Where is Waldo Today?

Here we are at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Did you know that there are beavers in East Texas? The Texas beavers don't build dens like some other North American beavers - their dens are dug into the side of the creek. But they do have flat tails (I'm not referring to nutria here).

Anyway, they had a special exhibition on Egypt at the museum and they gave us 3D glasses to view it. See the photo behind Yebisu for an idea of how silly this was.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays and yoi otoshi wo (happy New Year). My New Year's card posted below has the same greeting in kanji on the card. The title of that posting is the greeting written in hiragana.

New Years is probably the most important holiday in Japan. At the end of the year, everyone cleans their house good inside and out. Special food is prepared that has a good "shelf life" so that everyone can enjoy the feast but not spend time cooking. New Year's eve is a time to get together with family and friends and maybe watch the holiday specials on TV.

The local temple will ring the bell 108 times to get rid of old sins before midnight. After midnight they will ring it 108 more times to ward them off in the New Year. Lots of people go the temple for food, a little ame-sake, prayer, and a good luck charm.

May you have a healthy, prosperous, and happy year in 2006...

よいおとしを

I'm not the Only One having Trouble

I read an article today in The Japan Times about how outraged (actually I don't see many outraged people here) Japanese have been complaining that the schools are not teaching children kanji and proper use of honorific Japanese. This is a little bit like English speaking parents complaining that their children aren't learning penmanship, spelling, or good manners anymore.

The problem apparently with kanji is that most children can READ it but they have trouble WRITING it on grade level. Apparently their parents aren't much better. The secretaries will look it up on their phones or the word processor before writing sometimes.

There are TV shows now being aired which capitalize on the poor state of affairs. On an episode of "Quiz! Nihongo-O!" only 17 of 30 contestants could produce the kanji for nose which is learned in the third grade. The Japanese word for nose is hana (also means flower but has a different kanji). Here is the kanji for snout:

　鼻

Hmmm....

More on Kanji

Let me address the use of kanji Vs. phonetic alphabets again. Kanji uses a symbol to represent a single idea, object, etc. Phonetic alphabets represent sound only. So let's make some comparisons:

Symbols Required: Phonetic alphabets are the clear winner here if you think less is more. Kanji has around 2000 characters in common use and Chinese even more.

Language Specificity: You might think that phonetic alphabets are the winner here too but not so quick please. While it is possible to write Japanese in the Roman alphabet, you would have no idea what you are reading unless you know Japanese. If you know Kanji, you would also be able to read Chinese to a fair degree also without knowing any Chinese at all.

Ease in Learning: I think this is a no-brainer. Phonetic alphabets are quicker to learn because of the fewer number of symbols.

Speed in Reading: The jury is out on this for me. Intuitively to a Western mind the phonetic alphabet would be quicker to process. This seems wildly counter intuitive to anyone brought up on Kanji. They believe the symbol is processed immediately and can be linked together in a speed reading style. Also, consider this: The Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are basically symbols representing the idea of numbers (e.g. one, two, three, four, etc.). Which of the following is easier to process:

• 14,597.6
• Fourteen thousand, five hundred and ninety seven point six

Note also in the above example that with Arabic numbers it is readable in any language while in the second example it makes sense only in English.

I dunno, but I am getting too old to learn a couple of thousand new characters to represent my feeble thoughts...

V = 6015

You can eat the whole thing...

According to Ikeda san, there are 3 fish where you can eat the internals: the ankou (lantern fish), tara (cod), and the fugu (blow fish). Of course you can't eat the ovaries or the liver of fugu because they are highly poisonous. That ankou is an ugly critter isn't he? Anyway, I have partaken of the internals of all three. The liver of the ankou is the most unusual tasting although certain parts of the cod aren't far behind. Fugu is very mild. Anyway, I just thought you might like to know...

Title Needed for Empress's Husband

Here is an update for those of you who were following the recent royal wedding to a commoner and the lack of a male heir to the throne. Sorry I wasn't able to provide any personal anecdotes on the wedding.

*** FLASH ***

The Japanese government is planning a bill to allow a female on the throne. Part of the bill includes an official title for the reigning empress's husband.

Japan has had eight female monarchs in the past who ruled between the sixth and 18th centuries but they were either unmarried or had been widowed. Accordingly, no title for the husband was required.

Current law which went into effect in 1947 is being revamped because it allows only male heirs who have emperors on their fathers' sides to become emperor. Female Imperial members have to leave the household if they marry commoners.

*** END FLASH ***

The new bill will put a lot of minds at rest I'm sure. This might also allow the husband to quit his current job with the Tokyo municipal government.

Nihongo wa muzukashii desu

Japanese is difficult (the title of today's blog) and is challenging my rusty mind. My grammar is getting better and I can make compound sentences now. I may have told you in the past that all Japanese take English in school but most are not very comfortable speaking it. More and more, I find that my Japanese may be better than the English of the person I am talking to when I am away from the office. I can have trivial conversations with people even.

I have also started trying to pick up some kanji again. One of the interesting things about kanji is that they can mean different things when combined. And some kanji are formed of "radicals" which have base meaning but form new words when combined. Here are some examples:

Separate Kanji

Fire + Mountain = Volcano
Fire + Flower = Fireworks
Study + Alive = Student
Big + Study = University

Radicals in the same Kanji

Woman + Child = Love
Power + Rice Field = Man
Tree + Tree + Tree = Woods

Some of the meanings sharing the same character are also revealing:

Day = Sun
Private = Me

People who read kanji "think" differently than when reading words. When you read kanji you see pictures and then fill in the grammar around it for detail. When you read an alphabetic language you read the detailed grammar and words, then form a picture. At least that is the way I figure it. There are a lot of things about Japanese that are linked to the written language so having some reading skills aids understanding the culture.

I only have about 1900 more kanji characters to go and I will have partially mastered it. At this rate it should only take another 40 years or so...

V=5778

A Winter Haiku

The Monkey Carvings at Nikko

はつ　しぐれ
さる　も　こみの　を
ほしげ　なり

In first winter rain
Monkeys look like
they also want coats

Basho

Late Autumn in Tokyo

The Temple from my Balcony

The Steps are a Symbol for Success in Life

"On the front side of Atago jinja (OTOKOZAKA) the steps are long and steep. They are famous for success in life and for the legend of the junioru samura MAGAKI HEIKUROU who dared to ride his horse up the steps and succeeded in delivering a plum gift to his lord. The Shogun praised him as a great rider in Japan. Everybody knows these steps are a symbol for success in life. They are called SHUSSE no ISHIDAN."

The painting is located in the shrine next to where I live. The description is taken from a sign outside the shrine.