. Well, now it’s time to take a look at the other side of waifus. You guessed it: husbandos! First, our overview… What is a husbando? A husbando is to males what waifus …

Let’s talk omae today. This is a contentious and often misunderstood word in Japanese. Is it rude? Offensive? Friendly? Intimate? Just something said in anime and dramas? This word shares good company with other pronouns in Japanese. They’re hard to truly grok, and so, today, instead of overwhelming you with a discussion of a ton …

Let’s talk about the rather niche topic of “Talk no Jutsu,” which comes out of the English speaking community of fans around the anime Naruto. To anyone even passingly familiar with the phrase it’s just a simple, somewhat silly meme. But I’m going to take it seriously here, discussing the word as it’s understood in …

Let’s investigate the expression sugoi dekai in this article, finding out what it means and where it comes from. For those who just want a straight answer, however… What does “sugoi dekai” mean? Sugoi dekai means “amazingly huge,” and could also mean something is “amazingly good,” although this second meaning seems to be less …