I hate to interrupt the normal Tofugu schedule, but we’ve been working on some other things on Tofugu that, together, warrant their own post. We also want to announce a little giveaway that we’re doing!
Guide To Rarely Used Japanese Characters
A while back, I ran across some Japanese characters I’d never seen before—characters like 〆 and ゟ that I hadn’t learned before while studying hiragana, katakana, or kanji.
I recently finally got around to researching and writing a guide for these characters, and just published it today. This guide probably won’t be helpful in reading everyday Japanese (with the exception of 々), but it’s full of some history, etiquette, and a lot of unusual characters.
Guide To Rarely Used Japanese Characters
Plus you can use the knowledge from this guide to impress people at parties, or be that person in Japanese class. Oh, you don’t know 〻? How embarrassing for you. (Please don’t be that person.)
Read the Guide To Rarely Used Japanese Characters here.
Japanese (iOS App) Review
A few years ago, Koichi wrote about what he thought was the best Japanese-English dictionary: an iPod or iPhone loaded up with a Japanese-English dictionary app. At the time, he said his favorite was a little app just called “Japanese.”
Japanese on the iPad
But somehow, in the three years since that post, we’ve neglected to give Japanese (the app) a full, proper review. Thankfully, we’ve recently changed that and posted up a review of Japanese today.
Read our review of Japanese (iOS App) here.
Japanese (iOS App) Giveaway!
It’s been a while since we’ve done a giveaway, but we were fortunate enough to receive some coupon codes from the developer of Japanese, Renzo.
I have 10 free copies of Japanese (the iOS app) to give away, but I thought that we could have a little fun with it. In the past, we’ve had contests involving haiku, videos, and other creative endeavors.
This time around, I want you to redesign the Tofugu logo, but with a twist: make it as ugly as possible.
That’s right, I want you to send me your own, terrible version of the Tofugu logo. I don’t care if you draw it in MS Paint, sculpt it, or make it using watercolors—the important part is that it looks hideous.
The 10 ugliest submissions (based on my own, highly subjective standards) will win a free copy of Japanese.
You can send your entry to hashi@tofugu.com, and you have until a week from the time this post goes up—that’s Friday, June 21 9:00AM Pacific Time—to send in your submission.
Have fun! I look forward to your ugly, ugly submissions. And don’t worry, I’ll post the winners!
Wallpapers & GIFs
Our talented illustrator Aya has already submitted her entry—in the form of some desktop backgrounds and animated GIFs! Hopefully this wonderfully bad creation will give you some inspiration.
Wallpaper (1280×800)
Wallpaper (2560×1440)
