Fri, 3 Dec 2004


Every rule has an exception, and the Japanese writing system is riddled with so many exceptions, it's almost as complex as English grammar. Japan adopted China's kanji writing system back in the 6th century; before this time the Japanese had no writing at all. As a general rule, each kanji is supposed to have two pronunciations: the original Chinese one (suitably shoehorned into the Japanese phonetic system), and a native Japanese one. Thus, the character the Japanese use for car, which originally meant wheel, is read kuruma (Japanese reading) when used by itself, or sha (Chinese reading) when combined with other characters to form a more complex word, such as jidosha, automobile, or jinrikisha, a "rick-shaw"). The two-ways-to-read-a-kanji rule is more of a guideline, though -- many characters have only one reading, while a few have a dozen or more. Underlying the kanji system are the two kana syllabaries, hiragana for writing Japanese words and grammatical particles, and katakana for writing foreign-loan words and the names of foreign people and places. But katakana is sometimes used in place of hiragana for emphasis (kind of like writing in italics in English), and a few English words like tobacco, coffee and club have had kanji assigned to them, since they've been in use for so long. Incidentally, if you've ever wondered why the Japanese don't do away with kanji and write using the two kana syllabaries, the reason is that without kanji, the brain can't easily take in the chunks of meaning on the page -- for me, there's nothing harder than reading a children's book because there are no kanji to break up the sea of hiragana. Here's an example of some of these writing systems in case you're curious what they look like: http://www.jlist.com/writing

Christmas in Japan is very different from in the U.S.. First of all, it's a normal day like any other -- people fight traffic jams to get to work, and if they're Christian, they attend mass in the evening. Gifts are given, but mostly between couples, or from parents to children -- Toys R Us Japan has made sure that no child will go without toys each year. More important than Christmas Day is Christmas Eve, when most families have a special dinner, and eat the Christmas Cake that they reserved a month in advance. It's easily Kentucky Fried Chicken's busiest night, but sushi shops also do very brisk business. Christmas Eve is also a night for couples to spend a special night together, and is more important than Valentine's Day for lovers.

Today is Friday, and that means I'll be taking the kids to our favorite public bath. Bathing in hot springs ("onsen") and public baths ("sento") is a popular pasttime in Japan, and despite the hard economic times of the past few years, Japan's public bathing sector has been going strong. Our favorite bath is called Yura no Sato, and offers over a dozen different baths to enjoy, from traditional Japanese "kama" baths which are basically giant metal pots to baths with rocks on the bottom which massage your feet.

For fans of the incredible 2005 Japanese calendars, we've gotten in some cool new items, including the deluxe calendars of Naruto, Prince of Tennis, Magi Magister Negima, and more. These are really nice large-sized calendars that are shipped flat, and every year we're amazed at the quality of the printing and art.