Just Another Day in Japan

A new Yo-ji

2012-01-26T23:40:00.000+09:00

A new Bobby Judo post over at the Daily Yoji today. An interesting read, and I think it's true...many Japanese people don't recognize their attitudes and reactions towards foreigners as anything but natural and perfectly understandable. Parody is hard.

Do you think in Japanese?

2012-01-23T12:27:00.001+09:00

Some time ago, one of my cousins asked me if I still think in Japanese sometimes. I answered that most of the time it's not really an issue, as I tend to have "modes," and when I'm surrounded by and using English, that Japanese switch is generally off. Lately, though, I'm starting to reconsider that. Maybe it's because I am trying to expose myself more to Japanese these days, but there are definitely times when certain Japanese phrases come to mind, and I kind of cut off the impulse to vocalize them.

I think the most common ones are words/phrases like:

仕方ない/しょうがない (It can't be helped; oh well)

すみません (sorry; excuse me; thanks)

そうか/そうなんや (I see; Is that so?)

そうだ(that's right; yeah)

まぁ (well...; meh)

I don't really know what the deal is, but I'm guessing it's happening for me mostly with words that aren't strictly translatable into English and have different nuances or applications (or levels of naturalness) than what you might say in English.

Any thoughts from you expats who have returned home or moved on to another country? Has this happened to you?

Ace of Hearts

2012-01-23T04:42:00.000+09:00

A little bit mayou

2012-01-20T09:49:00.002+09:00

Since coming back to the States, my blogging activity has fallen into decline. Though this has partially been due to a focusing of my energy onto other things (job hunting, my freelancing work, other hobbies) and also to a dwindling supply of Japan-related anecdotes (I still have some, but they're buried and not being replenished), in large part it's because I've been somewhat of a 迷う人。That is, I've been wavering on what I want to do with this blog.

I've had this problem for some time now - walking the line between culture blog, language blog, and diary-type blog, and I think it's been okay. But you know, sometimes it's hard to decide where to focus my efforts. Of course this is a personal blog, so I could just post whatever I feel like on any given day, and to some extent I do. But I've also been lucky enough to attract some regular and semi-regular readers, and it's important to me to post material that's interesting to you guys and potentially helpful for anyone going to live in or visit Japan. So there is that balance. Go too heavy on the Nihongo and I risk alienating those of you who don't really care about the language or who don't read blogs for that purpose. Too many posts about video games or Japanese food and my 日本語 folk may shy away.

So although I will still post on a variety of topics, I may make some changes in the future. Still undecided about what exactly I want to do, but you have been forewarned!

Learning from Kikkoman: Ultimate Attack

2012-01-18T11:05:00.001+09:00

This is a pretty old video, but I just revisited it the other day to check up on how much of it I can understand now. I came across a couple of words I was unfamiliar with that I thought were pretty cool (though I'm not sure how useful) and wanted to share them.

Early on in the video, the song proclaims 「外食なんてぶっ飛ばせ」.

ぶっ飛ぶ (ぶっとぶ) apparently means to "blow away." So here Kikkoman is friggin' blowing away eating out.

The next line adds 「必殺技だキッコーパンチ」. (Later on we get 「必殺技だキッコービーム」)

You may recognize the individual kanji here:

「必」as in かならず (certainly) or 必死 (ひっし, desperate)
「殺」as in ころす (to kill)
「技」as in わざ (skill or technique)

Together they form 必殺技 (ひっさつわざ), which I'd say means "ultimate attack." Rikai-kun identifies 「必殺」as "certain kill."

You probably won't see these expressions used in many places (though if you read a lot of manga or play games, who knows), but I found them interesting nonetheless.

A New Challenger Has Arrived:

2012-01-17T00:20:00.000+09:00

I got a new game today...

ホーム, an epiphany

2012-01-12T01:30:00.003+09:00

Last night I was playing that Japanese DS game that I got from Yoshie. One of the mini-games I've come across gives you a hint and some katakana characters, and you have to arrange them to form a word. I was playing that game and one of the hints was something like 「危ないですから、白い線を越えないでください。」And the katakana word turned out to be 「プラットホーム」。

I've discovered all kinds of new words with this game, but this one in particular shed light on the mystery of ホーム for me. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I always wondered why the train platforms were called "home." I never pieced together that it's because "fo" and "ho" are the same sound in Japanese and that ホーム is short for プラットホーム.

There's no place like fome.

A good DS game for advanced Japanese study

2012-01-08T13:02:00.001+09:00

Yoshie and I sent each other some stuff for Christmas, and I really love what she sent me. In addition to some snacks and a nice-fitting hoodie (which I'd like to talk about another time), she sent me a DS game called 学研DS大人の学習金田一先生の日本語レッスン (DS Study, Lessons for Adults: Kindaichi Sensei's Japanese Lessons).

Although this is my first 学研DS game, I remember seeing them all the time in stores that carried DS software. They have quite a catalog of "games" (software might be a better term) that focus on language study or preparation for specific tests. There are a lot of these for foreign languages like English, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, etc., but I don't remember seeing many that focused on Japanese other than kanji study.

This particular title seems to be a few years old, but it also looks to have some really cool features.

The two main gameplay modes are some kind of travel mode, where I suppose you make your way across Japan and play mini games, and free play mode, where you can try games you have unlocked in an a la carte sort of fashion. I've only played a few games so far and only was able to successfully answer one question. While I'm not claiming to be a Japanese master, I will tell you, this is a difficult game. I guess that makes sense as it is intended to refine a native Japanese adult's language ability. For a much more in-depth review, check out this old blog post I found at the ruins of an old J-blog.

Anyhow, I have been aching to get back to my Japanese studies lately. I just need to find a way to cut through all the distractions (shiny new PC and games, Netflix, PS3, etc). Thankfully, games like this do up my motivation. It may take a number of short play sessions, but I'll work on it. I'm eager to see if I can make it to the retro-RPG-like mini game...

American and Japanese college students

2012-01-06T02:41:00.000+09:00

Ah, 2012, year of the dragon. I'm a bit late to the game...took a haitus for the holidays and have been a bit busy with work thus far this month.

Anyway, just wanted to link an interesting post I saw today over at Tokyo 5: two videos about American and Japanese college students.

Although I had kind of heard from Yoshie that student loans in Japan are not so common, was surprising to see a stat. About 2/3 of college grads in Japan come out of university with no debt. いいなぁ。

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T01:12:00.000+09:00

At home or abroad, I hope you all have a great holiday!

J-Word Play #22 (Answer)

2011-12-20T01:47:00.002+09:00

Our last riddle was kind of a toughie. A few guesses, but no correct answers!

ここより下にいる生き物ってなんでしょう？

To those who submitted answers, thanks for trying and don't be discouraged!

New Year's Cards: All About Nengajo

2011-12-15T02:40:00.002+09:00

Every year around Christmas time in the US, the season's greetings cards make their rounds. Many families, individuals, or even businesses send out Christmas or holiday cards to friends, family, clients, etc. They can be nice, but I've never really been big on them. Though it's much the same thing, I was more into the Japanese version of this custom while I was living over there. Every year, people in Japan send out 年賀状, New Year's greeting cards.

My first year working in Japan, I decided that to improve my Japanese and blend in better (both at work and into the culture), I would send out cards to some of my coworkers. It was kind of hard work, but worth it I think. Got a lot of practice writing kanji, anyway!

One thing I really like about 年賀状 is their variety. I'm not really a big collector, but I enjoyed receiving and keeping all the different cards every year. The general theme of each year's cards depends upon the animal of that year, derived from the Chinese zodiac (十二支). The years I was in Japan were those of the cow, tiger, and rabbit, so most of the cards I've collected show those animals. Some cards are custom-made and sport family pictures, much like a lot of Christmas cards in the U.S.

In my experience, many foreigners in Japan don't bother with them and aren't really expected to. So if you do send some out, you may surprise your friends and coworkers. Doing so is a good way to get some back, too. Generally people start sending them a week or two before New Year's (the post office will hold them and wait until New Year's to deliver them), and then during the first week or two of the new year they will often send cards to people from whom they received but didn't originally send one. They often write "年賀状ありがとうございました！" (Thanks for the card) on the front as an acknowledgement.

If you're interested in trying to send some yourself or you've received a card and want to know the deal, here's an explanation for you.

The boxes at the top of the blank side are for the recipient's postal code and the space below that is for their name and address. The person should be addressed as 様 (さま). For example 田中様, 安田様, John Smith様, etc. さま is an honorific, much like さん, but is used to indicate even more respect and formality. Whether you write vertically or horizontally is a stylistic choice.

At the bottom, generally you write your name and address, though some people leave it blank or just write their name.

The *'s at the bottom represent two numbers that can be found on every New Year's card. Every year the post office holds a lottery. There are big prizes like computers, vacations, and TV's, and smaller ones like free stamps. The larger prizes generally don't have many winners, but the cheaper ones do. The winning numbers (or digits) can be checked online or at your local post office after New Year's. Generally the number on the right is the one you need to look at, but apparently some prizes are restricted by the letter of the digits on the left (A, B, or C). I have won a few stamps in the past, but never bothered to claim them.

Here's an example of a filled-out card:

On the front of the card you don't need to write anything, but you can scribble some personalized message, write some English just for the novelty of it, or use a set phrase (決まり文句).

For New Year's, you'll generally see/hear:

明けましておめでとうございます!

お正月おめでとうございます！

Both basically mean "Happy New Year!"

Anyway, the New Year's cards are one thing I kind of miss about living in Japan. If you're over there but haven't bothered with them, it's your call...but I recommend giving it a shot.

Update (12/19/11): One thing several people have pointed out in the comments that's worth mentioning is that writing something by hand on the card is considered the "right" way to make up a 年賀状 for someone. I guess having everything printed on doesn't show the right level of effort.

Jen of Perogies and Gyoza dropped a link for a New Year's card commercial featured right now on the JP Post website. I had never seen any of these before, but apparently there are a number of these commercials from years past. Here's a previous one (maybe from 2008, which I think was the year of the rat):

J-Word Play #22

2011-12-12T10:32:00.002+09:00

I think this one is kind of cute.

ここより下にいる生き物ってなんでしょう？
(ここよりしたにいるいきものってなんでしょう？)

If you think you know the answer, shoot me an email at: blueshoe [at] jadij.com.

Rord of the Lings?

2011-12-07T13:01:00.000+09:00

One thing that used to alternatingly amuse and annoy me was the way some of my students (and even teachers) would mis-translate one of my favorite book and movie series, The Lord of the Rings. As we all know, "l" and "r" can be problematic for Japanese, and the katakana form of this particular title don't really help matters. As a result, sometimes people would tell me that they liked "The Road of the Ring."

Now that I think about it, that title isn't too ridiculous given the story. The main characters do indeed travel a long road...of the ring.

Shiina Ringo's Radiohead Cover

2011-12-04T10:50:00.003+09:00

Paul has posted about Shiina Ringo before.

@goodandbadjapan posted a link to a cool Shiina Ringo cover of Radiohead's Creep. I love Radiohead and I love Shiina Ringo so this was right up my alley. The cover isn't the best but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Let's watch, won't we?

On Japanese English

2011-12-02T02:45:00.001+09:00

I don't know how often this occurs between other languages, but there can be a bit of confusion and a certain degree of frustration when communicating between (with?) Japanese and English. This particular occurrence is due to the existence of "Japanese English." I'm not the first one to blog about it (Orchid just put up a post about it and Daniel has written about examples of this in the past), but I've had my own frustrations and experiences with it, both as a student of Japanese and a teacher of English.

As you may know, the Japanese language contains a veritable hoard of loan words, many of which are borrowed from English. For us native Englisher speakers and for those Japanese studying our language, this is a mixed blessing.This is because a lot of these loan words have undergone some kind of metamorphosis and either their meaning or form has changed slightly (though sometimes this is also due to a discrepancy in the English language itself between countries).

For example: パンツ (pantsu) and "pants." Pants meaning "pants" would be nice, but...

When we Americans hear pants, we think of something like this:

However, Japanese people, when they hear パンツ, tend to think of something like this (yeah, sorry, that is a weird picture of underwear):

On more than one occasion I've lazily used パンツ in conversation with my girlfriend when I wanted to say "pants." I think she knows what I mean by now, but it's a bad habit I've gotten into. The Japanese word for pants (or slacks) is actually ズボン, which comes from French. I always get it mixed up with soft-shelled turtle...(すっぽん).

Ok, maybe not the best example since "pants" means something different depending on whether you use American or British English, I guess.

"Juice" is better example. In English, juice typically means a drink that comes from fruits and/or vegetables. The Japanese ジュース (jusu), however, means something closer to "soft drink," which includes soda or sports drinks.

I also mentioned that some loan words change their form. The best example I can think of is the word "challenge." In English, you can overcome a challenge, or you can challenge someone to a duel, or challenge yourself to do something, etc.

In Japanese, though, we have チャレンジする, which actually means "try." As a result, you have people (including Japanese English teachers) challenging things. Sometimes when I would ask my students a question, my Japanese partner would try to encourage them by telling them (in English) to challenge my question. While this makes total sense in Japanese (質問をチャレンジしてね - "Try to answer the question"), in English it either sounds like the student should be challenging me, or else it just doesn't make sense.

There are also a lot of Japanese phrases that are cobbled together from English words and don't really make any sense to us native speakers. A few examples are:

マイペース ("my pace"), which means at one's own pace or doing things at one's own time or schedule.

エコ ("eco"), which means (and is an abbreviation of) "ecological." Lately in English we say "green."

キャバ ("Cyaba"), which is kind of a shortened form of "cabaret" and means just that.

エヌジー ("NG"), used mainly in texting and on the internet, from the English "No good" and meaning the same. A native English speaker could probably figure this out by context, but it's not natural usage as far as I'm aware.

リフォーム ("reform"), usually meaning "renovation."

This "Japanese English" is the downside to having a language that borrows many words from English. Love it or hate it, though, it is what it is.

As a Japanese learning English or an English speaker learning Japanese, has this pattern made learning difficult or frustrating for you? Or has it helped you in some way? I'm curious to know!

Update

2011-11-30T21:20:00.002+09:00

Just saw Yoshie off to the airport a couple hours ago, and now I need to catch up on some sleep. After that I'll need to catch up on some blogging! If you're reading this, thanks for checking in. More to come.

All natural sushi (Commercial)

2011-11-21T06:25:00.001+09:00

What you see is what you get.

War and corn soup

2011-11-17T23:45:00.000+09:00

I know nothing gives me a hankering for corn soup like some Stallone directing a war movie.

Netflix, Nico Nico, and some rambling

2011-11-11T10:55:00.002+09:00

This post will jump around a little, so apologies in advance. 悪いな。

So first off, I just signed up for Netflix the other day. I'm a little disappointed that (a) they've distanced themselves from the DVD service, which apparently now costs extra (used to be their primary service as I understand it), and (b) their streaming movie selection isn't the greatest (licensing with studios is tough, I guess). Gobbler tells me that they used to have a lot of old streaming J-movies like Ikiru and Ran, but I guess their licensing expired. They still have an old samurai movie or two and a lot of (strange-looking) anime, though. I noticed some more recent J-movies that I'll also check out. Wish they had Japanese subs, but that would be a stretch.

Speaking of streaming and Japanese, that brings me to Nico Nico Douga, which I think I may have mentioned before. It's basically the Japanese You Tube, with what seem like fewer copyright restrictions and/or enforcement. I've used it to watch the Simpsons in Japanese (the dub is surprisingly very good, both voice and translation-wise), and I think they have some movies and stuff, as well. Just wanted to bring it up again for those of you who may be interested in watching TV shows and videos in Japanese.

Aside from the Japanese stuff and some job stuff which I'll not discuss right now, the other major thing going on right now is preparing/waiting for Yoshie to visit on the 21st. I'm psyched, but also now worried...she's been having some neck/back pains recently from an old episode of whiplash that apparently never healed properly. The doctors she was consulting gave her some medicine...and that was it. I have no medical training, but I was surprised they didn't treat it more aggressively, with a neck brace or something. Well, surprise surprise, the medicine didn't improve anything and the pain is getting worse. So now she has a neck brace and we'll see if it helps in the short term. She may have to travel here with it. I'll be really glad to see her either way, but I'm worried that she won't be very comfortable, especially on the flight. I just hope she can get past it and have a good time.

That's what's up here...

Every language is different

2011-11-10T03:29:00.004+09:00

There is an important realization to be had for anyone who is serious about learning a second language. Each language is different. Sounds pretty "duh," doesn't it? But it's not as obvious as you might think. Or at least it wasn't for me.

In the earlier days of my Japanese education, I would try to communicate in English via Japanese, if that makes any sense. I would have in mind something that I wanted to say, and translate it, as best I could, literally into Japanese. I remember I would sometimes tell my Japanese teachers 「いい週末を過ごしてください。」(Have a nice weekend) and as kind of a joke with my friends, I would call things ｢甘い｣ (sweet) when I thought they were cool.

The problem is, telling someone to have a nice weekend isn't really natural Japanese. No one says that. And calling something "sweet" in that way is nonsensical. There are all kinds of expressions, phrases, and vocabulary that just aren't used, and somewhere along the line you have to change your way of thinking. Granted, in the beginning your vocabulary and knowledge of grammar will be pretty limited, and it's definitely preferable to do your best to communicate even when you sound strange or unnatural. Eventually, though, you'll start to pick up the natural "feel" of the language.

I'm not exactly sure when I made that change, but it is recently that I've begun to consciously take note of and analyze some of the similarities and differences of key ideas and expressions in English and Japanese.

One that comes to mind right away is the use of the word "bad" versus 「悪い」（わるい). In English, we can employ "bad" in a wide variety of situations and circumstances. Some examples:

- This food is pretty bad.

- What a bad movie.

- I'm really bad at French.

- You invited him to the party? That was a bad move.

While there's more than one way to express these ideas, here's how I would say these things in Japanese:

・これは結構まずいね。

・なんてひどい映画だな。

・フランス語がとても苦手だよ。

・彼をパーティーに招待したか？それは駄目だよ。

None of my Japanese renderings use the word "bad" as we foreigners learn it in Japanese. Conversely, Japanese seems to use 「悪い」a lot more often when expressing the idea of fault. For example:

・あっ、俺らの約束は２時だったっけ？そうか。悪いな。

(Oh, our meeting was at 2? I see. Sorry about that.)

・いや、君は悪くないよ。僕のせいなんだ。

(No, it's not your fault. It's mine.)

In the first case, 「悪いな」 expresses that yes, the speaker was bad and he's admitting that as an apology. In the second, the speaker is expressing that whoever he is addressing isn't "bad." It's his fault. In Japanese, 「悪い」or ｢悪くない」are often used (along with せい) to talk about fault. The closest thing in English is the somewhat slangy expression "my bad."

There are tons more examples. If you're studying Japanese or another language and not yet at the point where you can break away from your native tongue in expressing your ideas, don't worry or rush it. It'll come with time. But being aware of the fact that you must change the way you think may help you get there quicker.

Losing at life?

2011-11-02T02:15:00.001+09:00

So I stumbled upon a recent Japanarchist video that not only gave me a few chuckles but introduced me to a couple of J-words I was unfamiliar with. The video is about a Goo survey on what characteristics Japanese people identify with 非リア充.

リア充 is one of those Japanese words that uses bits of katakana (like ロリコン (lolicon) for example) and challenges the reader/listener to figure out what the hell it means. Luckily we have the internets. According to the survey:

「リア充（＝リアルな生活が充実）」

In English, it means an enriched or full life. The ｢リア」part is the "rea" of "real" and the 「充」belongs to ｢充実」("fullness"). So the concept refers to someone who has his or her life together. Wikipedia corroborates! When we add the transformative, negative 非 kanji, we get the opposite of that. Japanarchist uses the term "loser." You could also go with "someone who sucks at life."

Looking at the survey, here are the top 10 traits of a loser:

1. マイナスな発言が多い　(Says a lot of negative things)

2. 友達が少ない　(Has few friends)

3. 恋人がいない (Has no partner/mate/lover)

4. 一日中誰とも会話しない日がしゅうちゅうある (Frequently goes the whole day without conversing with anyone)

5. 周りに興味がない (Isn't interested in anything around them)

6. オシャレに興味ない(Isn't interesting in style/fashion)

7. 恋愛に消極的 (Is half-hearted in romance)

8. 急に人に話しかけられると「えっ、あ、あの、あの」としどもどるになる (Becomes flustered and sputters when suddenly approached and spoken to by someone)

9. 非恋愛体質 (Uninterested in romance?)

10. 「自分はこんなもんじゃない」と常に思ってる (Always thinks "It's not my fault")[?]

I find all of these pretty understandable, but #6 kind of stands out to me as very "Japanese." 「オシャレ｣ is a little difficult to peg as precisely "style" or "fashion" but it is, I think, a fair generalization to say that Japanese people as a whole seem a lot more concerned with such things than many people of other nationalities. I can't say people don't care about style here in the U.S., for example, but I don't think I know many people who would place that in a top 10 list of "loser" characteristics. What do you think?

AKB they ain't: Ayaman Japan

2011-10-27T08:08:00.003+09:00

I think I first heard of/saw this group on Salaryman's blog (he would feature a band like this). The three women form あやまんJapan (Ayaman Japan), and they sing silly, kind of dirty songs.

Apparently they started off as a group of party organizers, made an appearance on Fuji TV, and then broke into the music scene. It looks like they only got started musically (professionally at least) in 2010, so they've only released a handful of songs.

Yoshie's father hates them and she thinks they're kind of annoying, but I choose to be amused by them. Sure, they're not producing the highest level of art here, but their songs are kind of fun and different, if not catchy. And at least they're not another cute, innocent, generic J-pop group.

Here are two videos of what I believe is their original breakout song, 「ぽいぽいぽいぽぽいぽぴー」("Poi Poi Poi Popoi Poi Popi"):

Here are the lyrics with an approximate translation. As you can see, mostly a mix of nonsense and sexual references; basically just making fun of pop songs.

Here's one of their later songs, which starts off more subtly but then gets quite kooky (and for those of you who know what AKB48 are, yes, I think they are making fun of them):

Update: AKB48 is a large, ever-changing girls pop group (pictured below). I have a lot of problems with AKB48, but that's a story for another post. Below are a picture and video for reference, so you can compare with the more Ayaman Japan parodic video above.

Flickr/Youngelectricpop

Update 2: This one is much more blatantly making fun of AKB (it seems this post has taken a turn in that direction):

Snickers CM

2011-10-21T03:49:00.003+09:00

Just wanted to share this video I saw over at Japan Probe - a Snickers "You're not you when you're hungry" commercial, a la Japan. Nice.

I'm not familiar with the actress, but I like the touch of English thrown in there. Adds to the flavor.

Level 2; and the kanji for poo!

2011-10-19T01:42:00.004+09:00

So my JLPT results never did arrive. I guess they got lost on some clerk's desk or wedged under a conveyor belt somewhere between here and Tokyo. None too eager to make an international call, I asked Yoshie to ring up the Test Center and find out what the deal was. The guy she spoke to said they mailed my test results out, but could remail them if they never arrived. So we had them sent to Yoshie's place and they arrived just last week.

I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I passed, and now I am officially JLPT N2, which I'm sure is more useful in terms of being able to put it on my resume than anything else. Now I must continue to battle to keep my Japanese up! Well, no other way than using it as much as I can...

I'm going to take this opportunity to transition into poop. Yup. I noticed today that Yahoo! Japan has an article up about pandas; specifically why they have the bowels of a carnivore yet 99% of their diet is bamboo and bamboo grass.

Aren't you glad I didn't go with a picture of poo?

Now I'm not a huge panda guy (nor dolphins nor penguins; so sorry) but this did pique my interest, so I had a look. And I'm glad I did. Not because I found out why they don't eat meat (ultimately the article says they don't know why), but because I got to see the kanji for feces, which I don't see all that often. It kind of strikes me as one of those kanji you and your buddies might try to learn as a freshman in college studying the language, because wouldn't it be funny to know the kanji for "shit."

As you may be aware, くそ is an oft-used expletive that's comparable to "crap," "shit," or "damn" in English. The more clinical ふん, "excrement" or "droppings," shares the same kanji:

糞 (くそ,ふん)

Apparently this is also the kanji for King Richard III? I guess because "third" rhymes with "turd?" Anyway, yes...the kanji for poop. Another grand offering to my readers.