When can you put ”－屋さん” on the end of stores?
We believe that this can be done to shops that specialize in something:
- 肉屋さん (meat shop)
- ジュエリー屋さん (jewelry shop)
- 家具屋さん (furniture shop)
And this might be why food tastes so good in Japan; it’s because they specialize in one thing and go all in.
Like sushi chefs’ skin temperature dropping when they are 握る ing the しゃり for a 握り寿司 after spending decades learning the sushi way. Or people who spend their whole life mastering the craft of fireworks! It’s incredible how much knowledge they have and the dedication they have towards master that one thing.
伝統[でんとう]に伝[つた]わる: tradition that’s been passed down for generations.
One of Niko’s favorite questions to ask people is “if you were gonna start a “専門店”, what would it be?
Chie’s answer is a かぼちゃ専門店 with kabocha jam, kabocha smoothies, kabocha pie, kabocha mascot. So cute!
Inside A Bookstore
Tsutaya used to be Chie’s favorite bookstore to go to growing up. But they were a combination store of rentable DVDs, CDs, and a smaller collection of books out in the front of the store.
Do you have a favorite bookstore you go to? Or a bookstore that you have your eyes set on visiting some day?
When you go to the bookstore in Japan and buy books, they give you options to choose from to get しおり and also a paper book cover to cover the 表紙 so no one can see what you’re reading.
You know, when you’re reading a book like “Cooking For Idiots” or something on the train or at a cafe, you don’t want people to be able to see that!
文庫本 is the perfect size, small paper-back books that they sell in Japan that are nice for carrying around or casually reading in public. They are about the size of an average human hand. And they can even fit nicely in smaller purses, too.
Pro tip: when searching for something that is written only in 漢字 on the internet, you might only get results in Chinese. But if you add something in ひらがな like とは or いみ, it will recognize it as 日本語 and give you results in Japanese.
We Brought Some Books
さん、にー、いちで[見]みせよう
literal break down: 3, 2, 1, で show
meaning: Let’s show it at the same time after 3, 2, 1.
おかずとはなんでしょうか？(what does "okazu" mean?)
Literal break down: Okazu dish は what is it?
Meaning: formal way of saying what does Okazu mean?
おかず：side/small dish
Niko's Story Time
“I was out with a friend one time, and there was a guy there—
I think he was from US or the UK, I dont really remember.
And he was arguing with a Japanese girl about eating culture and he was just like mess with her and he said something like:
“Oh, you guys still eat with sticks like its 1000BC. Get with it. Start using forks and knives.”
And she’s like “Well, you eat all of your food from one plate like a dog."
Oof, shots fired! lol
Corners In Bookstores
作り置きおかず：dishes made to eat at a later date, meal prep kind of.
The food and cookbook section in Japanese bookstores are so pretty and they all the recipe look very appetizing.
We keep saying book category section. But in Japan, they call them コーナー or “corners.” they don’t have to be a literal corner, but that is what they are called. So, if you want to find the cookbook section, ask: クックブック or 調理本コーナーどこですか？ Or, if you’re looking for the language study books: 言語学習コーナーってどこにありますか？・どの辺にありますか？This last iteration is “around where can I find the blank section?
文房具コーナー：stationary section like notebooks, pens, pencil cases
Search for “Author: Nicholas Walker” to find books for learning English from Japanese at your local Japanese bookstore with a picture of the Niko face book^^
Beware Of The Sneaky San!
Example of normal use of the -さん at the end of things: bookstore, poo bear, doctor, your name.
本屋さん、プーさん、お医者さん、何々さん。
But! Beware of the sneaky mountain kanji that comes after mountain names! This san is not the same san.
Mt. Fuji is written as 富士山。It took me a hot second to realize this (←Chie).
We need better pictures of the inside of these grand bookstores! If you have any fun pictures of books or bookstores you want to share with the community, come drop them in the bookstore episode chat in our discord!
Side Lesson On Train Maps
I feel like NativShark needs a “how to read a train line map and how much it costs” lesson :P
But usually the train maps are a simplified version of the real-world map. The yamanote-line in Tokyo in particular is a complete loop with trains going both in directions. When you’re buying a ticket at a station, first find the station you are trying to get to. It will have a price in yen written on it. Second, go up to the ticket vending machine and select the price that was written on the train station map.
代官山[だいかんやま]のつたや
丸善[まるぜん] in 川崎[かわさき]
Used Bookstore Experience
Some well-known used-bookstores you can find in Japan:
- book off
- guruguru souko
- manga souko
- or, search for 中古書店
Some of these also sell things like anime figures, retro games and game consoles, game cards, etc. Go check them out! And it’s usually a nice experience, too. The quality of the used items are pretty high, and you can find whole sets of the book series you’re looking for for a good price.
We will do an episode of children’s famous storybooks / fables in the future and we made a channel in our discord to get some suggestions from you guys! If you’ve heard of any, or have certain ones from where you’re from that you want to talk about with the community, come say hi and drop them in the chat!
One of those things that Niko might not understand because of 28:30- commercials in Japan about momotaro and the whole fable group characters.
漫画でわかる series of books is a great way to get a feel for a certain topic you might be interested in without having to read a super dense book.
See you in the next episode!