So I decided to focus harder on kanjis and kanas. Now, I can write hiragana and katakana without a problem. Although to be honest, I am somewhat lazier when it comes to katakana. It’s just that I don’t like katakana at all (sometimes I have that “mania”).

The reason why I am focused on kanjis is because I began to use anki srs: a program helps me greatly with remembering words, sentences and kanjis.

So thanks to that, I learned the kanas and I can read without problems and much faster than I ever could imagine. I am beginning to learn kanjis, but I am doing it at my pace so I only know 60 kanjis so far.

Anki srs helps a lot when it comes to learning hiragana and katakana. I seriously recommend learning new words with hiragana, so you can learn more vocabulary and practise syllables at the same time.

There are some books that can help you. The book ‘Kanji to remember’ helps a lot because each kanji is associated with a short story or a picture. This technique is very good and efficient. Maybe you don’t like some stories, but you can always invent your own.

My technique is to study no more than 10 kanjis a day. Some days, you will feel that you can study more kanjis, but later you will have to review all of them. If you lose one day of study, you will have to review more than 300 kanjis. That is a lot…honestly.

In the mean time, I’ll keep working on more articles for the website to make it more interesting for the visitors.

By the way, I will have my kindle tomorrow! So I will not have to spend so many hours reading the computer screen (I hate to sit here longer than necessary).

Soon, I will tell you more of my progress with my kindle!

Daruma otoshi is one of those games that will always stay around. It is possible that you might not play this game for many months, until a child takes this game to school and suddenly everybody is playing the game again.

The rules are simple and the game is easy to play. First you have the column that is divided into five disks, and the player must hit the bottom disk in order to completely separate it while keeping the rest of the disks in the same structure of the column.

There are several versions of this game, one of which was played on “Takeshi’s Castle“. It was the same game, only with a huge hammer and big blocks and where the Japanese players would fall off if done incorrectly. Japanese games are especially funny when somebody falls and making you laugh.

Another programme that is also based on Daruma otoshi, is one played in pairs and where the players must hit all the blocks. One person hits the blocks while the other person tells him or her how to perform the movement exactly.

Here is a video of the program that show you how it is played:

Japan is the country that is probably the most prepared for earthquakes and their impact might be far less than in other countries, most of the times. The Japanese people have improved their buildings tremendously to make them more stable. Thanks to that, it reduces the consequences considerably.

All buildings are made with the technology to withstand earthquakes and thus it’s felt more as a smooth swinging motion rather than the sudden brusque movements of an earthquake.

7.0 earthquake in Kobe

In Nara, a city in Japan that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is possible to experience an earthquake simulator in its tourist office. Trying this out is completely free and you will feel the movements of the Kobe earthquake (I think that of 7.0).

The following video shows the simulator in action; it simulates the motions you would experience during an earthquake in one of the buildings in Japan.

If your house is not prepared for earthquakes, as it is the case of my house, you’ll see how it shakes from side to side (first and second simulation). The latter is how you will experience the earthquake as if you were in a building that is prepared for one. You can see that this movement is more like that of a boat.

The truth is that after this year, I am satisfied with my progress. It’s slow, I admit, but not bad. I have set some new goals for myself and I will continue with this project. I’m sure I will be able to understand Japanese someday.

My next goals are: being able to read hiragana faster, learning more kanji and focussing on expanding my vocabulary, because I think it’s essential if I want to see some progress. That is for the future, but it is weekend now and I deserve a short break.

After that, my goal will be to write something in Japanese. At the moment, I’m still terrified when it comes to Japanese particles and I don’t think I will be able to write a correct sentence any time soon.

I will continue writing for this blog; I will continue my research on Japanese culture and everything about Japan. In the beginning, this website was more focussed on learning Japanese. Now, I want to learn more about their culture as well and I will share these topics and everything else that I discover about Japan.

Well, today is Friday, so I think it is easy to understand that I want to relax. Have a great weekend everyone!

Japan is a country with a lot of elderly people. That is because the people live longer and the birth rate has fallen dramatically. It’s only logical that younger people will not be able to take care of all of them in the future. The solution is to get assistance from robots.

The future world will become one where the elderly will not need help from other people anymore, because robots will do that job.

So far, Toyota has developed some very interesting robots to improve the quality of life: such as helping to carry people or entertain them with music.

Within the range of musical robots, we found one that plays the violin at an acceptable quality (which has nothing to do with Audi’s commercial). Another plays the trumpet, and its lips are especially designed so that it is very similar to those of a person.

One of the most surprising robots is the “i-foot“: it is capable of carrying a human and move like a person. It can detect obstacles and climb stairs. Although the video is a montage of the possible uses, it is easy to appreciate the improvements made by Toyota when it comes to robotics and how these will change the world as we know it.

In Europe, we can see the difference between some countries as you can watch in the movie “Inglorious Bastards”. The Germans discover the English guy because he shows the number three with his middle fingers. What gave him away? In countries such as Holland or Germany they have a different way: you start with your thumb and that makes you use different fingers.

In war, where anybody could be a spy, this was a very easy detail to detect.

This is how they finger count in Holland

So how do they count in Japan?

If the protagonist of the scene of the film was Japanese and by any chance he looked like a European, he would also be detected in seconds.

The reason for this is easy: the Japanese count in a very curious way (for us) and at the same time, also completely different.

The Japanese count like this:

They open the hand first and begin:

1 = the thumb closed, others open.

2 = the thumb and the index finger closed

3 = middle finger, index finger and thumb closed.

4 = all the fingers closed, except for the little finger.

5 = closed hand (fist).

And now with the same hand they started in reverse, i.e.:

6 = all fingers closed except the little finger and so on…

And here comes the issue: 4 and 6 are exactly the same, but as you will only count on your fingers when you are alone, this is not such a problem after all.

Curious isn’t it?

Below, I repeat the lyrics of the first part of the advertisement, so you can review everything in one lesson.

Konnichiwa, Konnichi-wan (Hello + woof)
Arigatou-usagi Arigato (Thank you + rabbit)
Konbanwa, konban-wani (Goodnight + crocodile)
Sayounara, sayouna-raion, (Goodbye + leon)
mahou no kotoba ga nakama Tanoshii,
Magic words for the group of happy friends
Po po po po
Ohayou, ohayo-unagi (Good morning + eel)
Itadakimasu, Itadaki-mausu (Let’s eat + mouse)
Ittekimasu, Ittekimasu-sukanku (I’m leaving + skunk)
Tadaima, Tadai-manbou (It’s me + sunfish)

So starting as of here, we will teach you some new words.

ごちそうさま gochisousama.

This is said when you start eating, but it is not said by the waiter who serves you the food. In English this translates as “Bon appetite.”

ごちそう さ マウス gochisousa mauso.

おやすみなさい Oyasumi nasai.

This Japanese sentence is used when you’re going to sleep, the word ‘nasai’ is imperative, but it’s not translated as ‘go to sleep’, its translation would be more like ‘goodnight’. Don’t confuse this with the goodnight you say when you are leaving home to go to party.

So the better translation is:
‘Sleep well’
Oyasumi = to rest.

おやすみ な サイ oyasumina sai
Sai = rhinoceros.

すてき な ことば で suteki na kotoba de.
Suteki = wonderful, beautiful.
Na = converts the previous word into an adjective.
Kotoba = word.
De = particle, in this case it’s translated as ‘in’.
So the phrase is: Wonderful words.

ゆかい な なかま だ Yukai na nakama ga.
Yukai = happy.
Na = particle.
Nakama = group of friends.
A group of happy friends.

あいさつ する たび. aisatsu suru tabi.
Aisatsu = greetings.
Suru = the verb ‘to do’.
Tabi = travel, time.

Time to say your greetings.

ともだち ふえる ね. tomodachi fueru ne.
Tomodachi = Friend.
Fueru = increase.
Ne = particle
The number of friends are growing, right?!

Well, the lesson is over and with it the advertisement. It was fun to learn Japanese this way

Let me introduce you to the history of this awesome company, I promise it is interesting. This story goes all the way back to 1889, where Nintendo was born under a slightly longer name. Nintendo Koppai.

Nintendo has always been dedicated to entertainment, right? Today, it focuses on consoles and games, but in its early days, the company was famous because of their card games.

These cards were so famous that the company sold them all over the country in a rapid fashion. But Nintendo did not stop there in an effort to reach a wider audience.

A visit to an American company that was the market leader in card games at that time, made the company see that the future did not lie in the card games industry, because it was not very cost-effective. So they decided to change course. Broadening their horizon, Nintendo ventured into other activities such as fast food, taxi companies and even a chain of love hotels.

None of the projects listed above turned out successfully and eventually they decided to focus purely on entertainment. From here on, the company’s success was unstoppable and gradually achieved greater recognition that catapulted them to the fame it has today.

Nintendo has always been a family company and focussed on creating very charismatic characters, which tend to be slightly childlike at times, but attractive for both young and old. Today we can say that it is the most well known console and one that has made a big difference in this industry when compared to other similar consoles.

With this lesson, we will finish everything revolving around greetings and farewells for family and guests.
So let’s begin!

We have already visited the house of our friend, but now it’s time to leave and we are ready to say goodbye.

So, how do we say this?
Ojama shimashita
or
Shitsurei shimashita.

Only the following word needs to be highlighted in these phrases:

Shimashita comes from the verb suru (do) and is the formal form of the past tense.
Ojama and shitsurei are already familiar to us, so the most literal translation would be:
Ojama shimashita
Sorry for having been intrusive.

Shitsurei shimashita
Sorry for having been rude.

A good translation (and not too literal) would be “I’m going to go”

In a more elaborated farewell, the host would respond:
Dozo Mata.
Mata = again.

So the most logical translation is:
Come back again, please.

To which we should respond:
Arigatou gozaimasu and finally the classic phrase sayounara.

In some countries, it is quite common to leave the front door open so the neighbours can, rather than ringing the doorbell, ask if they are allowed to enter.

In Japanese we could translate this as:
Gomen kudasai.

For our next lesson, we will review the commercial advertisement of AC, so make sure to check it out first!

The word ‘robot’ (compulsory labour) originates from the Czech Republic and at that time, robots were something very different in comparison to what they are today. It is true that the idea of the robot is still the same: to replace human jobs, either because of its repetitiveness, difficulty or any other similar reasons.

Japan brought robotics to another level, something that other countries could not do in the same way. More than 500,000 robots were created in Japan in 1995 and were destined to work on an industrial level. The number of robots on a global level was 700,000 at that time, so it gives you some idea of the importance of robotics for the Japanese.

At one point, the robot shifted from the industrial level to our domestic lives. In Japan, robots can be seen as receptionists, security guards or even nurses that take care of the elderly people.

A 100% functional robot that can do different kinds of domestic work or a robot that is able to prepare an entire meal does not exist yet, but there are robots that can do a specific, smaller task such as cleaning the floor or open a bottle of beer (cheers!)

In other cases, such as with the AppriAtenda robot, it can provide us a sample of what they could become in the future. At the moment, this is still not possible because the current robots are either too slow still or encounter too many problems.

In the commercial of the Audi a4, an old-school robot appears, who is in awe when he sees a futuristic robot. It is curious that the old robot has something that makes him more important than the futuristic one: he is able to feel, an objective that remains the Holy Grail in the world of robotics. And something that I personally find a little scary, especially after reading the book “I robot”.