There are two ways to say something (or someone) is the "number one" in Japanese: ichiban 一番 and ichigou 一号, and that can cause some confusion. After all, what's the difference between these words? What's the difference between 番 and 号?

If you have ever watched ever it's likely you've already heard some word related to "magic." Be it mahou 魔法, also romanized mahō, majutsu 魔術, madou 魔道, maryoku 魔力, mana マナ, and so on. In this post I'm going to list the meaning of these magic words in Japanese and some common phrases about magic used in anime.

In anime, ahoge アホ毛, literally "stupid hair," refers to a strand of hair that springs upwards from the character's head. A rebellious hair that doesn't conform to the rest of the head hairstyle, and, sometimes, appears to defy gravity and other laws of physics.

In English, "cow lick" refers to something similar.

• Appearance
  • Multiple Strands
  • Ahoge That Changes Shape
  • Real Life Ahoge
• "Stupid Hair."
  • Idiot Hair isn't an Idiot's Hair
• "Antenna Hair"
  • Shokkaku 触角
  • Antena アンテナ
  • "Hair Antennae"
    • Antenna vs. Antennae
    • Ahoge vs. Hair Antennae

The first thing you should get acquainted with if you are beginning to learn Japanese is the way Japanese is written. Here are some posts to help you understand with the Japanese writing system:

In Japanese, 「」 and 『』 are "quotation marks," in'youfu 引用符. They work in a similar but different way to English quotes ("these ones"). Not to be confused with brackets 【】, which this article will also talk about.

In Japanese, there are two types of tsu characters. The normal tsu つ, and the small tsu っ, which is smaller. You can notice this in hiragana in words like mittsu みっつ, "three," and in katakana in words like nattsu ナッツ, "nuts." But how does this small tsu works? What is っ for? And what is it called?

• About The Small Tsu
• Small Tsu in Romaji
• How to Pronounce The Small Tsu
• Small Tsu in Japanese Words
• Small Tsu at The End of Sentences
• Small Tsu at The Start of Sentences
• Difference Between っ and ー
• How to Type The Small Tsu っ