Japanese Language and Culture Blog | NihongoUp

10 beautiful tilt-shift photos of Japan

seifip — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:48:37 +0000

Tilt-shift photography is a special type of photography in which either a tilt-shift lens, or a post processing software, is used in order to simulate a miniature scene. Below is a selection of 10 tilt-shift photographs from Tokyo and the rest of Japan.

If you enjoy this post, you may also want to check-out my collection of Tokyo time-lapses.

Miniature figures in the snow, Sapporo by Smashcut

Tokyo Haneda International Airport by kanegen

Shibuya by zemoko

Tiltshift Shibuya, Tokyo by prawn crisps

Miniature Tokyo by Not Quite a Photographr

til-shif-train by sinkdd

Tokyo shift by eerkmans

Tilt Shift Osaka by montee15

Engaku-ji Temple by moogs5

crosswalk by torugatoru

Tomoe Gozen: The female samurai

seifip — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:55:51 +0000

When one says the word samurai, most imagine an armored man fiercely wielding a katana, and if one would to say female warrior, most would probably laugh and tell him to stop watching anime all the time. Nevertheless, women samurai, also known as onna bugeisha (女武芸者), were a small but very important representation of the Japanese upper class bushi (samurai) and some of them (e.g., Empress Jingu, Nakano Takeko, Hojo Masako or Tomoe Gozen) had a great impact on the Japanese history.

Empress Jingū in Korea. Painting by Yoshitoshi (1880).

One of the most famous onna musha (female warrior, 女武者) was Tomoe Gozen (巴御前, 1157?–1247?), wife and general of Minamoto Yoshinaka of the Minamoto clan. I’ve been planning to write about her for a long time already but something always came in the way. However, this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri theme—famous Japanese people—finally incited me to drop a few words about her.

Tomoe Gozen on a horse.

First of all, nothing describes her better than a quote from the famous The Tale of the Heike (heike monogatari), the epic account of the Genpei War (1180–1185):

Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot. She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow; and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.

After defeating the Heike, Minamoto no Yoshinaka desired to be the leader of the Minamoto clan, which in turn provoked the Battle of Awazu (February 21, 1184) against his cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo’s forces; one of the last battles of the lengthy Genpei War. Although Yoshinaka, alongside Tomoe Gozen and his milk brother Imai no Shiro Kanehira, fought bravely, they were outnumbered and lost the battle. When Yoshinaka was defeated, he told Tomoe Gozen to flee because he wanted to die with his foster brother and would be ashamed if he died with a woman.

Tomoe Gozen dispatches an attacker.

There is a lot of discrepancy as to what followed, but whatever happened, Tomoe Gozen was remembered long after, had a great impact on much of the warrior class—interestingly enough, especially naginata schools, even though this wasn’t her weapon of choice—, appeared in numerous art plays such as Tomoe no Monogatari as well as ukiyo paintings, and continues to be featured in Japanese novels, manga, anime and movies to this day.

NihongoUp’s top 10 posts of 2009

seifip — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:44:57 +0000

Inspired by Jamaipanese, I’ve decided to compile my own list of NihongoUp’s most popular posts of 2009. This blog is less than one year old and it’s impressive to see how much happened last year, how my writing style evolved over time and, last but not least, how many thoughtful and inspiring reactions were incited by my articles. The ranking is based on the amount of traffic the individual posts received during the two weeks following their publication.

1. 10 Beautiful Japanese Fonts

The list of some of my favorite Japanese fonts was by far the most popular post this year; not only traffic-wise, but also in the amount of comments it received. If that’s not enough, it is also one of the five most popular articles on JapanSoc of all time!

2. Japanese Color Names (Cheat Sheet)

Well-done infographics are always popular and the fact that my Japanese color names cheat sheet is the second most popular post this year confirms that. Wait for more cheat sheets and a complete e-book in the near future!

3. How to write kanji

This was a bit of surprise for me and I’m really glad that my thoughts on the importance of stroke order induced so many interesting comments!

4. Japanese Body Parts (Cheat Sheet)

Another cheat sheet of mine was nearly as popular as the first one further provoking me to start working on an e-book.

5. 10 beautiful Tokyo time-lapses

It looks like I’m not the only one who enjoyed watching these mesmerizing HD time-lapses from Tokyo.

6. Lotte Black Black Chewing Gum

My first article on this blog: a review of the legendary Lotte Black Black chewing gum.

7. The digital camera that started it all

A review of Casio QV-10; my entry into the December Japan Blog Matsuri themed around technology.

8. Recipe: Mushroom miso soup

A guest post by my fellow blogger and a good friend Ksenia Klykova. The recipe was surprisingly popular and got featured at the TasteSpotting visual potluck.

9. Ichi (2008)

One of the only English-language reviews of the 2008 remake of Takeshi Kitano’s Zatoichi.

10. And the kanji of the year is…

My thought on the kanji of the year and words of the year 2009.

There’s a lot more coming in 2010 so stay tuned by subscribing via RSS, following me on Twitter and joining the NihongoUp Facebook fan page. And of course, if you have any suggestions on how I could improve this blog, please let me know!

Merii kurisumasu, shinnen omedetou gozaimasu!

seifip — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:57:34 +0000

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a joyful winter season!

And the kanji of the year is…

seifip — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:10:44 +0000

Winter is not just about holidays, but also about recapitulations of the year’s achievements and mishaps, as well as announcement of words & kanjis of the year. The kanji of the year (今年の漢字, Kotoshi no Kanji) is chosen by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society through a national ballot in Japan. Since 1995, each year, one character representing the events of that year is announced in a ceremony on December 12 (Kanji Day) at Kiyomizu Temple. This year’s kanji is 新 (shin, new) and is supposed to illustrate the win of the Democratic Party in Japan’s elections after almost 54 years of unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

On a similar note, American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year 2009 (often miscalled Oxford Word of the Year) is unfriend, a seemingly pessimistic word very characteristic of this year’s explosion of social networks. The words selected by Germany, Switzerland & The Webster’s Dictionary are much less modernistic; Hartz IV (the name given to the financial support for the long-term unemployed), Minarettverbot (minaret ban) and distracted driving respectively.

The digital camera that started it all

seifip — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:54:23 +0000

This month’s Japan Blog Matsuri is themed around technology and thus I decided to wander into the world of digital photography. You may be surprised to hear that, but although the first digital camera prototype by Steven Sasson Prototype (with a now ludicrous 0.01MP image resolution) was completed as early as in 1975, and the first commercially available models were released at the end of the 80′, it wasn’t till March 1995—with the release of the now legendary Casio QV-10—that we’ve got an LCD view-screen which we now take for granted and consider the primary identifying feature of digital cameras.

QV-10 is Casio’s first digicam, but despite it’s shortcomings (low-resolution 250 kilopixel CCD, small internal storage, very short battery life, no flash), it became an instant hit and effectively started the golden age of digital photography. In addition to the novelty 1.8″ LCD creen, the camera presented a comparatively very low price point and a swivel lens which allowed one to shoot from strange angles or make self portraits. The latter was also an invention of Casio and appeared on several of their future cameras.

Although it was far from ideal, and couldn’t yet compete with the analogue cameras, Casio QV-10 was an important milestone in the development of digital photography introducing a competitive price and several concepts characteristic of today’s products. If you would like to know more, read a detailed review, or head over to the Casio’s official product description.

Serious Games Showcase & Challenge Winner

seifip — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:55:18 +0000

The final results of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge (SGS&C) were announced and NihongoUp was chosen as the winner in the Student category! There were many quality entries and, especially after seeing the other two finalist games (submitted by teams from the Queens University and the University of Miami), I was really surprised when the final outcome was announced.

Let’s hope that this is only a start, and that this achievement will bring more well-needed attention to NihongoUp, as well as to educational games in general.

NihongoUp for iPhone on the App Store

seifip — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:16:04 +0000

Yeah, it’s already been a week since the app was released, but because of the preparations for the the JLPT I couldn’t find the time to write an official announcement till now. NihongoUp for iPhone was finally approved by Apple and is now available on the App Store! This means that you are no longer tied to you computer and can continue ~~playing~~ studying in public transport, while rock climbing, or anywhere else where carrying even the smallest of notebooks would turn out to be impractical.

The initial impressions from the early buyers were very positive and I hope that you’ll like it too! Please bear in mind that this is the first release. If you have any feature suggestions, please let me know at the NihongoUp feedback page. Also, if you are going to review the application, please don’t forget to submit your review to the Japanese resources contest for a chance to win several interesting prizes.

Japanese Body Parts (Cheat Sheet)

seifip — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:34:39 +0000

My Japanese Color Names Cheat Sheet was a hit and thus I decided that it’s time to make a new infographic—this time on human anatomy. As you can see, here as well, the way the Japanese perceive and name different concepts may differ from the way we do in English. For example, both the leg and the foot are called ashi (あし, ⾜), fingers and toes; yubi (ゆび, 指). Overall, however, the body parts nomenclature is fairly straightforward and the vocabulary should be much easier to learn & use in daily life than it is the case with Japanese color names.

You are free to distribute the reference sheet wherever you want as long as the file remains intact and the work is properly credited.

Download:

[PNG] Japanese Body Parts
[PDF] Japanese Body Parts

Japanese resources + contest

seifip — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:27:55 +0000

A news section of the NihongoUp site was launched. It’s called Japanese learning resources and, as the name suggests, it contains a list of quality desktop, mobile, online & print products for Japanese language students. Please check it out and if you’ll have any suggestions on how I could improve the page, please let me know in the comments.

To celebrate the launch of the new website, I’m organizing a contest! You can win some very interesting prizes, and there are many different ways to enter, so please read on to understand the competition guidelines.

Prizes

Best reviews:

1. NihongoUp Desktop ($4.99) + Human Japanese Desktop ($18.95) + eduFire Superpass ($29)
2. NihongoUp Desktop + Human Japanese Desktop
3. NihongoUp Desktop

Random choice:

1. NihongoUp Desktop + Human Japanese Desktop + eduFire Superpass

How to enter

Best reviews:

Write a review of any resource included in the directory. Three reviews will be awarded with the aforementioned prizes. If you don’t see your favorite application, site or book, please suggest it in the comments. You can write the article in any language and in any media (blog, forum, newspaper, video, etc.) We love flattery, but it won’t play any role in the selection process—well-founded criticism is often much more helpful than mindless apple-polishing. You shouldn’t review your own product. The article must include a link to the resources page. You can submit several articles, but you can only win once. Please leave links to your posts, videos, or photos of printed articles in the comments.

Random choice:

To enter the “random choice” prize draw, do any of the following to get tokens. You will be entered once for every token. The more tokens you have, the higher your chance of winning.

1. Write a quality review of any resource included in the directory following the rules for “best reviews” to get 1 token. If you’ll review NihongoUp, Human Japanese or eduFire, you’ll get 2 more tokens and your article may be featured in the testimonials section of the respective sites. Also, I love creativity, and I may give away bonus tokens to those who manage to surprise me with their ideas.
2. Tweet about this contest with the #jprcon hash tag to get 1 token. The tweet must link to this page. Only one tweet/account will be counted.
2.Become a fan of NihongoUp at Facebook and interact! Comment, post to the discussion board, etc. Interesting and valuable comments/posts will get tokens.

The contest deadline is 14th December 2009.

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments.

UPDATE: The contest is over. Winners will be announced later this week.
UPDATE: And the winners are:
- Best review: Smart.fm, Updated and Excellent
- 2nd best review: Live Learning/Teaching with EduFire
- 3rd best review: Quiero aprender japonés YA! O.O
- Random choice: NihongoUp – Japanese Forum