Talking About Nothing, In Japanese

Ever tried to learn a language by watching TV shows or listening to the news—and felt totally overwhelmed? This show is for you.

In the first episode of Nihongo to English (No Show), two comedians kick things off by talking about nothing in Japanese—and discovering why that’s often the best way to learn. We introduce ourselves, swap Niigata snow stories, and dig into the small phrases textbooks skip but real life depends on: timing, fillers like nanka, and everyday greetings that bookend the day, from ittekimasu to okaerinasai.

The conversation naturally turns to identity and language. Which “I” do you use today—watashi, boku, or ore—and what does that choice signal about age, mood, and social context? We unpack how pronouns, region, and register quietly shape meaning, then lean into playful memory tricks (“Costco salmon” for gochisousama, anyone?) as scaffolding, not shortcuts—tools to get you speaking sooner and refining later.

Along the way, food becomes a classroom (karaage vs. karikari), and life in Niigata shows why small towns can turbocharge fluency: fewer English escapes, more real stakes, and constant reps at the neighborhood izakaya. We also share practical habits you can steal—scene-based Anki decks, fixed exchanges you can record and reuse, and a running list of words life demands but books ignore (futsukayoi included).

This is a show about nothing that ends up being about what matters most in language learning: attention, courage, and the joy of being understood. If you’re studying Japanese, brushing up after years away, or just here for the laughs, hit follow—and tell us which phrase you’re claiming next.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Pairoto episodo. Nihongoto English no sho.

JLPT Wins and Study Methods

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Welcome to the Nihongoto English no sho. I am one of your hosts, Michael Allen CPA. That stands for comedic performance artist. And I have passed the Japanese language proficiency test level N3. So I passed uh the level five, the level four, and then I passed the level three.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

I've been teaching Japanese for 18 years.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Oh. So go like. Oh, sensei.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Sensei, but I'm not good at teaching.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Oh no? Oh, oh, that's but that's just a Japanese thing. Yeah. I studied uh what do you say? Flashcards in Japanese? I forget.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Tango cho?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Tango cho? Tango cho? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, like language flashcards. So tango. I had maybe like Nisen Sanzen Tango Chou. Apasokon de uh Tsukuta. Was it Anki? I think there was a free program called Anki.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Anki? Ah, shitl shitl.

Living and Teaching English in Niigata

SPEAKER_01 1:24

And I made uh thousands of tango chocolate. Wow. It was tango, but also uh gunsho and question and answer. Sugoi. And I studied and practiced and practiced and practiced. And I also uh shigoto wato de ego uh tokamachi si no nigatake no tokamachi. Hi. Hi uhome uh gume this. Oh uh ninen uh ninen can uh jukuto e kaiwa de ego shima. Gako junakte uh private jukuto e kaiwa A B C Scoot. And uh shigoto atode uh uh tokamachino is Izakaya uh uh masta to kaiwa shima.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Oh no menua.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Karikari chicken. Karikari chikin karikari chikin.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Karikari chikin did not.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

What is that crunchy chicken?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Oh crunching.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's karikari. Karage. I don't know why I said karika. I don't know why I said that. Karage. I'm nervous. Karage. Could you say karikari?

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Karikari chikin. Yeah, that sounds like a good chicken plate.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Uh yeah, karage. I always like karage and um chipsu. Um but uh oh I like uh namatako ponzu.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Eh, namatako ponzu, taco taco ski.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Taco dai suki desifortinajin kara uh Mexican taco mosuki deso.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Taco taco. So how do you deal with?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Well I'm uh Yonju Nisa, so I'm kind of I am Oyaji Gang.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

I am Oyaji.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I have a I have a not a mago. What's the mago? Mago?

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Mago a granto kit.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Oh no, not mago. What's a niece is um what's a niece?

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Mei.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

It's like a uh my sister's my sister's daughter.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Mei.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Mei. I have a May. Maybe san. So I am Ojisan. Oh. By the way, this is kind of just gonna be what the show is about. At least for starters.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Yeah, we should talk. Yeah. So what is this show about?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Uh well, when you originally pitched the show to me, here in Los Angeles, where we make entertaining content, uh you, a fellow comedian, I'm also a comedian, uh said, why don't we call the show Talk About Nothing or Talk About Nothing Show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah. In Japanese. Talk about nothing in Japanese.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

But then I said, that's that's like Seinfeld, the show about nothing. Or what is nothing, I think was your idea.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, Zen?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Well, yeah, it is kind of Zen.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

It's very Zen.

Food, Izakaya Talk, and Cultural Jokes

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah. Or it's like, Are we nothing? She comes to me and is like, let's make a podcast about existential philosophy. It's called Are We Nothing?

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Tetsugaku poi.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Tetsugaku poi. Philosophy. Yeah. So I like Tetsugaku. I like Shakai Gaku. Uh Shakai Gaku nanka.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Nankka.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Nankakawa. N nan this ka.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Nankha. Nankakawa. Nank. It sounds like like nankka. Nankka. No, so I am from kanagawa. Okay. So kanaga kin karakita kada nanka teyu ka batash ta chi. You don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

But there's like long like it's like, oh my god, like a fellow girl. So so bade.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So you say nan, but nankka. So that these are like little phrases at the ends of sentences that I hear and I just kind of process them by feeling. But when you say nankka, what are you actually expressing? It's like, oh, that's interesting, or like what is that? Or oh, that's like what's the sentiments?

SPEAKER_02 5:33

I don't know. Nanka sugoy, that sounds like I don't know what it is, but it sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, well you don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Well shakay uh social social studies.

What Is This Show? Zen, “Nothing,” and Philosophy

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Aaron Ross Powell Right. Well I guess social studies is kind of what they call it in uh in American like uh middle school and high school, and that includes like history and I guess politics to a very basic degree, um and some cultural studies stuff. But in Daikaku, uh Shakaigaku is uh sociology. Yeah. The study of people, societies, groups, how they get together, how they make decisions, how they fight, how they resolve conflicts, um how ideas spread between people of different cultures. So, yes, as a student of sociology, I have this interest in culture generally. So I I want to travel to Japan, I want to see other cultures, I want to live in other cultures. I'm not studying them in in a in a academic way. But I but I do it, but yeah, I'm but I'm doing a practical living in Japan for two years. So this uh, uh there's eeon. Uh yeah, beiritsu. These b it's like, oh, do I want to apply with like these bigaiwa, you know, get the get the passport and all that. And then I thought, no, I'm just gonna go to Japan by myself and just find a job once I'm there, which is like how uh the previous, like my parents' generation did it. Back then it was like, oh, they were they were given out English teaching jobs on trees. They were they would pay for your flight back then, I hear. Uh but I just went over there and I read an advertisement online once I was already there that said, um, come to uh Nigata Ken, come to Tokamachishi for ABC school, we're looking for a teacher. Uh Nigata is famous for much snow. And I thought nobody else is going to be applying for this job because most people who come here are gonna be like, I want to live in Tokyo, I want to live in Osaka. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to have nice weather. No one's gonna want it. Yeah, they're gonna be snow. I don't want to deal with that, but I was like, I bet they're really desperate. And I liked that it was like a small independent A Kaiwa. So I applied for it and I did a a Zoom interview. I went and I visited, and you know, they sponsored my visa. I took the job, and um yeah, it was really wonderful. It was really wonderful. Yeah, it could have been.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I was gonna say, oh, never suy.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Just now I was wondering, oh, I wanted to say, oh, totally, but then I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I mean, but futoturi.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Mukashi.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Mukashi Mukashi. Mukashi Mukashi makerukunas.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Happy. It makes me very happy. Uh yeah, so that's my story.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Uh how did you get to um I wanted to get away from my parents. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Oh, I live like like five minutes from my parents.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

That's so nice. That's so nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

And that's why it's just so horrible that you get moved so far away from your parents. It's very nice for me and for you, you know. What a horrible person.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Sorry, that's that. Nikku. Hi.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

So this cow. So I should buy a bunch of meat. No, I did.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

I I bought meat for my parents.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Right. So I should buy it.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

I don't do they eat meat?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah.

Casual Japanese Fillers and “Shakaigaku”

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah. I feel like it in America, it's like we eat meat all the time. It's kind of interesting to Well, in Japan, anything can be special because they sell everything. You can buy meat, you know, at the supa. Or you could get like the meat in like the very nice box, like a specialty gift box for the purpose of gifting.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

So naka ki no hokoni hite. Kiri? Kitty. Kiri. Japanese cypress.

unknown 11:05

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Oh, so fancy.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Now if you buy meat in America for the same thing, it's more like this is like authentic Texas.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Oh, America Kobe. America, America no kobe wa Chigao. Chigao this. Kobe wa ko kobe wa ni hon ni hono.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Kobe to Matsuzaka beef. Matsuzaka wa Matsaka beefum you me. Matsuzaka wa dokoda ka waka night niho.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Where's Kansas? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

I hear niigata ken is like the Kansas of Japan.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

And then mo harike and night.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Oh, Hari Harike night. No.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Uh Nihata.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah. I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

It was great.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I'll go back.

unknown 12:06

I never been to that.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

What should I say? You know, I when I want to talk about myself and I know Watashi. Watashi. I know Watakushi. I know Boku. I know Ore. Ole. And I always feel like in this context. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Ore. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah. I mean, I I mean I know I could I could say or I know without Watakushi would be like too formal. I'd be like I'm a politician or something. But I might just say it for fun anyway.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

I feel like sometimes I want to say or then I'm like, oh am I gonna sound like a degenerate kind of like I am a middle-aged man though. When I say boku, I feel a little bit too like boku.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

My dad still calls himself boku.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Uh-huh. Okay. If I want to be like edgy.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

I don't know. I've never met Japanese edgy persons, so I don't know how they call it.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Oh, you've got surely you've got edgy people in Japan.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

There's no edgy people in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Not one. Well, what about like what about like uh yanki?

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yanki? Yanki wa uh oira. What about oira? Oirawa.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Oira like a like an oiler. Yeah no, spoilers.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Ore oila. Oida.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Oida? Is that another oi? Is that another oikashi? It's another eye. Who says that?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Country pumpkin.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Country pumpkin. Well, that's what they would say about tokamachi.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Ichiga.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Oh, Ichigo Yuzawa? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Market. Ichigo echigo. Ichigo. Ichigo.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Ichigo yuzawa. Station.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

So was there a market every tenth of the month?

Polite Phrases from Genki Book

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Historically. Historically it was No, I think it was that it was a it was either that I feel like Niju Pasento, maybe it was that. But maybe it was because it was a 10-day travel from Ichigo. Or from from the local whatever the local big tub was. It was like, oh, Tokamachi is like, oh, it would take you ten days to get there from whatever the central location was. But there was also like a mu Muikamachi?

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Oh. Is it closer to the Trevor Burrus?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Is it closer to the case?

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I mean, I well, that'd be an interesting thing to check, right? It was either a market every 10 days or it was it had to do with the distance. Hatska daikon.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

You know Hatska Daikon?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Aaron Powell Hatsukawa 20 days. It grows in the Trevor Burrus.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah, it grows in twenty days.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Hatska nezumi.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Hatska nezumi. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Hatsuka what's like Hatsukayoi? What's that? No, Futskayoi. Futsukayoi.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Yeah, because you are second-day drunk.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Oh, Futsu. Yeah, Futsukayoi. That's one of those words that I'd have no reason to know. Sometimes when I was studying uh Japanese, I would look up words that were definitely not going to be on the test. On the test. But you know, yeah, I want to know how to say like I'm hungover in Japanese.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Futsukay.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah. Why why don't they have that in the English book?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I don't know, Genki.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

In the Genki book.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Genki itchi. Or what would you say? Like uh like are uh uh uh uh atamaitai. Dai what it's called? Uh uh it's ramen in night, you know. Subani taikon taikonsyopala.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Like why can't that be?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

It's like ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Uh what what is the problem that the that the husband is having? Like, you know, he doesn't want to go to work. So right now, for those of you listening, we're looking in the uh the Genki level one uh Japanese learning book.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Uh Aisatsu.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Hi. Oh Aisatsu.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Oh, Asa no Aisatsu. Hi. Hizeimas.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

I I can't read. Ah, when you visit someone, what are you supposed to say? Oh, when you s when you meet someone on the street, what are you supposed to say during the day?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Okay. Uh konichiwa. Yoruba night, Yoruba kombama.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Sayanawa sanana.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Hatanewa nigata ken no kotuba. Kanga suda Hogan.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Oh nigata ken.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Hajjane. Hachan hachane.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Nan de hatjane.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Makaranai. Wakaranai. Hajimitekita be Hatchanewa no himiwa. It's like uh uh well there's also like atode?

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Later. See you later.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Or you could say um bye-bye. Bye bye, bye bye. Matane. Yeah, you can say m yeah, you can say matane.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Matane.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

What do you what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Jane.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Oh jane. Sayonara. I almost never say sayonara.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Sayonara nankasami kalayata.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Or you're gonna say like mata ashta if you're gonna see them tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Matane. Jane.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Jane.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Do itashimash.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Uhrigato kozai must do itashimashte.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

But don't touch my mustache.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Don't but do it. Oh wow, that's a stretch.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Don't touch my mustache.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Even though to me, don't touch my mustache doesn't sound at all like Doitashimash. If it helps you remember it, then it doesn't matter if it sounds like it or not. If it just helps you remember it.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

What about gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Costco salmon.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Costaco salmon. Gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Go to so sama. Costco salmon.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

That's like completely. Costco. Sal.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Go to so samat.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

But where's the G?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Gi Solsama.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Ghost go it's not Kochi, it's not Kochi Sol Samat. Gochi. It's not Ghostko. It's Costa. It's Costco.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Close enough.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Well, that's because you have Ka and K. Ka. So you think, oh, ka and G are just the same. No. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Sumimasen.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Sumimasen. I those are the same.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Oh, it says I.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

But that could also be Aragado Samus. Tadaima?

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Tadaima. Yeah, iteki. No, itekimas. No, when somebody says itimas, you're supposed to say it. What about tadaima? Okaidi Nai.

Pronouns, Tone, and Identity in Japanese

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Okaidi Nasai. I haven't said these in such a long time. So let's let's Tadaima Okaidi Nasai or Okaidi.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Yuroshko ngai shimas.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Do you say that? Yurosko nigashimas?

SPEAKER_01 21:00

I mean sometimes I'll say just Yorosuku.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Yoroshku.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yeah, you could say Yorosku. Yorosuku. But I might say Yorosuko ngai shima. I think as a foreign speaker, sometimes if I just want to be safe, I'll just default to the kind of like Yoroshko nice. Because if I if I'm just like Yoroshku, I don't know, am I like coming off too rude or too I don't know. I'd rather err on the side of being more formal and polite. They don't care. They have they just appreciate that you're trying. But yeah, Yoroshko on the gai shimas. Or if I want to be sale, I'll be like Yoroshko on the gai sudo. Yodoshku on the gai stay must. So good amountai shimas, shimas, sudu. Yorosku onega.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

No. Shimasu. Yosuko negaisimas. And then does Yorosku onegay shteiru no deska?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

I just start adding, I just add more things to the end of things. Because there's other places where you can do that. Anyway, that's how I exercises. Was that it? Was that the whole thing? So it's itakimas. I'm coming and going. I'm going and coming back. Okay. And you say, but tadaima. Well, tadaima okay nasai, but itakimasu, and then you say iterai.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yay!

SPEAKER_01 22:44

See, I would never do that if I were just doing something in English, but because we just finished a Japanese exercise.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Okay, so we'll we'll talk about more next week on next section. Is that next week or next month? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah. Next time.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Next time. Ah, jikai.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

People who know that what's going on really around here, I will ask you in Japanese. Okay. Anatawa yagi ka sakana.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Sakana design.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Well, thank you for joining Nihongo To Ego no show.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah, so laiku to sub subto.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

And it's our our beautiful audience that's listening right now. Uh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Matane.