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Emperor's Birthday Eve!
Dec. 23rd, 2007 08:58 amToday I am keeping a rolling blog, open to questions about Japan, in honor of the Tennou Heika.
I'll be posting answers to questions here in this entry, linking to other random About Japan posts I come up with today. Feel free to frolick in the comments.
Ready? Let's celebrate!
***
A post on useful phrases below...
The second question of the day posed by Rosalee Luann.
And Chris Kastensmidt will start us off with questions for the morning:
"How do meals work in Japan? How many per day? How often do people eat out vs. at home? What are the typical meals?"
A fun cultural tidbit:
People will eat out for lunch a lot at a noodle shop. There are lots of little hole-in-the-wall or mom-and-pop shop noodle restaurants because its something you'll just step out with your friends to do at your favorite place.
I'm pretty sure some people tour other places revolving around the different noodle places they see.
"And another: do you know people who have studied Japanese later in life? How long does it take for someone to learn enough to hold a decent conversation? To understand a movie? To read a comic book?"
I knew of lots of "JETs" (exchange teachers), some who could carry on conversations because they'd decided to master Japanese. Otherwise, it was easy to let the Japanese use their English.
One man was very famous (Dan something...) because he spoke the nearby backwater city's dialect perfectly. He was making a living on television.
I think with immersion it could be about two years to a decent conversation. But then...it keeps on building, and language is one of those things. I peaked out the day we landed in the US for good.
What are your favorite parts of Japanese culture? I'm a video game guy, so I've always been fascinated by that part. I enjoy books and movies a lot (translated, of course). Which of those do you like and what other parts do you find interesting? How would you compare their output vs: The US, England, France, China?
My favorite part of Japanese culture are their temple gardens, the funky way they've integrated Western culture just as they integrated Chinese concepts and writing systems, and the way once the "Asian" filter is off they have such different faces, shades of brown hair and eyes.
I think they have a hold on horror movies for themselves, and they pretty much dominate the none DC/Marvel style comics world, as far as I can tell. Novels I'm not sure what the scene is. I've read a few, but the state of the art in the culture? I'm not sure.
Rosalee Luann asked, in my "sounis" community alert:
Ok, heres my question. What is the coolest thing you know about Japan that you want to tell all of us? :D
I lived in a city that grew up basically when a lord was exiled after Sekigahara, a very important battle you may just see mentioned again sometime in your life if you ever read about Japan's history. The old city, the streets part of the actual feudal town as established by the Uesugi lords (blacksmith street, etc...) are Never Straight.
That is, they go crookedy so no road goes directly into the heart of the town...where the castle was.
I believe that in the castle I visited in Osaka (the museum Osaka Castle) the floorplan exhibited a similar tactic.
This was a standard practice, the unstraight streets so armies couldn't come at the castle easily.
I was just reading a really good [in Japanese fashion=tragic] historical "fantasy" called Across the Nightengale Floor.
Apparently there was also such a thing in Japan as a "nightengale floor" which was built so that everywhere you stepped on it, it made a note of some kind. This was a preventative measure, so that no one could cross it undetected.
I think that's pretty cool stuff...
I'll be posting answers to questions here in this entry, linking to other random About Japan posts I come up with today. Feel free to frolick in the comments.
Ready? Let's celebrate!
***
A post on useful phrases below...
The second question of the day posed by Rosalee Luann.
And Chris Kastensmidt will start us off with questions for the morning:
"How do meals work in Japan? How many per day? How often do people eat out vs. at home? What are the typical meals?"
A fun cultural tidbit:
People will eat out for lunch a lot at a noodle shop. There are lots of little hole-in-the-wall or mom-and-pop shop noodle restaurants because its something you'll just step out with your friends to do at your favorite place.
I'm pretty sure some people tour other places revolving around the different noodle places they see.
"And another: do you know people who have studied Japanese later in life? How long does it take for someone to learn enough to hold a decent conversation? To understand a movie? To read a comic book?"
I knew of lots of "JETs" (exchange teachers), some who could carry on conversations because they'd decided to master Japanese. Otherwise, it was easy to let the Japanese use their English.
One man was very famous (Dan something...) because he spoke the nearby backwater city's dialect perfectly. He was making a living on television.
I think with immersion it could be about two years to a decent conversation. But then...it keeps on building, and language is one of those things. I peaked out the day we landed in the US for good.
( further... )
What are your favorite parts of Japanese culture? I'm a video game guy, so I've always been fascinated by that part. I enjoy books and movies a lot (translated, of course). Which of those do you like and what other parts do you find interesting? How would you compare their output vs: The US, England, France, China?
My favorite part of Japanese culture are their temple gardens, the funky way they've integrated Western culture just as they integrated Chinese concepts and writing systems, and the way once the "Asian" filter is off they have such different faces, shades of brown hair and eyes.
( further... )
I think they have a hold on horror movies for themselves, and they pretty much dominate the none DC/Marvel style comics world, as far as I can tell. Novels I'm not sure what the scene is. I've read a few, but the state of the art in the culture? I'm not sure.
Rosalee Luann asked, in my "sounis" community alert:
Ok, heres my question. What is the coolest thing you know about Japan that you want to tell all of us? :D
( Feudal Defense! )
I lived in a city that grew up basically when a lord was exiled after Sekigahara, a very important battle you may just see mentioned again sometime in your life if you ever read about Japan's history. The old city, the streets part of the actual feudal town as established by the Uesugi lords (blacksmith street, etc...) are Never Straight.
That is, they go crookedy so no road goes directly into the heart of the town...where the castle was.
I believe that in the castle I visited in Osaka (the museum Osaka Castle) the floorplan exhibited a similar tactic.
This was a standard practice, the unstraight streets so armies couldn't come at the castle easily.
I was just reading a really good [in Japanese fashion=tragic] historical "fantasy" called Across the Nightengale Floor.
Apparently there was also such a thing in Japan as a "nightengale floor" which was built so that everywhere you stepped on it, it made a note of some kind. This was a preventative measure, so that no one could cross it undetected.
I think that's pretty cool stuff...
