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If you're in Japan and you need to buy birthday candles, you may not want to get the ones they sell in convenience stores. Why? Listen to Naomi talk about the time when Josh made this simple, hilarious mistake. Josh reflects back on what he's learned so far and how this podcast has helped him retain more information. If you're studying Japanese, this lesson is about asking "how much".

The lesson begins strong with Naomi finding the Achilles heel of American customer service: government offices. After she sets her sights on destroying the post office’s good name, Josh comes to the rescue and explains why a postal worker’s poor service is somewhat justified. After that the lesson begins. In the lesson itself, Josh shows Naomi all the wrong ways to use “kiku”(きく).

After taking a necessary break, Naomi and Josh return to the podcast with a new momentum. A surprising turn of events has and will forever change their lives. After a shocking confession, Naomi discusses some of the differences between raising kids in Japan. After a few anecdotes the lesson finally begins with Josh sharing his Japanese introduction script.

This episode begins with Josh struggling to utter the introduction script he spent weeks trying to memorize. From there, Josh talks about the problem with people who promise that you can learn any language in a short amount of time. A reoccurring theme in this podcast is that learning any new skill takes, time, patience and a ton of work. The conversation veers to Naomi’s high school experience of talking about handsome American English teachers with seriously long noses and tight asses.

Naomi wants to spend time with Josh's parents. He thinks that's weird. After navigating through the treacherous topical terrain of in-laws, the conversation veers to KFC and vegetarian dogs. When the Japanese lesson begins, Josh breaks one of his cardinal rules and asks "why". The conversation gets heated when Naomi accuses English of making counting more difficult than necessary. How will Josh respond?

Josh begins the class with a racial stereotype and Naomi tries to show him how he has been indoctrinated with misinformation about Japanese culture, primarily from the Karate Kid part 1 and 2. After that, they discuss Japanese eggs, heat pads, cold tummies and respectable plates. To Josh's surprise, Naomi respects both regular plates and paper plates.

Josh begins asking Naomi some questions like a detective. He suspects that his wife has a secret crush on a famous Japanese actor. Will Naomi be able to talk her way out of it? After that, the lesson begins rather early. Since today they’re talking about onomatopoeia オノマトペ for animals (giseigo ぎせいご), their usual introduction conversation is combined in the lesson.

If you can't tell from the title, this episode is a weird one. Recorded at the end of a taxing day, Josh and Naomi meander into the lesson, following the conversation wherever it may lead. Josh would like to apologize for the first three minutes in advance. He asked me to include it because it might bring a smile to some listeners. Once they finish talking about sadomasochism, Josh tries to share a lesson he learned in the park until the onomatopoeia lesson begins.

In this episode Josh introduces a different approach to language learning, script building. Basically, you try to memorize a script of a tiny monlogue you might have to say fairly often. But before the Japanese lesson, Naomi and Josh discuss culture, particularly the kouhai こうはい and senpai せんぱい relationship that has an enormous impact on Japanese speech style and daily interactions. After that, Josh discusses the paradox of choice and his first experience with the website Lang-8. Enjoy!

This is a good one. Josh shares a deep secret about his ass: he doesn't have one. The conversation veers toward Dominicans, Naomi's ass, Japanese fashion and Mos Burger roleplay. When the Japanese lesson begins, they go over some basic vocabulary connected to the body.

Josh and Naomi enter the wonderful world of face types. In Japan, the way they distinguish looks differs from the States. One popular way to describe a man’s face is to decide whether he has a heavy king face or a sweet prince face. Royal names for faces give way to other topics like Orland Bloom, spaced repetition and describing people.

Creating a podcast is a lot of work. One of the many overlooked podcast components is the cover art. Josh shares some of the troubles he had when looking for someone to design the Talking Japanese cover art. After that, Josh and Naomi discuss the differences between their nation’s flags until the lesson begins. The lesson finally begins with a review of the last lesson, これ、それ、あれ、この、その、あの、ここ、そこ and あそこ。If you can read and understand all of that then you’re going to do well in the Japanese portion of this podcast! Today’s lesson is mostly a review, with the introduction of two connection words, demo(でも) and dakara (だから).

When Naomi first came to live in New York City she swung open the gate of her new apartment complex to find a quaint courtyard with a single cherry blossom tree waiting for her arrival. “It must be a sign,” she thought, “I’m meant to be here.” Now, five years later, the saddest cherry blossom tree to ever exist has been cut down and Josh wonders whether it’s a shitty metaphor for his wife’s current mood. The conversation steers away from metaphors and towards ovens and expectations until they finally begin talking about ko(こ), so(そ) and a(あ) indicators and how they relate to space.

At this point in his language learning journey, Josh is trying to figure out what learning style works best for him. He’s frustrated because there are so many things he wants to articulate in Japanese and he just isn’t at that level yet. Naomi tries to reassure him that the best motivation is curiosity and desire. After Josh stops feeling sorry for his candy ass, they move on to discussing the film Death Note and how its style differs from American stories. After about 15 minutes, the lesson on useful phrases and expressions finally begins.

Naomi reveals the embarrassing truth of her flat nose while Josh tries to reassure her that her nose is perfect. After that, Josh discusses popular ways people may psyche themselves out of learning and recommends a few websites for the language learning listeners. When the lesson begins, he discusses Hiragana and why it took him so long to learn in the past… Naomi.

Josh would like to apologize for the obnoxious introduction, but it was somewhat necessary to get a sense of what genki (げんき) means. After Josh and Naomi discuss げんき and how it relates to Japanese culture, they continue from the last lesson. After many years of trial and error, Josh finally pronounces Mcdonalds (マクドナルド) correctly and shares his secret. After that, Naomi tries to help him create some sentences with the vocabulary from last time. At the end, he recommends for all listeners to pick ten useful nouns to memorize.

Josh and Naomi begin talking about one of Josh’s old friends, Andrew. Memories resurface after an enticing email. Naomi remembers having a very different impression of Josh after perusing through his Facebook. After they talk about their first impressions of each other, the Japanese lesson begins. For those who want to learn Japanese, Josh reviews suki (すき) and kirai (きらい) from the last lesson. They eventually move on to responding to negative questions and an introduction to seven separate adjective sets

Josh and Naomi begin this lesson with a brief introduction. After Josh discusses his motivation for learning Japanese, Naomi reveals how her English improved. Before beginning the lesson Josh tries and fails, again to pronounce McDonalds in Japanese correctly (マクドナルド). Today’s lesson deals with food likes (すき) and dislikes (きらい).