Archive for 'Japanese Culture'
How to Shorten Your Japanese
Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Deas.
Deas lives on and blogs from Hakatajima, halfway between Honshu and Shikoku. He’s a fellow wonky culture lover who tends to write about his personal struggle to conquer the Japanese language, as well as about trips abroad, adventures in eating, life as an ALT, and comedy. From tongue twisters, to old radio dramas and just being silly, he approaches Japan from a casual perspective, tempered by time and humor.
In this guest post, I thought I’d walk you through some convenient methods for picking the pace up on your speech, dropping unnecessary syllables, and blending in with the kids your age. (Unless you’re older and you want to be like the uncomfortable teen’s awkward mom poorly using “Wassup?” If that’s you, this article might not be for you. Then again, some people can pull it off. Your call.) The following examples are all found in the above video as well. Choose your favorite format, and follow along. And of course, feel free to leave comments and ask questions! (more…)
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ChopStick Helpers for Lazy People
Posted on 19. Mar, 2009 by koichi.
I just came across this article (which we’ll talk about more below), which made me think… why are you so lazy!? Of course, I’m only talking to those of you who don’t know how to use chopsticks (or hashi, in Japanese). If you’re heading to Japan (or most Asian countries) you should probably get on that, or just use one of these horrible inventions down below. It’s like putting kids with minor learning disabilities into special classes to make things easier on them. Not so good in the long run. (more…)
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Hadaka Matsuri: Naked Festival!
Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by koichi.
My Japan-related YouTube buddy Gimmeabreakman posted this video up about a week ago – it does an amazing job summing up naked men, festivals, and Japan, all in one (very nice HD) video, which you can view above. (more…)
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Our Favorite Posts From 2008
Posted on 31. Dec, 2008 by koichi.
Due to our total lack of creativity at the moment (ending the year with a bang, I’m tellin’ ya), we thought we’d do exactly what you’d expect, and tell you what our favorite posts were. One thing we are going to do is let the three Tofugu authors (which includes myself) come up with their own favorites. I was surprised, we picked completely different stories.
Well, everyone have a great new year, and take a look if you want to look back on our dirty past (my commentary included).
Viet’s Top 5:
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Japanese Version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: Rudolph gets the Shafto
Posted on 23. Dec, 2008 by koichi.
I got this tip from Joyce, a college professor, and expert in Godzilla studies (not even kidding). She uses this as part of a lesson on cultural insight. Sounds like a fun class. Read on!
It’s funny enough to put something into an online translator to change it to Japanese, then putting it back through the opposite way to see what it comes up with, but this is on a whole new level. This is actually a version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer made just for Japan, culture insight included. Let’s take a look: (more…)
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Interview with a Pro Fighter in Japan: Roxanne Modafferi
Posted on 09. Aug, 2008 by koichi.
Somehow, thanks to the power of the Internets, I received an email from a pro fighter currently working in Japan. The email went something like this: “Hey, I love Tofugu! Don’t mess with me or I’ll break your head off and spit down your neck” (well, maybe not the second part). I thought it would be interesting to interview a pro fighter in Japan. I mean, how often do you bump into one (and survive)? I mean, come on, think Segata Sanshiro. Here’s a picture of her (on the left), and right after, the interview!
Q. What is your name and where are you originally from?
My name is Roxanne Modafferi. I was born in Delaware, and grew up in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. (more…)
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Why Japanese in Hawaii Weren’t Interned during WWII
Posted on 28. Jul, 2008 by koichi.
Once again, I thought I’d stick with the Hawaii-Japan topic, since i just got back from there (that’s right, eat your hearts out).
In high school, all of us younguns had to do a Senior Report, of sorts. Now, whenever I do essays / reports / etc, and I have the opportunity to write about whatever I want (bad idea, teachers), I like to choose a topic that almost nobody else has studied, so the professor can’t check my facts. I’m not saying that I go around making stuff up, but I feel a little better when I’m not writing on something within the teacher’s field of expertise. It, how should I say, often results in a higher, how should I call it, grade.
Of course, as you can tell by the title, I decided to study Japanese internment. More specifically, how it affected Hawaii. (more…)
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The “No Gaijin Allowed” mentality
Posted on 24. Jul, 2008 by koichi.
Now that I’m back from Hawaii, I finally had the chance to wade through all the emails I decided to ignore until now (sorry if that was you!). A decent number of them were people worried about racism in Japan; mainly, they were worried that people in Japan would treat them poorly because they were, well, gaijin (that means foreigner, in case you didn’t know).
A few of these emails made reference to the infamous “no gaijin” signs which are supposedly littered all around Japan. When I searched around the internet for more information on this, I was surprised with what I found… (more…)
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Some Japanese Restaurant Culture
Posted on 17. Jul, 2008 by koichi.
I’ve been in Hawaii the past week or so, a few days of which was spent with my host family from when I home-stayed in Japan in high school. Having them over here in America (though, Hawaii is about as Japanese as America gets) really brings out some of the subtle cultural differences between Japanese people and Americans. Particularly, though, we spent a lot of time at restaurants, so I thought I’d talk a bit today about Japanese restaurant culture. When at various eating places, it made me realize how things in Japanese restaurants are done a little bit differently. Nothing drastic or too strange, but things that are good to know when you’re over in Japan. (more…)
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What’s the difference between San, Sama, Kun, & Chan?
Posted on 28. Jun, 2008 by koichi.
I know this will be really basic for a lot of you, but recently, I’ve noticed a lot of people having trouble with which honorific to put on the end of a name. Not only have I gotten several emails specifically asking what the difference between them, but I’ve also had a barrage of folks using the wrong ones when referring to me. I’ll give you a hint, only one of them is truly appropriate.
Let’s go down the list of name honorifics and review each one separately. It’s really good to know how to use each of these (if you don’t), since you can come across as pretty rude when you make a mistake! (more…)
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