Puccho (ぷっちょ)

A friend in Japan was kind enough to send us some Japanese snacks. Among them were these Puccho gumi's made by UHA Mikakuto. I've had other hard candies with a fizzy type filling like the Ramune candies, but these are a little different. They are kind of like a cross between a gumi bear and a starburst with a slightly fizzy thing in the middle.

Japanese Pod

I use a variety of tools to teach myself Japanese, but one of my favorites is Japanese Pod 101.

JapanesePod101.com - Learn Japanese with Free Daily Podcasts

The English speaking host makes the series alot of fun to listen too. The native Japanese speakers are very good and easy to listen too. The lessons are up to date and include informal speech as well, which I have not seen in other lessons. I think anyone learning on their own will find this a valuable tool.

Have you had your Sencha shot?

This was at one of our local grocery stores.  Even if things have a Japanese label I won't bother if it is made in the US, but the label says it is a product from Japan, so I had to try it.   I was expecting something of a disaster.  Surprisingly I found it quite refreshing.  I do like green tea but I have never had it cold.  I thought the quality of the product was very good.

You can get it at Amazon:  Ito En Sencha Shot, 6.4-Ounce Cans (Pack of 30)

Domo Kun At Target?

I thought it was funny to see this at one of our department stores. So I took a picture with my phone.  I guess they are trying to use it as a Halloween monster. =/

 

Wife got me one!!

Vantec NexStar Hard Drive Dock

After buying my Philips DVP 5992/37 DVD player with USB 2.0 Port,  I need something to get all the movies, music, and pictures on.  Putting them on DVD's is too tedious and thumb drives too small.  This little thing lets me take a bare drive and attatch it to my DivX DVD player and have up to 1TB of all my stuff at my fingertips.  Actually I should have posted a review of the DVP5992/37 first.  It is great for PC backups too.  The only downside is that the drive is bare.

iKnow! Learn Japanese Fast!

iKnow!

I have been teaching myself Japanese for just over a year and a half.  Yesterday I came accross this site.  I can't even remember what I was searching for at the time.  I don't know why I didn't find this sooner.  I found it an excellent tool to add to my arsenal of learning tools.  The excersises seem fairly comprehensive although I have not had a lot of time to test it out.