4th June 2012
issue 6iJapanese Newsletter

Published by iJapanese Language & Culture SchoolEND
OFTERMEVENT
SUSHI PARTY

Onsen 温泉 - Hot spring
As Winter has officially began, the days have become shorter and colder.
It’s the season where Japanese people love to visit the hot springs!
Onsen written in Kanji is 温泉.
‘温’(on) means "warm" and ‘泉’(sen)means "spring".
Japan is geographically situated on anumber of volcanos with 3,133 onsens
and further 28,033 untapped geothermal
fountains still remaining in Japan.
Onsen waters are known to containminerals believed to have therapeutichealing properties which revitalise thebody and the mind.
Ryokan, a traditional Japanese style inn(Hot Spring Hotels) are located awayfrom the major cities and found in deepmountain sides or seaside towns of Japan.

Term 3 Info
2nd of July:
Beginning of Term 3, 2012
2nd of July - 4th August:Kanji Class
22nd September:
The end of Term Event
In order to organise our new termschedule we ask that you pleaseconfirm your next term scheduling witheither Phillip or your teacher.
If you have any questions regarding theabove dates please contact us.
Contact Details: 0401 886 629
info@ijapanese.com.au

Housing design is very unique. The
traditional baths also and local food sets
the perfect mood for a relaxing andrejuvenating experience for all who visit.
Onsen resorts are the most popular travel
destination forJapanese people.
Luxurious baths
called "rotenbruo"(outdoorbath), will usually face the mountain sideor sea and are designed to make you one
with nature. A pleasant cool breeze
often encourage Japanese people todrink warm sake while immersing
themselves in the pleasant warm waters
roten bruo.
The image of Japanese mountainmonkeys having a bath is very famous
around the world. If you haven’t seen
them please visit the iJapanese Facebook.

These days many hot
spring facilities offer‘Higaeri onsen’
which means you
can use the hotspring without staying overnight. They
usually provide a delicious lunch
package, have become very popular.
The ‘Super Sento’ is also very popular.
‘Sento’ means ‘Folksy Public bathhouse’
which are different from onsens since theyuse boiled tap water or spring water.
They also provide Jacuzzi spa bath, saunaand traditional outdoor baths. Restaurants
and therapeutic massages are also foundin these sento’s.
Not quite the same as natural onsens but it
provides convenience as there locatedclose to the major cities.

You can also find onsen’s right here in
Melbourne. Why not give them a try?
Peninsula Hot Springwww.peninsulahotsprings.com
The Japanese Bath House
www.japanesebathhouse.com
Did you know that in Japan onsen’s areenjoyed by users totally in the nude?

Page 2 of 4Let’s try cooking
Japanese sweets!
That’sDoraemon’sfavorite !
Dorayaki(Pancake with bean jam )Ingredients:
2 Eggs70g Sugar
1tbs Honey
80g Flour
1/2tsp Baking powder
4 tsp Water
Red bean paste

Method:1. Mix eggs and sugar. Then add
honey and beat until smooth.
2. Add sifted flour Baking powder
and Mix. Put 2 teaspoons of waterand Mix.
3. Let the dough rest for 15mins.
4. Heat pan over medium-high heatand cook dough 8cm round shape.
5. When you see bubbles forming in
the pancake, flip it.
6. Continue cooking more until theother side is brown.
7. Cool the pancakes by coveringwith wet tea towel.
8. Fill red bean paste betweenpancakes.

iJapanese Newsletter
Student’s Story - Subin Jose
こんにちはI am Subin Jose born in Kerala in thesouthern part of India. I came toMelbourne in 2009 and started studying
hospitality.
As a hospitality student I have a great
passion for Cooking, I like travellingaround the world and like to taste
different styles of cuisines. My favourite
Japanese foods are Tofu Steak, Agenasu
Dengaku ,Aka Dashi and Yaki Daifuku.
Also I like Japanese rice beer-Koshihikari
Echigo. Currently I am working as a Chefin Oakleigh.
I am a great fan of Japanese Martial Arts.
I currently training Kyokushin Karate andweapons in Melbourne.

During my training
session, I met many
Karate Masters fromJapan. I find out that
if I want know
everything about
Japanese martial Arts,
I must know Japanese
language and culture.
I plan to have a holiday in Japan next
year and work on my martial arts skills.
One of the other reasons I joined thisschool is to help me to understand Japanese language and it’s culture.
I love coming back to this school everyweek. The people are so friendly and I
have learnt so much.
どうもありがとうございます

iCulture Workshops 文化講座
We will continue to hold our iCulture Workshops as they have been welcomed by our students.

Calligraphy Workshop
In this workshop, you will learn the basic skills of calligraphy
writing while mastering the correct style of brush techniques
and tool usage.
You will create your very own calligraphy works of art on
traditional
Japanese fan paper or paper board to take home.
You will also have the opportunity to keep your calligraphy
Date : 28th June
Time : 6:00pm - 8:00pm (2hs)
Fee : $33 (Session only)$58 (Include calligraphy set to take home )Kanji ClassIn this Kanji class, you will be able to learn Kanji withassociated images as well as understanding it’s meaning.
This fun class provides Kanji with the meaning and related
terms each lesson, so it’s easier for you to memorise them.
This Class is suitable for beginner level.

Date : 12th Jul – 9th Aug
Every Thursday (5 classes)
Time : 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Total Fee : $115 (Including materials)

iJapanese Newsletter

Page 3 of 4

From Mari まりよりI would like to suggest, "Now is the time to study Japanese even harder!"The Japan National Tourism Organization recently
announced that the number of foreign tourists who visited
Japan in April of this year totaled 780,800. This is up by
163.9 percent compared with the same time last year. It
shows that the number of tourists has bounced back to thefigure before Japan was hit by the earthquake.
In addition to this trend, many newspaper articles report that
more and more Japanese companies are seeking to employ
skilled foreign workers to increase its competitiveness in atime of globalisation and to combat the decrease inpopulation. For example, Japan has tied an Economic
Partnership Agreement with Philippines in 2006 and withIndonesia in 2007. Through this partnership, Japan accepts
about 200 nurses and 300 caregivers each year from bothcountries. It has been reported that nurses and caregivers willhold special visas that will allow them to stay in Japan for up
to three years and four years respectively. Also early thisyear, Japan decided to introduce a point-based immigration
system that will allow more foreigners with professional skills
to become residents of Japan.
So, for those who have been wanting to visit or work inJapan, now is the chance to achieve your dream by studying
Japanese harder! But, it can be difficult finding opportunities
to use and learn Japanese when you live outside of Japan.
However, with technology, you can access a variety ofresources that will allow you to practice your reading,listening and speaking using authentic materials. Each learnerhas his/her own way of learning a language. As a teacher I
hope to provide you with a variety of learning methods soyou can find the way that suits you best.

This time, I would like to recommend three websites, which
you may find interesting.
1) The Japan Times Online (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/)
Although this is an online newspaper written in English, it will
provide you with a wide range of news so you can keep
up-to-date on what is happening in Japan. By knowing thelatest information, you can strike up a conversation with Japanese people and practice your speaking skills.
2) Children’s News Weekly by Yomiuri Online(http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/kyoiku/children/weekly/)
Yomiuri Shimbun is one of the major newspaper companies inJapan. On their website, you can find a series of articles forchildren. While it is called “Children’s News Weekly”, it iswidely read by Japanese adults too. The reason for its
popularity is in the concise and easy-to-understand manner inwhich they report the latest news items. All articles havehiragana reading above the kanji so you can read the article
smoothly and learn kanji in context.
3) Rikai (http://www.rikai.com/perl/Home.pl)
If you find that the Children’s News Weekly is too difficult, youcan try using Rikai, which is an online translation system. This
is not a normal online translation website where you type aword into the system and it gives you a translation in anotherlanguage. With Rikai, if you copy and paste the URL of aJapanese website into its system and then display thewebsite, you can point your cursor to unknown words and it
will give you the pronunciation and the English meaning in a
drop-down box.
I hope you find these websites useful when studying Japaneseoutside of class. Good luck!

Mari sensee’s Wedding - まり先生の結婚式
I would like to express my gratitude to those who gave me warm messages for mywedding. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, cherry blossoms were in fullbloom on my wedding day, which made it more special and memorable. Our
wedding was not a traditional Japanese wedding. It was less formal, small andvery cozy. So from start to finish, my husband and I were able to enjoy chats andexchange smiles with our family and guests.

iJapanese Newsletter
From Phillip

Page 4 of 4

フィルより— Using Japanese on your computer!

Do you want to use Japanese on your computer?
If so, I’ll show you how...

Tips
You might not know how to find hiragana.
These are some examples.
How to install ( Windows 7 ):を= wo
1. Go to [Control Panel] and Choose [Clock, Language & Region]
東京（とうきょう）= toukyou
2. Click [change keyboard or other input method]
チョコレート= chokore-to (chocolate)
3. Under the tab [keyboard & Languages] Click [Change keyboards...] ディスカウント= dhisukaunto ((Discount)
4. Click [Add]If you want to type small あ.い.う.え.お,5. Add Japanese Japan - Microsoft IMF
type ‘L’ before typing ‘a, I, u, e, o’ such as わぁ= wala.
How to use:
1. Click [EN] and choose [JN]2. Use [Alt]+[`] when switching from Hiragana to Alphabet

Did you know that...?
Japan is the most……………….
in the world !
1.The largest city in the world...
TOKYO.
With a population size of 26.5 million,
more than 20% of all Japanese people
live there.

2. The most visited amusement
park… Tokyo Disneyland.
Opened in 1983, more than 17 million
people visit it each year.

3. The highest density of robots inthe world...Japan
There are approximately 800,000
industrial robots in operation aroundthe world, and half of them are foundin Japan.

4. The largest transportation
tunnel... Seikan Tunnel.
It connects the main islands of Honshu
and Hokkaido at a distance of 53.8km.

5. The oldest novel in the world...
in Japan written over a 1000 yearsago.
‘The Tale of Genji’ was written in the
11th Century by Murasaki Shikibu.

From Noriko

Now you can enjoy writing in Japanese andresearching the web using Japanese.

のりこよりI have a habit of reading Japanese online
news everyday. But, sometimes I don’t
understand the meaning of someJapanese words.
Languages are constantly changing, newwords are created and I find it a little bit
shocking when I can’t understand them.
These days, new words are mostly
Katakana and are created from English.
In Japan, it's considered fashionable touse katakana words. Not only young
people but people from all walks of life
use them. Some words will disappear justas buzzwords do. For example most ofJapanese people can understand‘Meruado’ (email address).
Meruado is shorten form ‘Meeru
adoresu’. Like this Japanese people also
like using abbreviated words.

Sometimes I cannot follow new words
anymore due to lots of new abbreviatedwords.
Since the number of letters in articles arelimited, they might have to use
abbreviated words. I find it challenging
when they are used in conversation.
And I am not alone!
The list goes on and on, but these aresome of the words which I took the time torecognise while reading some articles.
スマホ(sumaho) - Smart phone
インフル(infuru) – Influenza
コピペ(kopipe) – Copy & Paste

Sound strange or interesting?

Thank You ご挨拶
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for learning with us at
iJapanese Language & Culture School.
We hope you have enjoyed learning Japanese with us and we will continue to growand work hard towards building our school as the best in Melbourne.
So please, help us by filling in the questionnaire and give us your feedback. Looking
forward to seeing you all during the new term stating early July 2012.
Find Us on

iJapanese Language & Culture School
488 Bourke Street Melbourne 3000
Phone: 0401 886 629
E-Mail: Info@ijapanese.com.au
Website: www.ijapanese.com.au