I get all kinds of weird questions in my e-mail inbox. Sometimes they’re creepy, sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes they’re interesting, and sometimes they’re a part of a pattern. This is one of those patterns. A few times a month I’ll get the following question:

What is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary?

Once I get the same question too many times, there’s a good likelihood that I’ll just write the answer via a post here, which is exactly what’ I’m doing. So, what is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary out there? Let’s find out.

The Best Japanese Language Electronic Dictionary Is… Not a Japanese Language Electronic Dictionary…

Guh-what? You’d think that if you were in the market to buy an electronic dictionary you’d buy an electronic dictionary… at least in the “traditional” sense. You can see pictures of them above. Now, for sure, they do the things they’re supposed to do, but that’s about it. If you buy one, you probably won’t be disappointed on this front. You’ll be able to look up words, see sentences, and in some hear audio. Not too shabby.

For me, though, I don’t feel like that’s enough, at least not in this day and age. Even though these do exactly what you want them to do, I don’t think they’re the best tool for the job. Here’s why:

• They’re big (though the big screen could be considered a plus)
• They’re bulky, try putting one of the regular sized ones in your pocket
• They aren’t versatile
• They’re expensive (approximately $200-$400+)

By now, I bet you’ve already guessed the “electronic dictionary” that I’d recommend.

Get An iPod Touch / iPhone Instead Of a Japanese Electronic Dictionary

Instead of a Japanese language electronic dictionary, I highly recommend you get an iPhone or iPod Touch. I think it’s an easy decision, but that’s also because I’m an Apple fanboy. Still, I think anyone will see the logic here.

• An iPod Touch comes in at $179 (if you buy it at Costco) or $199 from the Apple store. This is the same price as the lower end models of the Japanese electronic dictionaries, but you get so much more.
• You can download a dictionary application to your iPhone or iPod Touch. My favorite is “Japanese” because everything is stored locally (i.e. no need for an internet connection to look things up). This app is $16, which is pretty expensive for an iPhone app, but well worth it if you were planning on putting down $200-$400+ on an electronic dictionary. Update: A lot of people seem to like “Kotoba” as well. I haven’t tried it, but it seems to be highly recommended (and free!)
• There are tons of other Japanese language learning related applications in the iTunes store as well. There are so many different things you can get (and who knows what will come out in the future), making it an awesome (mobile) platform for practicing your Japanese.
• You can download Japanese Podcasts to your iPod / iPhone, and listen to them for continued practice while you’re driving, sitting around, at work, at school, etc.
• You can do other things with it, so you aren’t just pinned down to using it to study Japanese (you know, all the things an iPod Touch / iPhone are supposed to do, right?).

So, basically it’s better, more mobile, has apps, and costs less. What is there not to like? Granted, regular Japanese electronic dictionaries have their perks, too, I’m sure, but I personally don’t see the purpose of getting one when you could do this instead.

If that didn’t convince you, watch this video, which just says the same things you just read all over again.

Anyone else doing the same thing? Any angry Japanese electronic dictionary users out there? Let me know in the comments what you think.

Related posts:

1. How To Use Evernote To Study Japanese (Or Any Other Language)
2. What I Want To See With Apple’s iPad (In Regards To Japanese)

Bad news everyone. It looks like if you want to be considered as a literate member of the Japanese society, you’re going to have to learn an additional 196 kanji to make it in every day life. A proposal is in (and it seems like it’s going to pass… I guess the folks at the Agency For Cultural Affairs don’t have anything better to do) to increase “everyday kanji” to 2136 (that’s up from 1945).

It’s Happened Before

Changing the number of Joyo kanji (i.e. all the kanji you’re supposed to know if you want to be a functioning adult) isn’t new, though. They’ve done it a good number of times in the past.

1923: There were 1962 kanji considered to be standard kanji everyone should learn.

1931: This number went down to 1858 (how great would it be to live back when kanji numbers were this low? It feels like we’re talking gas prices, here).

1942: There was a lot of nationalistic fervor going on, so they jacked the kanji numbers up to 2528. Who cares about all the death and tragedy from the war. The real tragedy is the number of kanji kids had to learn. This was the true kanjipocolypse.

1946: Things came back under control, and kanji goes down to 1850. I’m actually surprised by this one, especially since there was so much interest in “Japanese-ness” because of the occupation. I would have guessed this number to be higher, but perhaps they just switched back to pre-war numbers, shifting a few around to make it seem different.

1981: This is the number most of you know now, if you’re shooting for Joyo proficiency. Right now you learn 1945 kanji, and this is also the number I use on TextFugu (though I actually get rid of some of the useless ones), and a lot of other people use it too. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when this number goes up.

November, 2010: This is when it’s looking like things could go through officially. At this time, Joyo kanji will jump from 1945 to 2136. This is going to be fun!

Why The Kanji Change, Guys?

So, there is actually some logic behind this change (believe it or not!). It seems as though technology is changing the way people interact with kanji, making it so recognizing kanji is more important than being able to write it properly. It’s the same with English, too. Ask me how to spell almost anything with more than three words and I’ll get it wroung. If spell check didn’t exist, it’d be over for me.

Writing in Japanese is as simple as writing out the sounds and then picking the correct kanji that you want to correlate with that sound. As long as you can recognize the kanji, you can also write it (at least, with your cell phone, computer, or iPad). Since more people are relying on these devices, the powers that be decided that they should add some “commonly used kanji” to the master list, even though many people don’t know how to write them. Since technology is changing the way we read and write, though, it seems to work out okay.

So, you can thank your iPhones, iPads, laptops, computers, and so on for this 10% increase in kanji you’ll have to learn, come this November.

Oh, well, there is one consolation prize. Even though they’re adding 196 kanji, they’re removing some too. How many? Well… it’s only five, but I’m sure they’re really really useless, and you probably never learned them anyways.

So how will you prepare for the kanjipocolypse?

[Slashdot & Examiner - Thanks to @mhashizu for the tip!]

P.S. If you want an additional 196 Twitter followers, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

P.S. If you’re glad it’s not 1942 you should subscribe to the Tofugu Newsletter.

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1. 12 Completely (Un)inspiring Images To Help You Learn Kanji
2. Skritter’s A Great Way To Practice Kanji, Stroke Order
3. The History Of Kanji

Everyone knows that smoking is pretty unhealthy – even in Japan people are smoking less and less. But for me, when it comes to my debilitating addiction to cool gadgets, I’d be happy to carry highly radioactive cell phones, stare at staring women, or put one of these in my mouth. That is, as long as it’s only a Vitamin C cartridge inside.

I found this product via Flutterstream’s Twitter feed (Yes, you can buy this). The one being sold is the “Vitamin C” one, though it exists in “Coenzyme Q10″ and “Tarless Nicotine” (for you cigarette addicts out there) flavors as well. Mmm, I can finally throw out the Airborne.

Here’s how it essentially works:

• There’s an LED light so that you can look just as cool as other smokers around you (who’s second hand smoke is much worse for you than if you were smoking an actual cigarette).
• You breath in moisture from the air which gets turned into a smoke-like mist which you can breath out (presumably so you can continue to look as cool as all the other smokers you’re sitting outside with).
• Inside is a replaceable cartridge (the three types that were listed above).
• It doesn’t smell like anything, which means you can smoke indoors and have fun explaining to every other person you run into that “no, it’s not an actual cigarette, it’s just mist… no, see, it’s not a… no… right, but I’m telling you… right… it’s mechanical… and it… ugh, fine, I’ll put it out. See? Switch. Not fire. I just turn off a switch.”)

You do have to charge your fancy cigarette, which apparently takes 3-4 hours to do. C’mon, if they wanted to make it like a real cigarette (which it seems like they’re really trying to do with the LED light and the mist and stuff), then they should make it charge faster, so you can take a break every hour and take advantage of the extra breaks you should get (and deserve). Right?

And, while you’re at it, hanging out with the rest of the smokers, why not take a look at this company’s other product, “NoseMint”?

It’s just one home run after another for this company, isn’t it? So are you like me? Does smoking sound awesome if you get to use a fancy gadget to do it?

P.S. If you think your nose could smell better, you should follow me on Twitter.

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Just after I post about getting past the Mixi blockade by using a .edu address, Mixi shakes things up and I thought they closed up the .edu loophole. [UPDATE] Turns out, it still works, and the best part is, you don’t need to ask for a Mixi invite anymore. You can register all by yourself.

The Good News

Mixi has switched from being an invite-only service to being an “anyone-can-join” service. That means now anyone can join, as long as you’re using the workaround. Otherwise, you have to be Japanese / in Japan.

The Bad News

Well, there is no real bad news now that I’ve gotten word that you can use the workaround to register for Mixi yourself. Very cool.

What This Means

1. You can try to join anytime you want now.

2. My fingers won’t hurt so much sending all those replies and invites and so on!

3. You don’t have to write me a poem to get an invite. Sad for me, good for you.

Solutions?

Originally I had to offer some solutions for getting into Mixi, but no solutions necessary. Only the ol’ Mixi workaround, which should get you in.

So, no more need to leave sad comments in the comment section. Everyone be happy now and add me as a friend (just be warned I am super slow about processing friend requests).

Update: This loophole does not work anymore. The black ship has failed. Retreat! Retreat!

Related posts:

1. How To Get Into Mixi (Without A Japanese Cell Phone Email Address)

I’ve written two articles about Mixi so far (kind of a love-hate relationship going, I think). The first was about how you can use the Japanese social network Mixi to study Japanese. The second was about how Mixi essentially closed themselves off from all foreigners (or at least people outside of Japan) by making you input a Japanese cell phone e-mail address. This article is all about getting around that restriction and getting you your Mixi invite. Whew. Wait a sec, this reminds me of something…

Perry’s Black Ships Invade Mixi

I think this has happened once before… right? Back in the day, Japan closed Japan off to those damn foreigners. Then, one day Matthew Perry came in with his black ships and told Japan to open up or face the consequences. This work-around, I think, is just like that (though not at all significant in comparison). Mixi started off by letting anyone with an invitation in (and that was swell). Then, they decided, “hey, we don’t like your kind around here” so they made it pretty hard to join (unless you were in Japan / Japanese). Now, the preverbal black ships have come into port, and it’s time to show you how you can get in. We’ll have to see, however… I think this time the black ships could get themselves sunk.

Of course, keep in mind they probably closed Mixi off in the first place because non-Japanese people were probably being super creepy, so make sure you play nice and only request an invite if you really want one (for non-weird purposes, you weirdo).

The following is a video that walks you through it (and also includes a sweet giveaway at the end, which you can get a jump start on before it’s posted here on the actual Tofugu blog!). Of course, you can skip the video and just read the information below, and have your Mixi invite in 24-48 hours. How swell.

How To Get A Mixi Invite

Get a .edu email address

If you already have one, then that’s great. You can skip to the next step and just use that (probably, though I can’t say 100% for everyone). If you don’t have a .edu e-mail address, here’s how you get one.

1. Go to Australia.edu

2. Click on the email banner to request your own australia.edu e-mail account.

3. Fill out the information – there is a waiting period while they decide whether or not to accept you in. If you give them a $20 donation it apparently helps them make their decision more “effectively,” if you know what I mean. You should think about donating, though – they’re going to start hating how many people go over there for .edu e-mail handouts via Tofugu. Sorry Australia.edu folks!

4. Wait for a while.

5. Maybe after 24-48 hours, they’ll send you your australia.edu e-mail address. After that, you’re in business! If they don’t send you one? Well… pony up that donation.

Request a Mixi invite

After you get your .edu email address, you’ll have to get a Mixi invite sent to that address. Because only people who are already in Mixi can send you an invite, you’ll have to ask for one. Even though I HATE HATE HATE sending out Mixi invites, I’ll hook you up (you better really want it… just saying). Click the link below to request one. If you want to make me feel better, or if you want to learn Japanese so you can actually use Mixi (it’s all in Japanese, you know), consider becoming a member of TextFugu, my online Japanese textbook that will help you self-teach yourself Japanese, oh so good. Anyways, here’s the Mixi request form. Please give me a few days to get to the request, as I’m guessing there will be a lot of them coming in :(

UPDATE: INVITES NO LONGER REQUIRED

Whew, okay, I’m nervous, but looking forward to getting your requests.

Receive Your Mixi Invite

After I send out your Mixi invite, you’ll be able to sign up for Mixi (hooray!). Now, here is where I would normally spell out how to fill everything out… but, when it comes down to it, you should know some Japanese if you’re going to be using Mixi. That being said, hopefully you can figure out how to fill the sign up form all on your own. If that doesn’t work, you can always use Rikaichan.

By following all the steps above, you’ll be able to join the Mixi social network without a Japanese cell phone e-mail address. I don’t know how long this will last, but for now, it should do the trick. If it stops working, be sure to let us know so I can add an update up here. Anyways, get your Mixi invites now, while the hole is still open. Until then, best of luck to all of you!

Update: This loophole does not work anymore. The black ship has failed. Retreat! Retreat!

Related posts:

1. How The Japanese Address System Works

Have you ever noticed how almost every zipper you own has “YKK” written on it? I didn’t, until I read this post about it. I did a little more research, and found out there’s quite a story behind YKK and their “circle of goodness.” Just remember, every time you zip up imagine Mr. Yoshida standing there watching, double thumbs up with approval.

What Does YKK Stand For?

YKK stands for “Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha” (also known as Yoshida Industries Limited), which is the #1 zipper manufacturing company in the world, making 90% of all zippers from 206 factories in 52 countries. Who knew the zipper industry was so big. Makes you wonder what the “button up pants” industry thinks of YKK. Probably not good things.

The Vibrant History of YKK

Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha has been around for a while, though they didn’t come up with the idea for a zipper, which happened in 1891. YKK came about in 1934, two years after Tadao Yoshida started working at a failed zipper company in Japan. Apparently, Yoshida was “impressed with the product” (people are impressed by zippers?) and went on to start his own zipper company after bankruptcy closed the Zipper co. he was working for at the time.

In 1945, YKK hit a setback, when their factory was burned down (I guess someone forgot to unzip the oven?), but they bounced back and bought a US company that helped automate zipper manufacturing. Can you imagine what it was like doing the zippering by hand? From there, YKK went on to bigger and better things, moving to Tokyo, expanding overseas, and basically dominating the zipper industry… an industry they dominated so much that they got in trouble for zipper price fixing. I guess Europe didn’t have much to do until Microsoft came along.

According to Wikipedia, while they made incredible innovations to the zipper, they also worked on some non-zipper (gasp) products. I’ve bolded the particularly *amazing* features:

• Zippers
  • YZip: Metal zipper, extra durable for jeans
  • Ever Bright: Metal zipper, polished for visual appeal (oh yeah!) and corrosion resistance
  • Excella: Metal zipper, polished and plated for visual appeal, also in different colors (Purple? Pink? Oh yeah!)
  • Conceal: Plastic coil zipper with no visible teeth (nom nom nom)
  • Vislon: Rugged plastic zipper
• Hook and loop products, more commonly known under the Velcro brand name of a competitor.
• Plastic parts, including various types of clips and buckles
• Snaps and buttons, including snap fasteners and jeans buttons

To make a long story short, YKK is “teh sexy” of zipper companies. When you think Japanese companies, things like Sony, Nintendo, Toshiba, Honda, and Toyota come to mind… but never YKK. Next time you zip up, make sure to thank Mr. Yoshida for the bladed death teeth next to your private parts. If they’re colored, you should give double thanks. Z-Z-Zip!

P.S. I feel like this article lacked, and should have some “zipper” puns… create some for me in the comments?

P.P.S. You should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

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A lot of you out there know how much of a (sad) Apple fanboy I am, which means you’ll probably understand why iPhone art makes my heartbeat increase. This is the post I was going to post the other day (before getting distracted by Wacom Japan’s little flash game), and yes, it’s also developed by my new favorite art / design / tech group Team-Lab. We’ve already seen how nice and shiny LCD screens can modernize hanging scrolls, but what if you want to take your hanging scrolls on the train? First, you’d have to get four iPhones, but if you’re a multi-millionaire, then why not?

The trick with these hanging scroll iPhones is to put them side by side and synchronize the start time of each. When this is done, the hanging scrolls tell a story (not unlike regular hanging scrolls), using traditional art styles via a new medium. Personally, I love the 3D-but-not-3D style that Team-Lab puts into a lot of their design, and the iPhone’s a great touch too.

Of course, now that this has come out, there are rumors of a slightly homelier Android version hitting the market too. This new Android mobile hanging scroll model will drop fewer calls and run on Verizon, which encourages you to purchase the family plan with unlimited scroll-viewing minutes for only $49.99 a month.

Oh, and you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Flower and Corpse: Making Hanging Scrolls Modern
2. How Wacom Japan Gets You To Buy Their Very Expensive Tablets (Cute Mesmerization)

Welcome to another edition of “Saturday Time Waster.” There seems to be a huge difference between American flash games and Japanese flash games. Although this isn’t 100% the case, it seems like most of the time, Japanese flash games are all about making you feel nice and calm. Most of the games seem to have no end, and they attempt to down you with pleasant music and cuteness. I suppose if I was a hard working “Sarari man” I’d want something to calm me down too while I was hiding out in my cubical playing flash games.

This particular game was made by my friends at Team-Lab (they’re the ones that did the fantastically mesmerizing ”Flower and Corpse“), who I’ll be slowly covering over the course of the month. I was originally going to put something up for all you Apple lovers today (which I suppose will have to wait), when I came across this game that Team-Lab made with Wacom (the folks that make those really cool, yet expensive tablets). As you’re playing this game, it definitely makes the tablet yearner in all of us think “man, I wish I had $500-$1000 to buy a tablet to play this game with.” Add that to the zombie / mesmerized feeling you get while playing the game… and you’ve created the perfect monster… er… customer.

You can play the game yourself, or watch the video showing my attempt to win the game. I’m pretty sure if you fill the screen with angry neon pigs that counts as a win, right? At least I didn’t buy a tablet… yet.

Play now: http://tablet.wacom.co.jp/bambooplayroom/

Oh, and you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. 100 Ways to Entertain Guests Visiting From Japan
2. Flower and Corpse: Making Hanging Scrolls Modern

I’ve always been a big fan of traditional wood block prints (and similar Japanese art styles), but now I think I’m a bigger fan of Japanese traditional… er… video block prints?

A friend of mine who splits his work time between TEAMLAB (which does the art I’m about to talk about) and Pixiv (a Japanese art sharing community) told me about their most recent project (which we’ll get to in the next couple of days) and it just absolutely blew me away. That got me poking around their portfolio, and time and time again I found myself hitting the full screen button and becoming hypnotized. I’d love to have some of their art on my wall, but I can’t afford all the LCD screens required.

“Flower And Corpse”

“Flower and Corpse” consists of 12 LED screens (think of them as modern-day hanging scrolls) that coordinate a story. Now, the really interesting thing about these hanging scrolls, is that they tell a story in 4 dimensions. The first three dimensions consist of the 3d art-style being used, and the fourth dimension comes from the various “scrolls,” which creates a time axis (and the 4th dimension). Really interesting stuff if you ask me, though it’s probably best if you just watched it. Be sure to full screen this sucker.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The story that takes place on these 12 LCD scrolls consists of the following. It can also be read here.

1. At the zenith of the HEIAN-era’s prosperity, Hikaru Genji lives in brilliant colors. One day, the capital HEIAN-KYO is suddenly struck by an unfortunate disease. Hikaru Genji leaves the capital on a quest to find out the cause of the disease that has fallen on his people.
2. Continuing on his search Hikaru Genji follows the trail of the disease and he arrives at a village. The village is holding a festival of thanks and gratitude to nature for its benevolence.
3. After the festival, the village starts to return to normal life, and the people live bravely and courageously even though there is still the threat of disease. They fell trees and work hard to continue to develop the civilization. Nature rewards the people with its benevolence and the people live good and peaceful lives.
4. The village people are requested to cut down more and more trees by the capital governor, in order to construct more buildings in the city. The village people plan to cut down a big tree from a forest deep in the mountains. After cutting down the big tree, suddenly, a YAMATANOOROCHI appears. The dragon burns with anger, and lets loose heavy rains that flood the village.
5. The YAMATANOOROCHI carry on rampaging and destroying the houses of the village. Then the forest gods come down to the village and take out their anger on the people in the village.
6. When the plight of the village is reported to the governor, he sends a group of Samurai to drive out the YAMATANOOROCHI and forest gods. The Samurai go to the village and start to fight the dragons with flaming arrows. After bitter fighting, the Samurai finally win the battle and kill the YAMATANOOROCHI and forest gods.
7. After the fight there is desolation, the ground is scorched and the houses are wrecked. The village loses nature’s benevolence and the people begin to suffer the torments of hunger.
8. Hikaru Genji is stunned as he stands surrounded by the dead YAMATANOOROCHI and forest Gods. In a state of bemusement Hikaru Genji tries casting seeds over the corpses. After a while, Shoots comes out from the bodies of the dead and flowers begin to blossom from them. Those flowers grow up trees and the forest comes back to life. The village people who have survived start to feel once again the benevolent forces of nature. They realize that whilst they make progress and start to develop civilization they must live in harmony with the forest. Finally, the festival is held in the village again.

Over the next week or two, I’ll introduce you to a few more TEAMLAB projects. I’ve been seeing a lot more modern traditional style art lately – I wonder if there’s a traditional art + modern style resurgence going on. Anyways, watch the art and become smart, etc.

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I played around on this website for way too long. Thanks to Cscout, I came across the website kyokasho.net, which allows you to choose from several school subjects, and then doodle all over the pictures of historical figures. I remember those days. They weren’t all that long ago. I would ignore the teacher (maybe that’s why I became a Japanese Studies major?) and do all sorts of horrible things to my textbooks. One thing I remember doing was erasing numbers in my math books (those pen erasers were good for this) and rewrite the numbers in the same font so the poor sap who got my book the next year could be as confused as I was. When I wasn’t feeling like such a horrible person, I’d doodle on the faces of historical figures. This is exactly what this website allows you to do. Some folks get pretty ridiculously creative. It’s great.

When you go to kyokasho.net, you’ll see the most popular additions, as well as the most recent. If you scroll down to the very bottom, you’ll see different classroom subjects. If you click on one of these, you’ll get a gallery of pictures to choose from to do whatever you’d like with. When you finally choose an image, you’ll be able to use a graphite colored pen, a red pen, or an eraser. It’s amazing what some people do with such simple tools. It certainly beats my tie fighters flying in to knock around George Washington, or whoever.

Once you’re done, hit this button to save it. You’ll even be able to view a start-to-finish of how it was drawn. Really cool for some of the really complicated ones.

Sadly, all the text that make up the “textbooks” are from Wikipedia (which I suppose makes sense when it comes to copyright issues). Textbooks in Japan are pretty universal across the nation. Usually you’ll only see a few different textbooks in a particular subject, so the Japanese education experience is often shared in areas all over Japan. I was hoping for a little bit of that, but it wasn’t meant to be. Still, don’t let that stop you from having some fun. Here, I even made a Tofugu one.

And closer up…

Pretty lame. If anyone else wants to do one that has anything to do with Tofugu, I’ll stick it up in the fanart section of the site :)

If you’re not particularly interested in going to kyokasho.net, and want to stay here, I thought I’d collect some of my favorite images for you to view right here. There’s hundreds of thousands more on the actual website, though, so I suggest you go enjoy it yourself! Seriously, this website is one of those websites that would really only do this well in Japan.

I bet some of you are pretty creative. Feel free to link us your creations in the comments!

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