Beating the Japanese Language Plateau - Learning your Neighborhood Kanji

I've finished Genki I three times over 10 years, I've done Wanikani off and on up to level 12 (restarting twice), I've done college Japanese for a few semesters, and I've lived in Japan for over 4 years. I've tried immersion learning, rote memorization, textbooks, tutors, college, video games, Tae Kim, manga, , bunpro, duolingo, lingodeer, and even just talking with locals at izakayas and my Japanese still isn't very good. I'd say I'm floating around something approximating N4. I know probably ~800 kanji, I can sight read Japanese at Karaoke and my pronunciation makes people think I'm better than I am at Japanese. I can talk to locals in something approximating small talk about what I do for work and where I come from, but I can't function at all in a business setting in Japanese and require interpreters and machine translation to help me.

I'm somewhere between "日本語上手ですね” (Which is a very common backhanded complement for new Japanese learners) and locals asking me "ジャレットさんは三鷹八幡の祭り行く？ (Are you going to the Mitaka Hachiman festival?)" and my response being "ごめんなさい、分かりません” and having to resort to my phone for communication.

I could actually stop here and be comfortable enough to get by in Japan fairly easily forever, especially considering that we now have google lens and AI and other tools which allow us to navigate foreign countries with a greater ease than ever before, but I think in order to truly understand and appreciate Japan it will be very important for me to get past this plateau and to get to the next level toward fluency in Japanese. Though there's really no pressures to get better other than some level of intrinsic motivation and my ultimate desire to naturalize to Japan.

Maybe there's a a lot of people in a similar position to me, maybe not. But if you're someone who is stuck at this level like me (especially animators who have to dedicate most of their time to practicing drawing and animation, rather than studying Japanese) maybe my Japanese blogs will be useful or motivational for you.

I'll be using this blog to learn and teach the practical Japanese that's the most useful for actually living, working, and socializing in Japan. I'll also try to practice my creative writing in Japanese as well. If this sounds interesting to you, be sure to subscribe and keep an eye out for when I make posts with the Japanese tag.

I'm hoping that with this blog I'll not only be able to improve my own Japanese understanding and ability but also help give some very useful tips for people who plan to come to Japan and work.

Recently I've started practicing the Kanji for my town and neighborhood that I live in. I think it's a good idea for everyone as soon as you move into an place here to memorize the kanji for where you live. It might seem obvious, but I've been living in the same town for 4 years now and I am just now getting the kanji memorized.

In the second part of this post, I'll give an example of the type of content I plan to make. My focus is on learning practical Japanese that I can actually use, rather than general Japanese. My theory is that this will stick in my memory and help me get over the Japanese language plateau.

I want to focus on learning the kanji for where I live. This is something no one tells you but as a resident of Japan you're going to have to handwrite your address on endless papers, forms, envelopes, and it's something that will come in handy if you can memorize it. I'm finally now taking the time to learn mine and maybe it will speed up processes here and maybe even impress the local government staff!

I currently live in 三鷹 (Mitaka) which is home to many different famous anime studios, as well as the home of the world famous Ghibli Museum that was designed by Hayao Miyazaki and his son Goro. My neighborhood is 下連雀 (Shimorenjaku), the same neighborhood that is home to the Ghibli Museum.

I'm going to cover the kanji, the stroke order, and meanings of the words. As well as cover some local history and fun facts.

三鷹: Mitaka

Meaning: Three Hawks
The name Mitaka comes from the fact that the area historically was home to a collection of falconry villages. Pretty straightforward I think.

The first kanji 三 means three. It's probably one of the first Kanji I learned and one of the easiest. Just count how many lines and that's the meaning. Note the bottom line is the widest, middle line smallest, and top line is mid length.

The second kanji 鷹 means hawk. I've seen native Japanese people struggle a lot with this actually because of how complicated and uncommon it is, but the components aren't actually that difficult 鷹 is comprised of the radicals 广 , ｲ, 隹, and 鳥 (Jisho lists different radicals, but I'm just pointing out the ones that we see for practical use).

广: Back in the day on wanikani this radical was named "mullet" and was used in a variety of ways on other kanji. They later changed it to "canopy", but I still remember it as mullet.

ｲ: is listed as wanikani as leader, but I just see it as the katakana イwhich I find easy to remember.

隹: On wanikani I remember this radical by the mnemonic turkey, the radical itself means bird. But I mainly remember is as a component of 集 which means to collect or gather.

鳥: This is a very common kanji meaning Bird and one I see and read every time I go out to eat. Often when I'm trying to decide between 牛肉(Beef) 豚肉 (Pork) and 鶏肉(Chicken) in so many different delicious Japanese dishes.

Put them all together and you can make a nice mnemonic like: The leader ｲ of the 隹 turkey & 鳥 chicken is a hawk. Whether you use mullet or canopy for 广 they both work. Hawks make nests in the canopy, but you can also just imagine a hawk with an old school mullet. Either one works for me.

下連雀 (Shimorenjaku):

Literal Meaning: Lower Japanese wooden carrier backpack
Actual meaning: Renjaku which is closer to Edo
The neighborhood was named after Renjakucho which once was a neighborhood in Kanda Ward, Tokyo. The area where Shimorenjaku is now was the original place set up to become the new home for the victims from Renjuakucho of the The Great Fire of Meireki (A historical fire that destroyed most of Edo in 1657 (Meireki 3) .

下 in the namesake references it's relative proximity to Edo in relationship to 上連雀(Kamirenjaku) which is to the west (closer to Kyoto). The word 連雀 refers to a wooden carrier backpack which was common among the merchants who made their home in the original Renjakucho near Edo, the likely original name meaning.

The first kanji 下 means lower/below and is a very common beginner kanji. Super easy to write as well!

The second kanji 連(ウン) means to take along it's comprised of the radicals 込 which means to pack in and 車 which means car. So you can imagine a cart full of stuff to carry/take along! Which is easy to remember.

The third kanji means 雀 sparrow! It shares the bird radical 隹 with 鷹 (from Mitaka/Tori) the top radical is 小 with a ノ underneath. For me I just see ノ as extending off the bird radical like a sparrows tail. 小 means small, so it's not hard to just see "small bird" and think of a sparrow.

How carry + small bird means wooden Japanese backpack beats me, but
Note: this kanji also refers to the bird Japanese Waxwing, but it's not relevant in the name sake of the area.

Stroke order is always something I never learned because I thought I could memorize them all like drawings. Maybe making this blog will change my mind.

Hopefully now I'll remember how to write my area's kanji! I also learned a lot about the local history which was fun. I would recommend that you try this out when you move to Japan to solidify your kanji knowledge and learn a bit about your area and the meaning behind the names!

Bonus: Poki the Bird

People who have been to Mitaka know about this character, but he's little known outside of Mitaka. When the Ghibli museum was established in October 1, 2001, Hayao Miyazaki designed a mascot for the town called Poki the Bird. The name idea came from a 4 year old who was by contest, chosen as the Godmother, and chose "Poki" referring the the onomatopoeia ポキポキ, the sound of snapping twigs, similar to when a young hawk steps around the forest. You can find this bird all over Mitaka, on the buses, the backpacks of the school children, the garbage bags, and the local newspaper.

Every year the local newspaper holds a 4コマ(4 panel) comic contest featuring the character. If you live here you should try to compete if you're an animator! It's a very cute and wholesome thing that the city does.