A trip to Japan… Hrm?
Posted by harvey in Crazy Consumers, Travel on 20. May, 2009 | 5 Comments
I had some free time on my hands so I decided to go to Japan for the weekend. You know, just a quick casual trip to see the sights. I always love the aesthetic beauty of a 5-story pagoda (五重塔). I think the sky and clouds turned out particularly well in this picture. The beauty [...]
Kansai-ben iPhone App Preview Audio
Posted by harvey in Language on 19. May, 2009 | 6 Comments
Hey everyone, Some audio files from the upcoming Kansai-ben iPhone and iPod Touch Application are below. The varied differences with standard Japanese (標準語) make Kansai dialect a ton of fun to hear and speak. There are simple grammatical differences like changing the negative “nai-form” of verbs to “hen” (e.g., 行けない to 行けへん), but there are [...]
Upcoming Project: Kansai-ben App
Posted by harvey in About, Gadgets, Language on 18. May, 2009 | 3 Comments
Announcements, announcements! For the past three months we (me, my wife and The JapanShop.com team) have been working on a big project. You have probably tried out JapanShop.com’s free trial version of their Japanese phrases application, and perhaps their Japanese Idioms app too. Well, we have created a similar application that introduces Kansai dialect phrases. [...]
Kansai-ben Speaking Car-Navi
Posted by harvey in Crazy Consumers, Gadgets, Language, Osaka on 15. May, 2009 | 5 Comments
This car navigation system speaks in Kansai dialect! You love Kansai-ben. Right? I do. ほんでから１キロぐらい先を honde kara ichi kiro gurai saki wo しゅっと斜め左やからね shutto naname hidari yakara ne 高速の出口やで kousoku no deguchi ya de Okay so it’s a straight shot off on the left diagonal direction coming up here in about 1 kilometer okay? It’s [...]
The Year of No Money in Tokyo
Posted by harvey in Books, Tokyo, Working on 11. May, 2009 | 3 Comments
Wayne Lionel Aponte, the author of the recently published The Year of No Money in Tokyo, sent me a copy of his book to read and review. This was my first casual summer vacation read, and it was an interesting ride. This book did not strike me as a masterpiece, but Wayne’s experience and personal [...]
Alone in Tokyo
Posted by harvey in Media, Tokyo on 09. May, 2009 | 5 Comments
Check out this short film called Alone in Tokyo by Philip Bloom featuring clips of everyday life in Tokyo. The scenes in Alone in Tokyo remind me that the first requirement to be able to capture interesting pictures or video is to have the guts to press the shutter or start recording. I would never [...]
The Tacosan – Japanese Funk
Posted by harvey in Media, Music on 04. May, 2009 | 4 Comments
Nothing like a little crazy (read: absolutely nuts) Japanese Funk. “Nice Middle!” (By the way, ナイスミドル ‘naisu midoru’ refers to, nice, middle age.) So try to be cool when you’re middle aged, and you can have a “nice middle” too. You can buy The TACOSAN’s Sayonara Seikatsu album on Hear Japan if you like what [...]
Shopping Boogie by Kasagi Shizuko
Posted by harvey in About, Culture, Media, Music, Osaka on 02. May, 2009 | 5 Comments
I want to introduce you to Shizuko Kasagi (1914 – 1985) and this great song called Kaimono Bugi (買い物ブギ, “Shopping Boogie”), recorded in 1950, way back during the post-war American Occupation of Japan. Shizuko Kasagi was known as the “Queen of Boogie” 「ブギの女王」 in postwar Japan. She was born in Kanagawa but moved to Osaka [...]
