As you may’ve noticed, the NihongoUp site was going through some massive changes during the past two months. Well, I think that the site finally reached a state when it can be safely announced to the general public. I’ll leave the “beta” notice in the header for a little longer (primarily because the site still isn’t fully compatible with Internet Explorer), but overall, there shouldn’t be any major bugs or missing features. Nevertheless, I’m still working hard on getting everything in the best shape possible so if you have any suggestions or feature requests, please let me know.

For a general overview of the site, please read on. Some features will also be presented in individual articles in the coming weeks. If you have purchased a copy of the NihongoUp game in the past, and want to know how these changes affect you, please read the note at the end of the post.

What’s new?

Everything! The new NihongoUp is so different that it simply can’t be compared to the original game. Before, all you could do is review some kanji, vocab and grammar. After registering on the new site, you’ll get access to a completely integrated learning system which has pretty much all a self-learner of Japanese could ever need. Lessons full of interactive dialogues & exercises, videos and audio recordings, an integrated dictionary, beautiful cheat sheets, educational games, desktop & mobile apps, cultural quizzes, social features, all that and more awaits you on the new site. So what are you waiting for? Go and learn Japanese now!

Referral system

If you already know how to speak Japanese, there’s still something else that may interest you about the new site. NihongoUp now has an affiliate system. Send us a customer, and you’ll get 10% from every purchase he’ll make in the future, forever! All you have to do is head to the Affiliate section of your account settings and either choose one of the ready-made banners (one of which you can see in this blog’s sidebar), or use your referral link in any other way you’ll think of. Also, if you have a blog, be sure to review the new site and drop me a mail… Who knows, you may get a surprise ;)

NihongoUp Game users

If you’ve purchased the old game, you’ll get a mail with instructions on where to download a new version of the application in the near future. The old game won’t be updated anymore, but you’ll be able to use the current version forever. Also, a revamped version of the old game, as well as other new applications are available to the premium users of the new site.

If you don’t want to miss any of the future announcements, as well as my other Japan-related posts, be sure to subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook.

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Many people think that there were historically no horses in Japan, but that’s far from reality. I couldn’t find any central place with information about Japanese horse breeds and thus, after lots of research, I decided to write an article on this topic, and this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri theme—Nature and Japan—finally incited me to publish it. I hope that you’ll enjoy this post, especially if you’re interested in equestrianism.

There is a total of 8 horse breeds native to Japan and despite the fact that all of them are ponies, they played an important role in the Japanese history, being used for work, pleasure, and in combat. Unfortunately, all of them are very rare, and except for the many recently formed organizations fighting for their survival, some of them would already be extinct.

Kiso

Despite the fact that students are frequently thought otherwise, it is believed that at least one horse breed is indigenous to Japan, and that breed is Kiso uma (木曽馬, uma means horse in Japanese). If you’re into archeology, check out this excerpt from page 291 note 50 of Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai: Archaeology, History, and Mythology by Professor J. Edward Kidder, Jr.:

Horses have come and gone from the ancient Japanese scene, one vocal school of thought claiming that fluorine absorption and carbon-14 tests on horse skeletons from “so-called Jomon sites” have proved to be of recent animals (Mabuchi 1993:4, 652). On the other hand, the shell-mound database indicates they had at least existed there, but perhaps were not seen within the Yamatai polity as they were not found to be of much use. The type was the small Kiso horse, named after the area through which the Kiso River runs, from Nagano prefecture through Gifu and into Ise Bay west of Nagoya city in Aichi prefecture. This database of the Jomon period lists 532 sites with horse bones, starting about the time of Late Jomon (Oikawa, 62:7). They apparently had not all been eaten or become extinct, as some Yayoi horses were a little larger (Mori 1974b:236-237), perhaps as a result of domestication. Why so many “modern” horses are said to be buried in shell-mounds is beyond explanation. Korean horses were introduced around the middle of the Kofun period, and were never very large…

Originally also used for military farming and combat, this small horse is nowadays mainly raised in Nagano and Gifu, and used for riding purposes.

Noma

Perhaps the best known Japanese breed is the Noma uma (no, it has nothing to do with Numa numa, and is written 野間馬 in Japanese) from the Noma region of Imabari in Ehime Prefecture. Originating in the 17th century from Mongolian stock, it is the smallest of the native Japanese horse breeds. Valued for its gentle personality and strength, they were used for riding, light draft work, and as packhorses on the steep mountainsides in the rough Noma Region. Nowadays, they are mostly used as riding horses for children and as study subjects in local schools.

It is said that in the early 17th century, Lord Hisamatsu of Matsuyama Han charged local farmers with breeding his warhorses, and the breed grew to popularity until the Russo-Japanese war in 1904, when the Japanese army were surprised by the much larger horses of their enemy. This led to a Japanese military breeding program; new breeds were imported to be bred and trained for war. While this had many positive side effects, such as an increase of interest in breeding and racing horses, it also nearly led to the extinction of native Japanese horse breeds. The newly formed Japanese Agency of Equine Affairs (ばせいきょく, 馬政局) banned all breeding of small horses and by 1970 there were only 6 purebred animals remaining. It’s only thanks to the stubbornness of a few farmers who illegally kept the horses for farm work that we still have the Numa ponies today. As of 2008, there are now 84 purebred ponies in existence.

Dosanko

Another popular Japanese breed is Hokkaidō washu (北海道和種), more commonly known as Dosanko (道産子). It is said that the Dosanko was brought to the Hokkaidō by fishermen from Honshū during the Edo period (1600–1867). They were used for transportation, but were left in Hokkaidō when the fishermen returned home in Autumn. The ponies were expected to survive in very harsh weather, in a land with very little vegetation and covered with snow, which is how they developed the Hokkaido pony developed it’s exceptional enduring strength for which it is known nowadays.

Unlike the Nanbu breed, of which the Hokkaidō pony is considered to be a descendant, and which no longer exists, the Dosanko is the most plentiful of the remaining ancient Japanese ponies, numbering at around 2000. Today, it is still used for heavy transportation in the mountains unreachable by truck. Some ranchers in Hokkaidō even continue to winter the horses in the mountains, continuing the breed’s hardiness. They feed mainly on bamboo grass and wander around in the mountains in search of it till spring, when they return to the ranches without assistance, as during this time the bears awaken from hibernation and start to prey on the foals.

Misaki

The third horse breed that we’re going totalk about is Misaki uma (御崎馬/岬馬). Misaki is of pony height, yet it has horse characteristics and proportions. It was first identified in the historical record in 1697, when the Akizuki family of the Takanabe Clan rounded up feral horses and developed a pool of breeding stock. However, following the end of World War II, the Misaki were designated as a National Natural Treasure and nowadays they returned to feral life, mainly in a designated National Monument on Cape Toi at the south end of the Miyazaki Prefecture, attracting many tourists to the region.

Miyako

Miyako uma (宮古馬) originated from Miyako Island in Okinawa, prefecture known as a horse breeding are for centuries. In 1055, population of the breed peaked at around 10,000. Unfortunately, the increase of motorization cause this number to declined, and by 1983, there were only seven head alive. The population grew to 25 horses by 1993, but had dropped back to 19 by 2001, despite the great efforst to preserve this breed of great antiquity. The Miyako resemble Mongolian horse and nowadays they are mainly used as riding ponies, and sometimes for light draft work.

Yonaguni

The Yonaguni uma (与那国馬) is a breed native to the southwest of Japan, specifically the Yonaguni Island. In 1939, when all local breeds began to be improved to produce larger war horses, the Yonaguni on their remote island were excluded from the plan, and the breed has been preserved. Still, due to the mechanization of agriculture, their number progressively decreased. Today, fewer than 200 individuals are known to live in Japan.

Taishō

Taishō uma (対州馬), also known as Taisu or Taishuh, originated on the Tsu Island of Japan. It is an ancient breed, believed to date back to the eight century. In 1920, there were more than 4000 of them, but only about 65 heads remain. Due to their gentle nature and strong willingness to obey, Tiashō are often ridden by farmers’ wives and children. However, they are also known for endurance and ability to survive on little food and severe weather, and may be used for light draft. While in 1920, there were over 4000 Taishuh on the Tsu Islands, less that 70 of them exist today.

Tokara

Another horse breed believed to be indigenous to Japan is Tokara uma (トカラ馬), raised in the Tokara Islands, a chain of Island in Kagoshima. They are known for their tolerance to heat and have been used for agriculture, conveyance and sugar cane squeezing.

The pony were found in 1952 by Shigeyuki Hayashida, a professor of Kagoshima University. When the Professor checked first, there were 43 ponies kept, however this number gradually decreased because of agricultural mechanization. There are now 107 Tokara ponies, some of them on display at Hirakawa Zoo in Kagoshima.

If you know any more Japanese breeds, or have something to add to the info presented in this post, please let me know in the comments. Also, if you are interested in Japan and don’t want to miss any of my future posts, please subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook.

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Hiragana (平仮名) and Katakana (片仮名) are the two Japanese syllabaries collectively called kana. A syllabary is a set of symbols representing syllables, however, this isn’t entirely true in this case. Japanese language (as well as kana, for that matter) is based on morae (sg. mora)—units of sound used in phonology.

Every word in Japanese is written with the same number of kana characters as there are morae in the word in question, yet it doesn’t necessary have the same number of syllables. For example, the words Tōkyō (to-o-kyo-o, とうきょう), Ōsaka (o-o-sa-ka, おおさか), and Nagasaki (na-ga-sa-ki,ながさき) all have four moraeand are written with four kana characters, yet they have two, three, and four syllables respectively. It is  crucial to understand this difference, the importance of morae versus syllables, in order to perfect one’s pronunciation, as well as understand many of the Japanese written arts (e.g., haiku).

Hiragana developed from cursive script style of man’yōgana (Chinese characters used for their pronunciations) sometime around 800 AD. It was initially not accepted by everyone and only gained popularity among educated women. For example, The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively. Later on men started to use the new writing system for unofficial writing, but Chinese, and later a combination of Chinese and katakana, was still a standard for official documents. It is not until modern times that hiraganastarted to be used on par with katakana and kanji both in day-to-day life and formal texts. If you would like to learn more about the history of hiragana, I suggest you to read the great guest post by Brett Fyfield at Caught*Red-handed: The Origin of Hiragana.

Katakana—characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners—is the simplest of the Japanese scripts, but the similarity of the characters also makes it the more difficult to read and learn for a beginner. It was developed around the same time as hiragana from parts of man’yōganaas a form of shorthand. At first, it was mostly used alongside Chinese by the male population. Today, kana is used on a day-to-day basis to write foreign words and names, animal names, for emphasise, and to illustrate some of the sounds in manga.

To follow up on my thoughts on the use of romaji and to respond some of your questions, let’s talk about kanamojikai (カナモジカイ). While most of the Japanese linguists at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were mostly considering the adoption of romaji, Yamashita Yoshitarō, the founder of Kanamojikai, started to work on an improved version of the native kana syllabary. The project started around 1914 and its aim was to completely replace kanji and hiragana with katakana.

As I have discussed in the previous article, the nature of the Japanese language presents many obstacles to the adoption of an alphabet or a syllabary in place of kanji. However, as the need for Japanese language typewriting machines increased every day, Yoshitarō didn’t mind spending several years to study and resolve any potential  problems.

Firstly, he deprecated vertical writing. Secondly, he added spaces between words. Last but not least, in order to at least somewhat improve the recognisabilityof word shapes (incomparable with western alphabets), he proposed completely new letterforms—something unheard of in the past. The new typeface which he commissioned from Hirao Zenji and Cabinet printing office staff member Saruhashi Fukutarō, presented simplified shapes and many features inspired by western type. Unfortunately, despite his life-long efforts, he didn’t succeed to promote the idea before his death.

Finally, for those of you who still haven’t mastered the two syllabaries, here’s the promised cheat sheet. Use it to learn the characters and then review hiragana & katakana with the NihongoUp Game.

[PNG] Hiragana & Katakana
[PDF] Hiragana & Katakana

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Michael Gakuran is well known for his Gakuranman blog full of fun, yet thought-provoking comments on Japan, haikyo excursions and amazing bioluminescent creatures of the undersea. Having studied Japanese for over 8 years, passed the JLPT 1 exam, and won an all-England Japanese Speech Contest, Gakuranman is an example of how motivation leads to great results!

What made you go to Japan? Did you learn Japanese before or after you got there?

I first started studying Japanese in 2002 as part of a GCSE course at my school in the U.K. My friend had introduced me to anime and manga a couple of years earlier and suggested we start learning the language as well. With his passion, we collected the signatures of classmates who were also interested, submitted them to the headmaster and succeeded in having a Japanese teacher hired to teach Japanese twice a week after school. My friends and I finished the course with good grades and our teacher took us on our first trip to Japan to celebrate. It was unforgettable.

What was you first impression of the country? Was it how you imagined it will be?

Hot! Definitely hot. Oh, and really humid. It was the height of summer. I guess it was reasonably close to everything we had learnt before going. Most of us liked anime (especially the Ghibli film Spirited Away) and we all knew little bits and pieces of Japanese culture, but I suppose we really only experienced the surface on our first trip.

We enjoyed watching crazy Japanese television with a foreign guy playing a guitar and singing about digging up clams and explained to a local Japanese guy K-san (K for King!! he said) about the differences in pronunciation between American and British English while eating Okonomiyaki. We visited temples in Kyoto and snapped pictures of schoolgirls, climbed Tokyo Tower, went to the Ghibli Museum and even had a home stay, attending a Japanese school for a couple of days. It was such a packed, touristy kind of experience but it sort of completed things for many of us. But for some of us like myself, it changed our life paths completely.

Was it during that trip that you decided to move there in the future?

I was still just 18 after finishing the Japanese course and graduating from secondary school, so I didn’t have any long term plans yet. I did however have a burning desire to get back to Japan for a longer stay, so I enrolled with GAP—an agency that sends young people overseas—and found myself working as a volunteer with mentally disabled adults at a countryside home in Hyogo-ken.

I ended up spending a year there—6 months longer than planned—and going through a lot of the difficulties that foreign nationals experience when taking the plunge to live in Japan.

Did you have any problems adapting to the Japanese way of life? Or are you talking about purely administrative challenges?

Well, there were challenges I encountered due to the nature of the work I was doing, but there were also many cultural differences.

My Japanese language was still at a very low level despite having taken a course and I was still just a child under Japanese law. I often found myself trying to pay my own way at restaurants with the staff and being refused or simply left out of trips they planned together as friends. That isn’t to say I wasn’t well treated—I had all the luxuries of being invited to do Kendo and Tea Ceremony as well as numerous parties and such—it was just that there were no people my own age out in the countryside and the language barriers made it difficult to make good friendships. That’s all without mentioning the fact I was painfully shy and enamoured with one of the younger female members of staff!

You’ve reached quite a high level of proficiency in Japanese. What did it take, and what do you like most about this beautiful language?

Well, after the gap year, I returned to the U.K and began studying Japanese on a 4-year course with Philosophy which included my second year studying at a Japanese University. I was sent to the countryside again, this time to Akita in the North of Japan.

That year would prove to be the changing point in my language skills—the part where things began to really click. I ended up in a class well above my actual level in the placement tests and really struggled. Everything was conducted in Japanese and for the first few weeks, I remember having a thumping headache as I tried to adjust to everything. We had around 3 hours of Japanese lessons a day with lots of homework. I contemplated dropping down classes several times but somehow kept going.

After a few months, things became easier. I joined a couple of circles (clubs), made a point of only hanging around the Japanese students, got myself onto the student government and generally just immersed myself as much as possible. I still encountered many problems during the year and made many silly mistakes (one involving barging into the University President’s office and demanding an explanation for the sacking of some teachers!), but overall the experiences took my Japanese to a level where I was comfortable with daily conversation.

As for what I like most about the language, I think it would be that I just enjoy using it. I love to talk to people and learn new and interesting phrases. Being able to bridge the gap to a culture so different to the one I was raised in just feels awesome.

What would you suggest to beginners interested in mastering Japanese?

Be prepared for the long haul. I’ve been studying for 8 years now and have gained JLPT level 1 but am still not fluent to a native level. Of course, had I studied more intensively I would undoubtedly be better, but I think a big part of learning any language is enjoying the trip. If you’re only looking towards the end result, you will be missing so much along the way.

Also, a lot of the fun to be had in learning a language lies in improving your own ability and meeting similar people along the way. It would be downright boring if you were able to become fluent in a just a few weeks or months.

That said, if you really want to speed up the process, surrounding yourself with as much Japanese as possible really helps. I appreciate not everyone will be able to get out to Japan to study (which is the best way, in my opinion), but watching Japanese dramas, making Japanese friends in your local community and studying little and often will help put you on the right track. Try to relax and have fun doing it. You’ll look back one day and realise some of the best experiences you had were when you were up to your neck and struggling to put a sentence together.

On a different note, it’s no secret that you are interested in bioluminescence and underwater creatures. How did you discover this subject and what are you current activities related to it?

Haha. Bioluminescence has always been a pet interest of mine. I love shiny things like fireflies and deep-sea jellyfish and I suppose it is just an extension of my interest in nature. I mainly just try to keep abreast of the latest discoveries and occasionally write an article about some cool critter. Nothing too serious, although I would love to go down in a submersible to see the light shows in action.

Did your new hobby, haikyo, arise from this love for the unknown?

Pretty much. I like the outdoors and the thrill of exploring unusual or forbidden places. Once I discovered haikyo I began to research local ruins and started visiting them. I also enjoy photography, so the two activities complement each other well.

It seems like after parkour and geocaching, haikyo is slowly coming back into fashion with renewed interest in media and among general public. What is your word of advice to those willing to try it out?

Be safe and go with somebody more experienced at first. Also be aware of the law and ask yourself if you are willing to bear the consequences if you break it.

Loose concrete falling from above, rusty nails sticking out the floor or even stumbling across a beehive home to the infamous suzumebachi can prove deadly.

You’ve long been studying philosophy. Do you believe that Western and Asian currents are closely tied to local historical events and culture and shouldn’t be compared, or do you see an opportunity in learning from one another?

History isn’t my strong point, but I do think that Western and Eastern cultures have developed in different ways. That said, they also have many similarities that we share as human beings and can definitely be compared to one another. I’d say that we can learn a lot from one another and also think it’s important to do so. Good use of a country’s language requires a strong knowledge of the customs and culture.

Talking about learning from one another, what is your opinion of the constantly evolving social media on the internet? Does it benefit our lives, work, and education or is it just a fad and a waste of time?

I think the way social media has evolved enabling people to communicate and share ideas more openly is excellent. It certainly does benefit our lives and can be particularly useful when learning languages because of the ease of reaching people from other cultures. However I can see how it sucks time away from other activities where that time may be better spent. I’d say it’s important to keep one’s own goals in mind and use social media tools wisely in ways that complement your own learning.

I hope that everybody enjoyed this interview. If there’s anything else you would like to ask Michael, feel free to write in the comments!

Please check out my other interviews, and if you don’t want to miss any future ones, be sure to subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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Japanese language has one of the most complex writing systems in the world; not only does it use thousands of Chinese characters, but it’s also the only language where four different scripts can appear together in the same sentence. In this series, I’m going to explain the difference between these scripts, why and how they should be used, and the best way and order in which to learn them.

Rōmaji (ローマ字), commonly known as latin alphabet outside of Japan, is never used by native Japanese speakers to write full sentences, yet it’s widely used all over Japanese media. The Latin script has a modern, in vibe to it which is why many new Japanese companies prefer it to kanji for use in logotypes and advertisement, fashionable magazines use it in headlines, and Japanese TV shows overflow with silly English exclamations. In addition to that, newspapers don’t mind using English abbreviations, youth uses it for interjections in online conversations, and most street signs in major Japanese cities display transliterated names and instructions under their Japanese counterparts. Many teachers and textbooks use romaji to teach beginners Japanese, and many even think that romaji should completely replace traditional scripts. However, frequent readers of this blog know that I am highly against the use of romaji outside of scientific publications and advertisement, and this seems to be the rigt moment to explain my position.

While it comes to teaching Japanese, I am of the opinion that hiragana AND katakana should both be thought as soon as possible, ideally in the first week or two of the learning process. While it may be tempting to stay with romaji for as long as possible, learning kana is in fact crucial and helps one to avoid many difficulties in the future, including, but not limited to bad pronounciation, incorrect understanding of verb conjugation & particles, and insufficient knowledge of kanji in the more advanced stages of the learning process which leads to lack of accessible reading material and subsequently a major progress slowdown.

To answer the second group of people, romaji can never replace kanji and kana in day-to-day use of the Japanese language. While many point out the more or less successful transition of countries such as Vietnam (formerly using Chữ Nôm and classical Chinese) or Philippines (Tagalog used to be written in Baybayin), the situation is completely different in case of Japan. While this may seem strange to a beginner learner of Japanese, any native speaker will agree that for several reasons, Japanese is hardly readable and undestandable while written in pure kana or romaji.

Firstly, Japanese has a very low number of syllables and contains a record number of homophones. While this creates opportunities for puns so popular among Japanese, and allows artists to create great creative works (reminiscent of the Chinese poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den consisting of 92 characters, all with the sound shi), it also has its negatives; a sentence written in hiragana may have several ambiguous meanings even when read in context.

Secondly, even in western languages, good readers recognize entire word shapes, not the individual syllables or even letters which would be slow and inefficient. Words written in kanji are usually shorter and have better distinguishable shapes which promotes this type of learning. Also, while Chinese characters are used, one can quickly spot different words and particles which is impossible when using a romaji. In western languages, the problem is solved by adding spaces between words, but this solution is far from perfect as it makes the text less compact and creates many new typographical problems (e.g., rivers of white).

ははははではしをはしのはしにはるにはる。
母は歯で箸を橋の端に春に張る。
haha ha ha de hashi wo hashi no hashi ni haru ni haru.
My mother with her teeth chopsticks on the edge of the bridge in spring will stick.
This spring, my mother, with her teeth, will stick chopsticks on the edge of the bridge.

Of course, this example is extreme, but some parts of it, like はははは, appear quite regularly and, while understandable, are hardly readable when written in hiragana or romaji. On the other hand, when one writes the same sentence with kanji, it may still sound funny, but it is not ambiguous or difficult to read.

Thirdly, there is no single standard Japanese transliteration guideline and each of the many systems has it’s own advantages and weaknesses. Creating a single ruleset would be very difficult, if not impossible, as the needs of different groups of users are completely different.

Last, but not least, deprecation of kanji could potentially reinforce class divides as the richer part of the population would afford to study kanji outside of official educational institutions and thus differentiate themselves even further from the lower classes.

However, despite all the negatives, romaji has one more very important function. Unless you have a Japanese keyboard and use the kana input method you’ll have to use a Japanese IME which will transcribe romaji into kana & kanji on the fly.

Do you support the use of romaji? What romanization system do you prefer? Please let me know in the comments. Also, if you don’t want to miss further articles in the series, subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

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I am honored to have been given the opportunity to host May 2010 Japan Blog Matsuri, and amazed by the number and quality of this month’s entries. The global theme was How-tos and there are few subjects that weren’t touched in the following articles. Please read on, and you’ll certainly learn something new and useful.

How to split a bamboo

A nata (なた, 鉈) is a special implement used to split bamboo. The blade is thicker on the back side and tapers down to the sharp edge. The thicker end serves to help separate the bamboo when it starts splitting.

How to argue in Japanese

I view Gakuranman as an etalon of quality blogs and with every new post he rises the quality even higher. This time, he has truly outdone himself with. This article is a very interesting view on the differences between Western and Japanese way of arguing including an example video and a tutorial on how to argue with Japanese. Also check out the nemawashi how-to below.

Nikko Toshogu Grand Spring Festival

“You’ve seen the procession, you’ve stood there and watched the people go by. And you’ve listened to the garbled explanations provided in funny English over the loudspeakers. And while it all looked very pretty (and somewhat anti-climactic even), you still are not sure what it was all about. This handy, step-by-step guide will show you how the procession looked back in the 19th century and compare it with the procession we have today.”

10 ways how NOT to go loco in Yokohama

 10 ways how NOT to go loco in Yokohama is a fairly well known guide to living in Japan and I’m sure many of you have read it already. Still, despite the fact that it was published in 2008, I believe that it definitely can’t hurt to remember it once more.

How to prepare for your Japan trip

If you’ve never been to Japan before, and especially if you don’t speak Japanese, it is very important to plan your first trip to the Land of the Rising Sun ahead, and take as many precautions as possible. This may be a difficult and time consuming process, but it’ll save you time and trouble in the end. Otaku Hime’s guide will show you how to organize your travel schedual, look up transport information, and plan your journey overall.

How to Find a laptop with an English keyboard

If you’ll ever move to Japan, you’ll be surprised at how difficult it is to buy a notebook with an English keyboard. If you’re not one of the lucky owners of the Optimus Maximus keyboard, read on, and find out what are the other options…

A nemawashi how-to

One of the most important skills in Japanese business is nemawashi—a commonly-used Japanese consensus building technique. It’s interesting that while I never heard of it before, I always proceeded this way, and probably prefer it to a completely open and direct discussion. Also check out Gakuranman’s entry above.

Nishoku Gohan (rice) recipe – Donburi menu part 1

Donburi is a big rice bowl and Donburi menu refers to a dish that has a topping over a bed of rice in the big bowl. Nishoku-Gohan literary means ‘two-colored rice’ referring to rice with two colored toppings, which is one of the easiest dishes to cook and does not require different kinds of unusual Japanese ingredients. If that’s not enough, check out Ksenia Klykova’s Mushroom miso soup recipe and my Matcha pancakes & matcha latte.

How to fold a furoshiki

Furoshiki is a Japanese tradition of wrapping and carrying many kinds of goods (obento, books, bottle of sake, &c.) in a  handkerchief. I’m a frequent user of double and single Bin-tsutsumi (bottle wrap) and find this way of carrying things very comfortable, ecological, fashionable, and plain and simply cool. By the way, if you would like to learn even more furoshiki techniques, you may also check out Otaku Hime’s article on Tenugui and Furoshiki.

The path to kanji motivation

“Kanji is said to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, part to learning Japanese. Anyone foreign to the language, looking at all those characters, would think so! Yet, they aren’t really that hard, you just need the right attitude and proper motivation.”

Cheap coffee and tea in Japanese cafes

“Perhaps many of my Japan-resident readers will be aware of the presence of drink bars in many Japanese family restaurants, but they are difficult to enter alone when all you want to do is spend some quality me time. Fortunately there are alternatives that can save you a little money here and there.”

 How to make sencha green tea

“If you’re green tea experience is pouring boiling water over a tea-bag or ordering ‘O-cha’ at your favorite sushi joint this post is for you.”

How to enjoy a good onsen

“How can one not enjoy an onsen?”, I hear you say. That’s true, but read on, and you’ll find out that there are many ways how you can improve the experience even further.

Hoshigaki: Dried persimmon

My own entry into the matsuri… Persimmons don’t grow all year round and drying is not only the best way to preserve these fruits, but it also brings out the natural fruit sugars and healthy attributes, making it a yummy tea treat.

Contest winner

As a bonus, I’m giving away a copy of The Book of Five Rings—the ultimate Japanese how-to on war, life and business by Miyamoto Musashi—to the author of the best entry. It was a very difficult task for me to choose the winner, as there were many high-quality entries. At first, Gakuranman’s How to argue in Japanese seemed to be a clear favorite as it perfectly matches the subject and even includes a video, but after thoughtful consideration, I understood that as it is a collaboration of several bloggers, it would be difficult to decide who to give the book to, and decided to award Rochelle Kopp’s entry on nemawashi. Congratilations to the winner, and big thanks to everyone who participated in this month’s matsuri. お疲れさまでした！

By the way, please let me know what you think of the new Japan Blog Matsuri banner I designed, and if you don’t want to miss any future NihongoUp posts, subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter and become a fan of Facebook.

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As you may’ve heard, NihongoUp Blog was recently nominated in the Top Language Blogs 2010 competition over at Lexiophiles. I’m now honored to announce that Japanese language & culture blog was selected, among 495 nominees, second-best in the Language Technology category, and 30th best language blog overall!

The selection was based on user votes (50%), for which I’m very thankful, and on the Lexiophiles ranking criteria (50%): content, consistency and interactvity.

On a related note, the NihongoUp one year anniversary giveaway just finished and I’m pleased to announce the winners. The first prize (NihongoUp Desktop, Kanji Wall Poster, Akihabara and Kabukicho Audio Guided Walking Tours) goes to Nicholas Vilppu, the second prize (NihongoUp Desktop, Akihabara OR Kabukicho Audio Guide) goes to Stuart Hicks, and the third and final prize (NihongoUp Desktop) goes to Mioco Gomes. Congratulations! Please enjoy your prizes, and don’t forget to review them on your blog ;)

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Within minutes of entering Japan, virtually all tourists encounter the phrase “Irasshaimase!” (いらっしゃいませ！), meaning “Welcome to the store!” or “Come on in!”.

Konbini Man illustration by Junko Nonoue.

The phrase “Irasshaimase!” is a more polite version of irasshai, an imperative form of the honorific verb irassharu which means “to be/come/go”.  The phrase was originally used by marketplace sellers trying to bring customers closer to their particular stall. Over time it has become a standard greeting used at almost every retail establishment in Japan. Shop employees yell it from outside stores, inside stores, at checkouts, gas stations, sale stands, and anywhere else the opportunity presents itself. Irony is swept to the sideline as customers are told to “Come in!” after having browsed the TV department of Sofmap for 20 minutes!

Occasionally the people spouting “irasshaimase” are far from enthusiastic, however, some shop staff cry out with such terrifying spontaneity that the resulting shock could very well cut days from your life expectancy. I have even heard tales of sale assistants yelling “irasshaimase” at random to maintain their duty in case someone happens to be behind them, and even megaphones being used to terrify customers further!

Personally, I think that “irasshaimase” has rendered itself obsolete. Whilst visiting Japan’s convenience stores, better known as konbini (コンビニ), I’ve experienced late-night employees murmuring or woefully issuing ‘irasshaimase’ as if to communicate “I hate my job, I want to go home now”. Originally the phrase may have represented a genuine interest in welcoming customers, but in contemporary Japan, it’s repetitiveness and robotic application fails to affect anyone hearing it for the thousandth time. For most people, even the employees themselves, it’s prevalence has led to it becoming a monotonous and wearisome thing that feels more like a chore than a polite custom.

Greeting customs walk a dangerous path. If a greeting is said too politely or often, it runs the risk of sounding robotic; without sincerity, a greeting becomes pointless.

What do you think about “irasshaimase” ? Have you been attacked by store greeters before? Leave a comment and let me know!

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NihongoUp 1.3.0 is finally here and besides bugfixes it also brings a long awaited JLPT 2 kanji mode! As always: Most of the updates are based on your suggestions, so please continue leaving feedback at the NihongoUp feedback page.

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Every country in the world has it’s heights and lows, and gets involved in scandals on international level, yet some of these always get an especially bad publicity after these events. One such example is Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun has a very positive, almost legendary image among general public and thus even the smallest of mishaps entice a tsunami of negative press. Let’s look at some of the Japan’s biggest blunders and how they were perceived across the world.

2009–2010 Toyota recalls

While not the biggest in history, Toyota’s vehicle recall of it’s best selling car, Camry, and six other 2004–2010 models because of an unsecured floor mat is by far the most closely watched of all time; according to a Rasmussen poll released on February 8, 2010, 72% of Americans have followed the Toyota news stories “somewhat closely” including 31% who are following them “very closely”. Combined with the subsequent recall of 2.3 million vehicles for sticky accelerator pedals (bringing the total to over 8.5 million recalls) in January 2010, as well as the ongoing financial crisis, these events were a major blow for world’s best-selling automaker and could have long-lasting economic consequences.

Essay on Japanese colonialism

Of the many Japanese controversial post-WWII remarks, Toshio Tamogami’s apology for Japanese colonialism and militarism is probably the best remembred. On October 21, 2008 Tamogami, then chief of staff of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), published Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?, an essay in which he argues that “it is a false accusation to say [Japan] was an aggressor nation” during World War II, proclaims that Japan brought prosperity to occupied China, Taiwan and Korea, and criticizes the war crimes trials which followed the war. Soon after the publication, Tamogami was removed from his post and ordered to retire.

Whaling & tuna fishing

Whaling in Japan may have begun as early as the 12th century and the country was heavily involved in commercial whaling until the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Japan isn’t officially involved in commercial whaling, meat from whales hunted by the Institute of Cetacean Research for scientific research is sold in shops and restaurant. While this is allowed under IWC rules, many nations, scientists and environmental organizations oppose the Japanese research program.

Similarly controversial is Japan’s consumption of bluefin tuna, three-quarters of which are consumed by Japan. While the export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna proposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Qatar earlier this year failed to pass, Japanese sushi chefs and consumers continue to be constantly criticized by international media. What is ironic, however, is that the issue is often used to justify commercial whaling, which is said to be necessary for preserving global tuna stock.

Yasukuni Shrine controversy

Yasukuni Jinja is a Shinto shrine to house the souls (as Kami) of the dead who served the Emperor of Japan during wars from 1867–1951. Despite the fact that the activity is strictly a religions matter, not only the shrine, but also the Japanese Government have been criticized by China, Korea and Taiwan due to the enshrinement of 1,068 International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) war criminals whose evil acts are believed to have been absolved upon enshrinement. The controversy surrounding the shrine, which lasts since 1985, was recently revived due to visits to the shrine by Japanese Diet cabinet members, and especially the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who, despite numerous protests, made annual personal visits from 2001 to 2006.

Oscars nomination of Kurosawa’s Ran

Akira Kurosawa is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time; his work inspired a multitude of movies including Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy and George Lucas’ Star Wars and in 1989, Kurosawa was awarded the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement “for cinematic accomplishments that have inspired, delighted, enriched and entertained worldwide audiences and influenced filmmakers throughout the world”. However, despite all his achievements, the legendary director had major difficulties financing his new creations. For instance, had he not been helped by his most famous admirers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, the future of his samurai movie Kagemusha would be uncertain.

Another such difficult enterprise was Ran, Kurosawa’s last epic. Over 10 years in preparation, with a budget of $12 million, it was the most expensive Japanese film ever produced up to that time, and it could never be finished without the support from the Russian born French director Serge Silberman. This time, however, the problems also continued after the film’s production. Firstly, it was completed too late to be entered at Cannes and had its premier at Japan’s first Tokyo International Film Festival. Secondly, Kurosawa skipped the film’s premiere. This angered many in the Japanese film industry and as a result, Ran was not submitted as Japan’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Award. Silberman tried to get it nominated as a French co-production but failed. Thankfully, American director Sidney Lumet helped organize a successful campaign to have Kurosawa nominated as Best Director. To make things even worse, Ran was conspicuously not nominated for Best Picture at the Awards of the Japanese Academy. In part because of these events, Ran was only modestly successful financially, and it’s not until recently that the film which is now regarded as one of Kurosawa’s masterpieces was properly reevaluated.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my article! If you think that I’ve missed and major controversies involving Japan, feel free to let me know in the comments. Also, if you don’t want to miss any of my future posts, please subscribe to the RSS, follow NihongoUp on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook.

By the way, if you like my blog, please vote for Japanese language and culture blog at Top Language Technology Blog. Thank you!

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