When I arrived home today I found a package was waiting for me. My subscription to the Hir@gana Times came! The Hir@gana times is a monthly bilingual magazine that aims to introduce Japan to the world.
Best not give away my address like I did the first time I uploaded this picture and forgot to blur it! 
I was surprised by how quickly this magazine came. It took exactly a week to come from the date I ordered it which I think is pretty good considering it had to travel from Japan to the UK. In the past I have spent many many weeks tentatively waiting for a delivery Japan. How good is the shipping to your country?
The first thing I noticed upon opening the package were two letters. One was detailing my subscription explaining how long I had subscribed for and so on. The other was rather interesting indeed. It was explaining about “Volunteer Japanese coaches Help With Your Japanese”. Apparently the Hir@gana Times has started a new project called JACS (Japanese Assisting Coach System) that’s open to it’s subscribers.
JACS will give you the chance to learn Japanese and to learn about Japan at no cost. Lessons can be taken via Skype so you can be taught from anywhere! Another good reason to become a subscriber eh?
Most of the articles inside take the form of a paragraph of English followed by a paragraph of Japanese. All of the Japanese has furigana which is a fancy name for putting the pronunciation of the kanji in hiragana. So providing you know hiragana you’ll be able to read everything… even if it makes no sense to you!
Some of the articles have a very detailed breakdown of the Japanese which is particularly helpful for people still getting to grips with the language. Each word and particle is explained in a clear and easily understood format. Notes also surround the text when further explanation is needed. So in the text you might see なにわ : naniwa which will be translated as Osaka but with an explanation at the side of the text explaining that なにわ was the old name of Osaka.
The article content in this issue was quite varied. There was a film review for “Super-Express 109 A.K.A The Bullet Train”, a food recipie for “Furofuki Daikon” and the cover story contained beautiful pictures of Hachijo-jima. There seems to be a regular VISA question and answers page which I’m quite interested in reading each month. Maybe I’ll need to know that kind of thing some day
Are you interested in subscribing to the Hir@gana Times? If so check out the subscription information.
how do you even get this magazine
Sorry Lidia! I have updated the article with a link to the subscription page which is: http://www.hiraganatimes.com/hp/magazine/subscrip/subscrip-E.html
Hope this helps!
Wow I knew about the Hiragana times but never thought it would be this good. So subscribing!
Glad the article helped you decide. I hope you enjoy it! Let me know how you find it
I wish I could afford the subscription!!!
Although my birthday is coming up, so I may have to drop a few hints