Take a look at the following sentence to see if you recognize anything:

政府は過激派グループの活動を注意深く監視した。

Whenever I confront unknown kanji, I try to identify components and patterns. In this case, one thing jumps out at me—this sentence is soggy! Five of the 12 kanji contain the “water” radical, ! In both 過激派 and 注意深く, two out of three characters are sopping wet. Surely this sentence is about fishing, scuba diving, or water conservation. While you ponder the issue, I’ll block the translation with two watery pictures.

(more̷

答えは「しずく」。この読み方は日本独自のもので、中国では水のしたたりをこの漢字で表わしません。また、雨以外の水、たとえばシャワーや涙の「しずく」には「滴」（「水滴」の「滴」）」という文字を用います。一般的には、雨のしずくだけを「雫」で表します。

さて、「雲」という漢字は、どのように雨に関連しているのでしょうか。「雨」の下に書かれる「云」は「立ちのぼる湯気が天井のような場所につかえて、もやもやとこもった様子」を線で表現しています。つまり、「雲」は「もやもやと立ちこめた水蒸気」のことなのです。ちなみに、「魂（たましい）」という漢字にも「云」が見られますが、魂もこれというはっきりした形があるわけでなく、「なんとなくあるらしい」と信じられているもやもやとしたものですね。

ところで、「電」はどうでしょう。昔は「雨」の下に「申」という文字を書いていましたが、次第に変化して現在の字形になりました。「申」は稲妻が空から地上に長く伸びて（「伸」の漢字にも「申」が見られますね）光っている様子を表わしています。

さらに、「霧」という漢字を読めますか。これは「きり」と読みます。「雨」の下の「務」には「手探りして求める」という意味があり、霧の中では立ちこめる水蒸気で周囲が見えなくなるので、手探りして進まなければなりません。そんな状態を漢字で表わすと「霧」になります。

最後に、「霜」という漢字は「しも」と読みます。「相」という部分には「縦に向かい合う、別々に並び立つ」という意味があり、霜柱が縦に並んで立っている様子に着目して、「霜」という漢字ができたといわれています。

元来、「相」は「木」＋「目」で、木と向かい合って立ち、その木を目で見ることを表わしているのです。日本の国技である「相撲（すもう）」にも「相」の文字が見られますよ。二人の力士が向かい合って立って、勝負が始まりますものね。
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The kanji 雨 or “rain” is a representation of how rain falls from the sky, and is a character that looks like a drawing.  Now, if you write the character下 or “below” under 雨, how would you read the character?

The anwer is shizuku or drop.  This way of reading is particular to Japan, and this kanji does not represent water trickling in China.  Furthermore, the character 滴 or “drop” as in 水滴 or “water drop”,  is used for water other than rain, for example the “drops in shower water” or “tears”.  Generally, only rain drops are represented by the 雫 character.

Now, what do you think the kanji 雲 or “cloud” has to do with rain?  The 云 or “speak about” under 雨 represents “the rising vapors blocked in an area like a ceiling, and appears to be misty” with its lines.  In other words, “clouds” are “misty filling vapors.”  Additionally, 云 can be found in the kanji 魂 or “spirit”, since spirits are not something that have shape, but rather they’re this misty thing that is believed to “somehow or someway be there.”

By the way, what do you think of 電 or “electricity”?  A long time ago, the character 申 or “to report” was written under 雨, but gradually it changed to the character shape today.  申 represents the long stretch of lightning that stretches to the ground (申 can also be seen in the kanji 伸 or “stretch”).

Furthermore, can you read the kanji 霧 or “fog”? This is read as kiri.  The 務 or “task” under 雨 means “searching for by fumbling”,  since in a fog, the misty vapors block the surrounding view, one needs to feel their way through.  When this situation is represented in kanji,  it becomes霧.

Lastly, 霜 or “frost” is read as shimo.  The 相 or “together” portion means “vertically facing each other, separately standing in a line”, and is said that the kanji was made after seeing icicles lined vertically.

Originally, 相 is 木 or “tree” + 目 or “eye”,  and these are aligned facing each other, which describes looking at a tree with your eyes.  相 can also be found in the character for the national sport 相撲 or “sumo”. This is because the match starts with two wrestlers standing and facing each other.

•  Sounds and Syllables
  • Compared with other languages, Japanese has a relatively small set of sounds, with only fourteen consonants (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, g, z, d, b, and p) and five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u). Japanese is made up of syllables, which are made up of a consonant and a vowel. The only exceptions are the vowels and the n sound, which stand alone.
    

•  Stress
  • In Japanese, each syllable is held the same length of time and given equal stress. Stressing only certain syllables will sound unnatural, so keep this in mind when pronouncing Japanese.
  • Let’s take a look at a word in Japanese and compare how it is pronounced in both Japanese and English. Let’s take the word teriyaki, the name of a cooking technique where meat is marinated.
    • English pronunciation: [ ter-uh-YAH-kee ] Note how the third syllable is stressed.
    • Japanese pronunciation: [teh-ree-yah-kee ] In Japanese, each syllable receives the same amount of stress.

As the number of non-Japanese people studying Japanese around the world increases, so does the number of people who want to live in Japan for work or study. After all, they say that one of the best ways to learn a language is to be completely immersed in it, right?

Moving to a country as foreign as Japan, however, can pose many challenges. When coming to Japan for work or study, there are many things one must consider: What do I need to do soon after I arrive? Where will I live? How do I get around? Here at JapanesePod101.com, we have used information obtained from staff and listeners alike and put together a mini-guide for getting started living in Japan. We will introduce it in three parts in this blog. Part one here covers valuable information on foreign registration and tips on finding a place to live.

If you have any questions or information that you would like to share about living in Japan, please leave us a comment!

Valuable Information on Living in Japan part 1

●     Alien Registration (外国人登録)

Foreigners staying in Japan for more than 90 days (which excludes those with tourist visas) need to apply for an alien registration card (外国人登録証, gaikokujin tōrokushō) within 90 days of landing in Japan. Applicants must apply at their local municipal office (city hall). The alien registration card is required for opening a bank account, purchasing a cell phone, obtaining a driver’s license, and more. Foreign residents are required to carry their alien registration card with them at all times. 

● Finding a Place to Live

When it comes to finding a place to live in Japan, there are two major options: a private apartment or a guesthouse.

APARTMENTS
Looking for an apartment using conventional real estate companies may prove to be difficult and expensive. It can sometimes be difficult finding a landlord who is willing to rent out to foreigners, and there are a number of fees that make up the rental contract. In Tokyo and other large cities, there are many real estate companies that cater specifically to the foreign community that may be worth looking into. When looking for an apartment, please be aware that utilities are often not included in the rent. After moving into your apartment, the start-up application forms for utilities can often be found in your mailbox or apartment. In come cases, they may be provided by your landlord or real estate agent, who may also set up the utilities for you. As for paying utilities, there are two major options: you can either pay your bills at the convenience store or post office as they come, or you can sign up to have the payments automatically deducted from your bank account every month.
Note also that for most apartments, a guarantor (連帯保証人, rentai hoshōnin) is required. Normally a guarantor is someone who is a Japanese national with good financial standing, or the company you are employed at. If you do not have someone who can act as a guarantor for you, there is the option of paying a guarantor company (保証会社, hoshō gaisha) a fee to have them act as a guarantor for you.
Useful Links:
http://www.tokyoapartments.jp/
http://www.tokyoapartment.com/
http://www.kimiwillbe.com/

GUESTHOUSE
An alternative to a private apartment is a guesthouse. Based on the living conditions (whether you share an apartment or room with other people, etc.), living in a guesthouse can be an inexpensive alternative to living in a conventional apartment. Many guesthouses also offer shorter contracts, which makes them ideal for shorter stays.

Useful Links:
http://www.sakura-house.com/
http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/
http://www.t-guesthouse.jp/

Join us next week for more valuable information on getting started living in Japan!

It’s always exciting when a foreign language teaches you about your own, and that’s the case with the following word:

激賞 (gekishō: enthusiastic praise)     intense + praise

Sample Sentence with 激賞 …

I’ve long known 賞 (SHŌ) as “award” or “prize,” as in アカデミー賞, “Academy Award.” When I saw “praise” in the definition of 激賞, I was startled. It couldn’t really be a typo, I figured, because there’s no such thing as an enthusiastic prize (though there are plenty of prizes for enthusiasm). Then it hit me that “praise” and “prize” could be connected in Japanese—and perhaps in English, too!

Yes on both accounts! Well, to be perfectly accurate, the English link is looser. Both “praise” and “price” (not prize) relate back to the Latin pretium, meaning “price, value, worth, reward.” And then “prize” has been an alternate spelling of “price.” I never thought about the similarities among any of these words!
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漢字にも、「水」に関係した文字がたくさんありますよ。部首では「さんずい」と呼ばれる「
氵」が、漢字の左側に見られるものは、一般的な漢和辞典に載っているだけで642もの多数にのぼります。その中で、日常生活にしばしば用いられる漢字を紹介しましょう。

「洗」の文字に見られる「先」は、「足＋人」で、人間の足先を表わしています。爪先は、指と指の間に隙間があいて離れていますね。その隙間に水を通してきれいにするのが「洗う」という行為です。

「洗濯」のように「洗」に組み合わされる「濯」にも「さんずい」が見られますよ。右側は「羽＋隹」。「隹」の部分は、他の漢字でもよく見かけませんか？　「隹」は「とり」と読み、「鳥」を表わしています。字形が似ていますものね。木の上に鳥がたくさんいると「集」という文字になり、「あつまる」と読みます。また、「焦」は「こがす、こげる」と読み、鳥を火であぶってちりちりと焦がす様子が漢字になっています。鳥がすいすいと飛んで前に進むから「進」という文字には「隹」がいますね。

話題を戻すと、「濯」の文字には、鳥が羽根を高く上げた様子が含まれ、水で洗ったものをさっと持ち上げ、また水につけて洗って持ち上げて…と洗濯の動作を表わす漢字の組み合わせになっているのです。

さて、「沈」はどうでしょう。「
冘」は「牛＋川」で、牛を川の中に沈める儀式を表わし、「枕（まくら）」も頭も下に沈める寝具なので、「木＋
冘」と書きます。

「沈」と反対の意味の漢字は「浮」。これはどうでしょう。右側は、「爪＋子」で、「爪」は手の爪を表わしています。幼い子どもを手で大切にかばう様子を文字にすると「孚」となり、水を大切に抱えるようにしてうつぶせに浮かぶ様子が「浮」になりました。

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

It is said that a person’s body is 60% water. We cannot survive without water, and it is needless to say that civilizations have grown in areas where there’s water.

There are also many kanji that relate to 水 or “water”.  The radical 氵 called sanzui seen on the left of a kanji, has as many as 642 references in even a standard Japanese dictionary.  Among them, let me introduce you to a few kanji that are frequently used in our everyday lives.

The 先 or “point” that is found in 洗,  is 足＋人 or “leg + person”,  and represents the tip of your feet. Between each toe, there’s some space. The act of washing between these spaces is 洗う or “to wash”.

In 洗濯 or “laundry” the 濯 that is constructed with 洗 also has a sanzui. The right side is 羽 or “wing”＋隹.
Do you see the 隹 part in other kanji?  隹 is read as tori and represents a 鳥 or “bird”.  The shape of the characters look alike.  If there are many birds on a tree, you get the character 集 which is read as atsumaru or “gather”.  Also, 焦 is read as kogasu, kogeru or “burn”, and it’s a kanji that represents a chicken if you roast it over a fire and burn it.  進 or “advance” contains隹 because a bird smoothly flies forward.

Going back to the topic, 濯 contains the image of a bird raising its wings high, by quickly raising the things being washed, then putting them back in water, then raising them again… and in this image the formation of the kanji represents the movement of the washing.

Now, how about 沈 or “sink”.
冘 is 牛＋川 or “cow + river”, and it represents the ritual of sinking a cow in a river. Also, since 枕 or “pillow” is a piece of bedding to sink your head into, that’s why you write木 or “wood”＋
冘.

The opposite kanji for the meaning of sink is 浮 or “float”.  Now, how about this. On the right, you have 爪＋子 or child, and 爪 represents the nails on your hand.    When you represent the image of protecting a young child with your hand it looks like this, 孚 or “nourish”, and the image of floating face down as if you’re dearly holding the water has become 浮.

Japanese is what’s called an SOV language. This means the subject comes first, followed by the object, and then the verb. Remember that: the verb comes last. This is one of the biggest differences between English and Japanese grammar and one of the most important aspects to keep in mind!

• Tense

• • Japanese only has two tenses: past and non-past. It’s called non-past because Japanese uses the same tense for the present and future.

• • By adding a word like “tomorrow” or “next week” that indicates some point in the future, our present tense turns into the future tense without even changing the verb.

• Conjugation

• • Japanese only has two verbs that conjugate irregularly. The rest follow the same patterns, so they’re easy to get the hang of! Japanese verbs are divided up into three different groups according to how they conjugate, which we will refer to as Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 later on.

• • in Japanese it doesn’t matter who is doing the action, the verb will not change.

• Singulars and Plurals

• • Japanese words almost never change to reflect plurals. Nezumi, the word for “mouse,” could refer to one mouse or ten mice!
    

• Forming Questions

• • In Japanese, it’s extremely easy to create questions. By simply putting ka at the end of a sentence, you can turn it into a question!
    

• Formal and Informal Speech

• • Japanese uses entirely different grammar structures when it comes to polite speech. There are three politeness levels in spoken Japanese: informal, formal, and honorific.
    

• Counters

• • Japanese has a long list of counters, or words that we use to count specific items. The corresponding counter depends on the appearance or makeup of the item. For example, there are different counters for sheets of paper and bottles because they differ in shape.
    

• Omission

• • In Japanese, the writer often omits the subject from the sentence when it’s understood who is doing the action. In fact, stating the subject every time will actually make your Japanese sound unnatural. The key is to only state the subject when it’s absolutely necessary.
    

We start with Alberto’s haiku calendar for March. It’s lovely, as always, but there’s one difference this time; he’s the one who wrote the haiku! お疲れさまでした! (Otsukaresamadeshita! Good job!)

See the comments section for his explanation of this haiku.

Now we’ll return from the ethereal haiku world and come back down to earth with a thud! In an ongoing investigation of 激 (GEKI, hage(shii): violent, intense, agitated, sudden), I’ve come across a sample sentence with the following translation:

When the flight crew has the aircraft under control, everything is working normally, and yet it still crashes into the ground, that’s CFIT.

Really? You call that CFIT? Not “all hell has broken loose for no good reason” but just “CFIT”? Sounds rather mild, I would say.
(more̷

厳しい寒さの続く日は、春の暖かさが待ち遠しいものです。そんな気持ちを表わした俳句を紹介しましょう。 (more̷

The Japanese writing system uses two syllabic scripts, known separately as hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ) and collectively as kana (かな), as well as thousands of Chinese characters known as kanji (漢字). Each script serves a different function.

• Hiragana: grammatical elements and for words that do not use kanji (or for words where the author doesn’t know the kanji).
  • We use the hiragana syllabary for two types of words; okurigana (送り仮名), which are inflected verb and adjective endings; and for grammatical elements called “particles.” Hiragana is also used to write furigana (ふりがな), small symbols placed above or to the side of a kanji character that indicate how it is read.

• Katakana to write borrowed words of foreign origin and onomatopoeic sound effects.
  • We use the katakana syllabary for gairaigo (外来語), words of foreign origin, onomatopoeic words that indicate sounds, scientific names, and also for emphasis, much like how italics are used in English.

There are forty-six characters in the hiragana and katakana scripts, for a total of ninety-two characters in all. These characters represent specific syllables which are made up of a consonant plus a vowel or just one vowel sound.

In Japanese, there are five vowels (a, i, u, e, and o) and fourteen basic consonants (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w, g, z, d, b, and p).

Kanji is used for words of both Japanese and Chinese origin as well as many Japanese names.]

Kanji are made up of smaller parts known as radicals. Many characters have been combined with others to create new ones. When written on the page, each character is given exactly the same amount of space, no matter how complex it is. In written Japanese, there are no spaces between characters.

Most kanji have at least two different kinds of readings: kun yomi (訓読み), which is the Japanese reading, and on yomi (音読み), which is the original Chinese reading.

Here are February’s winners:

Facebook: Andrea
Youtube: Jaydub1810
Twitter: zmdane
Twitter: xylose

See your name here? Email us at contactus@JapanesePod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for March`s winners!

If you had to draw “violent,” what images would you use? Maybe you’d think back to the board game Clue: Colonel Mustard committed the murder in the billiard room with a rope, whereas Mrs. Peacock used a lead pipe in the conservatory. Or maybe your mind would turn to machine guns, bombs, and other tools of warfare.

Here’s something you may not have considered: water. Water! It’s all around us, but I’ve long neglected to use it as a weapon! And yet, as I’ve learned from one kanji, water leads to violence. So much for washing away one’s sins!

I’ve overlooked not only the violence inherent in water but also the water () inherent in violence:

激 (GEKI, hage(shii): violent, intense, agitated, sudden)

If you’re picturing a glass of water, you might be puzzled about water’s aggressive nature. But consider these watery words:

激流 (gekiryū: raging stream; rapids)     violent + stream

激浪 (gekirō: raging sea)     violent + waves

The second kanji breaks down as water + good! Or “good and wet”! It has the kun-yomi of nami, but it’s not the second part of tsunami (津波: harbor + wave), as you might be thinking.

On 浪 …

So that’s the type of water we’re talking about here! Not the tame, faucet-fed kind but the sort that can demolish cliff walls and buildings (as is happening right now in my disaster-prone corner of the world).

(more̷

答えは「こがらし」。一般的には「木枯し」と書き表します。
「こがらし」とは、冬の初めに木々の葉を払い落としながら吹く、冷たく強い北風のことです。「凩」の字は「国字（こくじ）」に分類され、中国で作られた漢字にならって、日本で新たに生み出された漢字です。要するに、和製漢字ですね。こがらしとは、「木を枯らすように吹く風（几）」なので「凩」という字形が考え出されたのです。

正月の遊びに使う「凧（たこ）」も国字です。「風（几）」の中にある「巾」は「布」という意味です（「布」という漢字の中にもしっかりと「巾」が含まれていますね）。「風を受けて舞い上がる布」＝「凧」なのです。

では、「風が止まる」と書く「凪」という漢字はどう読むのでしょうか？　これは「なぎ」と読みます。朝夕に風が止まる状態や時間帯を「朝凪（あさなぎ）」「夕凪（ゆうなぎ）」と呼びます。

このように、ことば遊びや連想ゲームにも似た感覚で作り出された国字。友人に、「この漢字、読める？」と教えてあげるのも楽しいですね。
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Have you ever seen the character 凩? How do you read it.
A hint: it’s a kanji related to winter. Also, please look closely at the character’s formation. It looks like the character 風 (kaze), “wind”, doesn’t it?

The answer is こがらし(kogarashi). It’s generally written 木枯し.
こがらし means a cold north wind that blows at the beginning of winter, shaking the leaves from the trees.
The character 凩 is classified as 国字　（こくじ）, or characters newly created in Japan which imitate Chinese kanji. In short, they’re 和製漢字　（わせいかんじ）, or “Japanese-made kanji”. こがらし　is “a wind (几) which blows cold enough to kill the trees”, so hence the character 凩 was devised.

A character used when talking about New Year games, 凧 (tako）, is also Japanese-made. The radical 巾 which can be seen in the centre of 風（几）is equivalent to 布, which means “cloth” (you can also see 巾 in the centre of 布, can’t you?). “Cloth that soars on the wind” = a kite (凧）.

So, how would we read the character meaning “the wind ceasing” (凪）? It’s read なぎ (nagi). A state or period of time in which the wind does not blow from morning to night is called 朝凪（asa nagi), “morning calm” and 夕凪（yuu nagi), “evening calm”.

So as you can see, native Japanese kanji were created in a way that is almost similar to wordplay and word association games. It’s also fun to ask your friends “Can you read this kanji?”, and then teach them how.

Background of the Japanese Language

• It ranks in the list of the top ten languages based on number of native speakers, with around 130 million people speaking Japanese as their native language.

• The most well-known dialect is Kansai-ben the “Kansai dialect,” which is spoken throughout the Kansai region of Japan. The Kansai region refers to an area in western Japan that includes major cities Osaka and Kyoto.

• The Japanese written language consists of three alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic alphabets, with the latter being used primarily for writing foreign words. Kanji is a system of characters of Chinese origin used to represent various ideas.

• The Japanese Ministry of Education has created a list of 1,945 jouyou kanji “common use kanji” made up of characters commonly used in everyday life. Japanese children will have studied all of these kanji by the time they graduate from junior high school.

Top Five Reasons to Learn Japanese

• To communicate with Japanese people! Over 130 million people throughout the world speak Japanese, placing it in the top ten languages spoken in the world.

• Japanese pronunciation is easy! Japanese is pronounced just the way it looks, so you can start speaking it right away.

• You will learn more than just a language. Learning Japanese will give you great insight into the world of Japanese culture you just can’t get any other way. By learning how the language works, you’ll learn more about how the culture works.

•  Japanese is fun! Japan has a lot to offer in the way of pop culture-fun and interesting movies, music, TV shows, comics, games-you name it! Learning Japanese will give you even greater access to the rich world of Japanese pop culture.

•  Learning Japanese makes you smarter! Learning a second language also increases your memory and makes you stay sharper, helps your attention span, and sharpens your critical thinking skills.
  

Many of our readers are probably familiar with Valentine’s Day, and even celebrate it in their home country. Valentine’s Day probably conjures up images of hearts, red roses, Valentine candy, and maybe even the cute little Valentine’s Day cards you used to exchange in elementary school.

 But do you know how Valentine’s Day works in Japan? The Japanese Valentine’s Day has its own set of unique customs and rules that set it apart from the holiday celebrated around the world.

 First of all, while in western countries it is common for both men and women to give gifts on Valentine’s Day, in Japan, the gift-giving is left strictly to the women. Girls and women give chocolate (either handmade or store-bought) to a significant other or someone they are interested in. Surprisingly, though, women do not give chocolate only to that special someone they are interested in romantically, which is known as 本命チョコ (honmei choko, “chocolate for someone special”). There is also a tradition of giving chocolate to platonic male friends, co-workers, and bosses. This chocolate is given out of obligation, which is reflected in the name, 義理チョコ (giri choko, “obligation chocolate”).

So, do the girls walk away with nothing, you may wonder? Not quite. Lately on Valentine’s Day, many women decide to give chocolate to their female friends, which is known as 友チョコ(tomo-choko, “friend chocolate”), or even buy chocolate for themselves, known as マイチョコ (mai-choko, “my chocolate”). The main event for women, however, takes place on March 14^th, one month after Valentine’s Day. This marks White Day, a day where men give chocolate back to the women they received chocolate from a month earlier. White Day was created by the Japanese National Confectionary Industry Association in 1980 as a way to sell more sweets such as candies. Surprisingly, gifts of flowers, non-chocolate candies, and dinner dates that are strongly associated with Valentine’s Day in Western countries are uncommon in Japan.

 What do you think about the Japanese way of celebrating Valentine’s Day? What kind of Valentine’s Day traditions do you celebrate in your country?

As you may know, 知恵 (chie: to know + wisdom) is “wisdom” or “intelligence.” And we’ve seen that 袋 (TAI, fukuro) can mean “bag.” Given that, what do you think the following represents?

知恵袋 (chiebukuro)     wisdom (1st 2 kanji) + bag

My cynical side takes over and imagines a wind bag who won’t shut up about everything he claims to know. Not at all. The first definition of “wisdom bag” is literally “bag full of wisdom,” and another meaning is “someone who devises a solution when others have no idea what to do”:

知恵袋 (chiebukuro: (1) bag full of wisdom; bag containing all the world’s wisdom; (2) person who is a fountain of wisdom; brains (of a company))     wisdom (1st 2 kanji) + bag

If it’s strange to imagine an experienced person as a bag, that’s probably no stranger than imagining a wise person as a fountain, as apparently we do in English!

The Japanese know how to put unusual things in bags:
(more̷

本日、紹介するのは江戸時代後期に詠まれた冬の俳句です。

作者は、現在の長野県にあたる信濃の貧しい農家に生まれました。わずか三歳のときに母を亡くし、その後、継母がやってきますが母子関係はうまくいきませんでした。一茶は、子ども四人を授かるものの全員を幼くして亡くし、続いて妻にも先立たれてしまいます。二人目の妻とは結婚後半年で離婚。三番目の妻との間にやっと一人の女の子をもうけますが、その子の産声を聞くことなく、一茶はこの世を去りました。

このように家庭的な幸福に恵まれなかった一茶ですが、残された俳句には小さい生き物への愛情や四季の移り変わりが分かりやすく、素朴にうたいあげられています。

今回、選んだ俳句は冒頭に「むまそうな」とありますね。これは「うまそうな」つまり「おいしそうな」という意味。また、「ふうはり」と「ふはり」の「は」は「わ」と発音します。最後の「哉(かな)」は「～だなぁ」という意味。全体を解釈すると、「おいしそうな雪がふうわりふわりと降ってくるなぁ。」　子どもの頃、空から舞い落ちてくる雪を「おいしそう」と感じ、そっと口に含んだ思い出のある人には共感してもらえるのではないでしょうか。また、「ふうはり」と「ふはり」は擬態語で、雪がゆっくりと落ちてくる様子を表わしています。

大人になってもこんなふうにゆったりとした気分で雪を眺めたいものですね。

＝＝＝＝
むまそうな　雪がふうはり　ふはり哉(かな)　　小林　一茶
Succulent snow falls softly, softly.　　- Issa Kobayashi

Today I’m going to introduce a winter haiku poem composed in the latter Edo period.

The author was born into a poor farming family in Shinano, modern-day Nagano prefecture. When he was only three years old his mother died. A new stepmother came along after that, but their relationship was not a good one. Issa was blessed with four children, but they all died at a young age; his wife then also died, leaving him a widower. He and his second wife divorced just six months after being married. Finally, to his third wife a baby girl was born, but Issa died without even hearing the baby’s first cry.

So Issa was not blessed with familial happiness, but the haiku he left behind express simply and fully his love of small living things, as well as the nature of the changing seasons.

At the beginning of the poem I’ve chosen this time is the word むまそうな (”succulent”). This is equivalent to the modern うまそうな or おいしそうな and means “looks delicious”.  Also, the は　in the words ふうはり and ふはり are pronounced わ　(giving the modern ふうわり・ふわり, “softly, gently”). The final 哉（かな）is the same as ～だなぁ which means “I wonder” in modern Japanese.  So, to translate the entire poem literally: “A delicious-looking snow is falling gently and softly”.  Maybe those of you who remember when you were children thinking that the snow that came whirling down from the sky looked delicious, and then holding it for a moment in your mouth can empathize with the feelings of the writer.  Furthermore, the words ふうはり andふはり　are gitaigo, or mimetic words (ie. words that mimic things that do not actually make sound) and express the slow falling of snow.

Even when we grow up, we want to gaze at the snow just like this, in a relaxed, comfortable mood.

We start with Alberto’s haiku calendar for February, another beauty:

Wow, this haiku features some complex kanji! Alberto will tell us about the poem in the comments section. Meanwhile, here’s the scoop on the least familiar characters:

嶺 (RYŌ, REI, ne, mine: peak, summit)
且 (SHO, SHŌ, SO, ka(tsu): also, furthermore, moreover)
褐 (KATSU: brown)
蔽 (FUTSU, HEI, HETSU, ō(i), ō(u): to cover)

In this list, the first and last characters are non-Jōyō.

Let’s return to a kanji you’ve seen before. As you know from last week, 袋 (TAI, DAI, fukuro) often means “bag, pouch.” With that in mind, try to figure out what the following might represent: (more̷

Recently I’ve shown you koala and kangaroo pictures, and in the past I’ve posted pictures of dogs, giraffes, and yaks. By this point, you should be an expert in animal identification. Based on the breakdowns below, see if you can figure out which animal each compound represents:

袋熊 (fukuro-guma)     pouch + bear
袋狼 (fukuro-ōkami)     pouch + wolf
袋鼠 (fukuro-nezumi)     pouch + mouse

Words for Discussing Pouched Animals …

To block the answers, I’ll present the vitals on the kanji of the moment:

袋 (TAI, DAI, fukuro: (1) bag; sack, pouch; (2) skin of an orange (and other like fruits); (3) dead end; (4) plot of land surrounded by water)

The Etymology of 袋 …

So many meanings!

By the way, the first on-yomi of 袋 is easy to remember, because we so often tie (タイ) bags!

Once again, here’s the koala sign that has prompted this examination of 袋. You can also revisit the breakdown of the words in the sign.

(more̷

給料やこづかいをもらって財布に入れておいたはずなのに、いつの間に遣ったのか気づくと残りのお金が少なくなっていた…こんな経験を誰もが味わったことがあるのではないでしょうか？

お金はまるで生き物のように、足でも生えていて勝手に出て行ってしまうようです。 (more̷

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What do you think the following word means?

虚誕 (kyotan)

The first kanji, 虚 (KYO, KO, muna(shii)), means “empty” or “false,” as we saw long ago. You may recognize 誕 from 誕生日 (tanjōbi: birthday, to be born + to be born + day), where 誕 means “to be born, birth.” So 虚誕 is a false birth?! No, 誕 has other meanings, and the pertinent one in 虚誕 relates to the original definition of 誕.

In 誕, the radical is 言 (words). That’s not entirely obvious, because every component in 誕 can serve as a radical!

All Can Be Radicals …

Meanwhile, 延 is “to stretch, extend,” also acting phonetically in 誕 to express “big.” With “big, stretched words,” you have bragging or exaggerations. Thus, 誕 originally meant “deception” or “false.”

That’s the meaning in our star word, as the breakdown indicates:

虚誕 (kyotan: exaggerated talk)     false + false

More False Talk …

That’s not the whole etymological story, though. The word 降誕 (kōtan: holy birth, royal birth, to descend (from heaven) + birth) originally meant “making a fuss about a holy (or royal) birth.” That makes sense, given the exaggerations inherent in 誕 back then. Consequently, “birth” became an extended meaning of 誕, which we can define in an assortment of ways:

誕 (TAN: to be born, nativity, false, to be arbitrary)

“To be born” is now the main meaning, as in 誕生日 and its root: (more̷

1949年に、画数が多く難しい漢字を「旧字体」、簡素化された文字を「新字体」と呼んで、これ以降は新字体を用いるようになったのです。

さて、「戀」には「心」が見られますので、感情や心の動きを表わす漢字であることはすぐに分かりますね。では、その上の「糸言糸」はどのような意味を持っているのでしょうか。 (more̷

When you long for something or someone, do you think of that longing as having a particular location? Do you store it somewhere, such as your heart, mind, soul, or journal? I don’t feel as if my yearnings have specific addresses; they seem all-pervasive. But the following word hints at the idea that desire is actually lodged (宿) somewhere!

宿望 (shukubō: long-cherished desire)     to lodge + desire

This may have something to do with the nuances of 宿 (SHUKU, yado: to lodge), which also appears in two words synonymous with 宿望:

宿志 (shukushi: longstanding desire)     to lodge + purpose

We’ve seen 志 in both 意志 (ishi: will, intention, determination, intention + to intend) and 志望 (shibō: wish, desire, ambition, ambition + to aspire). Working with Halpern’s definitions, I’ve defined this kanji a little differently all three times!

宿願 (shukugan: longstanding desire)     to lodge + desire

You may recognize 願 as the central part of お願い (onegai: wish). GAN is an on-yomi of 願, and we see this yomi again here:

願望 (ganbō: wish, desire)     desire + wish

Aha! We’ve come full circle, returning to 望!

If you also want to return to the idea that wishes can be stored somewhere inside a person, check out this word: (more̷

そんな一月をなぜ「睦月」と呼ぶようになったのでしょうか。 (more̷

明けましておめでとうございます!（Akemashite omedetō gozaimasu! Happy New Year!). We’ve seen that this 明け means “to open, begin.” What I hadn’t seen until last week was this version of the greeting:

謹賀新年 (Kingashinnen: Happy New Year)
     respectfully + to congratulate + new + year

On 謹賀 …

A Japanese friend posted this on my Facebook page. Although I guessed the meaning, I was puzzled both by the yomi and by the fact that I’d never heard this expression. That’s because it’s formal and is used only in writing.

Whereas the 明けまして phrase sounds completely Japanese, 謹賀新年 consists of four on-yomi, so it seems more Chinese. However, I will forever associate it with Australia, because that’s where I was last week when I received the greeting. About an hour later, while admiring koalas at a koala conservation site, I realized that the tourists next to me were Japanese. After they’d gazed at the nearest koala and said “Kawai!” several times, I showed them the message on my cell phone and asked for the yomi.

Japanese Highlights of the Trip …

More Koalas! …

(more̷

これは、新年の一般的な挨拶です。そして、日本では新年のお祝いを葉書きに記して送り合います。これを「年賀状」と呼ぶことは、皆さん、ご存知ですね。

さて、今日はこの年賀状に書かれる決まり文句を紹介しましょう。 (more̷

「柊（ひいらぎ）」です。この漢字は日本で作られた文字で、昔の暦の初冬にあたる10月頃に白い花を咲かせることから「木＋冬」の組み合わせとなりました。

柊はトゲのある葉が特徴的なモクセイ科の常緑低木で、本州から四国、九州に及ぶ比較的温暖な山地に自生する植物です。クリスマスリースに用いられることで有名な柊ですが、これは厳密に区分すると日本の柊とは異なるそうです。しかし、トゲトゲした緑色の葉は同じ種類の植物に見えますね。

この尖った葉に触ると指が痛むことから、「ひいらぎ」という名前がついたとのこと。｢疼らく(ひいらく＝ひりひり痛む)｣という古代の動詞が語源だという説があります。

また、日本では節分の日に鰯の頭を柊に刺して戸口に立てて置く風習があります。これは、柊の鋭いトゲと鰯の生臭さを嫌って、鬼が退散するという言い伝えに則っているのです。

ちなみに、「木」に「春」を組み合わせると「椿」。これは「つばき」と読みます。
さらに「木」の右側に「夏」を書くと「榎」。こちらは「えのき」と読みます。
では、「木」と「秋」の組み合わせでは？　「楸」（ひさぎ）ですが、常用漢字ではないため、初めて見た人がほとんどでしょう。

今回は春夏秋冬の四つの季節を右側に記す漢字を紹介しました。

=======

Do you know the kanji that combines the characters for “tree” (木）and “winter” (冬）?

It’s 柊（ひいらぎ), meaning “holly olive”.　This kanji was created in Japan, and came from the concept of white flowers that come into bloom around the early winter or tenth month of the old calendar: 木 (tree) ＋ 冬 (winter).

The holly olive is a shrub with evergreen thorny leaves characteristic of the olive family of plants. It grows naturally in comparatively warm mountainous areas from Honshu all the way to Shikoku and Kyūshū.　Holly is famously used for Christmas wreaths, but strictly speaking the Japanese holly olive is a different plant. The lush green thorny leaves look to be the same variety, though.

Apparently this holly olive, or ひいらぎ, was so named from the fact that on touching one of its sharp leaves, your finger hurts. There is a theory that the root of the name lies in the ancient verb 疼らく (ひいらく), which is equivalent to the modern Japanese ひりひり痛む, or “a prickling, stinging pain”.

Furthermore, in Japan there is the custom on the day of Setsubun (a holiday celebrating the end of winter) of sticking a sprig of holly olive through the head of いわし　(pilchards) and fastening them to the doorway of the house. This is in accordance with the legend that demons hate the sharp thorns of the holly olive and the stink of the fish, and will disperse on being confronted with these.

Incidentally,  if you combine 木　(tree) and 春　(spring), you get 椿 (the common camellia flower) which is read つばき.

Furthermore, if you write 夏　(summer) on the right hand side of 木 (tree), you get 榎 (えのき, or Japanese hackberry).

So what if we combine 木 (tree) and 秋　(autumn)?  We get 楸（ひ さぎ, or yellow catalpa), but as this is not one of the 1,945 kanji in common use, most people have probably never seen it before.

So that concludes your introduction to four kanji which use the characters for the four seasons on their right-hand side.

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「掃除」の「掃」には「はく」という訓読みがあり、漢字の左側（てへん）は、「手」を表わしています。一方、右側の「帚」は「持ち手のついたほうき」を記号化したもの。そして、「除」の訓読みは「のぞく」。つまり、手でほうきを使ってゴミを取り除くのが「掃除」であるというわけです。 (more̷

Around the holidays, people like to hear old stories again, whether they involve Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or the Ghost of Christmas Past. This time of year also fills people with hope, so much so that adults temporarily suspend fears of pedophilia and let their children sit on strange men’s laps to spout off consumerist fantasies.

You’ll find both storytelling and hope with 望. You already know that it often means “hope,” because we learned the following last week:

望 (BŌ, MŌ, nozo(mu): hope, wish, aspire to, desire, look afar, look forward to)

As for the storytelling, a few sample sentences with 望 form a tale of hope and longing. We start the story with this sentence, which a Tokyo resident named Satoshi-san once emailed me during our very brief language exchange:

2008年より英国の大学院への留学を希望しています。
2008-nen yori Eikoku no daigakuin e no ryūgaku o kibō shite imasu.
Starting in 2008, I hope to study at a graduate school in England.

Breakdown of the Kanji #1 …

In other words, he had a clearly defined 希望:
(more̷

We’d like to let you all know about the great lessons we have coming up for you in 2010. Here is our 2010 lesson schedule:

After a break in the second half of 2009, both the Newbie and Beginner series will be coming back for a fifth season! These series will rotate on Mondays.

Tuesdays will see the continuation of the Lower and Upper Intermediate series.

Wednesdays will feature two new series: one that focuses on the usage of particles, and one that is aimed at those taking the new JLPT level N4 test (the equivalent of the old Level 3).

On Thursdays, we will be putting out old lessons randomly selected from the Jpod101 archives. Take a trip down memory lane with these older Jpod101 lessons!

Fridays are reserved for video lessons. We have a great team working hard on making fun, educational videos for learning Japanese as well as Japanese culture. You never know what kind of video you might get!

Saturdays will be a break; no lessons will be coming out on this day.

And lastly, Sundays we will be seeing a variety of lessons! Along with the News segments and Japanese Culture Class lessons, we will also see new Audio Blog lessons. The Audio Blog will be going into its third season, and will feature new blogs written by the first male writer for the series! Another series coming out on Sundays is the Japanese Children’s Songs series. Don’t miss these interesting lessons that teach the meaning behind popular Japanese songs!

There you have it - the JapanesePod101.com 2010 Lesson schedule. We look forward to bringing you fun and effective lessons all throughout the new year!

JapanesePod101.comを来年もよろしくお願いします！

The theme for this week is kanji found on vending machines. Let’s take a look!

①

(more̷

それは、左から発音しても右から発音しても、同じ読み方になるという点です。声に出して読んでみましょう。「とまと」「しんぶんし」。

(more̷

I’d never thought about it before, but I’ve just realized that the English expression “looking forward” has two meanings: “gazing into the distance” and “happily anticipating.” One kanji captures both meanings. We usually interpret 望 (BŌ, MŌ, nozo(mu)) as meaning “hope.” A while back, though, we saw that 望 can also mean “looking afar” or “gazing into the distance.”

This duality helps us find several layers of meaning in the song title 望みの星 (Nozomi no Hoshi: The Wishing Star). If you’re wishing on a star (or on the moon, as per the etymology), you’re both gazing at a distant object and hoping that something will come true.

Novelist Wendy Tokunaga cowrote this enka (演歌: performance + song) song with her friend, Hiro Akashi. We’re only up to the title, and already I’m impressed!

I was even more impressed when I heard Wendy sing the song in Japanese. I know you’ll be blown away, too. Wendy has won televised singing competitions in Japan, so you’re in for a treat, not the ear-shattering output of some karaoke singer.
(more̷

The theme for this week is kanji found on forms at the bank. Let’s take a look!

①

(more̷

Time for the final page of Alberto’s beautiful haiku calendar!

Explanation of the Haiku …

(more̷

The theme for this week is kanji found on envelopes used to put money into for special occassions. Let’s take a look!

①

(more̷

Let’s start with a quick quiz. From past weeks you already know this kanji:

渡 (TO, wata(ru), wata(su): to cross, extend, cover, range, span; to ferry across; build across; hand over, hand in, transfer)

And you might know 世 from 世界 (sekai: world, world + world). Put these two key kanji together, and here’s what you get:

渡世 (tosei: livelihood, subsistence; business)
     to go through (life) + existence

Now, add 人 to produce this:

渡世人 (toseinin)     to go through (life) + existence + person

What do you think it means? A person earning a living? A business owner? Check the link for the answer. I think you’ll be surprised! A big hint: Think of Kenny Rogers (for as long as you can stand to do so).
(more̷

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The theme for this week is kanji found at a gas station. Let’s take a look!

①

(more̷

I’ve discovered two new ways of offending the Japanese:

渡し箸 (watashibashi: resting one’s chopsticks across the top of one’s bowl)     to cross over + chopsticks

渡り箸 (wataribashi: using one’s chopsticks to jump from side dish to side dish without pausing to eat rice in between)
     to cross over + chopsticks

Both actions are considered breaches of etiquette.

Just one hiragana distinguishes one term from the other. (And that hiragana can serve as a memory trick. The し somewhat resembles the top of a bowl, whereas the り looks like upright chopsticks jumping from side dish to side dish and appalling all the Emirii Posutos of Japan.)

Another Time When One Kana Really Matters …

The first word, watashibashi, is one of those wonderful Japanese terms with internal rhymes.

More Watashi Rhymes …

The watashi (渡し) in this word is a perfectly legitimate yomi, given all the ways of reading 渡:
(more̷

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日本語では数字を「いち、に、さん…」と読むだけでなく、「ひ（ひとつ）、ふ（ふたつ）、み（みっつ）…」とも読みます。これらの読み方を組み合わせて別の意味を生み出し、数字を当てはめて連想しながら覚えると、より一層、強く記憶にとどめることができます。

特に、歴史の年号を覚えるときにはこのような覚え方が威力を発揮します。日本史の年号で最も有名なのは、鎌倉幕府成立の年とされる「1192年」。これは、「いいくに」と読めるため「いいくに　作ろう　鎌倉幕府」と関連付けた文章と共に暗記しやすいからです。

2の平方根√2は1.41421356…ですが、数字の並んでいる通り、左から順番に暗記しようと思っても容易ではありません。しかし、「ひとよ　ひとよに　ひとみごろ（一夜　一夜に　人　見頃）」と読み換えれば9個の数字を簡単に覚えることができます。

このような読み方を「語呂合わせ」と言います。「語呂」とは、「ことばや文章の続き具合、調子」のことを指し、ことばの続き方を調子よく合わせることで、単なる羅列に過ぎない数字も、おもしろい意味を生み出して覚えたり、宣伝したりすることができるのです。

＝＝＝

In order to make an appointment at the dentist, I looked at the patient registration card and saw the phone number 37-6480.  This number is easy for Japanese people to remember.  This is because it can be read as minna mushiba zero  or zero cavities for everyone.

Japanese numbers can not only be read as ichi, ni san… but also as hi (hitotsu), fu (futatsu), mi (mittsu)… If you arrange this so that it can be read in a certain way, then replace the sounds with numbers, the association between numbers and ideas make memorization even simpler.

This is especially effective when remembering historical dates.  The year 1192, when the Kamakura Shogunate was established, is one of the most famous examples.  The year can be read as iikuni or good country, which is associated with the phrase ‘let’s build a good country, Kamakura Shogunate’ making it even easier to memorize.

The square root of 2 is 1.41421356… which is not an easy number to remember.  However, if you read it as hitoyo hitoyo hitomigoro or one night, one night is a chance to see somebody, it is less difficult to remember the nine digits.

This way of reading is called goroawase. Goro means the rhythm of words or sentences in succession.  By combining words rhythmically, a string of ordinary numbers can be memorized along with an interesting meaning, and can even be used for an advertisement .

The theme for this week is kanji found in a Japanese-language operating system of a computer. Let’s take a look!

①

(more̷

Parents usually dress their daughters in kimono and their sons in hakama, which are formal Japanese skirtlike trousers. They then take them to a shrine or temple to celebrate their growth and pray for their health. They also take family pictures as a keepsake.

Chitose ame（千歳飴）is usually given to children as a gift on Shichi-Go-San. Chitose ame literally means “thousand year candy.” The shape of this candy is long and thin to symbolize the parent’s wish for their children’s health and longevity.  The candy is red and white, since these two colors are considered good luck.  It is wrapped in a paper with a picture of a crane and a turtle on it, both of which represent long life in Japan, and there are also pictures of a pine, bamboo and plum, which are considered auspicious.

In ancient Japan, many children wouldn’t live long into their adult years because of the lack of nutrition or due to poverty.  Therefore, this celebration came to be a common practice among Japanese people.

In any society, a bridge is perhaps the most visible symbol of trust. And this kind of trust seldom comes into question. When most of us see a bridge, we assume it can handle the cars, trains, and gale-force winds bearing down on it.

Lately, though, people in my neck of the woods realize that they can’t take bridge safety for granted at all. In September, inspectors found a significant crack on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. (They wouldn’t have done an inspection except for a rare circumstance, so this discovery shook our confidence considerably.) Crews labored to fix the problem, only to have the repair job fail weeks later, sending 5,000 pounds of steel crashing down onto passing cars. Workers have now repaired the repair job, but they say it’s only a temporary solution and that we’ll need another repair in coming months.

On top of that, they’ve recently reconfigured the bridge, introducing a treacherous S-curve. I was nearly in an accident when the car ahead of me lost control there, careering from one side of the bridge to the other at a 90-degree angle to the rest of us. After that, a Safeway truck overturned at the S-curve, tying up traffic for hours. And just days ago, a truck carrying Asian pears plunged off the S-curve to an island below, killing the driver.

The traffic jams clear up eventually, but distrust lingers long after that. Many of us are left wondering whether we can believe the officials who deem our bridges safe. The bridge feels about as creaky as the old Japanese one in the photo.

Wisteria Bridge over the Fujikawa River, c. 1880.
Photo source: Okinawa Soba

About the Wisteria Bridge …

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The theme for this week is kanji seen on an electric water heater pot. Let’s take a look!

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