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If you saw the following phrase, would you know what to make of it?

立つ字輪鼓

I could break down the bits this way:

立つ (to stand up...

Last week I attended a reading in San Francisco by Jay Rubin, who has just come out with the novel The Sun Gods. You may know him as the translator who has made it possible for many of us...

Let's start with a quiz that involves some of the simplest kanji around. Match the options, ignoring one lettered definition:

In all the years I've been studying Japanese, one of my dreams has been to read Haruki Murakami in Japanese. I mean, I've done it, using annotated readers to study two of his essays, but it...

Last weekend my Japanese language partner Kensuke mentioned Facebook during our regular Skype chat. He doesn't use Facebook, but someone close to him do...

I've never been much for earthworks. I recently went to New Orleans, glanced at the levees several times, and couldn't really register what I was seeing. They mostly looked like small grass...

I've arrived at a wonderful place. That is, I've written so many Joy o' Kanji essays that they are starting to overlap thematically. 

This could be confusing, I suppose, be...

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting a blind photographer from Japan. Yes, you read that right! A medical condition caused him to lose all his vision quite quickly some years back, and...

Let's start with a quiz. In one Kyushu dialect, people have characterized the flathead silverside (a type of fish) as とんころ, which means "to go to sleep without undressing." Why would...