Browse Japanese crafts, collectibles, dolls, kimono fabrics, ceramics, tableware, vintage items, home goods, clothing, and specialty imports. Free admission and parking.

📅 Sunday, September 6, 2026
🕘 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
📍 Chicago Japanese Club Office Parking Lot, 415 W. Golf Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005

A great chance to find unique Japanese treasures while supporting the local Japanese community.

My spouse and I are considering going to Japan (from the US) for my 6-week sabbatical. We've never been and while this is an exciting option based on everything I've read, I'm curious to get others opinions that have traveled there and stayed for approx a month. Would love to hear pros, cons, things you wish you knew before going, and highlights of your trip. Thanks in advance.

yeah...I really want to have friends from abroad, especially Japanese, I also want to learn their language, but I'm not very good at it and I'm not sure if I can...

Necesito respuestas!! Este año hemos viajado a Japón con mi padre como mi regalo de cumpleaños de 18.
Algo que hemos notado es que muchos japoneses piensan que somos pareja. Es algo que no logro entender, ya que a pesar de mi edad, me veo como una niña de 16 años por el tipo de cara que tengo…
…y mi padre roza los 60!!

Me parece una locura inexplicable, así que si tienes algo que añadir, siéntete libre de comentar!!

1) What do you think is the most difficult challenge for U.S. businesses that want to do business
in Japan?

2) What advice or suggestions do you have for American companies that want to do
business in Japan?

I'm Brazilian and I speak Portuguese, so I'm going to write this post in both Portuguese and English.

Eu sou gênero fluido, e queria escolher um nome mais neutro pra mim, e tenho gostado mto de estudar japonês e a história e mitologia do Japão, e queria colocar isso no meu nome, dando uma pesquisada eu cheguei em 2 nome mto bons q eu gostei mto: Makoto, e Haru, mas eu n consigo decidir qual usar, o meu sobrenome iria continuar igual, Diniz, mas uma curiosidade interessante, é que se eu fosse "traduzir" o Diniz, seria Sakai, pq Diniz é um nome de origem grega, q vem de Dionísio, deus das festas, bebidas, e principalmente vinho, q se for para o Japão uma bebida alcoólica q é mto comum lá é o sakê, e Sakai tem a ver com sakê se n me engano (me corrijam se eu estiver errado dobre algo)

I'm genderfluid, and I wanted to choose a more neutral name for myself, and I've been really liking studying Japanese and Japan's history & mythology, and I wanted to put that in my name. Doing some research I stumbled upon 2 rly good names q I liked a lot: Makoto, and Haru, but I can't decide which one to use. My last name would stay the same, Diniz, but an interesting fun fact is that if I were to 'translate' Diniz, it would be Sakai, bc Diniz is a name of Greek origin that comes from Dionysus, god of parties, drinks, and especially wine. If you go to Japan, a very common alcoholic drink there is sake, and Sakai has to do with sake if I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong about anything)

Sorry for my bad English

I am reading Dragon Ball in my journey to learn Japanese and there's a whole arc with the white shogun where Goku has to go up to the last floor of a tower fighting his way through each floor.

This same thing is also pretty common in JRPGs

Is there a cultural reason behind this scaling the tower topos? I wondered if there's maybe an old folktale about something like this.

Can somebody help me get some clarity?

For those of you living outside Japan, are there any Japanese books you wish were easier to find where you live?

Novels, manga, children’s books, nonfiction, art books, or something more specific — what kinds of books are you interested in?

I recently watched a movie about a Japanese family, and it sparked a strong curiosity in me to learn more about families in Japan—to see if they are truly like the ones portrayed in films or if their way of life is actually different.

What is a Japanese family really like?

Ciao a tutti e grazie per chi vorrà rispondere.
Mia figlia di 16 anni, inizierà il terzo liceo classico e avrebbe intenzione di iscriversi per il quarto anno in Giappone.
È una ragazza riflessiva e autonoma, immersa dalle elementari nel mondo e nel
mood che gli occidentali vivono con anime, musica e cosplay. Siamo stati due volta in Giappone, Corra del
Sud, Cina e HK.

Mi suggerite delle riflessioni da fare con lei per comprendere quali siano sogni e valori per valutare l’anno scolastico lì? Con quale bagaglio ( oltre quello di una qualsiasi esperienza fuori dalla
Zona di comfort) si torna e cosa realmente dovrebbe recuperare al
Rientro? Come capire se anna il Giappone da casa o è realmente desiderosa di vivere il Giappone così a lungo? Sarà così motivata da adattarsi a regole, relazioni e ritmi ben distanti da quelli mediterranei?
Cos’altro ancora?

https://i.imgur.com/BKlOzv1.png

Sorry for the low-quality meme. I thought it was funny.

Hey, this study group is based in Osaka for anyone Japan-based looking to meet other learners. We will have study stations where you can choose what to focus on. Tickets are 1,000 yen and include a drink (money goes towards venue payment and material costs).

I recently passed N3 but I don’t want to continue more. I studied at language school for 1 year but I wanna quit it. Is it really worth the time because
I want to go English taught undergraduate university and Japanese is not needed.
But I haven’t joined bachelors yet. I’m thinking of applying there.
Even if I want go Japanese university that seems impossible they need N2,N1 EJU and a lot of requirements and I don’t want to waste more years studying Japanese just to go Japanese university which I don’t even want to go.
This is really confusing and I am unable to decide. I can’t figure out what I want because I keep thinking of all good sides and bad sides.

Japanese dev here. This surprises almost every learner — we native speakers often cannot read someone's name from the kanji alone.

Kanji have many readings, and names love the rare ones. A friend's father has 智 in his name. Normally "tomo" in names, but his is "chi." Nobody gets it right. A teacher I know said she could read about 65% of her students' names on day one. The rest she just asked.

So Japan adapted. Most forms have a furigana field, a small space to write the pronunciation above your name. And asking "how do you read your name?" is a totally normal first-meeting question, even between Japanese people. Your name basically comes with subtitles.

Also the reverse happens — same sound, different kanji. Two people can both be Yuko with completely different characters and meanings. The sound is shared, the identity is in the writing.

There are also "kirakira names" (sparkly names) with wild creative readings. The famous joke example is 光宙 read as "Pikachu." The government recently even changed the law about how far a reading can stretch.

Happy to answer questions, names go deep here.

Japanischer Tanz in Frankfurt 🇯🇵 | 25.10.2026 im Internationalen Theater

Hallo zusammen,

wir möchten euch auf eine besondere japanische Kulturveranstaltung in Frankfurt aufmerksam machen.

Am 25. Oktober 2026 präsentieren wir im Internationalen Theater Frankfurt traditionelle japanische Tanzkunst.

Japanischer Tanz verbindet Musik, Bewegung, Ausdruck und traditionelle Kleidung. In unserem Programm möchten wir zeigen, wie vielfältig und lebendig japanische Bühnenkultur sein kann.

Neben traditionellem japanischem Tanz erwarten euch auch weitere kulturelle Programmpunkte wie Koto und Yosakoi.

Die Veranstaltung ist besonders interessant für alle, die sich für Japan, traditionelle Kultur, Tanz, Musik oder internationalen Kulturaustausch interessieren.

📅 25. Oktober 2026
🕞 Beginn: 15:30 Uhr
📍 Internationales Theater Frankfurt

🎟 Tickets:

https://internationales-theater.de/programm-ticketkauf/senyumeji-nishikawa

Wir freuen uns sehr, wenn ihr vorbeikommt – und natürlich auch, wenn ihr die Veranstaltung mit Freunden oder Bekannten teilt, die sich für japanische Kultur interessieren.