Nihongo to English
Nihongo To English blends language learning and stand-up humor as comedians Michelle MaliZaki and Michael Allen CPA (also known as GoatVsFish) explore the quirks of Japanese and English—words that don’t translate, culture shocks, and why politeness can melt you faster than ice cream. Each episode moves freely between the two languages, revealing how funny and human bilingual life can be.
You’ll learn phrases, hear authentic conversation, and laugh about everything from Japanese idols and snacks to Ken-son humility and mistranslated signs.
Perfect for fans of Japanese culture, bilingual comedy, or learning Japanese the fun way.
Nihongo to English
Our First-Ever Podcast Guest Talks Japanese Culture & Genki Lessons | EP 33
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Learn Japanese with Michael Allen CPA and Michelle MaliZaki on Nihongo to English's first-ever guest episode! Michael's longtime friend Chris Crooks joins for Genki house vocabulary (toire, ofuro, genkan, fusuma vs. shouji) and the aku/akeru transitive-intransitive pair — plus wasabi bean souvenirs, a monkey breaking into a Kyoto house, Keiro no Hi (Respect for the Aged Day) mochi jokes, and a Genki textbook dating story gone wrong. New episodes every 2nd, 12th & 22nd. Listen to Chris's song awaken on SoundCloud.com
Michael Allen CPAとMichelle MaliZakiと一緒に日本語を学ぼう！Nihongo to English、初のゲスト回！マイケルの長年の友人Chris Crooksを迎えてGenkiの家に関する語彙（トイレ、お風呂、玄関、ふすまと障子の違いなど）と「開く・開ける」の自他動詞ペアを解説。わさび豆のお土産、京都の家に猿が侵入したエピソード、敬老の日とお餅ジョーク、Genkiのデート物語のオチも！毎月2日・12日・22日配信。
🎙️ Nihongo to English — a bilingual comedy podcast by Michelle MaliZaki and Michael Allen (GoatVsFish).
No homework. Just bilingual chaos—and somehow you learn.
💌 Got a language or culture question? Email us at nihongotoenglishnosho@gmail.com
🔴 Watch us live on Twitch: twitch.tv/nihongotoenglish
🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music
📱 Follow the show on Instagram @NihongoToEnglishPodcast for new episodes on the 2nd, 12th, and 22nd of each month.
👥 Follow the hosts: Michael Allen CPA @michaelallencpa and Michelle MaliZaki @MichelleMaliZaki
Theme Jingle by Michelle MaliZaki
Is that like eating is good? Kuwai.
SPEAKER_03Kuaai. Or kuai? Isn't that like some kind of crop?
SPEAKER_08I would I don't know. Yeah. My agricultural Japanese is severely lacking. Kouet. If not completely lacking. I do have Kume, that's about it.
SPEAKER_03In the moment.
SPEAKER_08Okay, I got that.
SPEAKER_09Oh dude, you speak Japanese?
SPEAKER_03Sato.
SPEAKER_09Our mystery guest knows Japanese. How fortuit is it? Hey Lord Saturn, look, I'm sorry. Uh so uh our uh going live notification that said hiragana time. I uh um now uh can inform you that that was a ruse. Oh we're not studying hiragana today. It's a mystery guest world. It is our well let's shall we start the uh start the podcast properly?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_09Shall we start?
SPEAKER_03Yay! Welcome to Nihomoto English No Podcast.
SPEAKER_09No show.
SPEAKER_03Oh, no show.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I am one of your hosts, Michael Allen CPA. That stands for comedic performance artist.
SPEAKER_03Oh, thank you for clarifying it.
SPEAKER_09Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um Michelle Maizaki, the other host, and I am a mom. A new mom.
SPEAKER_09Wow. Are you are you one of oh wait, a new mom?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're not nude. New, new, new mom.
SPEAKER_09You uh I was unaware that you were pregnant and that you had a new you have a nice did you adopt a new child?
SPEAKER_03So my son's moving out, so I got a new son. Toby.
SPEAKER_09Oh Toby, oh hello Toby.
SPEAKER_03Toby's a pog.
SPEAKER_09Oh, yon sai this. Sansawa Yama no Yasai.
SPEAKER_03Yon sai Yon sai Hi. Yon saiwa four years old.
SPEAKER_09That's the that's the bad luck age, isn't it? What what is that? There's another voice in the room.
SPEAKER_03Oh what's that? What's going on? Hold on. Obake.
SPEAKER_09Obake. Obake Mono. He's he is kind of a little bit he is a he is a ghost from my past. Although actually I can think of I can think of someone else who's arguably more of a ghost from the past.
SPEAKER_03Actually a ghost, but is this uh Obake episode, or is this just a special episode? I shouldn't say just, but like is it a special episode?
SPEAKER_08Is it merely a special episode?
SPEAKER_09I mean it is special. Uh huh. Every episode is special with you, Michelle. Yes.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_09Um but yes, this is the first time we'll have had a guest on the show.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know. I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_09Also, and we're gonna get to know our guest a little bit better for the time being, just shut up.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_09Damate, kudasai.
SPEAKER_03She's gonna say Mendo Kazina.
SPEAKER_09Not the Mendo Kazai. Uh yeah. All right. Um Hey, guess what? We're monetized on Twitch.
SPEAKER_02Yay!
SPEAKER_09Send your bits immediately. Yes. Yes. This is our money, man. One after the other.
SPEAKER_08He is here to uh they're too embarrassed to make the pitch.
SPEAKER_09We got 10 bits? Just open the coffers.
SPEAKER_0217 days ago.
SPEAKER_09Uh goat vs. Fish cheered 10 bits 17 days ago. Nice, nice. To test to see if it worked, presumably. How generous. Yeah, no, we're ready to receive your so we did it. We uh thanks to the viewers on Twitch who we're now thanking, even if you're listening on the audio podcast, we're thanking the Twitch viewers for getting us to monetization. And yes, if you're listening, guess what? Check out Nihongo To English, Nihongo to English, on Twitch, twitch.tv slash nihongotoenglish. And that's T W I T C H dot TV slash nihongotoenglish. And you can watch live recordings of the podcast uh before they are edited, and you can actually, you know, essentially hear the episode before it's officially released, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09But you gotta watch it live though.
SPEAKER_03Well, the episode goes on podcast, Apple Podcast and Spotify on the second.
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Twelfth and twenty second. Did you know that, Chris?
SPEAKER_08I did not, and I do now, I've been informed.
SPEAKER_09Can you repeat that information to see if you retained it at all?
SPEAKER_03He wasn't paying attention.
SPEAKER_08I'm s I'm I'm s I'm actually like like trying to gather my meager Japanese vocabulary in hand right now.
SPEAKER_09Well dude, why don't you uh Isaatsu stubble.
SPEAKER_03Hi, those are the things.
SPEAKER_08Uh Bokunona Mayoa. Hi. Kurisu. Kuruksu des or maybe kuru. Well, whatever, it's fine. Uh it's neat home world whole English. Yeah, right. Don't forget that.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_08Uh it turns out I speak neither very well. Okay. Suzuka teko that's so um in terms of Japanese, I uh have been extraordinarily interested in Japanese all my life. I technically majored it in in college, but that was 20 years ago, so I'm pretty damn rusty at this point. Um I love Japanese culture. There are many things about it that I can drone on and on about, but uh I'll save it for later. Just uh pleased to be here. This is really fun. And yeah, I just to me Japanese is like one of the best languages in the world just in terms of the sound of it. I I just love the sound of Japanese, just love it.
SPEAKER_03So it sounds like Spanish.
SPEAKER_08No, no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_03It does.
SPEAKER_08It does.
SPEAKER_06But not like I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_08There's there's not they don't have like a there's not there's like voiced, you know, like that there's not they everything is pronounced outright. There's not there's there are there are like ghosted syllables in Japanese, you know, like t ska you know tsarate. You don't say tsukarete, you say tskarate, right?
SPEAKER_09The t-s sound?
SPEAKER_08We just you just the the the you is just ghosted, right? You don't say tsukarate, skatete, right? So I'm just saying in in in I don't think there's anything in Spanish where you ghost a vowel like that.
SPEAKER_09Maybe not. But there are a lot of um The morason vowel syllables that are very discreetly into consonant vowel, consonant vowel. Like take uh something like Spanish, like I don't know, I don't know why it's sabado. Right. That could very easily be a Japanese word. Sabado.
SPEAKER_03Sabado, like sabado.
SPEAKER_09Right. Yeah, like the way of sabbating.
SPEAKER_08So there are there they do actually share a similar uh the moras phonic profile. But the Rs, right? Like the actual genuine Japanese Rs are like halfway between R and R. Oh, for sure. Like they're I don't think I have them at all. But I would say that Spanish sounds much more similar to Japanese than say like Russian. Yeah. No, the m the the syllable sets are similar, but just what they do with them comes out quite differently in my mind. I would I mean I could never mistake the two, is my point. Well, surely, although you are study a student of them.
SPEAKER_09So that means nothing. Yeah, I as a college graduate in Japanese would never mistake Japanese for Spanish. It's like, ah, that I would hope that would be good.
SPEAKER_08Having had a uh half Japanese friend for most of my life, like I'm already preset to not make that mistake.
SPEAKER_09Oh my gosh, you had a half Japanese friend for most of your life? Weird, right? Wow, what I also had a half Japanese friend for most of my life.
SPEAKER_02What what did that happen?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so I have known Chris since high school.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_09And uh we were mutual friends of Ron, who we brought up on the show many a time.
SPEAKER_02Ron.
SPEAKER_09Ron Kun. Yeah. And um Chris is in town visiting me. And when we made this uh arrangement to to record this podcast, uh I thought, hey, not long. He's got genuine uh Japanese language experience, and uh you've you've been. Yes, I have. Yes. I can talk about that at some point if you like.
SPEAKER_03It's just uh where did you go? Dokonitang the school.
SPEAKER_08Uhongo Gambata. Kyoto Kyoto area. But I my host family lived in Otsushi. I would take the train every morning uh Shinkansen through the tunnel and come to Kyoto to the main station, and then I would take buses to the language school where I was taking. So I I went when I was in uh uh just junior year of college. And uh you know what's interesting is that out in front of us, a couple of the students went and did the uh the Ku Kai temple circuit.
SPEAKER_05Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_08Uh they actually went and did they did a thing where they they like on foot mostly traveled this I think it's like a hundred temples. I can't remember, it's a lot of them, like forty or something. But it's it's like a two-month journey, and it's like it's the thing where it's like, I wish I I would have done it, but I don't think I could have handled it. So you know people will also do legs of it.
SPEAKER_09They'll be like, I'll just do a four-tempo portion or whatever. The whole thing is but the whole thing is pretty remarkable. I would I could see myself trying to accomplish such a thing. At some point it would be cool to try it. So Chris, what do you think of our logo? Do you see it in the upper right hand corner there? It is so what do you I can make it bigger, but what do you make of it?
SPEAKER_08I mean it's uh it's kind of interesting, really. I mean, obviously it's like, oh well, if you just chop the right side off of Nietzsche, you get E, right? The letter E. Yeah. The English capital letter E. Yeah. As well as the E. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. Um and then the tooto. I mean it's it's very compact. It's I mean, I like it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_09I mean, I don't know what else to say about it specifically, but English Nihongo to English.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_09Both applicable. True. Very no show, possessive, also no show, like it isn't a show. So there's actually like four different things the title could mean.
SPEAKER_08Right. But it's it's very compact in its presentation. I it's it and I think it's well, yeah, I like it.
SPEAKER_09Look, in spirit, I feel it also conveys like, ah, these languages are perhaps not as different as you think. You can learn them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Yes. I like the fact that it's different. That's why I like it. It's wacky compared to English.
SPEAKER_09Um so yes, uh, what have you been up to, Michelle?
SPEAKER_03Um, I went to New York. New York Nikimasta.
SPEAKER_09Oh, Moika nyokunikima.
SPEAKER_03So stara kite ki taki ki uhotel no ma ide.
SPEAKER_09Oh, so goi.
SPEAKER_03Yokunai.
SPEAKER_09Yokunai. Hi, so this moto harate kuda sa. Yokunai this.
SPEAKER_03Nobody had called me before in my life. But every time I go in and out of the hotel, shame, flame, shame on you.
SPEAKER_09Well, what were okay Oh, I was about to ask you. No, no, tell us what they were saying in Japanese. No, you're in New York. Sorry. I was imagining a bunch of uh ja like at a Japanese hotel outside like a like a like a uh a bisnesu hotel and there's uh Japanese people on strike uh sh yelling shame at you. I mean, listen, I can handle New Yorkers yelling shame at me going into a hotel. I could not handle some Japanese people yelling shame. I would be like, ooh, I would say it would sting pretty hard.
SPEAKER_03Nobody never, never, never yelled shame to me.
SPEAKER_09So they oh they literally yelled shame to Game of Thrones fans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoa. So how do you feel? Do you feel ashamed?
SPEAKER_03No, so I complain, I complain.
SPEAKER_09But like Well, now look, they're complaining, you're complaining.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I complain every single day. I'm like, I'm a Japanese person, but I complain every day, and I did not get any discount or nor money back.
SPEAKER_09Oh weak. Well, that's funny. Well, well, look, that's what I'm saying. Like, you've got more in common with the strikers because the strikers are being like, hey, company, give us more money. And you're like, look, if you're not willing to pay the strikers, then pay me. Because it's creating a disturbance. So like they don't want to pay you, they don't want to pay the strikers. You're both, I mean, to me, you've got the same enemy.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know. So and then I found out. So I am a proud, I was a proud lifetime gold member at the Marriott Bonvoy.
SPEAKER_09Oh, no. Yeah. At ice.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Then now I found out Marriott's are like McDonald's franchise.
SPEAKER_09Uh McMariott?
SPEAKER_03So like I Miku Mario. So I call Marriott Bonvoy customer service, but they can't do anything about it because it's owned by franchise.
SPEAKER_09Right. Yeah. So I must end this.
SPEAKER_03Uh no, no, Moshake goes like we told you. Um I'm like, well, you told me. I was okay with Rusai. And they told me they're gonna put me in a quieter side of the hotel, and that's what I asked for when I checked in. But I was not expecting anybody to yell at me. Shame. Uh well it's Madao Koteo.
SPEAKER_09Madao Kote, uh so this y'all. Uh it seems to be working though. Yeah. I mean, that's what they want. They want the customers to be annoyed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_09But you're back.
SPEAKER_03I'm back and I got a new dog.
SPEAKER_09Yes. Congratulations on your one chan.
SPEAKER_03Pagut.
SPEAKER_09Pagu. Oh, does that mean that you're now Oh, so you said Oh, you know, it reminds me of that Monty Python thing. Because your your your son has moved out? Is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's moving out.
SPEAKER_09He's moving out. So it's uh, you know, not so much as lost a son, but gained a dot. I've lost a boy and I've gained a dog.
SPEAKER_03You know, he's a trans dog, I guess.
SPEAKER_09Oh, is that so? Oh.
SPEAKER_03He's like spade or neuter or whatever.
SPEAKER_09Oh, I I mean, look. You know, I don't have all the answers when it comes to humans. I definitely don't know about the uh gender expression of dogs. That's definitely beyond me. I'm out of my out of my grade for sure.
SPEAKER_03Uh used to be a four boy. But now he's like somewhat.
SPEAKER_09Well, that's like uh the big Lebowski line now. Uh what makes a man, Mr. Lebowski? Is it being prepared to do the right thing? No matter the cost. He's like, uh that in a pair of testicles. It's like you're joking, but I suppose you're right. Two people talking past each other. Uh so yes, I'm so glad that my Tomodachi, a true tomodachi. Yeah. So how would I so I mean would I be like Chris Kuhn? Kris Kun. Probably Kuhn. He's my classmate, right? Oh, yeah. So I wouldn't be like uh Krisu's san. That's like two that's way too formal. And I would be like Kuruksu for your last name. Right. So it'd be Kuruksu kun.
SPEAKER_03Kuruksu, like Kuruksu.
SPEAKER_08Like well, like crooks, like robbers in crooks. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, like C-R-O-O-S-C-R-C-R-C-O-K-S.
SPEAKER_08Good guess, man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's my good speller.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you are. That's really good, honestly. Um most people they just call me like crooks or whatever. But uh I like crooks in Polish, you see, crooks means raven. So I prefer to think of my last name as Polish. I am half Polish, so you know how about that?
SPEAKER_09Well, let's let's give Chris one more little spotlight here. Um why don't you tell us uh like some of your maybe a favorite Japanese phrase or a word that you're uh particularly like? You know? Uh or even or even a subject or even a conjugation that you found troubling. Like and anything about your sort of Japanese language journey they can dredge up.
SPEAKER_08Good lord. I remember watching Full Metal Alchemist with Ron on the couch and being like, oh my god, my Japanese is not good enough for this. Um, that's that's a little far into the future. Um you know, I don't know. I the the thing that always pops out to me is not anything about Japanese per se, but like the culture. There's just this story that always sticks out in my head. Because I think to myself, like, Japan is a really cool place to be a foreigner because you sort of get a lot of the benefits, but none of the drawbacks of being there. So I had I had this um this fellow who came with me on the study group trip. He was um like a six foot five black Jamaican guy.
SPEAKER_03That's tall.
SPEAKER_08Like, you know, people would sort of want to take pictures with him arbitrarily, and I mean he was a good sport about it for the most part. Uh but there was this one day where it was his birthday, right? And he was just sitting on the steps of the international school, just drinking sake directly out of a bottle, right? So these two little like five foot two Japanese security guards, just you know, only have their little their little walkie-talkies, were just kind of like slowly edging towards him down the steps, like not getting within, you know, 10 feet, but like sort of delineating an area into which he could progress. He sort of like was looking at them and just like drinking and getting pushed down to the bus, right? The bus stop was right in front of the steps. And so eventually, like they sort of like eyed him onto the bus with the rest of us, right? And so it in I don't know if it's the same all over Japan, but in in Kyoto, you get on the back, you take the ticket, and then when you leave in the front, it it calculates the fare. So he got onto the bus, right, and we went down to like Kawatomachi, wherever we usually get off, right? And then he just walks up to the bus driver with the sake in his hand and just goes, Boku no tanjobi dakara, and walks off the bus. And I'm sure the bus guy was just like, that didn't happen. I didn't see that, I'm moving on with my day. Um, it's my birthday. It's just my birthday. It's like, what are you gonna do? Does this does this guy possibly care enough to say anything? It's like, no, dude, just let him off the damn bus. Anyway, that's just one of my favorite stories.
SPEAKER_09Um That seems like a very Ore thing to say, not so much a Boku thing to say in that context.
SPEAKER_08Well, yeah, no, it's I don't think I don't think he really used to ore. He should have, though. It would have been absolutely perfect. But no. And I mean, it is also kind of weird, like Boku, but he's like twice the size of anybody in there. It's like, oh my god. Yeah, no, he was a really cool guy. Gordon was his name. He's a really cool guy. Goldon. Yeah, Goldong, yeah. Um but yeah, that's that's so it has nothing to do with it. Well, okay. I mean it does have it has a Japanese phrase in the story. I guess that is one of my favorite phrases now because of the story behind it.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, so so yeah, I mean it seems to me mission accomplished. All right. Keep that in your back. Uh uh. So this.
SPEAKER_05Uh and then what's the Nanichi. Uh Sanju.
SPEAKER_03Sanju. Oh.
SPEAKER_09No.
SPEAKER_03Kanizau.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I get to turn into the per the patronizing Japanese.
SPEAKER_08Uh look, I actually find it very cute, honestly. Look, they know Japanese isn't easy. They don't they're not having any illusions about that, okay. Shall we do uh some genki or something?
SPEAKER_09Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Uh tomate, chotomate.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_03Oh, siotola momet.
SPEAKER_09Oh salty. Salty wasabi beans.
SPEAKER_03Nice. You wanna try it?
SPEAKER_08Oh, sure. Yeah, I'll try it.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, let's do it. I'm down. Time for ASMR munchies time.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, make yourself useful over here. Let's go. Yeah, right, exactly. So this is Akeru. Akeru, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Ah, okay.
SPEAKER_09So that's another transitive, intransitive pairing. Akaru Akeru. 99 o Akeru. And uh Doaga Aku Akata.
SPEAKER_03Akimasu.
SPEAKER_09Akimasu. Ah, so it's Aku. Aku and Akeru. Aku is for something to open of its own accord. What's up, Yaji?
SPEAKER_03I know.
SPEAKER_09Beerumo Birumo non jata.
SPEAKER_08Um these are actually really good.
SPEAKER_03This is really good.
SPEAKER_08I'm surprised, man. Like these are really good. No, it's good.
SPEAKER_09Stay on that mic, sir. Stay on that mic.
SPEAKER_08Sorry, sorry. I'm a noob at this. I'm not good at this. You hear that? I know I didn't want to crunch on the mic. Hold on, hold on. No.
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_09Oh, that's good. Oh, is she? Satisfyingly crispy. So good.
SPEAKER_03So Cateron's coming up.
SPEAKER_09Caternohi. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Catholic is like respect the Elders' Day.
SPEAKER_09Oh, oh, then they needed a whole day now. I thought we were supposed to read that shit. I thought every day was respect the elders' day.
SPEAKER_03It used to be September 15th, but it's gotta be the Monday. Could be second, Monday. Did the old people complain like I have I can't do that?
SPEAKER_09But they have every day off. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Anyways, uh the number one cause of death on that day for seniors.
SPEAKER_09This is getting good. Sitemas on that day? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Stima.
SPEAKER_09Okay, so it's a day for celebrating elders. The elders respecting the elders. And it's the thing that the biggest cause of death on the day of respecting the elders. I want to be like, I don't know, they get they they alcohol poisoning or like they get left at home or something.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, mochi gun model needs the mouth. Oh my god, dude.
SPEAKER_08Of course. That makes perfect sense. That's brutal.
SPEAKER_09Abunay Mochi. Mochi Abunayo. I do love you some mochi, but that's really good. That'd be a good little skit. It's like, oh, my grandchildren are coming over. Or my my you know, and then they come over, it's like, Grandma, it's like, we bought emoji.
SPEAKER_03It's extra chewy. Wait, wait, Grandma, can you sign this paper first? Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_08Maybe after I eat this mochi. Yeah, we don't want to get we don't want to get like, you know, z gluten on the paper or whatever. Let's do it now.
SPEAKER_09Well now I'm thinking there's gotta be like a um Okay, so we make a mochi brand. Right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_09Look, okay, this is y you don't you don't need to actually make the mochi. You make just a a a fake advertisement as if it were a brand.
SPEAKER_03Like making a little mountain kind of gesture for your mochi above your chest.
SPEAKER_09Because it's mochi mochi, you know?
SPEAKER_08Mochi mote.
SPEAKER_09Mochi mochi mochi mochi aji mo mo mochi mo mochi mas. So okay so it's a mochi brand, and then on the packaging it says like so good it'll choke your grandmother. And and the picture's like Okay, that's that's pretty great. Eyes slightly bugging out.
SPEAKER_08It's like silk uh like a guy.
SPEAKER_09Oh, your grandparents' final wish will surely be revealed. Like their last moments will be eating our delicious mochi.
SPEAKER_03Well, it could be mochi or it could be konyakuzeri. Oh yeah, konyakuzeri. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, konyakuzeri is pretty dangerous.
SPEAKER_09Oh yeah, for sure. Oh man.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Maybe it's time to study, I guess.
SPEAKER_08That is purportedly one of the reasons that we're okay.
SPEAKER_09Well, anyway, um all of you old people out there, we respect you. Some case they do. Hi.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_09But how old are you really, though?
SPEAKER_08I think there's like a hot link to order mochi coming up, like right up here or something.
SPEAKER_09Right there. Yeah. Hey, Mochi, if you were on the fence about having us be your sponsor, I mean, dude, what better endorsement?
SPEAKER_03Well, I had a senior choking good. I had a cat named Mochi.
SPEAKER_09Oh, yeah? Did you Oh nice?
SPEAKER_03He sounds yummy.
SPEAKER_09I'm like, oh, did you choke on the cat? Sorry. We gotta listen, listen. We have fun here. Listen. We're supposed to be we're supposed to be learning here. Let's do a little ganky.
SPEAKER_03It's ganky time. Oh my gosh, we are page 100.
SPEAKER_09Oh, dude, can I just chill out and you can just teach Chris and I can just like heckle from the peanut gallery, from the mami gallery?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm down.
SPEAKER_03Well, I also had a dog named Peanut. Mochi and Peanut both died this year. Kawaii.
SPEAKER_09Oh, I mean Kanashi.
unknownShunch Kanik.
SPEAKER_03I didn't kill him.
SPEAKER_09They choked on Mochi.
SPEAKER_03So, well, it's a cultural note on page 101.
SPEAKER_08Hi. My host father was actually he he did the roofs, this this traditional stone tile roofs for the traditional homes. It was like a contracted room.
SPEAKER_03A Kawara noyazi.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Omoy. Yeah, totally, yeah. Yeah. Traditionally Japanese buildings were made of wood, rooms for floor with tatami. Straw mats. And divided by fusuma or shodji. Two types of sliding doors. Oh. So did do you know there's a difference between fusuma and shoji?
SPEAKER_05No, I do not.
SPEAKER_03I think shoji is more transparent. It's not really, really transparent. Right. It lets more light through. Yeah, and then fusuma is like a real divider, but you could still hear what's going on next door.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because that's what happened when I was growing up. We had a fusuma between the living room and the bedroom. And my parents are watching Nostradamus' Prophecy. And I could hear everything. I was like so scared. Hawaii.
SPEAKER_08You know what's what's not here though? They don't have the the lowered space with the heater and the blankets.
SPEAKER_03Uh uh, kotatsu.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. My my host family had that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, so that's kind of rare.
SPEAKER_08It is? Yeah. Interesting. I thought it was more common. Well, you know.
SPEAKER_03And then modern Japanese houses have mainly Western style rooms. Yes. So it's cheaper.
SPEAKER_09If I can interject though, the kotatsu where I was in in Nigata can kotatsu. Everyone had a kotatsu because it's like a wintery area. Uh-huh. So having the underfoot uh heated thing is just like very much more common in the colder areas.
SPEAKER_03But like once you're in kotatsu, you don't want to leave.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. We would we did we actually did um oh my god, what is the freaking New Year's soup? I'm blocking on it. What's ozone? No, it's uh not that, you know, it's like shabu shabu, but it's not. It's where you put the vegetables in. Oh my god. Okonomiyaki, no, not okonoyaki, okay. I'm seriously. No, man. What am I Ozoni Shabu? You know, you throw in, it's like, is it just shabu shabu? It's not though. It's something else because it's an actual soup.
SPEAKER_03Skikiyaki? Skiyaki, thank you.
SPEAKER_08Good lord. Yes, skiyaki. We did that. We would sit in there where it was warm and put the hot pot up and just all eat off of it. It was really cool. It's really fun, like super Japanese.
SPEAKER_09So we're looking at what's going on in the house, huh?
SPEAKER_08We're in the house. Yeah. Yogoto English. In the house. Well, okay, first of all, I mean, we all love washlets, right? Nobody's got a problem with those. Yeah. Uh yeah. In fact, okay. Actually, I didn't bring it with me, but a couple of months ago, I bought a little portable total washlet that you can bring with you. I just bring it in my bag everywhere. So no matter where I go, I have a washlet that I can use. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_09So what's the exercise here? What is Chris supposed to be doing?
SPEAKER_03It's just a cultural note.
SPEAKER_09Oh, just cultural notes. So why don't you read to us uh the subtitles for these various uh graphs? I mean, I guess you can probably guess what toire is. Um Toyre. Toide Toyre. That's a katakana word, not hiragana.
SPEAKER_08Right. Toilet. When I learned back in the day, I guess it's the root for the whole bathroom would be o teara, oh, telai. Right. But that's not necessarily just the toilet. Okay. So it's like the room. Yeah. Right. And then this oh, that's just oh, right? That's the bathroom. Yeah. Or the bath. Yeah. Oh.
SPEAKER_09And the bath in particular. Zenkong, where you leave your shoes. Genkong.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Genkong.
SPEAKER_05Oh, Genkon, sorry. That's just my vision being bad.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, the Genkon is not a washroom thing. That's like a I mean, it is a cleanliness thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, and I mean it's you know, in Japanese houses, you take off your shoes, that's what you do. Right. So that's that's the one. And there's a place to do it.
SPEAKER_09There's the Gengkon for it. And Ronnie's house had a Gengkon.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_09I remember the first time I went to Ronnie's house, he was like, Oh, you take your shoes off. And I was like, Oh no, I'm fine. He's like, No. You take your shoes off.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, Well, everybody has Genkon. You have a Genkon, but you just don't have the place to take your shoes off.
SPEAKER_09Right. Well, it's not sunken.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_09You don't step right into the house. A proper Genkon should be sunken, right? Sunken.
SPEAKER_03Or the rest of the house should be raised. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Because you enter at street level. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09And then oh, which reminds of the Genghon.
unknownOh my god.
SPEAKER_09Well, I think I've told the story about the time that the Sadu came into the house. Really? Yeah. I was in uh at Ron's parents' place in Kyoto, uh, back when Ron was uh you know still uh able to be communicated with through non-uh uh spiritual esoteric method, yes. And uh I was just in the in the house, I was upstairs, suddenly the fusima starts opening. But it's not like I see a personal way, it's kind of going like I was like and I couldn't see what was opening it. It was just peering in. My god. Monkey. That's wacky grown monkey comes in. I'm like chatting on in the internet, like AOL InstaMessenger trillion actually with Ron. I'm like talking to Ron. So that's wacky. And I'm like, Sadu, Sadu is in the house. He's like, what? Like Sadhu in the house, man. The monkey looks at me. I hook the monkey, and my animal instinct takes over completely, and I just scream at it. Yeah, that was probably the right move. It's like, ah I wasn't moving towards it, I was just like yelling. It's just looking at me totally unfazed. Ten seconds of silence. Scream again. And then it's just like whatever, and then just like leaves.
SPEAKER_08I'm not impressed.
SPEAKER_09And then Ron is like, you have to make sure that uh Casper's okay. We don't want the monkey to like eat the cat or like beat up the cat or whatever. Oh no. It was like, oh god, Casper is like a legendary cat of epic. It must have been a hundred years old about it. So he's like, yeah, grab a thing to make some noise. So I grab like a bamboo stick and like this lamp that has a very resonant like glass top on it, and I'm like, bong, bong.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, no one else here, bong, bong, bong. Bong bong boong.
SPEAKER_09And then like the door was open, the gang to the gink con was open, and like the monkey could not be found anywhere, and that and uh and uh Casper was fine, so it's like the monkey must have been like, I'm out of here. So the gink con the door was open, the monkey came right in.
SPEAKER_03Is it like outskirt of the city?
SPEAKER_09Of Kyoto?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_09They're kind of up in the hills a little bit. Well, it's near um Kudamaguchi. Is that at the outskirt? It's it's fairly yeah, I mean the sense it was kind of up a little ways, but I don't know the area that well. I mean, it's yeah, I suppose you could say it's on the outskirts.
SPEAKER_03Because I don't I don't I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_09Well, they were right by a river, and sometimes you'd see monkeys just like you know jumping and jumping around the trees by the river. Uh yeah. So they were near enough nature that you got some of that going on. Okay. So anyway, that's my Japanese story.
SPEAKER_03Oh, but uh now we are going to the next chapter. What Hajime Deto. Yes!
SPEAKER_09Oh my god. Are we gonna do Hajime?
SPEAKER_06I was just thinking about Makudonaru. Yeah, that's because that's where you want to go.
SPEAKER_03Hajime Deto.
SPEAKER_08Okay.
SPEAKER_09I mean, look, to be fair, it's way better than like a why don't you give it a little let's just do let's do let's give it just a little a little test. Let's give it a little test, right? Let's see what we can do. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so now we are Oh, dialogue. Yeah. So it's on page 102. Hajime donodo. Listen, so there's may.
SPEAKER_06And there's shironai.
SPEAKER_03Shiranai. Do you want to be?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, dude, I'm definitely a shirana. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So I'm not sure. Okay, Ivy Meali.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Mary and ignorance.
SPEAKER_01Um so go ni hotel.
SPEAKER_07No uh Maydes. Oh, May Desnor.
SPEAKER_01I'll gotta go.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_07It's a hotel.
SPEAKER_09A bunch of that hot was improvised. How much of that is that? What's in the book?
SPEAKER_07All in the book? No.
SPEAKER_08Most of it was like a big thing. We picked up we picked up the advanced book by mistake. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09So you improvise saying it's in the hotel. No, no, it's in front of the hotel. Oh my gosh. It isn't the hotel itself. The Maku Hotel. I will once again just lament how uh McDonald's just gets free advertising in a Genki book for no good reason other than that it's ubiquitous and everywhere. And Makudo Naruto is fun to say.
SPEAKER_08That's a good way of saying it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Makudo. Bravo.
SPEAKER_03Kyoto Wamakuto this custom maku.
SPEAKER_08Shut I don't remember what they call them. I actually went to Wendy's.
SPEAKER_00Wendy's.
SPEAKER_08Because it was it was open. We'd go out on Kotamachi and the uh everything would be closed. Like the clubs would be going until like 12 o'clock, but there'd be no more buses or trains. But Wendy's was open. So I would go and eat Wendy's, and then I would walk an hour and a half back to Kyoto Station, and then I would sleep in Kyoto Station for another hour and a half until the train started running at 5 30. And then I would go home and sleep until 12 30. It was amazing. Or dude, Ni.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_08So there's Miari and also.
SPEAKER_03Hi. Otila design takes an imasta.
SPEAKER_05Sold as car.
SPEAKER_03God day for Mary. Takesa Takesa promised to be in Kyoto, going to Kyoto with Mary something.
SPEAKER_09Oh right. Well, wait, this is actually a continuing storyline. Yeah. Well, now it puts in a con. Remember when we were looking at the picture of Mary was leaving and the host mom was, and he was like, he's like, oh, I'm going to Kyoto. I'm like, might be seeing this guy. And the mother, the great the grandmother, the mother just kind of like, what about that? And now we know why. She was suspicious. Like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Show up.
SPEAKER_09Bounder and CAD. Did you say that uh uh that was Tulson, the father? Yeah, Tulson, yeah. He was very I mean he was fumbling it. She's like, Oh, I was uh left all alone. I had to go to the temple by myself. And he's like, uh were there right? Were there a lot of people there?
SPEAKER_08Uh were you were you in terrible emotional distress?
SPEAKER_09Uh I mean Mary sounds like she's got it together, though. I mean, she didn't let it stop her from enjoying the day.
SPEAKER_03No, she went to the temple and like the temples in Kyoto are amazing.
SPEAKER_09Is this like subtle propaganda to try to get American or European women studying abroad in Japan not to like cross culturally contaminate with Japanese men, like, oh, don't trust those Japanese men, they're all dogs, and they're gonna leave you. They're gonna leave you at the shrine. I mean, the answer is obviously yes. I mean you'd think you'd think they'd want to put their best foot forward and have like you know a rather punctual, like nice young Japanese.
SPEAKER_08No, ditched.
SPEAKER_09Dude, this is amazing. I cannot believe that in first date, the example is you got ditched at the date. I cannot believe it.
SPEAKER_08You guys aren't gonna like the third part.
SPEAKER_09It's very it's very anticlimactic. Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03Ditched up. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_09Okay, so so this is where the sign feels like boom bum boom boom boom.
SPEAKER_06So uh mosubaga, no my day uh Ich Jikang Matsimashta.
SPEAKER_09Oh man.
SPEAKER_08Mosubaga I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_03Mosubaga?
SPEAKER_09Monsubaga is the brand name.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Right. They have rice burger.
SPEAKER_08The bun. So it's like a rice ball, but like two-sided. It's a two-sided rice ball with meat. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But the monsubaga is not in front of the train stations or it's kind of like away from the train station.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, the business model is get the real estate that's not quite as expensive as right at the train station, but is reliably just a little bit away from the train station. That makes sense. People are willing to walk 50 feet for a deal, you know. Well, you know, you can't there's no cure for stupidity. All right. Well, I think that's I think that's pretty good for dating. Uh so now you're an expert at jet like Oh my god. Oh, what would you like to order or the first date was just a failure. It was just a failure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08We we we it wasn't the first date. It was like the aborted date.
SPEAKER_03Is there a second date? Because it's Hajime Tenochtitl. I don't think so, Mary. Don't be stupid. Uh we're gonna find out, I guess.
SPEAKER_09I mean, look, you might have to go to like Genki Volume 2 to get to the second date. Dude, what if by the end of the Genki series we've like followed Maddie and this young lad on like a like a huge journey through life. Yeah, roboto. He seems like a much more solid dude. He'll show up. Okay. On the next episode, I have got some very special study books. Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna throw away the playbook Genki. It's gonna take a sideline on the next episode because we've got some very special books to study from for our Nihongo and our English.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_09Thanks for joining us. Yes. Uh follow Nihongo Toll English on uh Twitch and on Instagram. Uh send us an email, Nihongo Tol English.
SPEAKER_03No show.
SPEAKER_09No show at gmail.com or send a DM. Um also we have uh you know Lord Saturn's wonderful uh Mount uh Fuji picture back here. But if any of you happen to be, or maybe you're in Japan, Harumi. Hey, why don't you take a picture of uh you actually you do send me pictures of night? Send me uh, you know, what's going on in uh in Nigata? Send me a nice photo, and then we can make it uh a rotating series of stream backgrounds. Right, and then someone else you can go take a picture of Skid Row down in downtown Los Angeles, and we could use that as a background next time. Do you think the do you think the Mobiji have started up yet? No, not yet. Not yet.
SPEAKER_03It's too hot. Too hot. Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09Uh so yeah, we'll see you next time on Nihongoto English on Show. I have been Michael Allen, CPA.
SPEAKER_03And I'm Michelle Marizaki.
SPEAKER_09And I'm uh Chris Crooks. Oh, hey, but hey, you uh why don't you let them know uh we haven't talked about it at all, but uh you make music online, right? Yeah. So where could they where could they find it?
SPEAKER_08So yeah, my my professional uh or whatever, my my main thing is to do electronica glitch hop adjacent stuff. I'm on SoundCloud. Unfortunately, I can't give you a nifty address, but if you search Dela Rosa, all one word in Glitch. Delarosa. Dela Rosa and Glitch, I'll be pretty much the first or second time.
SPEAKER_09And we'll put a link to it in uh some like show notes. Why not? Oh, I just got one more question for you. Two, actually. So Krisusan.
SPEAKER_07Hi Nani Gasuki Tabemonogasuki Des.
SPEAKER_09Tabemonogah, Yorimo Anata. Okay, yes. Thank you very much.
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