Practice Reading Japanese: Hiragana Times
August 4, 2009
Read online or subscribe by email to stories about Japanese culture written in kanji, hiragana, and English text with Japanese audio. Some of the stories are quite interesting and contain facts not very well covered in English, such as this one about Kido Shunzo and Kyugun I reported earlier.
Hiragana Times is truly a unique magazine, in which you can study a language while learning information about Japan. Each Japanese paragraph is followed by its English translation, and furigana are placed above each kanji to make Japanese study even easier.
Related Posts: Other Japanese Resources
Would be cool if you cold help out with those kanji.. Too much of them.. ;(…
Ok, I’ll write a post about learning Kanji soon
Thanks for the learning resource. I think it may be really helpfull.
You are welcome
Ahh.. thanks!!!
You are welcome, I hope it helps
I remember reading a sample issue in the Japan Foundation library; I also remember making a mental note to visit this site at some point in time. True to form, I completely forgot about it.
Thanks for the reminder.
I am glad this post reminded you of it
Ooh nice
Wow, that’s really cool. (: Except that I know nuts about Japanese. Haha. I could speak and read Chinese, but I’m not really good at that as I’m the only one in the family who studied it last time.
Well, it is never late to learn if you are interested and have time (I suspect the latter might be a problem).
I knew it! You are a reincarnation of a Chinese princess
HAHA! Well I happened to be sent to a Chinese school in the past. They certainly worked us really hard, and I’m sorry to say that it wasn’t the right study technique. I liked writing Chinese Calligraphy, although it wasn’t the best as I never had lessons. Everyone was musically inclined in my class last time! All but me and a few others.
Oh yes, time is the main factor, always. Especially in my line of work in the future. But I can’t rule out where I might go to further my studies later on. It may be Japan, so I might just have to pick it up. Lol.
Have you heard about the unreleased episode 25 of Kuroshitsuji? It will only be included in the 9th DVD, and apparently there’s going to be a performance of Hamlet.
The irony… I was involved with the exact same play just a few semesters back.
I see. It sounds like that school was not a very good experience for you.
Unfortunately, I am not very good at music. I enjoy music, but I am much more into drawing
Everyone has different aptitudes. Probably, your art is as beautiful as your poems 
It is always good to keep the future options open
Yes, I heard about the new Kuroshitsuji episode, but thank you for mentioning it
However, I have not heard that Hamlet will be involved lol
Oh, what was your role and experience in Hamlet play?
I played the queen in my class’ play.
Haha. Aww, you really flatter me; but I doubt that my art is that beautiful anyway. We modernised our play at our lecturer’s suggestion, because the original one had quite a long plot-and numerous characters!
We turned it to a mafia setting instead. So from the queen I was the uh, grieving widow? Yeah, the widow who sometimes appeared drunk because her husband is dead, lol. We had to refrain ourselves from laughing because it was a somber play!
Playing dead wasn’t easy, because I had to collapse on the ground-pretty hard. The next day I had a back pain, more from the muscles. Not to mention, I also had side roles like the actors who acted out the King’s death scene-which means I had to die about 3 times! XD
Our play turned out pretty well, better than we expected. I wonder if the Kuro one will be just as crazy, or with Grell, scandalous?
Oh, that is an interesting role to play
How could you, Gertrude? Right after a tragedy, you married Sebastian in a hurry 
Oh my, playing a drunk widow must have been very challenging, but fun for others to watch
I hope your back is feeling better now… Art is great, but you should be careful!
Three times… What a morbid play it was for you
Kuroshitsuji play?! You must record and post this!
Haha, I was referring to the upcoming episode! And don’t even bring up the subject of Kuroshitsuji plays, or my friends might just make me cosplay-which I am totally not familiar with. Why are our replies getting narrower and narrower? XD Haha, thank goodness I only had a few days of bruises, but thanks for asking. Well, it was quite an experience, for everyone never did see me in a dress before anyway. I wonder how would the 2nd season be like. I managed to squeeze out a poem on Friday. (: It’s on my blog now. Have a great weekend!
haha The replies are too indented now >.< Let's start over!
Good, they should make you cosplay!
New experiences are fun! What Kuroshitsuji character would you cosplay if you had a chance?
Dresses are overrated
That poem was a nice projective test
Enjoy your weekend
I’m not sure how will my parents react to cosplay, so that’s a shaky topic to approach, heheh. Erm, which character would I dress up as from Kuroshitsuji?
I really have no idea! Haha maybe it never occured to me. Thanks for reading my poem. It’s great that you leave a comment as it’s cool to know what others think. On DA it’s slightly disappointing because people hardly do so to my stuff. Thanks, the weekend is almost over anyway haha (;
It sounds like you have strict parents. I am not sure myself what Kuroshitsuji character I would cosplay. Tanaka must be fun because I would be drinking tea all day
It was a good poem
I also enjoy learning about opinions of others 
Sometimes it can be difficult to extract the meaning that the artist put into their creation without knowing the person very well. For example, what do you see in this painting?
Ooh. Did you draw that? (: Hmm, I see a boat in a thick wood, although painted at a different angle and a much cooler color theme. The picture on the right seems to give me the feeling that the boat is stuck/sailing into the unknown with the way it is positioned and the dark colors. The other one has a serene and quiet kind of atmosphere. Maybe describing different times in life, or is he/she at a predicament? XD this painting is quite abstract. What do you think?
Your interpretation is very perceptive. You mention that the boat is stuck or sailing into the unknown and there might be some predicament.
My initial impression was that the right side of the diptych was quite cold, but I decided to paint a more optimistic picture in my mind.
This is a painting by Jennifer Bartlett (111.8 cm x 152.4 cm). While we may never know what the artist wanted to say or what she did say unconsciously, knowing about her childhood experience in a boat might shed some light…
By chance, I also wrote a post about the “Hir@gana Times”.
http://tokyo5.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/hiragana-times/