One of my favorite tools for learning about Japanese Culture is the youtube channel Japanesepod101.
Here they give us a look at how to eat sushi properly.
Enjoy!~
Here they give us a look at how to eat sushi properly.
Enjoy!~
Givemejapan.weebly.com |
One of my favorite tools for learning about Japanese Culture is the youtube channel Japanesepod101. Here they give us a look at how to eat sushi properly. Enjoy!~
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I enjoy finding documentaries on the history of Japan, if this interests you I encourage you to take a look: This song has long been sung among the people in the burakumin areas of Kyoto and Osaka in a slightly different form for a long time. During the 1960s, it was picked up as a theme song by the Buraku Liberation League, particularly its branch at Takeda. In 1969, the folk song singing group Akai Tori made this song popular, and their single record, recorded in 1971, became a million seller in three years. The song has also an additional history that NHK and other major Japanese broadcasting networks refrained from broadcasting it because it is related to the burakumin activities, but this ban was stopped during the 1990s. Information from Wikipedia
![]() Manga! Once hiragana and katakana is mastered manga is a great way to learn some kanji. I like to buy manga that has furigana in it. This means that next to the kanji there are hiragana to help you pronounce and look up the word. I think it is a great way to get used to kanji. ![]() If you buy the monthly manga books they come with a ton of chapters from different series. (Each color is a different chapter) ![]() The furigana next to kanji is super helpful, and you start to recognize the kanji after a while.
![]() The basic idea of any karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent. Anyone who can read hiragana can play "iroha-garuta" (いろはがるた). In this type, a typical torifuda features a drawing with a kana at one corner of the card. Its corresponding yomifuda features a proverb connected to the picture with the first syllable being the kana displayed on the torifuda. Karuta is often played by children at elementary school and junior high-school level during class, as an educational exercise. Rules
Information from these links:http://www.japanya.co.uk/Karuta.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuta#Iroha_Garuta The first poem of 100. This one is by Emperor Tenchi ( Also known as Emperor Tenji)
Emperor Tenchi Coarse the rush-mat roof Sheltering the harvest-hut Of the autumn rice-field; And my sleeves are growing wet With the moisture dripping through. Another popular poem of his is as follows, Mount Kagu strove with Mount Miminashi For the love of Mount Unebi. Such is love since the age of the gods; As it was thus in the early days, So people strive for spouses even now. – Emperor Tenji The Man'yōshū includes poems attributed to emperors and empresses; and according to Donald Keene, evolving Man'yōshū studies have affected the interpretation of even simple narratives like "The Three Hills." The poem was long considered to be about two male hills in a quarrel over a female hill, but scholars now consider that Kagu and Mimihashi might be female hills in love with the same male hill, Unebi. This still-unresolved enigma in poetic form is said to have been composed by Emperor Tenji while he was still Crown Prince during the reign of Empress Saimei. INFORMATION FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Tenji http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/hyakunin/noJIS/hyaku1.html ![]() Tebori is a way of Tattooing. In Japan there are some Tebori artists, they tattoo by hand using needles on the ends of bamboo sticks or aluminium sticks. This takes several hours and is considered a more 'organic' way of tattooing. The artist I would like to focus on today is Horimyo. Below I have a few quotes from his interviews. ![]() "There are so few tebori artists, if I had to put a ratio to it, it’s a hard question. Nine and a half out of ten artists use the machine I guess? it’s hard to say exactly. All tebori people, as in people that use no machines what so ever, even for the outline, there couldn’t be 10 % maybe, to be extreme, maybe 0.1%, there really are very few. Everyone uses machines, or are machine outlined and teboru filled, and people who are all tebori really don’t advertise in magazines, so its more a case of no one knows." ![]() "It’s really stifling being a tattoo artist in Japan, overseas if you say you are a tattoo artist it’s great, but in Japan, you are in the shadows.”And apparently this means that not only are people with tattoos refused entry into gyms, saunas, and even golf courses; it can have other unpleasant repercussions too. “A girl I was dating 3 years ago, when her parents found out she was dating a tattoo artist, it became a huge problem! They were in uproar “Argh! Our daughter is dating a yakuza member!”Tattoo artists and people with tattoos in Japan are seen as a minority group that are strongly discriminated against and listening to Horimyo’s stories, it sounds reminiscent of the draconian times of apartheid. But Japan being a passive society, where people rarely litigate and social change is a complicated process due to the nature of the bureaucratic system, it’s unlikely things will change in a hurry." ![]() I thought this was a good little snippet of insight in tattooing in Japan. Most Japanese associate tattoos with the Yakuza. Seeing Horimyo living his dream of being a tattoo artist without having to deal with the Yakuza is great, a good step in the right direction to help people see that not all tattoo artists work for the Yakuza. Well that is all for now, if you would like some more information on Horimyo or Tebori here are the websites I used for all my information and quotes above: Tofugu Tokyo Fashion Horimyo's Website Big Tattoo Planet Also Tokyo Fashion actually made a Video of their interview, It shows Horimyo tattooing in it as well. ![]() Saiunkoku Monogatari This is an anime that I have been watching recently. It is set in an older time period with an Emperor that has no interest in doing his work. An advisor hires a young girl to become his consort and encourage him to do his work as emperor. It's cute, it's funny, and overall interesting. Yes is it a girly romance but I enjoyed it very much. I like anime's in older time periods, not to mention the main girl plays Erhu (Is that how its spelled?) and it is nice to listen to. Synopsis |