Don't miss these cultural references when learning Japanese!

January 4, 2025

Hope you're having a great New Year so far ^^

Recently, the New Year has had me looking back at all my past studies and really thinking about how things have been going. Man, the time has really flown by. I've been studying Japanese for over 9 years, and NativShark has already been out for more than 4 years.

And even though I had already passed the JLPT N1 when I first started studying with NativShark, I found a lot of the information in Phase One (up to Milestone 10) to be quite helpful for getting me used to how I was hearing Japanese in everyday life.

But now that I'm further into NativShark, I've really noticed how it has helped my understanding of culture as well.

While I used to be in a relatively constant state of confusion when a cultural reference came up with my friends, now I'm starting to catch them more often. I'm sure I still have plenty more to learn, but it's nice to feel that progress ^^

Anyway, I wanted to share with you the cultural references that I've found most common or helpful in my journey. These tend to go over the heads of most learners, including me, before I saw them in NativShark!

浦島太郎 (うらしまたろう)

Based on the number of times I've heard 浦島太郎うらしまたろう (Urashima Tarou) referenced, I'm pretty sure you would be hard-pressed to find a native speaker who didn't know about him.

Who is he?

He's the protagonist of an old fairy tale who saves a turtle being tormented by some kids, and is then taken to a palace in the sea called 竜宮城りゅうぐうじょう (ryuuguujou) by said turtle. He stays there for a few days, but when he goes back, 100 years have passed.

I heard 浦島太郎うらしまたろう in an anime called "Clannad" shortly after seeing this lesson.

It was in reference to a student who stayed back a year and felt like everything had changed even though she was in the same school. There are a bunch of real-life references to be made as well, but I'll let the lesson explain further:

浦島太郎: Urashima Tarō

By the way, if you've played Animal Crossing in Japanese (or know about fish more than I do), 竜宮城りゅうぐうじょう might sound familiar. It's included in the name of a fish you can catch in the game called a リュウグウノツカイ (ryuuguu no tsukai // oarfish; lit. "familiar/messenger of Ryugu"):

フランシスコザビエル

If you're in Japan, you should make sure you know about フランシスコザビエル (furanshisuko zabieru // Francis Xavier). He's the first Jesuit Christian missionary to Japan, back in the 1500s. This is another one I hear references to all the time, and it pops up in the most random of places, too.

In fact, the other day, I saw these お土産みやげ (omiyage // omiyage; souveniers) from 大分おおいた (ooita // Oita) that were named after him:

Picture from 楽天市場.

I had to do a double-take, but there it was

Also, you should know about 福沢諭吉ふくざわゆきち (fukuzawa yukichi // Yukichi Fukuzawa), who is printed on the old 10,000 yen bills. While he did get replaced by 渋沢栄一しぶざわえいいち (shibuzawa eiichi // Eiichi Shibuzawa) recently, you'll definitely hear 諭吉 in various media to refer to a 10,000 yen bill, at the very least.

Full lesson here:

歴史上の偉人: Japanese historical figures

Japanese beliefs about health

Just like how people from the US usually eat chicken soup when they're sick, Japan has its own set of health beliefs too. (Also, people tend to eat うどん [udon] here when sick ^^)

Of course, these are all generalizations, but there's some interesting stuff in here. One that you'll hear everywhere is about temperature and how you have to keep your core warm or you'll get sick. This seems to be represented in the phrase 冷ひえは万病まんびょうのもと (hie wa manbyou no moto // being cold is the cause of many illnesses).

You're also not supposed to sleep with your stomach uncovered, as it cools your body down and makes you sick.

More in this lesson:

Japanese beliefs about health

Speaking of keeping your core warm, if you've ever been in Japan during a thunderstorm, you may have heard someone say へそ隠かくして！ (heso kakushite // hide your belly button!)

The underlying reason for this seems to be due to how thunderstorms usually cool the air down, so you risk your core getting cold and thus getting sick.

But what people will tell you about is 雷神らいじん (raijin // the god of thunder), who will steal your bellybutton.

Speaking of the supernatural…

妖怪: Japanese monsters

妖怪ようかい (youkai // yokai) are among my favorite topics, and this is one of my favorite NativShark lessons ^^

I've run into so many people talking about the various 妖怪 covered in this lesson.

I think I'll never get over how I heard a friend tell me that they saw a 座敷ざしきわらし (zashikiwarashi // a yokai that looks like a child that brings good fortune to a home) in their house — and was more surprised to hear that that is a good thing!

妖怪: Japanese monsters

Casual っていう for unexpected conclusions

I know this one isn't a cultural reference, but I really feel the need to add it in because I went 9 years of studies not knowing this usage, but hear it everywhere after learning how it actually works:

Casual っていう for unexpected conclusions

Man, I could go on about lessons like these all day, but we're running out of space here ^^;

Here are a quick final two lessons I found incredibly helpful for my Japanese (though not necessarily cultural references):

Turning nouns into verbs

Some common conversational phrases

Anyway, that was a lot of lesson links.

Feel free to peek around with them, but if you haven't reached them with the Study Now button, well, you will eventually. There's a lot to learn, so no rush.

Just gotta keep hitting this button consistently:

If you didn't recognize any kana above or haven't started your learning journey yet, then you can learn all that and much more by creating your account here for free! You'll need one to press the above button ^^

Hope you enjoyed this one!!

NativShark goodie bag

NativShark Units + Milestone

4 new Units have been added to Phase Three!

As always, these Units are filled with vocab in unique contexts, any relevant new kanji, and natural conversations called Dialogues at the end, all of which are designed to get you functional in Japanese as efficiently as possible.

These Units also feature the following lessons:

Thanks for reading all the way to the end,
Ty & the NativShark team