Un ringraziamento all'associazione culturale giapponese Lailac di Firenze

Me he dado cuenta de que soy adicta a las revistas japonesas; me encantan todas por las secciones que tienen de fotos de chicas y chicos en la calle (justo en harajuku nos encontramos con una de esas sesiones y no dudé en disparar con la digital; en próximos post os lo cuento y enseño); me encantan porque te enseñan cómo maquillarte o hacerte millones de peinados, porque tienen recetas buenas y ropa chula y alguna viene con manga incluido; ME ENCANTAN (debería hacer fotos de sus interiores para que sepáis de lo que hablo).

La historia de las puas es muy graciosa: un amigo me dió 100 euros para que le comprará picture puas japonesas porque hace colección.  Fuí a varías tiendas de música en busca de maravillas como éstas acompañada de varias hojas con puas impresas no fuera caso que repitiera alguna; yo en cuanto vi las de kitty, me las aparté.
Creo que aún se acuerdan de mí, por ser la friki con fotocopias de puas, y por gastarme 15.000 yenes sólo en eso; no sabéis el número de puas que puedes comprar con ese dinero - sumimasen.

juego disponible sólo en japón porque tienen todo lo que te puedas imaginar. ahora sólo tengo que practicar un poco porque de momento sólo me salen canciones maquineras, hehehehe...

Otro juego de la nintendo ds para practicar kanjis que viene con pincel; muy muy chulo y además va genial para familiarizarte con los kanjis, porque te enseña a hacerlos como si fueras un nene pequeño.

Tengo dos copias de mi propio walle y es que no podía decirle que no, son tan bonitos.

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Coming back from Iojima, a very nice island of the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, I saw a sign written in hiragana stating a boat’s name: ‘biggu a—su.’ I immediately turned to my fiancée Aya—she is Japanese—asking her why anyone would name their boat Big Ass. Aya laughed and said that the boat's name is Big Earth, not Big Ass. My Japanese is not that good but I can read hiragana and understand some Japanese. My next question was, “If ‘biggu a—su’ is Big Earth, how do you write Big Ass in hiragana or katakana?” Aya thought about it for a while and said, ‘biggu a—su.’ So, it’s the same. Intriguing but funny, I thought.

After this episode I remembered a Presentation Zen post by my friend Garr Reynolds where he discussed McDonald’s McWrap in Japan. Garr wrote in his 'What's in a name?' blog entry, "The product name in Japanese (the katakana below the English type) is pronounced "Makkurappu" which sort of sounds like "Mac Wrap" but it sounds something close to "Mai Crapu" as well to non-Japanese speakers (listen for yourself)." Who wants to eat a sandwich that is called something like 'My Crap'?

tratto da "Lucertola"  (Tokage, 1993) di Banana Yoshimoto

If you're interested in learning Chinese characters and their various meanings and pronunciations, I highly recommend Wiktionary.

Japanese 일본어 日本語

I remember what a pain it was to find nice kana charts - ok finding them was easy, but of course none of them were free. Now I never really understood how someone could charge for such a thing. Sure some had nice touchs like stroke order and direction and some included a space to practice. Ok for those I could understand charging a small fee, after all it took some time and effort to make them. Others though, were just a tabular chart with the kana and it's respective syllable. And alot them weren't even complete!

Anyway, I decided to make my own and share them with everyone else. The first one I have to share is a hiragana chart. You can find the link below. It really didn't take long and it's what I've used to learn the hiragana syllabary.

Hiragana Chart

I hope you find it useful.

Take care,
TheGoToGuy

UPDATE: Katakana chart now available!

Ho preparato per voi tre tabelle esemplificative.

Cliccare sull'immagine per ingrandire. ^_^

kanagrid (PDF, 3807 octets)

Share and Enjoy!

Much to my amusement the "source" is a short PostScript program that I now find mysterious. Despite the comments:

[sourcecode language='c']
%!
% Kanagrid v1
% Copyright 1998 drj - copying in whole permitted

% draws a box of the specified dimensions at 0,0
% bx by -
/box {
0 0 moveto
dup 0 exch rlineto
exch 0 rlineto
neg 0 exch rlineto
closepath } def

% draws the interior divisions of a rectangle divided into n
% boxes, the boxes being arranged horizontally
% bx by n - bx by n
/oxgrid {
1 1 2 index 1 sub
{ 3 index mul 1 index div
0 moveto 0 2 index rlineto }
for } def

% draws the interior divisions of a rectangle divided into n
% boxes, the boxes being arranged vertically
% bx by n - bx by n
/oygrid {
1 1 2 index 1 sub
{ 2 index mul 1 index div
0 exch moveto 2 index 0 rlineto }
for } def

% draws the interior division of a rectangle divided
% horixontally and vertically into a grid of boxes.
% there are nx boxes horizontally, and ny vertically.
% at 0,0
% bx by nx ny -
/ogrid {
4 1 roll oxgrid
pop 3 -1 roll oygrid
pop pop pop
} def

% draw a rectangle divided into nx boxes horizontally and
% ny vertically, at 0,0
% bx by nx ny -
/cgrid {
3 index 3 index
box ogrid
stroke
} def

gsave

% put user space in mm
72 25.4 div
dup scale

% { nicked from 5.6.1 of PSRM2
/Helvetica findfont
dup length dict begin
{1 index /FID ne {def} {pop pop} ifelse} forall
/Encoding ISOLatin1Encoding def
currentdict
end
/Helvetica-ISOLatin1 exch definefont pop
% }
/Helvetica-ISOLatin1
9 25.4 mul 72 div selectfont

40 36 translate
0 0 moveto (kanagrid - \251 1997 drj - copying in whole permitted) show

0.25 setlinewidth
0 4 translate
133 200 box
3 0 translate

0 1 9 {pop 10 200 1 20 cgrid 13 0 translate} for

grestore

showpage
[/sourcecode]

Wiem, że nie wyglądają jak arcydzieło, ale przynajmniej nie kosztowały 15 zł (30/2). Poza tym fajnie się je robiło. Podczas produkcji powtórzyłem sobie kolejność stawiania kresek. Zużyłem na te karty 3 kartki bloku technicznego A4, czyli niewiele.

Czemu nie zrobiłem kart dla hiragany? Bo ją znam. A z katakaną mam problemy. No... już nie aż takie jak po kilku sesjach z kartami :)

b.YISK

There are various reasons you might be part of Group C, or the latecomers, as they are sometimes known.  Some people had commitments - weddings, funerals etc - holding them back.  Others were on the "Alternate List" - I was one of these, the unfortunates who for whatever reason are not immediately offerred a position but kept in reserve to fill any unaccepted offers.  I like to think that I was placed on this list because they, the JET contracting powers, thought I was likely to accept a "proper" job instead of coming to Japan - how wrong they were.

Either way I was a Group C'er.  We still got to "enjoy" our Tokyo orientation although there was only 100 of us as oppose to the 1,000+ members of Groups A and B.  You might find it harder to bunk lectures at the smaller meeting, please try your best, but the shorter time (1.5 days vs 3) was surely a blessing.  Speechs in Japanese and lectures about educational theory are that much more painful when jet lagged.

I was one of only two Group C'ers heading to Kyoto.

When I arrived in my town it was already late August.  I didn't know it but this was another blessing.  The weather although still unbearable to a fresh of the boat Englishman was slowly turning to the tail of summer.

So after a sweaty weekend riding my bicycle around rice fields I was welcomed to my new workplace, the Junior High School.  In the mornings I played football and sweated.  In the afternoons I sat and did absolutely nothing in the staffroom.  This staffroom bound inertia is one of the worst aspects of the JET Programme.  One of my more pro-active 2006 Kyoto newbie colleagues used this time to master the basics of Japanese grammar.  Every time I tried to study though I would succumb to slummber.

Please think of this time as your own.  There is very little "work" for you to do.  You will have one lesson to prepare - your self introdution lesson - where you should show pictures of your family, your likes and dislikes and funny things about your country.  Don't worry you will speak too fast and complicatedly for all but the most freakishly able of students to comprehend what you are saying.  Hence the importance of pics.

The Japanese teachers in the staffroom will be seriously interested in you.  It will feel like they are studying your every move, which they are, but in a curious-friendly manner rather than anything too hostile.  They will want to talk to you but if they don't, don't worry.  They are not rude, just shy.

So Group C members you are lucky as you will have approximately three weeks less of this staffroom thumb twiddling.  You can use that time to say goodbye to your folks, friends and native cultures.

Also use the time to master hiragana and katakana as best you can.  There is no excuse.  Do it.  Now.  Think constructively about it and you can have them pretty much locked in an evening or two.  I didn't and it took me about a year.

• My second daughter will return home this evening from her 林間学校 (field trip) to 新潟 (Niigata). :)
• A couple days ago, there was another big 地震 (earthquake) in 岩手県 (Iwate Prefecture)...the same area that had a big earthquake last month (you can read my post about that earthquake here).
• A few more people have agreed to do interviews for my site. I'll post them as soon as I get their responses to my questions.
• Did you notice that anytime you see 漢字 (Japanese kanji characters) on my site, if you hover your mouse over it, the ふりがな (kana characters that show the proper reading of kanji) appears? Does this help you?
• What are you favorite places, events, things to do in the Tokyo area? Just wondering.

An easy way to think of the difference between Hiragana and Katakana would be like the difference between writing in print or writing in cursive; both are the same letters and both make the same sounds but look different. However, Katakana is used for the majority of cognates and "new" words and foreign names. An example would be the word 'Coffee' Written in Japanese it is コーヒー Pronunciation would be as follows (ko-hi-) which sort of sounds like Coffee. That same word written in Hiragana looks like this        こーひー notice there are 2 distinct 'characters' and also the two ( - ) [dashes] that are used for extending the sounds. Again, same syllabus, same sounds, they just look different and are generally used for different concepts! 

漢字: Kanji (Chinese characters) derived from where else but China! are more difficult but NOT as hard as it may seem. Kanji's are sets of different characters put into to 'replace' words of Hiragana. Theoretically, you don't have to use kanji in sentences you write, but think of them as (vocabulary words). If you are really good at Kanji and use them in your sentences, it's more proper, plus it looks cool!! Believe it or not, once you start getting use to Kanji, and learning it, and even if you don't know how to pronounce it or read it in the sentence you can get basic ideas of what is trying to be said. Now don't get me wrong Kanji is HARD, and when I went to Japan in the summer of 2008 it seems overwhelming but don't get down! Just like anything, you don't wake up in the morning and suddenly know how to do it perfectly; it takes time and effort. Here is an example of how Kanji is used in a sentence. 

ピザをたべた。With Kanji ピザを食べた。Pronounced (Piza wo tabeta.) Notice the first word sounds like pizza? thats because it is! again Pizza is written in Katakana.

Anyways, This sentence translates into (I ate Pizza.) Notice how the sentence with kanji still maintains the Katakana (pizza) and some of the Hiragana the characters (を wo) & (べた beta). Thats because Japanese is NOT totally Kanji (Unlike Chinese) it uses a mixture of the three 'alphabets' to make up the sentences. In this instance た　(ta) turned into 食 (still ta) the sentences both mean the same thing and both are said the same way however the one hiragana is changed to kanji. the particular kanji 食 is for the word (to eat) so if you didn't know how to pronounce all the Hiragana or katakana you know the sentence has to do with eating! BUT!! don't get trapped all the time, Just because this particular kanji is pronounced (ta) in this sentence it may not be in other sentences or words you see. That is what makes kanji hard!!! the Kanji might be in a sentence you see, but may not be pronounced (ta) or have the exact meaning of to eat. It usually carries the same 'General Meaning' partaking to food or eating of some sort, but it maybe pronounced differently in different contexts.

Questions? Im starting a Blog in All Japanese and need to start somewhere!

this is steve aoki, one of my favorite L.A. DJ's. i had a long-time running project called "DESTROY STEVE AOKI", and my intent was to turn one of his nicer promo pictures into, well... something along the lines of "DIAMOND EYES", but it ended up like this. i'm pretty happy with it. i think i'm going to follow through with completely defacing him and fulfilling the DESTROY STEVE AOKI project, i should have the final product ready in one or two weeks. stay tuned.

this is hiragana, one of three japanese alphabets. (note: the character at the lower-left corner is the standalone letter "n".)

no naked and octocat are two of the greatest things i've ever come across on the internet.

L’hiragana corrisponde più o meno al nostro corsivo, mentre il più spigoloso katakana viene impiegato per trascrivere nomi o termini stranieri o scientifici. Una stessa parola deve essere scritta però con un solo sillabario. I due sillabari vengono usati nella lingua scritta insieme ai Kanji (ideogrammi cinesi) e, malgrado la scrittura giapponese sia continua (non separata da spazi come nelle nostre lingue europee), le parole sono facilmente distinguibili.

Per capirci, prendiamo una semplice frase ed analizziamola.
私の名前はマリアです。(Mi Chiamo Maria).
In giapponese si legge Watashi no namae wa Maria desu. 

(In rosa sono indicati i due kanji; in verde l'hiragana, in rosso il katakana). Le parole io  私 e nome 名前 si possono però anche trascrivere in hiragana : わたし、なまえ.

Dunque Maria , come tutti i nomi di persona e parole straniere, viene trascritto in giapponese usando il katakana.

We write this sound in hiragana as つ, and katakana as ツ. Additionally, this character when written in lower case, as っ or ッ, serves two other important purposes. First, to add a beat of time to the next consonant. Second, to terminate a sound before its normal meter in time.

Tsubaifuoo (ツバイフォー) can be seen everyday at the hardware store, the western 2x4 is coming into use here for various types of construction. It is a little disappointing that we call it by this name, since it represents a spread of non-metric measurements outside of the US (and they aren't actually 2 inches by 4 inches anyhow). It would be better to call it a 4-by-9, which is closer to the actual size in centimeters. Televisions are now sold here in inches, if only America had stuck to the plan of converting to metric in 1976; sometimes we can be so weak-willed.

Tsumeato wo Nokosu (つめあとをのこす) is a phrase meaning 'to make your mark'. It is very descriptive since it literally is 'to leave behind your fingernail marks', which would take a lot of tenacity. We can write it with kanji as: 爪痕を残す.

I will write about the lower case tsu in a later post, since it is already Thursday morning here.