Katanagatari (“Katana Tale”) is ostensibly about swords, but it is really about people. It is epic in various senses. It is 12 episodes of 50 minutes. It is beautiful, yet simple; frivolous, yet deadly serious. It is an experience. It is, by me, highly recommended. – J
A Somewhat Modern TraditionUntil the Meiji Restoration, consumption of beef had been banned in Japan for about a thousand years! This reflected not only Buddhist cultural prejudices, but to keep penalties severe in case anyone was tempted to slaughter drought animals (i.e. for pulling things) during a famine. Individually, a Wagyu (lit. “Japanese cow”) was more valuable than a Japanese peasant. It’s just a matter of muscle power and economics.
It’s hard to put a good spin on this story, and I think it would be wholly dishonest to do so. This is the government broadcasting that it’s cool with less warmth in winter, less AC in summer, and a broad reduction in living standards, because it’s too hard to either put up with nuclear power or find an alternative that works. No Christmas cheer here.
The government further advises that eating soup will help you keep warm. It’s 2011. I think a lot of people over there understand it’s been a bad year, but they thought they outgrew this kind of thing decades ago. – J
When a leading male arrives in an unfamiliar town and breaks up in laughter at seeing a house, commenting about how terrible it looks and what awful taste the owner must have, it is invariably the house of his leading female companion. Learned from: Katanagatari, ep. 8 – J
There’s a serious danger in trying to rant about something across cultural barriers. A Japanese native saw a re-post of my post yesterday on not hating Japan and thought that someone, either the poster or the writer (me), hates Japan and must have a reason why. If I’d written it in Japanese it’d have been crystal clear. Such are the dangers of the language barrier.
So why do I like Japan? （なぜ、日本を大好きですか)
It’s not complicated. Japan is a land of beautiful nature (美しい大自然), rich culture (豊か文化), an interesting history (面白い歴史), a resilient people (頼もしい人), and, in spite of a great deal of conformity (「出る釘は打たれる」のくせに、) there is a huge amount of creativity that emerges from Japan. (莫大な創作力がある).
One of the true reasons, and unfortunately, the one that I can least share, is that the intricacy of the Japanese language allows Japanese people to reveal a great deal about what they think and feel to others, with as much vagueness or specificity as they prefer. The language is truly a window into the soul.
That’s my reasons in a very short list.
So a friend of mine showed me this post about “I hate Japan some more.” The writer lives in Japan and teaches classes there. He has found a new reason to hate Japan, and I do not care for it or him. If you hate what you’re doing, who’s forcing you to do it? No one forces me to like Japan. I do it because I care, because I prefer to be motivated by positive emotions instead of negative ones, and because I am not a jerk.
Part of this guy’s rant is that he doesn’t see the point of getting kids to identify goals for later in life. “Let kids be kids.” No, let kids be students. Without goals it’s hard to motivate yourself to do something truly difficult, like learn Japanese right after leaving high school and sticking with it through thick and thin for years. As for America not being concerned about scores and grades… ever heard of No Child Left Behind?
As for Japan being restricted and constrained, yes, it is. Real life isn’t 100% like anime. Why would it be? Anime is fantasy. People wouldn’t fantasize about freedom of action if there weren’t constraints. Deal. We exist in the real world, and we should have what fun in it that we can while not forgetting that it is real. – J
From a festival in Kyoto. Kyoto literally means “capitol” and was once the long-time capital of Japan. To this day, it remains a great cultural epicenter.
I don’t have enough time to do as much blogging as I’d like, but more to the point, I hadn’t actually watched much anime for a while. In this case, I took a look at Guilty Crown episode one, and I wanted to say a quick word.
This show has movie quality visuals. I say this in all seriousness. It starts like a movie, with a long intro with a song accompanying it, and the production values are pure movie in an episode length time frame.
The plot is still largely a mystery, but that’s hooks for you. This did its job of making me bite. This should be one show worth watching and talking about, and I haven’t actually seen many of those lately, but the preceding season is usually one of the slower of the year regardless. – J
Normally, I wouldn’t deign to be defending the Japanese people against their own government, but even I have my limits. Just how many elected ministers will go down in flames insulting their own disaster victims? This is ridiculous.
Here’s the latest example at the Daily Telegraph. Now look, I have some small sympathy for his calling someone who didn’t take shelter with tsunami warnings blaring “idiots,” but that’s not the sort of thing that people want to hear from their elected leaders. Let the idiots rest in peace. Deliberately jabbing the eyes of the living with needles is not just bad politics; it’s terrible for the country. Continue reading
Truth be told, the demand for learning Japanese is pretty anemic in the West. I had hoped for more, but more has simply not materialized. What I will do is use language as a tool, prop, sock puppet, what have you, to show things about Japan, hopefully in an eye-catching way.
The above portrait is the Brooks Mountain Range, in Alaska. In Japanese, a mountain range is called sanmyaku (山脈、さんみゃく), a combination of the kanji for “mountain” and “vein.” In this sense, the mountains course across the earth, running across its surface like a pathway of stone.
There is a forest, or mori (森、もり) shown at the base of the mountains. The kanji is three instances of the word for tree, which as a stand-alone word is pronounced ki (木, き). Three of anything represents a large number. A grove or small forest would be a hayashi (林、はやし) showing only two instances of ki (木), indicating a decent but not overwhelming number.
The snow on the surface of the mountains is yuki (雪、ゆき). Long-time readers may recall my post on Yuki Onna, a supernatural being from Japanese myth and legend.
An individual mountain is pronounced yama (山、やま). A mountain priest of Buddhist inclination is known as a yamabushi (山伏、やまぶし). This is a rare example of the “Japanese” reading being used in a compound word. – J
