[Extraterrestrial Interference Detected]

皆様, こんにちにゃあぁ！Welcome to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online, a universe of knowledge condensed into an area so convenient, it could collapse into a singularity of pure comprehension, pulling every bit of information into the density of its wake. We’re your hosts, your teachers of Japanese language and culture, your guides to the galaxy, Kiki and Koko! If you joined us for our previous lesson, you’ll have learnt quite a bit of new vocabulary concerning space and aliens on 【ＳＩＤＥ　Ａ】of our galactic excursion. This lesson, we’re continuing that sentiment as we travel to not-so-distant planets, learning some basic astronomical vocabulary. And, guys? Remember Pluto? He’s back. In pog form. So, when we give you the queue on the current solar system, you’ll be able to include that little wandering star, the ninth planet, mourned for over a decade.  It might be a good conversational topic with you and any of your extraterrestrial or Japanese speaking friends, or if you need to tell the travel agency which planet you’re looking to go on holiday.

Did You Know? Nine has an unlucky and lucky reading.  When pronounced ku, (く), it’s homophonous with 苦, for suffering. But, when pronounced kyuu, (きゅう), it’s homophonous with 救, used in words like relief, meaning things like rescue, help, etc. The ninth planet has definitely been through both 苦 and 救, now.

On【ＳＩＤＥ　Ａ】of our cosmic collection of our Japanese vocabulary mixtape, we introduced a couple of basic verbs you can use to ‘interact’ with these nouns. Feel free to open up the page once more if you need reminding by clicking the thumbnail. It’s always important to revise / review previous lessons in order to apply them to newer lessons.

Equip your Japanese Language Survival Kit with Japanese Language Learning Essentials!

Though, of course, those verbs will be helpful, but to use those verbs properly, make sure you have a good grasp on the previously imparted particles. No worries if you still have any trouble with them, as it can sometimes take a while for them to come together in your mind. But, we do hope that our take on them assists you. Feel free to ask questions if you are having trouble, as other may be having the same issue. You can always see how they’re used in previous Essentials lessons, as well. They’ll be quite important to your survival in Japanese language whether on Earth or Mars.

Simple Survival Sentence Study

This lesson is perfect for applying to our previous lessons! Knowing the vocabulary is very important, but knowing HOW to use it and being able to apply it in many more situations is how you’ll not only survive, but thrive! And of course, when you know how to use the vocabulary, it’s more fun. Mixing up and matching up different sentences will help you feel more comfortable with the sentence structures. We’ll be using some of these sentence structures in the  です、は、が、 を, に and へ, and で～！but you can use these lessons to properly suss out exactly HOW we made the sentences, so you can make your own~!

You can open these on another tab or another device for reference. But, without further ado, off to space!

Basic Space Vocabulary | 基本的な宇宙の単語

Solar System

太陽系【たいようけい】 taikyoukei

太陽系には　惑星が　九個にありますか。
たいようけいには　わくせいが　きゅうこにありますか。
taiyoukei ni wa wakusei ga kyuuko ni arimasuka?
Are there 9 planets in the solar system?

The Sun　☀

太陽【たいよう】taiyou

(Also: 日【ひ】 hi)

太陽は　東から　昇ります。
たいようは　ひがしから　のぼります。
taiyou wa higashi kara noborimasu.
The Sun rises in the East.

The Moon ☽

月【つき】tsuki

ウサギちゃんは　お月さまから　来ることだと　思います。
うさぎちゃんは　おつきさまから　くることだと　おもいます。
usagichan wa otsukisama kara kuru koto da to omoimasu.
I think bunnies come from the Moon.

Mercury ☿️

水星【すいせい】 suisei

水星は　太陽の近くにあって、訪ねれない。
すいせいは　たいようの　ちかくに　あって、　たずねれない。
suisei wa taiyou no chikaku ni atte, tazunerenai.
Mercury is near the Sun; we can’t visit.

Venus ♀

金星【きんせい】 kinsei

金星は　明るいので　夜空に　見やすいです。
きんせいは　あかるいので　よぞらに　みやすいです。
kinsei wa akarui no de yozora ni miyasui desu.
Venus is bright and can be seen easily in the night sky.

Earth ♁

地球【ちきゅう】 chikyuu

今は、地球に　住んでいます。
いまは、　ちきゅうに　すんでいます。
ima wa, chikyuu ni sundeimasu.
I’m living on Earth now.

Mars ♂

火星【かせい】 kasei

火星に　生命は　存在するのですか？
かせいに　せいめいは　そんざいするのですか？
kasei ni seimei wa sonzai suru no desuka?
Is there life on Mars?

Jupiter ♃

木星【もくせい】 mokusei

木星は　超巨大な～！
もくせいは　ちょうきょだいな～！
mokusei wa chou kyoudai naa!
Jupiter is super gigantic!!

Saturn ♄

土星【どせい】 dosei

土星の　環は　とっても綺麗！
どせいの　わは　とってもきれい！
dosei no wa wa tottemo kirei!
Saturn‘s ring is so pretty!

Uranus ♅

天王星【てんのうせい】 tennousei

天王星という　天体は　青の明るい色合いです。
てんのうせいという　てんたいは　あおの　あかるい　いろあいです。
Tennnousei to iu tentai wa ao no akarui iroai desu.
The celestial body called Uranus has a light blue hue.

Neptune ♆

海王星【かいおうせい】 kaiousei

海王星の　青色は　美しいです。
かいおうせいの　あおいろは　うつくしいです。
kaiousei no aoiro wa utsukushii desu.
Neptune‘s blue colour is beautiful.

Pluto ♇

冥王星【めいおうせい】 meiousei

冥王星はちっちゃいけどみんなは　好きです。
めいおうせいは　ちっちゃいけど　みんなは　すきです。
meiousei wa chicchai kedo minna wa suki desu.
Pluto is tiny, but everyone loves him.

Comet ☄️

ほうき星【ほうきぼし】houkiboshi

(Also:彗星【すいせい】 suisei )

流れ星が　空を　横切って　流れたのを　見ました。
ながれぼしが　そらを　よこぎって　ながれたのを　みました。
nagareboshiga sora wo yokogitte nagareta no wo mimashita.
I saw a comet shoot across the sky.

Meteor 🌠

流れ星【ながれぼし】nagareboushi

(Also: 流星【りゅうせい】ryuusei)

流れ星は地球に落ちると、隕石といいます。
ながれぼしは　ちきゅうに　おちると、いんせきと　いいます。
nagareboshi wa chikyuu ni ochiru to, inseki to iimasu.
When a meteor falls to Earth, it’s called a meteorite.

Meteorite🗿

隕石【いんせき】 inseki

わあ！　隕石を　見つけた！
わあ！　いんせきを　みつけた！
waa! inseki wo mitsuketa!
Wow! I found a meteorite!

Constellation 🌃

星座【せいざ>】 seiza

その星座が　見えるの？
そのせいざが　みえるの？
sono seiza ga mieru no?
Do you see the constellation?

Whew! That was quite a lot of vocabulary words. Maybe you won’t use all of these right away if you’re not talking of space or space news often, but even still, there’s definitely a good use for memorising these! In school, you might have memorised the planets, and rediscovering this process might help you in reusing that method of memorisation. If you could memorise the planets in your native language, then you can simply apply the same technique to Japanese. You can think of the ways you memorised vocabulary from your native language and apply it. It might be a little different, of course, but the point is assigning a meaning to a word, and many words may have been synonyms for words you already knew. Simply think of nouns you memorise in that way and maybe that will be the key to getting in the right mindset to learn.

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered a cosmic concordance, and it shan’t be the last! Hopefully adding some fun new vocabulary will help keep your studies fresh and fun. Always try to make learning a relaxing experience, an oasis, floating in space in a new realm of learning different to your other studies. But, whilst you’re sitting in your tin can far above the world, you can use the opportunity to try to use these vocabulary words in sentences. You can even leave them in the comments below~!

Many of the hiragana characters you’ve seen this, we’ve already covered in previous lessons! Be sure to take a look at our Reading and Writing sections to revise / review / study, if you’ve already stayed up-to-date, or take your time and go through them at your own pace.

But, maybe after you trusted your spaceship knew which way to go, floating far above the moon, you lost track of time and missed out on the latest content. Stay up to date whether you’re watching a satellite gone way up to Mars or freaking out in a Moonage Daydream without ever having to keep track of the days by subscribing to the Electronic Mailing List of Tomorrow, today, found usually at the bottom of the site page or the sidebar on desktop. You’ll get the latest tools and resources to surviving in Japanese language in straight to your inbox. That’s articles, videos, podcasts, and more.

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Thank you for joining us! We hope that you continue with us on this adventure, and we appreciate that you’ve chosen us to assist you on your Japanese learning journey!

♡Kiki+Koko