Old Times, Good Times

Super Turrican is one of the games for the Super Nintendo that, owing to the system, had “Super” tacked onto the front. Featuring a man in an armored suit, with some similarities to Metroid, this action platformer featured some incredible synthesized music. I have included a sample of this music below from Stage 1-3.

My only personal connection with this game is through game rentals in my early teens, but I remember the music of this stage well, even now. Amusingly, in spite of the action nature of the game, this music instilled a Zen-like state of peace in my mind. Perhaps the better to go out shooting things with. Perhaps.

Listen for yourself and enjoy the experience. – J

It’s About The Little Things

Some other things in my life have stabilized so I’m going to devote a little time to this blog to put some ideas out.

Nihongo: A Precision Instrument

In Japanese literature, the meanings of Japanese words in their own language are full of precision and nuance.

Each word fills a distinct role. Words are used with great care. Words are employed to present facts, as well as to conceal them.

These roles are well defined even when they extend beyond the literal meaning of a word. The implied, or idiomatic, meaning is well defined as well.

Therefore, Japanese authors are able to know exactly what their words are, and are not, saying.

Let’s take, for instance, gender.

Japanese has gender specific and gender nonspecific ways of referring to people. Japanese references are further divided in ways that separate references to people and references to things.

But that doesn’t mean everyone has to play by the rules, or take them as absolute. Not at all.

Plain but not rude forms of referring in the 3rd person are kare (for males) and kanojo (for females). For those who know a little Japanese, kanojo is used as a word for “girlfriend” as well. Let’s call it a female gender specific version of the English idiom significant other.

The pronoun version can always be differentiated because of the presence of the topic (wa) or subject (ga) particles.

Example: Kare wa Alan.

Example: Kanojo wa Karen.

So where does that leave us for words like koitsu and aitsu?

Koitsu, soitsu and aitsu are slang versions of kono, sono and ano. These identify objects by their physical location relative to the speaker.

Kono is for something right in front of you.

Sono is for something a visible distance from you, but still not far.

Ano is for something significantly removed.

So let’s take for example, oh…

Koitsu wa nan da?!?!

(i.e. What the heck is this thing?!?!)

A question like this punts on the whole issue of gender. The speaker has no idea whether this creature is male or female. Nor, quite likely, does the speaker have any idea what species the creature is supposed to be.

The choice of “koitsu” tells us two things:

• The encounter is at close range.
• The speaker is being rude for emphasis.

Incidentally, this is a Mokona, a fictional creature from the shoujo (girl’s) anime Magic Knights Rayearth. (It’s about schoolgirls who get ‘called’ into becoming Magic Knights on a fantasy world to save it at least.)

Let’s try a different version using “are” (pronounced more like “ah-re” with the strength on the “re” part).

Nan nan da yo, are?!?!

(i.e. What the heck is that?!?!)

Now in Japanese, you don’t need two “nan” ‘s to ask a question. This is the “nan” in nanda, nani, etc, 何だ、何、and so on in kanji. (Those with Japanese script enabled will see that it’s the same kanji at least.)

So, properly speaking, “nan nan da yo” isn’t proper Japanese. It’s like a stutter. “Wh… what the heck is that?!?!)

The point is, actual Japanese people will understand that the surplus “nan” is for emphasis, like bolding or italicizing the what part of the sentence. (Due to Japanese grammar, the “nan” part – the “what” – comes at the start of the sentence.)

In an anime, either outburst would be considered comedic levels of impoliteness, likely contrasted with over-politeness by another character.

Nan nan da yo, are?!?!

(What the heck is that thing?!?!)

Maa, kawaii~~

(How cuuuuute…)

…Something like that.

道

In Japanese language, this kanji represents the path. As a solo kanji, it is read as みち (michi). As part of compounds, it is read as ドウ (dou).

In English, this is usually translated as the way for various purposes. The essential problem is that this is such a fundamental oriental concept that those unfamiliar with the concept have difficulty grasping the meaning no matter which words are used.

Nonetheless, we can see how the terms are related. The path is the way we travel to get from one place to another. It is the road we walk on. This may be literal, or it may be completely metaphorical.

I simply find the translation of path useful for the kanji on its own, without being associated with anything else, as a good starting point.

茶道

This is chadou, the Way of the Tea (as usually translated).

It is the term used for what we call in English the Japanese tea ceremony.

It is important to note that this is not a Japanese tea ceremony ritual. It is the study and practice of the tea ceremony in its entirety. As such, “the Way of the Tea” seems a better way, to me, of presenting this.

剣道

This is kendou (kendo), as in, the Way of the Sword. This is the martial art involving simulated sword combat using wooden substitutes.

In light of this, even though we are accustomed to saying “the Way,” what is meant is that this is a path that the practitioner follows. The objective is not a particular destination, such as defeat of a particular opponent or victory in warfare; kendo will never provide these things. Kendo is about the experience of walking the path. This is a path to greater self revelation, enlightenment, and character building. It is focused on personal development precisely because learning to slice people in half, for real, is not considered a wholesome family activity.

道教

This is doukyou, or Daoism (also romanized somewhat questionably as Taoism).

Daoism is centered around the idea of the Dao, which in Japanese would be the dou (the “dou” part of “doukyou”). The second part simply means religion. Thus, it is the Religion of the Way.

Having said this, we must still understand this as meaning it’s all about a path. It’s about the way water takes the path of least resistance to the ocean. It is not about ways and means; it is not about methods. It is about the proper path that nature takes, and how we may live in accordance with this path and follow the path of least resistance rather than fighting nature and wasting our efforts.

This is the essence of Daoism.

This concludes the relationship between this kanji and the various ways it is used in Japanese and, through translation, in English.