Now, whenever you view the Nihonshock homepage, below the most recent post you will see:

These are basically short posts (just a paragraph or so) about a specific Japanese word that I thought was either interesting or worth talking about. The words included will (for the most part) be quite high level, or will otherwise offer unique trivia for lower level words, but I’ll do my best to make the explanations accessible to learners of all levels. I will, however, stay away from words that aren’t known even to native Japanese.

Note that on the top page, just an excerpt is given, so be sure to click the words to go to the page with the full explanation.

I haven’t gotten around to making a dedicated page where you can easily browse through all of the vocabulary (there’s only 2 words right now, anyway), but it’s on my “to do” list.

I’ll try to add words at a frequency of every day or every other day, but no guarantees.

There’s 4 ways you can keep up with Nihonshock’s new vocabulary section.

1. Bookmark Nihonshock’s home page and come back every day.
2. Follow me on Twitter (I’ll let everyone know when a new word goes up)
3. Subscribe to the Vocabulary RSS Feed
   • Vocabulary will not appear in the regular RSS feed.
4. Join the Nihonshock vocab goal on smart.fm (I’ll try to keep it as up to date as possible)

As always, I’m interested to hear everyone’s opinions and suggestions.

UPDATE: April 24, 2010

I made a dedicated category page that makes it possible to quickly access past vocabulary. If I can keep up the whole word-a-day thing, this section is going to get pretty big pretty fast.

Check it out: Nihonshock Vocabulary Bank.

Where are you?

You’re looking at a blog dedicated to all things Japanese.

It was a few weeks ago that I suddenly decided for no reason in particular to start thowing random Japanese proverbs and their English translations/equivalents onto Twitter. Most likely I was just bored (if necessity is the mother of invention, boredom is the handsome young milkman). After a couple days I got the urge to step up from the realm of short, quickly buried and forgotten tweets to an actual blog. I’ve also recently been getting into web design, so it was a good chance for me to start working with WordPress. Less than a week later, this blog was born.

So that’s the story of NihonShock!

Who’s responsible for this?

My name is Lloyd Vincent. I’m a translator/interpreter living and working in Nagoya, Japan. I’ve been a Japanophile since high school, and I majored in East Asian Studies at Western Washington University. I also have JLPT Level 1 certification (2007).

What will you find here?

• Japanese language and study tips
• Pictures and stories of strange and interesting things from around Japan
• Information useful for moving to, living in or travelling around Japan
• Cultural tidbits
• Occasional Japanese news that is of interest
• …and more!

I personally am an anime/manga fan, but NihonShock will not be an “otaku” blog. I’m not shunning the topic by any means; I just don’t think I could write anything of interest about it.

Anything else you should know?

If you have a question about Japan or Japanese, or if there’s a specific topic you’d like me to write about, feel free to message me on twitter. Of course I can’t guarantee to be willing or able to do an article on everything that is requested, but I’ll try my best.

Also, be aware that this site will contain content that some households might consider inappropriate (I mean, the subject of this site is the country that invented used panties in vending machines and has a festival in honor of the male reproductive organ, among other phenomena…), so consider yourself warned.

What does “Nihon” mean?

“Nihon” is how you say “Japan” in Japanese.

Okay, that about wraps up the introduction. Check back frequently for updates, or subscribe to NihonShock’s RSS feed!

I’ll be tweaking the site here and there for the first month or so while I get everything the way I want it, let me know if you notice any bugs or design glitches.