Tarako song and dance
Posted by harvey in Culture, Food, Media on 28. Oct, 2006 | 13 Comments
There is a company in Japan called キューピー “Cupie” which makes a mayonnaise. The image character for this mayonnaise… is TARAKO (たらこ). ※ Note, if you check the Tarako webpage the Tarako image characters will appear to close in on you, back you into a corner, and follow your mouse around the screen. Do not [...]
Japanese Mind Games
Posted by harvey in Humor on 26. Oct, 2006 | 3 Comments
Looking for a place to stay in Kyoto? Welcome to MIND GAMES pension. A Bambi cake set for 500 yen. Tax. Included. The Mind Games begin before you step in the door. I want to meet the owners and ask how they came up with the name. – Harvey
Beer Dumping Wedding
Posted by harvey in Culture on 24. Oct, 2006 | 5 Comments
At parties in Japan, there is a cultural tradition to pour beer for others. This cultural habit is not only observable during company drinking parties, match making compa’s, or large wedding parties, but it pretty much happens anywhere there is a bottle of alcohol and more than one person drinking. There is a saying that [...]
Not so useful Japanese Lesson 1 – Abduct
Posted by harvey in Humor, Language on 22. Oct, 2006 | 7 Comments
A verb which can means “abduct” in Japanese is, SARAU. Hiragana: さらう Kanji: 浚う If you ask a Japanese person to write the kanji for this verb for you 「浚 」, chances are they won’t be able to. The character is not used often enough for people to remember how to write. Japanese is funny [...]
North Korean News
Posted by harvey in Media on 20. Oct, 2006 | No Comments
For some reason, the KCNA official website which publicizes news for North Korea, is hosted in Japan. Why is this? On this site you can read what’s “really” going on in the Korean crisis, straight from the secret state itself. An except from news published October. 18. 2006 Juche 95 (explanation of the Juche calendar [...]
Rabbits on the Moon
Posted by harvey in Culture on 18. Oct, 2006 | 6 Comments
In the states, we say that the shadows on the moon look like the face of a man. In Japan, they say the same shadows are rabbits who live on the moon making mochi (pounded rice cake). You know how the character “Sailor Moon” has the name Usagi? Usagi means rabbit in Japanese, and well, [...]
Blood Type Online Test
Posted by harvey in Culture on 16. Oct, 2006 | 8 Comments
As you may have heard, in Japan a person’s blood type is said to say a lot about their personality. There is a short online personality test you can take to check if the test results match your actual blood type. I have roughly translated the test questions into English below if you want to [...]
North Korean Spy Boat in Yokohama Museum
Posted by harvey in Society on 12. Oct, 2006 | 5 Comments
This is rather timely… In the Yokohama Bay Area there is a Japan Coast Guard Museum. The main attraction is a North Korean Spy Boat which was sunk December 22, 2001 by the Japan Coast Guard near Kyusyu. The recovered spy boat and it’s contents are really the only items on display in the museum. [...]
