Utada Hikaru: Heart Station (宇多田ヒカル)

I think this is her newest single. Recently, it's all I hear in movie shops, grocery stores, wherever. I didn't really like it much at first, but it's grown on me. I had no idea she was saying "Heart Station".

Utada Hikaru: Flavor of Life (宇多田ヒカル)

I'll give you a break from all the 90s stuff. Here's my current favourite J-Pop song (although the song is not so new). Yuu bought the CD when she was in Yonago and it's full of good stuff. This video has both Japanese and English subtitles so you can sing along. There are a few wee mistakes in the romaji subtitles.

What do you think?

[UPDATE: The English-subtitled version was removed, so this is now a differently-subtitled one.]

Noriyuki Makihara: Donna toki mo (どんなときも 槇原敬之)

Here's another song I really like from my 90s CD. This guy also had quite a high voice, and still does 15 years after. A new version of this song might appear once this video is over.

I think this guy may have gotten into trouble with the law. If any Japanese people can provide some information in the comments, that'd be swell.

Tokunaga Hideaki: Koware kake no Radio (徳永英明 壊れかけのラジオ)

Now, here's a great song, sure to please my mother. The song is nice, the singer looks nice, the video has a nice production quality... It's slow, not too loud, nice instruments, nice melody, probably nice lyrics (I'm not sure though), nice attire, etc.



I quite like this song, although I still can't get over the fact that the singer is male. When I first listened to my 90s CD, I thought for sure a woman was singing.

Kofun (古墳)

Kofun are enormous (often) keyhole-shaped burial mounds. They are quite remarkable, and now, with online mapping tools, anyone can get a bird's-eye view of them. Who were the originally intended viewers of these giant keyholes? Certainly not imaging satellites flying hundreds of kilometres above the Earth.

I've scoured Japan and here are a bunch of Kofuns: (zoom in and drag the maps around to see more)


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These are near Heijou Palace in Nara.


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These are in Sakai, Osaka.


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These are a bit east of Osaka.


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In Chiba.


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In Osaka.

A French Couple

A married couple joined our school last week. They are our first married couple, but what really makes them stand out is that they speak English with French accents. It's quite fascinating. It feels like I'm speaking to someone in Quebec or Paris, France. Sometimes they'll slip into French for connecting words like "donc" and "alors".

What's even more interesting is that they met in Chad, Africa. (Chad's official languages are French and Arabic. That's its flag above.) I believe they also spent some time living in France. So, their French is better than mine. But it's quite a good combination as I can understand both of their second languages and a little bit of their native one.

They might be around for long though since their work takes them back and forth between Japan and Africa. They work for NGOs operating in Africa although I'm not sure of their exact roles yet.

A la prochaine!

The Story of Crow

I recently asked one of my students if she had had any pets when she was a child. She said no to a cat or dog, so I asked her if she had had any other kinds of animals: fish, turtle, etc. No, no, no, she said. But, she continued, she had had a crow.

A crow! I exclaimed. I started asking question after question about the crow. Here is its story.

When she was young, her brother came across an injured crow and brought it to an animal hospital. As he carried the bird there, its companion followed on the ground, hopping all the way to the hospital.

Her family decided to keep the flightless female crow in a covered enclosure in their back yard. Every day, the male companion would come to visit his "girlfriend". Every day for over a year, the male came. My student and her family would watch in the morning as he and the female touched their heads together through the cage. They would stay motionless like that for more than ten minutes. The male would often bring shiny objects to his friend: pieces of metal, bottle caps, etc. The only time the male didn't visit was during extremely windy or stormy weather.

I wonder how he felt after his girlfriend passed away. Did he forget about her? Or does he still wander the skies looking for his black-feathered friend?

Attack of the Cypresses

I just learned that sugi trees (杉) which are known as Japanese cedars, are actually not cedar trees. This is a misnomer. Sugi trees are in fact cypress trees. So my earlier post on cedars should be read again, substituting "cypress" with "cedar".

This is the tree whose wood is used in the construction of many pieces of Japanese furniture, including the drawers which safeguard many of the beautiful kimonos here. I was told that cypress (perhaps like cedar) keeps away worms and other bugs. However, I can't rectify this idea with the following from Wikipedia: "Cryptomeria [the scientific name for the sugi tree's genus] is used as a food plant by the larvae of some moths of the genus Endoclita."

Attack of the Cedars

Cedar pollen is the bane of a seemingly huge number of Japanese people. Everybody's eyes are watering. Everyone's face is covered in white masks. They suffer. People don't go out. The economy shrinks. And why? Because 60 or 70 years ago, a gazillion cedar trees were planted all over Japan to take advantage of the growing housing market. However, something happened, and the price of cedar skyrocketed, and the trees were never cut down. Soon after, everybody started to develop varying levels of allergies to the trees' pollen. The kanji which symbolizes this allergy is actually relatively new.

Why doesn't the government cut them down now? Well, before they were planted, a ton of indigenous trees were razed to make room for the pollen-profferers. If the cedars are cut down now, there will be a lot of ugly, barren hillsides. Another (possibly more cynical) reason is that the pharmaceutical (and other) companies depend on these mighty cedars for their profits. Cut the trees and you cut the sales of pills, sprays, masks, air purifiers, and numerous other products I'm sure.


Post scriptum: The gist of this blog was communicated to me by a student and like a good little blogger I have done no research at all to substantiate it. However, I have received confirmation from a few other students that something like the above happened in the past. And so, I have passed these facts on to you.

My Japanese IQ

I'm really smart, according to a Japanese IQ test. I couldn't read the instructions, so I fumbled through the quiz, trying my best to match the various diagrams together. Well, I did a bang-up job. The site reported my IQ as being 135, in the top 2% of all of Earth's inhabitants. Wahoo! Take a look at this: (you might have to click it in order to see it properly)

A bad feeling

We went to Tachikawa the other day (a large station with many nearby department stores) and I saw something I hadn't seen before. I'm sure you're all familiar with the sight of people handing out tissue paper or flyers in busy areas. What I saw were some very pushy young men, targeting pretty young girls and women, and almost forcing them to take what they were offering. I was pretty disgusted. Then I saw another guy holding only a thick leather day planner. When he spotted a woman (these guys were like predators) he would walk up close and hold his day planner in front of them while saying something in a hushed voice. After about 5-10 steps, he would finally give up.

I don't really know what these guys were doing. But I have just recently read about people who try to recruit women for various unsavoury jobs. It may have been a similar situation. I wanted to do something, but what? I guess these women could have complained to a security guard or to the police.

We must have similar people in Canada, I have just never seen them. Perhaps they don't make themselves so obvious. Anyhow, that afternoon left me with an unpleasant feeling inside about the world.

Australian Geisha

Here's a very interesting article about an Australian woman who claims to be the first foreign geisha in Japan. She's training in Asakusa (a-SAH-k-sa) and has some interesting things to say about Golden's "Something of a Geisha".

From The Japan Times Online

From this article comes the following interesting quote:

Such delightful ditties may serve no other porpoise than to amuse, but as for names, one need only recall the mystery writer Taro Hirai (1894-1965), who adopted the nom de plume Edogawa Ranpo after his admired American senpai (one who came before) Edgar Allan Poe. And if that won't give you the willies, then contemplate the Japanese comedians who have offered homage, if not plumage, to illustrious predecessors by imitating their names: Tani Kei (Danny Kay), Masuda Kiiton (Buster Keaton), and, perhaps the cleverest punned name of all, Sato B-saku. Sato B-saku took his name, however, from a man who was hardly a comedian, at least not by design, namely Prime Minister Sato Eisaku.

Whales

I've been surprised at most of my students' comments on whaling. There seems to be a cultural pride at work, which causes a very high percentage of them to become a bit defensive and to show a bit of emotion. It's a very interesting phenomenon.

At first, I thought that whaling would be a fruitful discussion topic, but it soon became obvious that I was wrong. I wouldn't advise bringing up this topic with friends or students, unless you're prepared to ignore your feelings or lose your acquaintances.

Karaoke Sundays

We've decided to make Sunday afternoon our karaoke practice day. It's cheap until 5pm, so we can sing to our heart's delight. And, if we practice weekly, we'll be much more prepared when a record label offers us a recording deal. Woo hoo!

Here we go!!

Going home

Today, I taught a student who is 8 months pregnant. Next week will be her last lesson, as she is going back to her hometown until April. I don't know a lot of details, but it seems like it's a custom for Japanese women to return to their mothers' homes to be taken care of for the first few months. Is this common in Canada?

Perogyoza

We finally made perogy! And it was so easy. Perogy-like things called gyoza are famous in Japan (although I think they're originally from China) and you can buy the circular dough enclosures in any grocery store. (Sorry Nanny. We aren't making the dough...)

At Christmas, me made our first batch. We bought some strong cheddar at a special grocery store in Kokubunji and mashed it up with some potatoes. We learned that boiling the gyoza dough was not a good idea, so we cooked them in a pan with a wee bit of water, then fried them. We didn't have sour cream, but they were still delicious.


We brought part of our first batch to a Christmas potluck at Nakamachi Community Centre and I think my students liked them.

We made our second batch two nights ago. It's too easy! (Kath, try it!) If perogy was only healthy!