Japanese Slang – arafou – Around 40
Posted by harvey in Culture, Language, Media on 31. May, 2008 | 1 Comment
Japanese slang learning time.
Just before I left Tokyo I was introduced to the following katakana slang.
アラサー (arasaa).
“arafou” is an abbreviation for the phrase, アラフォー (the katakana rendition of “around fouty”), and refers to the age group of 35 to 44.
Like many things in Japanese pop culture, this phrase came from a TV Drama. The drama [...]
Kawagoe – 500 Statues of Rakan
Posted by harvey in Tokyo, Travel on 28. May, 2008 | No Comments
I left Japan from Tokyo, so decided to take a trip to get out of the city before flying back to the United States.
I went to Kawagoe in Saitama prefecture. Kawagoe is only about a 40 minute train ride from Ikebukuro on the Seibu-Tojo Line, so it is possible to leave in the morning and [...]
Tamil and Japanese
Posted by harvey in Language on 26. May, 2008 | 3 Comments
It wasn’t Hindi but Tamil that I was thinking of. Both are Indian languages. Susumu Ono seems to be the prominent champion of the Tamil-Japanese theory. The following paper explains the relationship between the language from a linguistic perspective. THE GENEALOGY OF THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE -Tamil and Japanese - Susumu OHNO.However, a page about Ono on Wikipedia doubts this theory.
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Sewa – Hindi and Japanese
Posted by harvey in Language on 24. May, 2008 | 7 Comments
Hey everyone.
I heard that SEWA means “service” in Hindi.
In Japanese, they have the phrase 世話する sewa suru which can translate into, “to give assistance to”. Very similar.
In Hindi the phrase namaste is a type of greeting. Literally, according to Wikipedia, namaste means “I bow to you”. In Japanese, 名前 namae means “name”… Which, if you [...]
Men at Work in Shibuya
Posted by harvey in Tokyo on 21. May, 2008 | 1 Comment
Men at work in Shibuya on the Tokyu Department Store in front of the Hachiko area.
It was cool seeing them unroll this advertisement. I almost saluted.
Gucci in the house!
For the record, from this distance I can’t be sure that the workers are actually men – but hey.
- Harvey
JapanNewbie Leaves Japan
Posted by harvey in About on 18. May, 2008 | 23 Comments
Big news everybody. After 5 years of eating rice and miso soup, the JapanNewbie, who is no longer a newbie anymore mind you, is leaving Japan. That’s right, I got a nice fellowship for graduate school so I’m going to be a student again for the next two years. I’ll be in Boston, [...]
Traditional Japanese Home in the City
Posted by harvey in Osaka on 14. May, 2008 | 10 Comments
Here is a large (for Japanese standards) Japanese home right in Osaka. I usually don’t see houses of this style unless I get away from the city.
Nice isn’t it?
Garden, wall, tiled roof, woody, classic.
And they’ve got a guard-cat.
- Harvey
Sanzenin in Kyoto
Posted by harvey in Travel on 11. May, 2008 | 4 Comments
I’ve been to Kyoto countless times, but due to friends from out of town visiting back in March, we rented car and decided to stretch our legs a little. We went to Sanzenin (三千院) in Ohara in Kyoto.
There a Wikipedia article on sanzenin in Japanese, but actually I’m not having much luck finding information [...]
