Just a blog in ideness.

Today I went to a department store and bought Hokkaido's 辛子明太子(Karashi-mentaiko) and イクラ(Ikura). I was born in Japan to eat Japanese food. All I could do is buying! Ha! In fact, I wanted to buy Rokkakutei's Butter Sand I mentioned before. But it had been sold out when I arrived at "Hokkaido Fair". I am eager to eat it!



Damp day today. Strong rain stalled me. I found an interesting text book on memorizing English words at a book shop. I ordered it on internet. I think I still keep more than 8,000 words in my brain. But often I get confused and the book can order my memory with brain science method.



My friend pointed I am wrong on usage of "interesting". I noticed I always say/write "I'm interesting in". Haha.



These days I'm very interested in native speaker's sense of language.

I was curious why native speakers are able to understand what Master Yoda says. And I felt I have to understand to be a better speaker when I met my friends in Tokyo. One of most difficult ones was inversion. "Never have I heard the word!" Emotion fronts "never" and "have". I couldn't felt same as native speakers. However "Did I see a gorgeous girl!" a text book explained was understandable. I likely overcome the difficulty. Did I buy Karashi-mentaikos! Never have I visited North Korea! Never have I supported prime minister Fukuda! Never have I hated you! Never have I felt monja-yaki is tasty! Never have I thought Tokyo is the capital of Japan!



Have a nice day.



I took the photo at Houkokuji

"About Snakes" and "Do a Japanese quiz"

It seems my neighborhood is being rural these years. The number of wild bird and fish and snakes are gradually increasing. Some years ago I saw a very very big snake called 青大将(Aodaishou). It was 2.5 meter in length, maybe around 3 meters. It was taking a bath in a river in one hot day. I had been watching the snake from a bridge above it and I realized the snake may be the deity of a shrine enshrines a snake near by. 2.5 meters in length is a too big as normal Aodaishou. He/She had a very beautiful green body more beautiful than any new green leaves and his/her red tongue was peeping up out of his/her mouth.



Last summer I saw lots of baby snake's death on the road got hit by cars. As I recall a snake bears around 30 eggs. That I saw a death of baby snake proves there are at least more than 30 snakes. I wrote "lots of death", that is, there may be hundreds snakes in my neighborhood. They will have been bigger than last summer and will have been awakened from winter sleep by now. I found many baby carp were swinging in a river that the snake lives. Hmm, will snakes eat them?



I couldn't understand what this sentence means soon today.



"The people I most wanted to be at my party didn't come. "



Question one :



御手洗が開けたその黄金に輝く西村がいちろうの箱の中にある竹中はんべいの鍵を取り出したとき鈴がもんはひらひらと階段から落ちた。



さて、どれが主語でしょう？

Which do you think is the nominative?



I think this is very difficult quiz for non-Japanese people. Don't worry even if you can't.



Have a nice day.



I took the photo at Houkoku-ji in Kamakura.

Entry for April 26, 2008

Today I'm reading Japanese classic literatures. Because it is a hard job to read all of each books, I read a digest book. I took some courses of Japanese classic literatures. Nostalgia runs deep. I always think I want to study Japanese classic at an university if I have time.



万葉集 (The Anthology of Myriad Leaves) :



験なき物を念わずは一杯の濁れる酒を飲むべくあるらし

大伴家

It is better to drink a glass of unrefined sake rather than thinking about rewarding things. By Ootomo Yakamochi



古今和歌集 (Kokin Wakashuu) :



紫の一本ゆえに武蔵野の花はみながら哀れとぞ見る

詠み人知らず

Due to only a woman I love, I feel people who are berelated to with her are lovely.

Author is unknown,



徒然草 (Essays in Idleness) :



花はさかりに、月はくまなきをのみ見るものかは

吉田兼好

Should we enjoy only full bloom and full of the moon?

By Yoshida Kenkou



おらが春 (Oraga-haru) :



我と来て遊べや親のない雀

小林一茶

Come and play with me, Oh, poor sparrow! You are fatherless, motherless.

By Kobayashi Issa



徳和歌後万載集 (Tokuwakagomanzai-shuu) :



世の中は色と酒とが敵なりどふぞ敵にめぐり会いたい

四方赤良

In the world, sexual charm and sake are the foes. I willingly stumble on the foes!

By Yomo Akara



Haha, I like this kind of largehearted man.



土佐日記 (Tosa-nikki)



住の江に船さし寄せよ忘れ草験ありやと摘みて行くべく

紀貫之



Pull this ship in Suminoe, I try to pick up Wauregusa which works for sadness.

By Ki Turayuki



Oh, it is time to watch a base ball game!



I took the photo at Katase-Enoshima.

Small talk about Kyoto

Several days ago, I was talking about Kyoto with my friend. Unfortunately, Tokyonians are affected by TV too much and don't know actual Kyoto. Basically Tokyonians only see Kyoto through TV programs and commercial and if they visit there they only see what they saw through TV programs and commercial. For me Kyoto was a part of my living and I know both good part and bad part. But for Tokyonians, Kyoto is a theme park. It is no wonder, I think. He believe people in Kyoto are elegance and he didn't believe what I explained. All I could do is fake smile. Unfortunately I should not write what I said on internet.



Many Tokyonians can't distinguish Kyoto and Kyoto prefecture. When they hear the word "Kyoto prefecture", they tend to regard it means Kyoto. It is sure Kyoto prefecture is Kyoto because Kyoto prefecture includes the word "Kyoto". But there is a big difference between Kyoto and Kyoto prefecture.



京都(Kyoto) means capital capital because 京 means capital. 都 also means capital. Kyoto prefecture includes Yamashiro province, Tanba province, Tango province. Basically Kyoto means Heian-kyo and its the perimeter, it is smaller than Yamashiro province. Tanba is not Kyoto. Tango is not Kyoto. Tango and Tanba are culturally distinct from Kyoto.



As far as I read classic literature, even Arashiyama area and Ohara area in Kyoto city were not regarded as 京の都(Kyou-no-miyako). "の" means "of". Now people in Kamigata region (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe) regard Kyoto city area as Kyoto.



I took the photo at Houkokuji in Kamakura.

なんとなく許せない訳語

英語で日本を説明する時、しばしばスッキリしない気分になる。完全に合致する訳語がないので仕方がないのは分かっているが、それでもやはり、スッキリしない。以下に僕がなんとなく許せない訳語を並べておきます。



饅頭 : bun with bean-jam filling



Manjyuu でいいと思う。「それは何だと聞かれたら説明すれば良い。」



餅 : rice cake



ケーキはケーキだ。餅がケーキだと思いたくない。そんなの美味しくない。ケーキに醤油をかけて食べているのかと思うと、気持ち悪い。ケーキを鍋に入れるなんて絶対に嫌だ。Mochi でよい。



枯山水 : dry garden style



もうちょっと気の利いた訳語はないのだろうか。



金閣寺 : Golden Pavilion



パビリオンって違和感がある。



能 : no play



これは最悪。サボってるかのようだ。



煎餅 : a rice cracker



クラッカー？まぁ、これは良いとして、



煎餅布団 : thinly stuffed bedding; a thin and hard coverlet.



どうせなら、a rice cracker futonと訳したほうが面白い。



煎茶 : green tea (of middle grade)



これはいいけど、of middle grade って何か嫌だ。



~寺 : ~ji temple, ~dera temple, in temple



これは、jiとtempleで二重になっている。清水寺寺はおかしい。ちなみに、高徳院など、院の場合、Koutoku-innと同じになって、旅館のようだ。神社の場合、Meiji Jingu shrineと言ったりするが、これだと明治神宮神宮なので変だ。Meiji-shrineでいい。



御所 : an Imperial palace

皇居 : the Imperial Palace



上方の人間としては京都御所がtheであると言わざる得ない。



神社 : shrine

神宮 : shrine



区別をつけて欲しい。大社の訳語は見つからなかった。



皇帝 : an emperor

天皇 : an emperor



皇帝と天皇は同じではない。ナポレオンやローマ皇帝と同じように思われるとややこしい。



あんみつ : mitsumame topped with bean jam



これは固有名詞というより説明である。長ったらしい。



お好み焼き: a thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients.



ここまで長くなると害である。"Please turn your thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients inside out. ", "Oh, I don't know how to turn the thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients inside out.", "Ok, I show you how to turn the thin, flat cake of unsweetened batter fried with various ingredients inside out." と言ってる間に焦げそうである。a Japanese style pizzaは絶対に嫌なので、Okonomiyakiでよい。



あと、長母音と短母音を何故かごっちゃにしているところが許せない。Osakaは大阪、大坂ではなく、この場合、小阪と小坂だ。Onoの場合、大野さんなのか小野さんなのか分かりにくい。しかし、大野の長母音をhで表現すると、"Oh, no!" になってしまうジレンマがある。





今日のは、鎌倉の報国寺でとった写真です。

Entry for April 24, 2008

There is nothing I want to write today. It is raining. I keep sneezing. Maybe someone says my name now. Here, it is said when you say someone's name, the one sneezes. Now I feel itchy on my sole. When one feels itchy on his sole, the man face a decision whether scratch an itch or not. It may be aggravated by scratching. It is a big decision. Still I keep sneezing. Please don't say my name. :-D



Have a nice day.



I took the photo at Kamakura.

Kamakura Essays in Idleness ~Zeniarai-Benzaiten~

And we visited 銭洗弁財天宇賀福神社(Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku shrine). It is said if you wash your money at the shrine, you can get more money. It was not a legend. Once I washed 10,000 yen and got 10,000 yen. This time I also washed 10,000 yen. Perhaps it worked on my fortune again. My friend said it doesn't work yet. I think it doesn't work on cash cards. Benzaiten was originally an Indian god called Sarasvatī. She is a hindu god. According to wiki, originally it spelled with 辯才天(Benzaiten). But it changed to 辨財天(Benzaiten). 才 means talent and it is original meaning. 財 means asset. They are homonyms too.



I took the photo.



Have a nice day.