Each episode presents several interesting IQ questions to test your brain's analytical, mathematical, intuitive and language abilities. Last night, I learned a couple more Japanese tongue twisters "早口言葉" (hayakuchikotoba) related to my previous post:

親がもめ、子がもめ、羽がもめ、孫がもめ。
(oyagamome, kogamome, hanegamome, magogamome)
Parent sea gull, kid sea gull, wing sea gull, grandchild sea gull. (Doesn't necessary make sense.)

お客が柿むきゃ飛脚が柿食う。飛脚が柿むきゃお客が柿食う。お客も飛脚もよく柿食う客飛脚じゃ。
(okyaku ga kaki mukya hikyaku ga kaki kuu. hikyaku ga kaki mukya okyaku ga kaki kuu. okyaku mo hikyaku mo yoku kaki kuu kyaku hikyaku ja.)
When the guest peels persimmon the messenger will eat it. When the messenger peels persimmon the guest will eat it. Both the guest and the messenger are persimmon eaters.
(Super difficult!)

This TV show not only beautifies my brain but also teaches me Japanese!

I am lucky enough to have a Chinese background and would say that saves me 30% of the work in learning Japanese. I still have to memorize the sounds of the 漢字 (kanji) but the writing and meaning of the Chinese characters have all registered in my database already. A lot of non-native speakers (and sometimes even native Japanese!) complain about learning kanji is the most difficult and painful part of the language. I can sympathize with that of course, but just think about Chinese people who have to learn nothing but Chinese characters. They have to learn about three times more characters and don't have the luxury of writing the vocabularies in 平仮名 (hiragana) if they forget the ideographic representation. So if you are "kanji-phobic" when it comes to learning Japanese, you would probably find learning Chinese a even more formidable chore. Having said that, the most difficult part in Japanese for me is rather the numerous different sounds associated with each kanji and the different speech levels. I am still struggling with that after two years.

I heard there has been some unsuccessful movement in eliminating 漢字 (kanji) altogether in Japanese. This may be good news for Japanese learners, but the Ministry of Education never adopted the idea. Native speakers would agree that Japanese without 漢字 (kanji) would become impossible to read due to the lack of spaces between each word. Even if spaces were to be inserted between each word, the reading speed and comprehension level will be drastically decreased. For this, I would like to hear more native Japanese opinions.

これからも私は、日本語の勉強を続けます。ペラペラになるまで諦めないと思います。これが私の夢だというわけです。

今は朝の六時に起きなくでも大丈夫なので、良かったです。通学するのは大変だったと思います。でも、来年の夏学期は韓国語を勉強する予定なので、また同じ大学へ通うかもしれません。機会があれば皆さんまたお会いしましょう。

Using "文楽" (bunraku) as a symbolic notation, the backbone of the story describes a couple detaching themselves from the society in search for their forgotten memories. The main characters basically tie themselves up with a red cord walking through different places from start to finish in the movie and finally, in the end, they fall off the cliff and die. During their passage, two other love stories intertwine together to portray love from different angles. One thread depicts the lost love of a yakuza boss and the other thread illustrates the kind of worship that a fan has for his idol singer.

If you are a rational person like me, you probably won't understand the message that the director is trying to deliver. Because the whole movie is so irrational to a point which is unreal. In order to feel the sadness behind the story, you really have to put yourself in an imaginary world. And then, you may be able to feel the power of love and the kind of harshness that the movie conveys. If you are not sensational enough, you may even think the movie is absolutely boring. However, as an artistic touch, the whole movie is packaged with nice sceneries of Japan's four changing seasons, designer's clothing and famous composer's music as the backdrop.

The atmosphere of the movie is definitely pessimistic and emphasizes the dark side of life too much. It is not for the type of people with the faintest hearts who would get depressed easily...

今度は尾本先生と浦山先生と、もう一度お会いできてうれしいです。　これからもよろしくお願いいたします!

I was constantly in search of THE perfect pillow that would maintain its firmness to support my head and neck. There are at least six or seven pillows sitting in my house right now and none of them satisfies my requirements. I have basically tried every kind of pillows out there that I could purchase easily at the stores in the States - cotton, down feather, synthetic foam and none of them works. They are either too high, too low, too soft or lose the firmness in several months. What even worse is that I would get neck ache or headache from sleeping on those pillows time to time. Finding the right pillow had become a mission for me until I tried the buckwheat pillows from Japan. Visit the pillow museum for a list of materials that Japanese use in making pillows.

Unlike conventional pillow, buckwheat pillow will not lose its shape no matter how you abuse it. It conforms to the individual's head and neck contour to provide the perfect support at the right places. it also allows air circulation and thus your head feels rather cool which is important for a good night sleep.

I was trying to buy buckwheat pillows in Japan but they were just too expensive. I found some fancy ones with cute prints on the pillow covers at department stores in "横浜" (yokohama) and "お台場" (odaiba) and although they were on sale, it was like 5000 yen for a pair which was a little bit out of my budget.

Luckily, I was finally able to find the buckwheat pillows in the States yesterday and guess what, it was only US$10 each. Now, I am a happy camper and my mission is accomplished. I slept on it last night and it is indeed the best pillow I have ever had!

Here is some reference about the story of pillows in Japanese. Try the buckwheat pillow yourself if you have a chance and you would agree with me that it is the best pillow on earth!

Ten of thousands of years ago, it is said that the Japanese islands were occupied mainly by Jyoumon people of Southern origin who had bigger physical built and more prominent facial features such as angular skull, higher nose, thicker lip and eye-brows etc. Later in history around 300 BC, another group of people called Yayoi of Northern origin migrated to Japan and became quite a dominant race. Their look was quite the opposite from the Jyoumon people though - round face with flat nose, smaller eyes and thinner lip etc... For more detail analysis of ancient Japan, read Yayoi and Joumon.

Due to several thousand years of evolution and inter-racial marriages, you can hardly find a person in Japan who is pure jyoumon or pure yayoi type. Modern Japanese facial features are more likely to be a mixture of both. However, you can still find Japanese who tend to have either stronger jyoumon features or stronger yayoi features. A good example of jyoumon type is the famous male singer "平井堅" (hirai ken). I thought he was half Japanese and half Caucasian in the first place but I turned out to be wrong.

Somebody at Tokyo University did a simulation to predict the look of future Japanese people, what do you think?

生麦、生米、生卵。
(namamugi, namagome, namatamago)
Raw wheat, raw rice, raw eggs.

赤巻紙、青巻紙、黄巻紙。
(akamakigami, aomakigami, kimakigami)
Red rolled paper, blue rolled paper, yellow rolled paper.

赤パジャマ、青パジャマ、黄パジャマ。
(akapajyama, aopajyama, kipajyama)
Red pajama, blue pajama, yellow pajama.

隣の客はよく柿食う客だ。
(tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da)
The guest next to me eats persimmons a lot.

坊主が屏風に上手に坊主の絵を描いた。
(bouzu ga byoubu ni jouzu ni bouzu no e wo kaita)
A monk drew a nice picture of a monk on a folding screen.

蛙ぴょこぴょこ三ぴょこぴょこ合わせてぴょこぴょこ六ぴょこぴょこ。
(kaeru pyoko pyoko mi pyoko pyoko awasete pyoko pyoko mu pyoko pyoko)
Frogs jump three "pyoko pyoko (jumping sound)", in total of six "pyoko pyoko".

裏庭には二羽、庭には二羽鶏がいる。
(uraniwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwatori ga iru)
There are two chickens in the backyard and two in the front yard.

李も桃、桃も桃、桃もいろいろある。
(sumomomo momo momomo momo momomo iroiro aru)
Plum is a kind of peach, and peach is also a peach. There are many kinds of peach.

東京特許許可局。
(toukyou tokkyo kyoka kyoku)
Tokyo Patents Licensing Office. (Actually there is no such office with this name in Japan.)

I had heard enough about Japanese eating horse meat so when I went to Japan during X'mas of 2003, I was determined to find a restaurant where I could try it. Luckily, we were able to find a "回転寿司" (kaitenzushi) in the "上野" (ueno) area which served horse meat sashimi "馬刺し" (basashi) at a very affordable price - 120 Yen for a serving of two pieces! What a good deal! There were lots of ginger and green onion on top of the sushi. I fell in love with the taste of it right away and had several plates in no time. I can tell you if you like raw beef, I guarantee you'll like raw horse meat also. The texture is even more tender!

If you feel uncomfortable eating raw meat, there are restaurants in Japan that serve horse meat cooked in "鍋物" (nabemono) too. It is a hot pot with the meat and vegetables boil in a delicious soup base. We found a restaurant specializes in that but it was a little bit at the high-end. Maybe next time when I go again!

In American culture, people would say "God Bless You!" to the person who sneezes, and I guess the origin is because of the superstitious belief that your spirit will get "sneezed" out at the same time and hopefully God would come to your rescue!

In Japanese culture, the superstitious belief is that there must be somebody talking behind your back or gossiping "うわさ"　(uwasa) about you. Chinese happen to have the same belief too about sneezing.

誰が私のうわさをしているのだろう。

Who is talking behind my back?

We were invited to a friend's birthday party yesterday and got to try different "日本酒" (nihonshu), Japanese sake, from different regions of Japan. One of them was a big bottle of sake with tiny gold flakes inside. Sounds expensive, doesn't it? The taste was quite mild but I couldn't really tell if there is any gold flavor. I guess it is more like for visual appeal than adding flavor to the sake itself. The other bottles were from "島根" (shimane) and "徳島" (tokushima) regions which had much stronger taste than the gold-flakes one. I like them all though.

Of course, the classic Japanese plum wine was also available - "梅酒" (umeshu). It is quite sweet if taken straight but adding a lot of ice or water makes it a very refreshing drink and is no doubt one of my favorite Japanese drinks. Incidentally, Kristen made a step-by-step video of preparing home-made umeshu. Great! I am sure I will try it at home myself one day too!

There is a tradition of pouring alcohol for the other person called "お酌" (oshaku). This little ritual shows respect and affection for the receiver of the drink and happens everywhere in Japan especially in business situations. So we were doing "お酌" (oshaku) with each other during the party and I felt pampered for being served and at the same time it was an honor for me to serve my friends too!

What they did on this TV show reminded me of the traditional Japanese performing arts called "文楽" (bunraku) in which three puppeteers dress all in black to control one puppet. I would like to see a live Bunraku show when I go to Japan next time!

The content of many Japanese Flash movies out there are language dependent - meaning you have to have a certain level of Japanese language comprehension in order to fully enjoy the movies. But I was able to find some that are quite language independent or with English version so non-speakers can enjoy also. I do recommend that you have broadband internet connection and Flash plug-in for your browser to play the following files:

Japanese type of sophistication
Japanese sense of humor
Japanese form of cuteness
An open source project with famous ASCII characters
Another version of the project with the same music

Sites that have a collection of "Japlish Engrish"
http://www.engrish.com/
http://www.tokyotales.com/japlish/