This is a life-sized, 1:1 model Gundam (making it going on 60 feet in height) that exists in real life in Japan. Gundam was Japan’s first “realistic” (that is, realistic style) leading robot in Japanese animation (i.e. anime). You can see a lot more pictures of this by following this link. I’m raising awareness and spreading the word, not trying to steal their thunder, so get the rest of the nice, big images over at Gunjap. – J

If you haven’t heard, Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, has been hit by the biggest snowfall since scientific records began there in 1949. The snow was so heavy that the weather measuring gear broke. They’re talking about mounds of up to 2 meters, which would come up to 72 inches (but instruments measure average fall, not the height of mounds).

Similarly, I’ve been buried by events on my end. I’m only just today fully coming up for air after spending the last several weeks working on a business plan and a venture capital pitch. This was for an innovation contest we ended back in after being ruled out at first; we were #6, and one of the top 5 bowed out, so we had a small grace period to hammer out the plan  and the pitch. The pitch was given yesterday and by all accounts went excellently. Whether that translates into prize money and in-kind help, we just won’t know for another week. Thankfully, it’s just one week.

I’ve been distracted with other things too, but sometimes life just buries you for a while. Now my “storm” is over for the short term and I might not have much to do on the corporate front until manufacturing is ready and the company needs online marketing. If that’s the case, I’ll just try harder to blog, contribute to the Internet (as long as governments keep their mitts off it) and comment more.

This blog wasn’t meant to be an encyclopedia. It also is my only blog now so I won’t shy away from non pure Japan comments, as long as it’s all kept clean, dignified and I feel that it contributes something. So, best wishes to Hokkaido residents, and I’ll be more visible here for a while. – J

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