Nihongojouzu

Test your kanji and geography: the ToDoFuKen Game

Can you read the kanji for every prefecture? Can you locate every prefecture on a map? How about doing both simultaneously in under 1min 45s? Find out by trying the 都道府県 game. The Normal version gives you the name of a prefecture and you have to click the respective portion of the map. The Hard version gives you the capital city only (which admittedly is the same for most prefectures).  Geography has never been so much fun. Bet you can't get 100% first time through.

Iyashi kyara

The word iyashi (癒し) roughly translates as healing or soothing.  いやしの音楽 is soothing music and 自然がもついやしの結果 refers to the restorative powers of nature. Kyara is the contraction of kyarakutaa - character - those icons most famously represented by the ubiquitous Hello Kitty.

So what are iyashi kyara?

This buzzword refers to characters which are not only cute - they reduce stress and help you relax.

The stress-reducing properties arise from two features:
1. The characters look soft to the point of having no skeletal structure
2. Their names connote relaxation

Way back in 1997 TarePanda was the relaxing character of choice. Whereas Hello Kitty is tiring because she's always on the move, TarePanda (from たれる to hang, droop) could only move at a leisurely 2.75 metres per hour, according to manufacturer San-X.

In 2007 stress free animals are big, even when they are small.

Take Rilakkuma. At first glance it looks like the name of a Finnish race car driver, but it is actually a compound of "relax" and "kuma" (bear). Relax Bear. The katakana is リラックマ, which goes a long way to explaining why relax is spelt with an "i".

まめゴマ　(bean sesame) is not intrinsically relaxing but the miniature seal character is floppy and stackable and there is definitely something soothing about seeing a pyramid of six or seven small plush seals.

ゴリンゴ　= Gorilla + ringo (apple), and you guessed it - the characters are apple shaped gorillas. You have to admit, a gorilla shaped like an apple is far less stressful than a normal gorilla.

モノクロブー　monochrome + boo. If you are thinking ghosts, sorry - ブーブー is the sound pigs make and these characters are a pair of porkers, one black  and one white.

スポケン = sports+ken (犬：dog). Surprisingly round for a supposedly athletic hound, but there again is the relaxing factor - even slightly overweight animals can play sport.

ワンルーム = one room but it also means wan-room, and wan is the sound of a dog barking. This set of characters is a bunch of dogs shaped like chairs, phones, mirrors etc. No need to worry about the dog getting hair on the furniture - the dog is the furniture.

アフロ犬 = afro+ken. Yep, a dog with an afro.

There are more characters, but I feared becoming too relaxed to finish writing this post.

San-X isn't the only company pushing plush toy relaxants. Tryworks has its カピバラさん(Capybara-san). The animal? A capybara. No points for wordplay, but it does have an endearingly large head.

Getting started in translation

Jed Schmidt, globe-trotting translator and the man behind Lifehacks for Mobile Translators has just uploaded a summary of a recent presentation he gave at the Kyoto Centre for Japanese Studies. The theme is Translation as Vocation: a primer for newbies and the presentation - even without the smiling face of Jed himself - is an excellent introduction for anyone considering a career as a translator. The presentation is hosted on Flickr where you can also see the scores of cafes in which Jed has plied his trade as he makes his way from country to country. The lifestyle of a freelance translator is not all plane tickets and lattes, and Jed gives a balanced coverage, addressing issues like isolation and the lack of workplace cameraderie and support. Most importantly he deals with the issue of what comes next -  where a career in translation can take you.  Highly recommended.

Japanese Ads blog

JapanNewbie blogger, and soon-to-be-interviewed on Nihongojouzu fairly-long term resident of Japan Harvey has produced a new blog based on the idea of learning Japanese through print ads and posters. Japanese Ads features one ad per post and Harvey's dissection of the meaning and cultural nuance therein.  It is, like all great ideas, simple in its elegance and a great way to learn Japanese in the context of real word usage. For example, a JR ad featuring the wonderful Yukie Nakama:

「急に」means “suddenly”. This a very useful phrase. You can say things like, 「急に電車が止まって乗っている人が全員倒れた。」”The train stopped suddenly and everyone riding fell!” Or, 「今週は急に忙しくなったから疲れたよ。」”I suddenly got really busy this week so I’m tired.”

「出張が決まった」

「出張」is a business word which means “business trip”. For example when I would go to work in Tokyo whlie I was based in Osaka, that would be a 「出張」. The verb is 「決まった」which means, “was decided”. The meaning of this is that the fact that Yukie Nakama needs to take a business trip was decided. Probably decided by her boss.

See the original poster here.

Harvey does a great job of explaining how Japanese actually works and has a good time in the process. And he likes Yukie Nakama -  the man has taste.

Saving Youtube clips: vixy.net Online FLV Converter

Youtube is a great source of Japanese language material, especially for those who don't live in Japan, but the downside is the lack of portability - you have to watch the video online, which can be both inconvenient and distracting (ever tried to watch just ONE video clip on Youtube?) Open source to the rescue! Takuma Mori's vixy.net is an open source online service which allows you to convert Flash  video (FLV files) into MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) so that you can save the file to your hard drive and transfer it to your iPod or phone. Now you can watch Good Learner, Bad Learner wherever you are!

PS (Keen beans can read Mori's vixy blog in Japanese)