Q: Hi! First off I’ll start with saying how awesome GenkiJapan.net is It has helped me a whole lot! Your videos are very insightful and always entertaining, so thank you  Now on to my question: I have Coeliac Disease which means I can’t eat food/drinks containing gluten, wheat, barley, rye, malt, oats or spelt.. and I was wondering if Coeliac Disease is heard of in Japan, and if there would be many gluten free options, particularly in Tokyo? I know obvious meals would be plain rice, vegetables and grilled meats, but if you have any other meal ideas to add that’d be awesome!   Thanks! – Nikki

A: Hi Nikki,

Thanks for the nice words!

As you’ve probably seen with the other posts about allergies or even vegetarianism, then Japan is very, very much behind the US or Europe. Eating out it will become tricky as “gluten free” is not a word that many people have heard or even if you say the word and explain it in Japanese they wouldn’t understand e.g. many people would just think “oh these foreigners, I’ll give them some Japanese food and they’ll be fine!”

For example during the summer I had a friend’s son who’s allergic to eggs, all eggs, but the travel agent for their school trip didn’t get the concept of not being able to eat some food so just said that he was allergic to raw eggs and cooked ones were fine!

The good news though is that you can buy anything in Tokyo so for home cooking you will be OK.  Plus all the packaging has clear labels on so you can see what is in everything you buy in the supermarket.

I hope that helps a little!

Enjoy the calendar.  If you’d like more, please like or share it at Facebook!

A: Hi Schnoo.

I think I get asked this question more than any other.  (Well except for “What does my name mean in Japanese?“!)

Hiragana might have the slight edge (e.g. if you counted on a random page there would probably be hiragana characters than katakana)  But really you use them both all the time every day – so they are just as common as each other!

Does that help?

If you want to see girls dressed in beautiful kimono then January is the time to visit Japan.

On New Year’s day the department stores and shopping centers will be packed with girls dressed in kimono spending the money they received for New Year.  And then you have Coming of Age day where 20 year olds dress in their kimono again.

Enjoy the calendar!

And if you like these, have a look at my learn Japanese “Kimono” Download Pack for many more!

A: Ah, good idea! I don’t actually have one at the moment, all I have is one for people counters: http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/japanesecountersforpeople.htm

I’ll see what I can do!

If it’s any consolation then the general counters don’t tend to be used much above 4つ as you’d usually use the more specific one that that specific item e.g. 6個 or 8枚  So there’s not much need to worry about them.

Hope that helps a little!

Be genki,

Richard

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What else could you want from Japan?

Be genki,

Richard

A:  Thanks Ali!

To hate in Japanese is 嫌い – kirai.  So to say you hate spiders you’d say　クモが嫌い – kumo ga kirai！

You also hear obnoxious kids saying it all the time around town.

And over dramatic girls on TV are always saying “大嫌い” – dai kirai – I hate you with all the passion of a bug  being crushed by a herd of elephants.

But just as in English “嫌い” is quite a strong word, so you also say “dislike” in Japanese with  好きではありません – suki de wa arimasen or a little less formal is 好きじゃない – suki jya nai

Then again in Japan everyone is * really * polite so if someone asks you “これが好き？” – kore ga suki – do you like this? – you can also say ちょっと – chotto – in a hesitant voice which means “well, I don’t really like it …..  sort of …. ”  which is a polite way of saying  you don’t!

Politeness is always the best way to go!

Enjoy the calendar!

P.S.  If you want more of my Japan posters, today is the last day before my Learn Japanese “Ninja” Download Pack goes up in price again.  If you haven’t already, get yours today!