Japanese with Hikari's Blog

Have you ever had one of those moments where you thought, “Phew, that was close… luckily everything turned out okay”?
Or maybe something unfortunate happened, but looking at the situation you felt, “It could have been worse...”

In Japanese, we say 幸い...

Have you ever thought back and said, “Ever since that moment, everything changed”?
Like, “Ever since I started learning Japanese, my Netflix list is full of Japanese anime and yakuza movies!,” or “Ever since I met my best friend, my life’s been bright...

There are times when you need to tell someone to act in accordance with instructions or rules.

Something like…
“Along with this plan…” or “In accordance with the rules…”
For example, “Please follow this order when placing requests,” or “In this area, ...

Have you ever wanted to express a kind of resignation, like when you already know how things will turn out, no matter what you do?

“It won’t work out anyway, even if I start now.”
“After all, she’ll just make excuses and say no, so I shouldn’t expect...

In your country’s news, do you often hear phrases like “There is a possibility that…”?

In Japanese, there’s a very similar expression: 恐れがある (osore ga aru).

The key point is that 恐れがある is used only for negative possibilities, things that might be d...

Have you ever listened to someone’s story and thought,
“Yeah, no wonder you feel that way” or “That’s only natural”?

Like…
Your friend failed an exam because they didn’t study. → “Well, it’s no wonder.”
Someone is angry because they were treated unfair...

Imagine your friend asks after work, “When are you free to grab dinner?”
You want to say, “I’m free every day except Monday.”

Of course, you could list all the days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but there’s a much handier way to say it i...

Your friend says, “The trains have stopped running, and they won’t be restored today.”
You pause for a moment and reply, “That means we’ll have to take a bus or taxi.”

In Japanese, a natural connector for this situation is ということは.
This phrase is often...