http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/rss Inukawa's latest journal entries Lang-8 Inc. Wed May 22 01:59:59 UTC 2013 Wed May 22 01:59:59 UTC 2013 Lang-8 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lang-8 Judging from their talk, they seemed to be employees of an agency of fashion models, or they themselves were models. As Aoyama area is supposed to be a very fashionable zone in Tokyo, musicians, broadcast crews, architects, magazine editors and writers, designers of something and show-biz people are none of rare animals around here.
"You remember I said she's kind of snobbish, don't you?", one of them said. I could see her face, which was pretty beautiful, though I felt it lacked so called elegance.
"Yes, and?" The other said.
"When we had dinner together, she left the garlic slices!"
"Ah, why?"
"Maybe she didn't like to have her breath smell."
"Oh, no."
"Well, I ate the garlic slice a lot. They made the dish very tasty. But she didn't. She just separated them from what she would eat."
"That's too bad."
"Yes, She's bad."
I have no idea why they couldn't accept the woman. Maybe it is, in our society, no use to try to be liked by everyone.

Posted at Fri May 11 07:32:25 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1470924 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1470924 Inukawa Fri May 11 07:32:25 UTC 2012
Posted at Tue May 08 14:09:04 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1466466 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1466466 Inukawa Tue May 08 14:09:04 UTC 2012 "You faggot! You faggot! You faggot!", he was shouting out at a friend of his in a loud voice.
For a while, I was wondering who taught the boy in the 8th grade, who is usually very polite, such a dirty phrase, and felt quite relieved to realize that he simply meant "You forgot (or left) something." I corrected his pronunciation at once.

Posted at Sat Apr 28 13:00:37 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1449039 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1449039 Inukawa Sat Apr 28 13:00:37 UTC 2012 We enjoyed most part of the tour so far, but there was some part we couldn't enjoy.

As I said in the entry of yesterday, our party has four members -- our boss in our school, one of my coworkers, me, and a young part-time tutor who used to be our student till a year ago when he entered the university.
For much of our tour, our boss drives the car. He often gets motion sickness, but when he drives the car by himself, he don't get carsick. My coworker, a math teacher, sometimes relieves Boss, but his driving is rather rough. I can't drive a car, as I don't have a driver's license. And the young tutor took the license quite recently. He hasn't been used to driving yet and doesn't like to take the driver's sheet.

When we were having dinner, our boss said to the young tutor, "You should pay all the charge by yourself. OK?" The tutor had scratched the doors of an oncoming car with our rental car's door. We had called the police officer for the papers which we need to have the insurance company pay for the repairs of the two cars. The rental company demanded us to pay only for the loss they had for sending their car to the repair shop and losing chance to get a customer who rents the car.
"We can share the charge." My coworker said to Boss. "No, I don't think so." Boss answered. "We shouldn't do so. The person who made a mistake should pay the penalty. That's the rule. He'll learn a lot from this experience."
"I'm against your opinion." My coworker said. "For example, Mr.Inukawa don't drive in our trip, so we owe more risk than him. I think no one should be damaged by working for others. That's the fair play, isn't it? We'd better share the charge."
"No, you shouldn't help him in such a way." Boss said. "If I were he, I wouldn't want to be pitied and I would want to pay by myself. That's the responsibility. He is damaged and he will learn. That's important."
"But that's unfair." My coworker said. He is a good friend of Boss and he often discussed something with Boss. "I don't want to have an unfair loss. If that's what you think, I'll never drive for you from now on."
"Well, then I'll drive the car all the rest of the way." Boss answered. "But I don't think I should do so. Just do as I said. That's the rule of the society."
"I'll pay. I gave you three trouble. That's the penalty." the young tutor said.

Later, on the way to our hotel from the tavern, my coworker asked me, "What do you think about that?"
"Well, your opinion sounds reasonable." I answered. "But I was thinking of another thing. What the young tutor did was not what he really wanted to nor what he did by himself. You told him to drive the car. Boss disagreed with that, but after all, he didn't stop you, though he could do so if he really wanted to. The young tutor can't go against you or me in almost any case. Actually, we aren't usually dealing with him even as an adult. And all of us knew he wasn't a good driver yet. So, all of we three are responsible for this accident, rather than himself."
My coworker didn't look like agreeing with me. What he thought important the most was fairness. What I was thinking of was responsibility. Boss was sticking to his rule and maybe thinking of his own authority.

Many people want just to do the right thing. But it is sometimes very difficult to judge what is "the right thing", isn't it?

Posted at Fri Mar 23 16:30:57 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1379678 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1379678 Inukawa Fri Mar 23 16:30:57 UTC 2012
So, now we four are in Shikoku, the fourth largest island in Japan, which is located in the south-western part of our country. Our boss, one of my coworkers, me and a young part-time tutor of our cram school flew here and started our pilgrimage this morning.
It is called "shikoku-henro" （四国遍路） or "o-henro-san" （お遍路さん）. We should make a tour of 88 temples in Shikoku by turns as a kind of ascetic practices. All the temples are related to Kukai （空海）, a famous Buddhist priest from Shikoku who first introduced esoteric Buddhism to Japan.
Some people make the tour on foot, but it takes a lot of time and it also costs a lot. So we four are doing it by car during our vacation.

Today was the first day and we visited seventeen temples in total. That was better than we had expected.
One of them was Shouzan temple （焼山寺）, the twelfth temple, which lies in the mountains far from the city area. The path to and from it is said to be the hardest part in the whole route. As we are using the rental car, it was much easier to get to the temple, but we could see almost nothing but the trees on our way to it. It was a winding road, and most of us got carsick. As we were also very tired, we felt sleepy and fell into a doze. That prevented us from getting sick too badly. The problem was that the driver, our boss, also felt sleepy while he was driving. He opened the window, slapped his own face and said that he needed chewing gum.
But at last, he beat Morpheus without gum. That's why it is possible for me to be in our hotel and be writing the diary now.

In the evening, after we arrived at our hotel in Tokushima city, we walked around the hotel and looked for the place to have dinner. We hadn't had a meal after we started in the rental car shop near the airport this morning and we were very hungry.
After walking for some time, we noticed it was going to rain, so we entered a sushi restaurant which happened to be there. Fortunately, we found it a very good restaurant. It was run by an old couple and sushi served by them were so delicious and rather cheap. We also enjoyed the witty owner-cook's chat there.

Posted at Thu Mar 22 13:23:56 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1377715 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1377715 Inukawa Thu Mar 22 13:23:56 UTC 2012 Both the seven days including the Vernal Equinox at their middle and the seven including the Autumnal Equinox at theirs are called "o-higan" （お彼岸）. This word originally means "the opposite bank".
We have a traditional custom to visit to the graves of our ancestors in these terms, especially on the Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox, and hold memorial services for their souls, which are supposed to have been guarding us against misfortune or something. That's why both of them are provided as our holidays.

About me, the graaves of my paternal ancestors are now in charge of my dead father's eldest brother, who is the chief of our "clan" in Osaka. My family rarely visit them for some reason. And the graves of my mother's side are in a city close to neither here Tokyo nor Osaka.
Actually, we have our own grave, where my father rests. It is in a cemetery on a mountain in Osaka, where the view is really fine. Though, since I live in Tokyo, I can't often visit there, either, like the rest of my family.

Yesterday was not only a national holiday but also MY holiday (I usually have to work on the national holidays). I had no plan except for reading at home all day. But an old friend of mine sent me an email in the morning and suggested to meet. I replied to it and agreed to do so at once. We hadn't met for months and we had lots of things to talk about, like our friends, our dating mates, our works and our favorite novels and comics.
The air was still a little bit cold, but it was sunny. After we met near Gaienmae （外苑前） station, we had lunch together in a chain Japanese restaurant. Then we moved to a coffee shop on Aoyama Street where he said the genuine coffee would be served. The coffee was very tasty indeed, though, actually I'm not particular about what I eat or drink.
Next, we visited a Belgian chocolate store near Omotesando （表参道） station, as he wanted to, and then walked to the building of my mother's apartment near Harajuku police station. We went up to the rooftop, where we could enjoy the view of Tokyo. There we watched a wedding procession down in Togo Shrine （東郷神社）. We could even listen to gagaku （雅楽）, or the traditional court music, for the wedding. My friend liked the rooftop and wanted to plan a wine party there for someday, but the caution on a poster on the door told us no eating or drinking there was allowed.
After that, we went to Cat Street. It is a street popuilar among the young people for its fashionable stores, but it was just to check if a sale promoting event I remembered was still on or not. After finding it had been over, we dropped in at an international supermarket to look for some kinds of oranges my girl friend had recommended. After getting the oranges, we went to a chain spagetti restaulant, where we went on chatting over pasta.
As there were still more to talk about, we moved to the next place. Amigo was interested in a Spanish bar and we almost settled down there, but the music was too loud for us. So we appologized to the clerk and got out of there.
Then we got to a cafe bar, named "gekkou-sabou" （月光茶房）, which I had heard to be an excellent one but had never had a chance to visit. When we looked into the cafe through the window, my friend mumbled that the woman behind the counter didn't look friendly, but finally we decided to enter. Soon we found it was actually a nice place. He liked the tender baroque music and memoed the title of the CD. We learned something about coffee beans talking with the shopkeeper. We also enjoyed coffee, imported beer (I had Guinness, as St. Patric's Day was just three days before), sausages and "Sauerkraut" in the comfortable cafe.
A few minutes after we left there, I noticed that I left the books my friend lent me at the cafe. When we turned back, we saw the woman runnning to us to hand the books. After we thanked her and started to walk again, my friend said he felt sorry for what he had said before we entered the cafe. We walked to Shibuya talking and eating the oranges (We knew it was rude to walk eating something.), and at last, we said good bye to each other.
Well, we walked around the towns of Aoyama and Harajuku and could talk a lot. It was a good holiday, thanks to our ancestors.

Posted at Tue Mar 20 16:58:23 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1374746 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1374746 Inukawa Tue Mar 20 16:58:23 UTC 2012 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei
I've never taken a Kanken test. But every time the testing foundation carries out it, there are some students of our school who take it.

Some Kanken certificates of passing reached our school from the foundation yesterday. The names of the candidates and the date hadn't written on it yet. Someone had to write them with a "fude-pen", 筆ペン, a pen which imitates the letters written with a "fude", 筆, or the traditional writing brush. Mr. F, the oldest of my coworkers, did that. He is a teacher of Japanese and has the best handwriting of us.
I went to see him writing the names and the date. I saw some certificates he had already finished. It took me a while to calculate mentally. Then I said to him, "Stop! What year is it now?"

He had made a mistake. He had written a wrong year on the certificates.
We usually use the Christian era, but the Japanese era is used on formal papers. This year is A.D.2012 and also Heisei 24, 平成二十四年. It means it's the 24th year of the reign of the present emperor.
The foundation had written the "school year" (or the business year), 年度, of the Kanken test. Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March. So this month, March, belonging to Heisei 24, is still in Heisei 23th school year! My coworker saw the number written on the certificates, 23, and wrote the same one on it, but he shouldn't have done that.
Some teachers were there talking with him and looking at him writing, but everyone of them happened to fail to notice the mistake of the numbers. It's that we usually don't use the Japanese era and we often forget what year it is now.

Today, another colleague called the foundation and asked them to send us some more certificates and they kindly agreed to do so.

Posted at Thu Mar 15 10:48:18 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1365663 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1365663 Inukawa Thu Mar 15 10:48:18 UTC 2012
In Japanese, there are many words which mean "you". Some of them, like "omae" or "kisama", are known as rude words.
But both "omae" (お前) and "kisama" (貴様) were originally very polite words used only toward superior people. "O-" is a prefix to make a word polite. "-sama" is a suffix used for calling somebody superior.

A cooking critic naamed Kishi Asako became famous in 1990s. She appeared in a very popular cooking program "Ryouri no Tetsujin" as a regular commentator. Though she was an experienced specialist of home cooking, what really made her popular was her wording in the TV show.
When she was satisfied with a dish, she always said, "Taihen oishuu gozaimasu/mashita." It means "It is/was very delicious.", but we usually say "Oishii desu." (or "Oishikatta desu.") when we find somthing good when we eat or drink it. The phrase "Oishuu gozaimasu" souded very polite and rather old fashioned to many people. They thought it was elegant and interesting.
When I was a staff member in an editorial production, she wrote an essay for one of the magazines we were in charge of. The magazine was published by a department of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
In the essay, Ms. Kishi said that the saying like "Oishuu gozaimasu." had been a very common one several decades before, while "Oishii desu." had been a wrong saying in those days. "Desu" is a polite particle equal to "da". And we never say "Oishii da." in the standard Japanese. So "Oishii desu." had been originally incorrect, but such a saying had got generalized for some reason.
I couldn't believe her when I read it first, as a manuscript. We usually say like "Oishii desu.", "Tanoshii desu." or "Abunai desu." I had never thought that such sayings were wrong. Anyway, I had to check if that was true or not as an editor. I consulted some books about that, and finally learned that the old lady, who was also an editor of magazines, was right.
http://okwave.jp/qa/q775177.html
http://okwave.jp/qa/q776023.html

When we give something to someone, we use the verb "ageru" which means "(to) give".
Until some decades ago, "ageru" was a polite word and the common word equal to it was "yaru". Today, "ageru" is a common word and we use only "sashiageru" as a polite word meaning "(to) give". And now "yaru" is thought a rather impolite word.
But the textbooks for children still follow old customs of saying. Some books say that "Inu ni esa wo agemashita." (I gave food to the dog.) is a wrong saying and you should say, "Inu ni esa wo yarimashita.", because you don't need to show your respect for your dog.
No teacher or student would agree with that today. Surely we don't show respects for the dogs in our sayings still now, but "yaru" isn't a common word any longer.

Posted at Tue Mar 13 13:29:42 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1362464 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1362464 Inukawa Tue Mar 13 13:29:42 UTC 2012 Last year, we were working in our cram school on this day. The biggest shakes came three times. I remember we escaped from the building of our school each time.

I'm from Kansai, the west area of Japan. So I have little acquaintances from Tohoku district, the northeastern area, where people were damaged and killed most in the earthquake and the tsunami after it.
I don't know what to say about the disaster. That was too much. I had read a book about earthquakes which repeatedly attacked the Sanriku coast in the history. It was enough to make me shudder, but I hadn't thought such tragedies would be occurred again, as I thought the preparations, including the embankments or breakwaters, must have been done perfectly.
I was wrong. Many people lost their lives for tsunami. Some of them didn't even try to escape.

I remembered just one person after the earthquake. That was an ex-coworker of mine from Fukushima city. I was working with her for a little editorial production, more than ten years ago. She was a young woman and I think we were good friends. I liked her, as she was a smart, modest (a little bit too modest) and charming lady.
She was planning to go back home in the future when I left the firm, as she had left her mother in the city. So she, maybe with her mother, might have been living in Fukushima city or around there when the earthquake came.
Fukushima is an inland city, so I know she can't have been killed in the tsunami, but the city is rather close to the nuclear power plants.
I don't know how to contact her. All I can do for her is to pray, hoping she is living happily somewhere.

Posted at Sun Mar 11 09:02:19 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1358438 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1358438 Inukawa Sun Mar 11 09:02:19 UTC 2012 The students of our cram school are mainly elementary school pupils and junior high school students. Some high school students also belong to ours, but not many of them do. The high school students take our free study course. They study by themselves in our study hall and sometimes ask some questions of the teachers. When they reach the 12th grade, the last grade of the high school, many of them quit our cram school and enter major prep schools.
Y was one of our free study course students, too. He was pretty good at English, as he had lived in States with his family for several years. And he was also a student of another cram school, an English school of the highest level for high school students, and brushing up his English still more.
He left our school last year, after he became a 12th grader. But he got in touch with me last month. He had quit the English school and was preparing for the entrance exam of a university, which would be held at the end of the month, February. He had to practice especially reading and writing in English, but he didn't feel he was making progress. So he asked me to give him a kind of private lessons in our school, and correct his writing and advise him every week day. I agreed.
After that, we had lessons on writing and reading English almost every day. He made gradual progress, indeed, but we weren't sure whether his achievements were enough or not, even on the last lesson's day, two days before the exam day. He was challenging one of the most celebrated universities in Japan, Tokyo University.

Yesterday, Y came to our school and informed us of his success in the exam of the university and thanked me. He said, in the test, he did very well in the English composition and summarizing an English passage, which he had practiced pretty hard with me. I don't know how I was actually helpful for him, but maybe his decision, to spare some time for practice on English righting and reading in the last thirty days, was right.
To tell the truth, we, including Y himself, were surprised to know he had passed the test. He had made a rough estimate of his mark after the test. It was more than 20 points lower than the minimum passing grade! However, he got the acceptance letter from the university. Maybe he was too modest in making the estimate.
Before he visited us, he had called us. Then he said, without giving his name, "Can I speak to Mr. Inukawa?" The teacher who spoke with him asked him to tell the number of his mobile phone for the return call. He told it, but it was a wrong number. I don't know if he was too happy not to make mistakes or he was originally careless.
He seems to still have lots of things to learn as a grown up man, but anyway, now he is a university student. I'm really glad to know that.

Posted at Sun Mar 11 07:56:15 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1358361 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1358361 Inukawa Sun Mar 11 07:56:15 UTC 2012
As you know, Japanese language has a staggering number of homophones.
Maybe you wonder why Japanese people still keep on using kanji, the writing system which doesn't seem to be much functional. But it IS functional. We just need it to distinguish our homophones.
Today I explained to one of my "friends", who is learning Japanese, that the Japanese word "koi" can mean "love" (恋), "come (in the ordering form)" (来い), "dense/thick" (濃い), "intentional" (故意) or "a carp" (鯉).

The image above is a photo of a part of the homepage of an Internet cafe on Takeshita Street, Harajuku.
There is a message written in only hiragana in the middle level of the picture. It says, "Surely you can find your 'wanna do' (here)."
I know it's not a correct sentence. The original sentence is also written in broken Japanese. "Shitai", したい, or "wanna do" isn't a noun.
But the word "shitai" has its homophone noun; "shitai" also means "a dead body". So the message can also mean "Surely you can find your 'dead body' (here)."
Well, I hope not to do so.

Posted at Tue Mar 06 14:49:28 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1350838 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1350838 Inukawa Tue Mar 06 14:49:28 UTC 2012 "Nothing special." I answered, "But, why?"
"World's largest zoo is in Indonesia."
"Oh, is it? ...And?"
"What do you say we, including you, go there?"
"Oh, well... what? Are you serious?"
"Sure."
"But, what for?"
"This year is the Dragon Year." Our boss joined us from his desk. "And we can see the Komodo dragons there. We should see a real dragon at least once this year. That's the reason." He laughed.
"And how high is the possibility?"
"Depends on you. If you say 'Yes', that's the decision." They were looking at me with a grin.
"OK, OK, I see you aren't kidding me. You know I like animals... but, please let me see, just for a while!" I answered.

I've been to Kenya to watch animals with Boss and another coworker. That was a gorgeous vacation. I also went to India, Cambodia and some other countries with them. Last year, they went to Ceylon and Taiwan, where they say they enjoyed themselves so much.
But this time, maybe... I won't go. It is that I'm not sure I can find my passport in the mess of my room!

Posted at Mon Mar 05 16:13:09 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1349201 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1349201 Inukawa Mon Mar 05 16:13:09 UTC 2012


Every Japanese knows that March 3rd is the day of "hina-matsuri", 雛祭り, or Day of Doll Festival, and that it's also Girl's Day. Though, strangely, it's not a national holiday.
There is a traditional custom to display a set of ornamental dolls, miniature instruments and some food on the platforms covered with a red carpet on this day. They are usually displayed in the house of a family which have a girl (or, of course, some girls) in it. The dolls, called "hina ningyou", 雛人形, are known to be very expensive.
The set of the dolls represent the Emperor's court in the ancient times. The main couple of dolls on the top stair are the Emperor and the Empress consort. As it's Girl's Day, the Empress, usually called "o-hina-sama", お雛様, is much more important than the male one. The others on the lower stairs are attendants and musicians. All of them are in traditional court dress of the Heian period.
Some people might be worried that such a custom must affect the infamous ultranationalism of Japanese. But it's a mere groundless fear. Most people don't image the real Emperor or Empress at all when they see the dolls.

Traditional dolls, especially old ones, have something weird and eerie. There are lots of ghost stories about "hina ningyou".

Posted at Sat Mar 03 11:58:55 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1345076 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1345076 Inukawa Sat Mar 03 11:58:55 UTC 2012

A friend of mine sent two image files with e-mails to my mobile phone. They were photos of a squirrel living in a park in London. She took the photos from inside a cafe she dropped by during her visit. It was very hard for me to find the squirrel in the pictures, since its coat was grey.
In the e-mail, she told me she saw the squirrels many times in the city. I started looking into the web to learn about squirrels in the Britain Islands.

There are two kinds of squirrels inhabiting the isles. Red squirrels are the native species and grey squirrels are invasive ones. Like many other invasive lives, grey squirrels are stronger than their native rivals. As greys extended their habitat, reds got to be less and less often seen there. Now you can't find any red squirrel in London, except in the zoo (Did you know London Zoo was the first zoo in the world?).
Open a picture book written in the United Kingdom over 50 years ago. You can't find a grey squirrel there. Every squirrel in the book must be red or brown. However, all the squirrels my friend saw in London were grey ones.

Now they are arguing the problem of this pretty invasive species in Brittain Isles. To protect the environment and the native species, especially red squirrels, they should get rid of the grey squirrels. But Britain people are known as animal lovers. Some people are for the project to kill the alien animals to protect the native ones and some are not.
That's a difficult problem. Of course, the grey squirrels are far from malicious invaders. They didn't even invade the islands intentionally. They were originally brought in by people.

I found an article which said that "squirrel dishes" were getting more popular in Britain. Surely only the meat of grey squirrels is used for the dishes. Squirrel meat is said to be rather mellow and a little sweet, as they eat almost only nuts.
We also have similar problems here in Japan. Maybe we'd better learn how to cook alien squirrels, naturalized goats, mongooses and raccoons, as well as black basses.
But I'd like the exterminators to overlook the naturalized hedgehogs. No big influence by their existence has been reported yet, and, after all, I always stand by the hedgehogs.

Posted at Fri Mar 02 12:44:57 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1343563 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1343563 Inukawa Fri Mar 02 12:44:57 UTC 2012 Last year, Feb 28th was Monday and March 1st was Tuesday.
And this year, the "leap year", Feb 28th, yesterday, was Tuesday. And March 1st, tomorrow, will be Thursday.

That means, the day of the week on a certain date moves to the next one every common year, while it moves to "the next day to next" after March 1st in a "leap year". (More simply, the day in the week of the New Year "leaps" in a leap year.)

That's why February 29th is called the "leap" day. We leap over a day in a week on this day.
I just knew that today!

In Japanese, the leap year is called "uruu doshi", written as 閏年.
"Uruu" is originally a verb, but it's one in the old form. The old verb "uruu" has been changed "uruou" and is written as 潤う. "Uruou" or 潤う means "to be moistened" or "to enrich". It is made with two parts, 水 and 閏.
水 is a basic kanji which means "water". And 閏 is 門 plus 王. 門 is another simple kanji; it is in the shape of a gate and it also means a gate. 王 is same as 玉 and these kanji mean "a precious stone" or "a jewel". So, the shape of 閏 shows a sight, in which the treasures have filled the mansion and its site and now is overflowing out of the gate. How rich they are!
Later, this kanji was changed to mean just the leap year, month or day, as a leap year is "richer" than a common year just for a month (in the past) or for a day (now). Now 潤 means "to enrich" instead of 閏.

By the way, the kanji 閏 always reminds me of Jun-Tu, 閏土, the name of a man in "My Old Home" (故郷), a short story by Lu Xun (魯迅). Lu Xun is one of the most famous novelists from China.
I read the novel in my Japanese textbook when I was in the junior high school. For some reason, the publisher has remained it in their junior high school textbook. My students also read the same "My Old Home" in theirs. Anyway, I agree it's a very good novel.
In the story, Jun-Tu is a childhood friend of the story teller, Lu Xun himself. He had looked like a hero for young Lu Xun, but when they meet again after they get old, Jun-Tu had vanished completely. He was a servile and timid peasant then -- the image opposite to the kanji 閏 or 潤.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected_Stories_of_Lu_Hsun#My_Old_Home

Posted at Wed Feb 29 14:37:27 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1340310 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1340310 Inukawa Wed Feb 29 14:37:27 UTC 2012 Some waiters and waitresses never see their guests in their restaurant though I don't know why. They don't behave lazy plainly, but they just pay no attention to you. They forget you after they lead you to the table. You have to yell at them in order to have them notice you and then all guests in the restaurant turn to you to see what is happening.

When I went to the imported book counter in a big bookstore near Tokyo station recently, there were four clerks behind the counter. For my surprise, none of them noticed me. One was standing with her back toward me, one was doing something looking down and two was talking to each other on something.
I waited without calling them, as I was standing just in front of the counter. It took a very long time to have one of them at last notice my existence.
I wonder where they think their salaries come from. Maybe they think the ideal store or restaurant is one where no customer or no guest comes. We can call it "the employee disposition".

Some days ago, about nine in the morning, I went to a soup restaurant at the Omotesando station.
The waitress at the counter was standing backward again. She was making something and didn't pay any attention to behind; the whole floor of the restaurant that she was in charge of. This time, I called her and she turned to me and said "May I help you?" with a smile on her face.
When I was having my soup at the table, a new guest came into the restaurant. There was nobody behind the counter. The waitress had got into the staff room to do something.
The guest, a young woman, said "Sumimasen!", but nothing happened. She saw someone was working in the kitchen, so she walked to it. She shouted the same phrase two or three times more, but the clerk didn't come. Maybe the noise of some machine he was using disturbed him from hearing her voice.
At last, the guest gave up calling a clerk and got out of the restaurant. She was obviously angry; I could know that from her motion when she walked out.
When she opened the door, the man in the kitcen could hear the sound for some reason and he said "Thank you very much!" in a loud voice. I'm sure that voice must have got the woman more irritated, though she didn't come back to yell at him.

Posted at Fri Feb 24 07:48:22 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1331250 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1331250 Inukawa Fri Feb 24 07:48:22 UTC 2012


I have almost no feeling about Saint Valentine or Saint Valentinus. His name is cool, but that's all. It's simply because I know almost nothing about him.
He was a priest in Rome, a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni in Italy), or a martyr in the Roman province of Africa. Nobody can tell which was right.

According to Wikipedia, the feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God."
That means, almost nothing was known about him from the first time! Although he has some legends, they were first recorded hundreds years after his martyrdom. Some smart guy must have thought of them.
As no one can tell if he really existed or not, his name was struck off from Catholic calendar of saints in 1969. So now he isn't recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, while Eastern Orthodox Church still has two Valentinus or Valentine in their list.
In short, he isn't "St." Valentine for the Catholic any longer.

Anyway, we should pray again for this enigmatic martyr, since a lot of dramas -- either comedies or tragedies -- have been produced under his name, and so have been large profits for merchants and manufacuturers.
I hope he would like our rather heathenish customs on his feast day, most of which doesn't seem to have anything to do with God's "agape". For example, would Mr. V love chocolate, which he never knew while he was alive?

Posted at Tue Feb 14 14:26:53 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1315450 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1315450 Inukawa Tue Feb 14 14:26:53 UTC 2012
Today, about the "riders".

I've heard of a movie named "Easy Rider", but I've never seen it.
Actually, I don't know anything about this famous, old movie.

I know the song named "Ghost Riders in the Sky".
A trivial, rather cheap song, but it's still among my favorite songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8sJm7ZecR8

I know you can say "ride in a taxi" or "ride on the subway", but such phrases doesn't go well with my feeling. "To ride" seems to fit to just horses or bikes including motorcycles.
Sometimes our students write a phrase like "ride a plane". I always tell them to change it to "take a plane". It must hard to ride on an airplane.

I also know the "pale rider" on the pale horse, described in the Book of Revelation.
I've never seen the rider and I wouldn't like to. He or she doesn't seem to be a pleasant person to talk or drink with. I don't want to hear his or her bugle, either.

Kamen Rider, 仮面ライダー（かめんらいだー）, is a well-known weekly live-action TV series for children, in which heroes who are also named "Kamen Rider" fight against the evil organizations.
"Kamen" means a mask in Japanese and therefore their name means "masked riders". In fact, they always wear masks like heads of some bugs.
Many of the riders ride on motorcycles which look cool for boys, but I hear some riders never ride on any bike for some reason, against their name.
I sometimes make a joke of Kamen Riders, asking children why they don't ride on masks!

Posted at Sun Feb 12 12:29:20 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1311705 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1311705 Inukawa Sun Feb 12 12:29:20 UTC 2012


It's a rather boring story.

Today, February 11th, is "kenkoku-kinen no hi"（建国記念の日，けんこくきねんのひ）, National Foundation Day of Japan.
It's one of our National Holidays. Today, we are supposed to celebrate the founding of our nation, although it seems that many of Japanese people aren't much interested in why this day is a holiday.

National Foundation Day was decided based on a legend. Our first emperor, Emperor Jimmu （神武天皇，じんむてんのう）, is said to have established his capital in Yamato, a part of Today's Nara prefecture, in 660 BC. The date of his enthronement is said to be January 1st.
Maybe that didn't really happen. Jimmu is one of our legendary heroes and he may possibly not be even a real person. A raven guided him in the mountains and another bird, a golden kite, helped him to fight against his enemies. Before all, the year of 660 BC is too old for our history.

When the modern government of Japan was first established about 140 years ago (That isn't a legend!), they adopted the solar calendar from Western countries. Then, they decided Jan 29th in the new calendar would be a holiday, National Day, because that year that day happened to be New Year's Day in the old calendar, on which Jimmu is said to have been enthroned. It was natural that many people mistook the holiday as the day to celebrate the New Year's Day in the old calendar, like Chinese New Year of today.
When the government noticed that, they decided to change the date of the holiday and they had a scholar determine the new calendar's date of the January 1st of 660 BC in the old calendar. The date he found was Feb 11th. That day became the National Day since then and it was called　"kigen-setsu"　（紀元節，きげんせつ）.

After the defeat in WWII on August 15th in 1945, National Day of Feb 11th was abolished. In 1947, after the new constitution was set up, the government tried to revive National Day, but GHQ refused it.
In 1952, Japan became independent again, and some people tried again to take the National Day back. The proposal was first made in the Diet in 1958, but a progressive party, which was the largest of the opposition parties, objected to that; they connected the holiday to the nationalism of old militaristic Japan.
People argued this topic for a long time. At last, the holiday revived in1966. Though, the ruling party had to show some concession to the objectors, in order to save their faces. So they changed the name of the holiday.
They had planned the holiday's name as "kenkoku-kinenbi" （建国記念日, けんこくきねんび）, which can be translated to "National Foundation Memorial Day". But, after all, they changed it into "kenkoku-kinen no hi", which comes to "Day of National Foundation Memory" in a literal translation. Just the particle of "-no" was added to the name. It means "of" in Japanese.

I think that change made almost no sense. The "-no" was no need! It only caused some confusion to us. We are often at a loss thinking like "Which was the correct name of the holiday, kenkoku-kinen no hi or kenkoku-kinenbi?"
This confusion is partly because of the existence of another national holiday, Constitution Memorial Day on May 3rd, which is called "kenpou-kinenbi" （憲法記念日, けんぽうきねんび）. Its name resembles to that of "kenkoku-kinen no hi"... or was it "kenkoku-kinenbi"?

Posted at Sat Feb 11 09:17:25 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1309917 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1309917 Inukawa Sat Feb 11 09:17:25 UTC 2012


The first picture is of a poster in the station. It is blaming violence in the station or on the train. What do you think of it?
Would any potential attackers hesitate to knock down someone after seeing this poster? I don't think so.
First of all, this man is displeasing to us for some reason. Although I hate violence, no sympathy has been aroused for him. I'm not an anti-feminist or something, but I should say, he isn't behaving like a man. Actually, he shows a good model of a yellow chicken, which most of us males, and maybe many of females, never want to be. This guy doesn't seem to be helpful in some violent situation at all. Some men might even feel so much antipathy against him that they want to hit him.
What I think the worst is, however, the fact that his fingers aren't tightly closed. It looks like he is peeping from between his fingers.

１枚目の写真は，駅のポスターです。駅や車内での暴力を咎めています。どう思いますか？
暴力行為に走るような人間が，このポスターを見たことで，誰かを殴り倒すのをためらったりするでしょうか。僕にはそうは思えません。
そもそもこの男性には，どこか不愉快なところがあります。暴力は大嫌いだけれど，彼には全然共感できないのです。僕はアンチ・フェミニストとかではないつもりだけど，彼の振る舞いは男らしくない，と言わざるを得ません。彼はチキン野郎のいい見本ですが，男性の大部分は，それにおそらく多くの女性も，こんな人間になりたいとは，まず思わないはずです。暴力的な場面でも，こんな男は，まったく何の役にも立たないでしょう。強い反感から，こいつをぶん殴ってやりたいと思う人さえいるかもしれません。
しかしながら，僕が最悪だと思うのは，彼の指がぴったり閉じていないということです。指の間から，こっそり覗いているみたいです。

The second picture is also a part of a station poster.
This is the typical image of a drunk office worker. He goes reeling, wears a necktie around his head and has a pack of sushi or some food, for his family, slung from his finger.
Surely it might be really difficult to find somebody behaving just like this.

２枚目の写真も，駅のポスターの一部です。
これは，酔っ払ったサラリーマンの典型的なイメージです。千鳥足で歩き，頭にネクタイを巻き，寿司か何かの折り詰めのおみやげを，指にぶらさげているのです。
もちろん，このまんまの酔っ払いの姿を目にするのは，かなり難しいことでしょう。

The third one is of a poster on a wall by a stairway to a building on the Center Street in Shibuya. It says, "I prohibit sit-in to stairs." It's funny, isn't it?

３枚目の写真は，渋谷センター街のある建物に通じる階段の脇の壁に貼ってある貼り紙です。
英語で「私は階段に対する座り込み抗議を禁止する」とか書いてあります。可笑しいよね？

Posted at Sun Feb 05 11:05:40 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1300074 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1300074 Inukawa Sun Feb 05 11:05:40 UTC 2012


Can you stand an egg?
Maybe you know the method by Christopher Columbus. He just crashed the "bottom" of a boiled egg on the table.
People often criticize the pioneers, saying something like "What he did is not a really difficult thing." Though, what's important is just to do it when nobody else thinks of that.
Yes, Kit Columbus was a really cool and clever guy. His episode showed that the pioneers, including himself, are great just because they are the pioneers.

Maybe you can cheat friends of yours, at least some of them, out of some bet for egg-standing without crashing, if you can persuade them to close their eyes or wait outside of the room for half a minute or so while you are trying.
Spill a little heap of salt on the table, stand an egg on the salt, and at last, blow off all the salt showing under the egg. Then you call your ignorant friends.

In fact, you need neither crashing the egg nor salt under it. Dr. Ukichiro Nakaya, a physicist who made artificial snow for the first time in the world, and died fifty years ago, wrote about that in his famous essay "Eggs Are Stood".
According to the author, someone found an article in an old book written in China. It said eggs can be stood on "Risshun", 立春（りっしゅん）or the start of spring according to the old calendar. Someone tried it on "Risshun" and he succeeded. That was reported internationally and made big news as a mystery in 1947.
Dr. Nakaya says it is natural that you can stand an egg. An eggshell has some tiny projections on its surface. They can work as the egg's legs. So most eggs can be stood if you try on patiently for four or five minutes. The date has nothing to do with that. (According to a book for children I read in my childhood, in this trial, you shouldn't take an old egg, which might have lost many of its projections for some friction.)
Nobody had stood an egg for hundreds of years. That was just because nobody thought that might be possible and didn't try it before. That's what is called "preconception".
http://www.gotoh.com/hanada/syorinji/TAMAGO.htm

Today is "Risshun". Just try it!

Posted at Sat Feb 04 07:35:30 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1298328 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1298328 Inukawa Sat Feb 04 07:35:30 UTC 2012


Today, the 3rd of February, is "Setsubun", 節分（せつぶん）.

The kanji of 節分 mean "the seasonal division". It is held on February 3rd (sometimes 4th). It isn't a national holiday. It is one day before "Risshun", 立春（りっしゅん） or the start of spring according to the Japanese lunar calendar, which seems to be almost same as the lunar calendar of China. "Risshun" is the first of "nijuushi-sekki", 二十四節気（にじゅうしせっき） or the tewnty-four solar terms in the year.

On the evening of "setsubun", some of us Japanese throw roasted soy beans around and in their houses, shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!", 「鬼は外（おに は そと），福は内（ふく は うち）」. That means "Devils out, happiness in." It seems to be a kind of magic spell. This ritual is called "mame-maki", 豆まき（まめまき）.
The kanji of 鬼 originally, in China, meant "ghosts". But in our country, it is read "oni" and it means a kind of "devil" or "ogre" with horns on his head. Oni are sometimes ogres who like to catch and eat people. Sometimes they are evil spirits or devils who bring people unhappiness, especially diseases. The roasted beans are thought to chase away "oni".
In modern days, almost none of us believes in the existence of "oni" any longer, but just the ritual of "mame-maki" has remained. it, once having been called "tsuina", 追儺（ついな）, or "oni-yarai", 鬼やらい（おに やらい）, used to be originally one of the rituals for New Year's Eve in the Imperial Court.

In a family, one of the elder people would wear a mask of "oni" and play the role of it. He or she runs away from the beans thrown by other members of the family. I guess playing "oni" is not always a pleasant experience.
You are also supposed to eat the number of beans, which corresponds to your age. Eating them will bring you a long, healthy life. But if you are very old and you don't like roasted beans... don't push yourself too hard!

Surely I don't do "mame-maki", as well as many of other people living alone. Maybe I would come to do that again, if I should have my own family in the future.

http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/tag/setsubun/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2285.html
http://www.japanlinked.com/about_japan/fha/setsubun.html




Posted at Fri Feb 03 11:44:02 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1297101 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1297101 Inukawa Fri Feb 03 11:44:02 UTC 2012
February 2 is Groundhog Day in North America. But it used to be "Hedgehog Day" in Europe.
http://hedgehogcentral.com/hedgehogday.shtml
http://www.nationalgeographic.co.jp/news/news_article.php?file_id=20120202001
http://www.nationalgeographic.co.jp/news/news_article.php?file_id=2010020306
http://blog.livedoor.jp/artmatters/
The article by National Geographic includes a photo of a hedgehog. It's a four-toed hedgehog. Four-toed hedgehogs are originated in Africa, though they are now bred widely as pets or companion animals. The one in the photo must be one bred by someone, not a wild one.
I think here they should have used a photo of a west European hedgehog, which inhabits a large part of western Europe.
The article say that the picture was taken in the United Kingdom. Why do they use not a picture of their native hedgehog but of an exotic one?

On the Internet, I found an application for iPad. You can "talk" with Harry the Hedgehog on iPad.
http://youhikr4.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-588.html
He seems to be a rather ennui and dull guy. I like his face.

Posted at Thu Feb 02 09:33:12 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1295414 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1295414 Inukawa Thu Feb 02 09:33:12 UTC 2012


The first picture is of a flower arrangement which was set in the elevator hall of the building of my apartment during the New Year vacation. I don't know who arranged it.

１つ目の画像は，正月の間，マンションのエレベーター・ホールに生けられていた花です。誰が生けたものかは知りません。

The second picture is of signboards at a construction site.
A bowing guy in the yellow helmet is often painted in such a signboard. You can see him here.
The sentence written in big, blue letters in the middle board said that they were repairing the upper part of a 人孔. We know 人 means "a man" or "a person" and 孔 means "a hole", so we can understand 人孔 means "a manhole". But we never call a manhole 人孔, jinkou. A manhole is just a manhole or マンホール, manhooru in Japanese.
So, this signboard is strange. They use a word which is never known to us and which never exists in any Japanese dictionary.

２つ目の画像は，工事現場の看板です。
このような看板には，黄色いヘルメットをかぶった男がよく描かれています。ここにも彼がいます。
真ん中の看板に，大きな青い字で書かれた文によれば，これは「人孔」上部の補修工事です。「人」が man で「孔」は hole なので，「人孔」が「マン-ホール」を指すことはわかるのですが，私たちはマンホールのことを「人孔」などとは絶対に呼びません。マンホールはマンホールです。
つまり，この看板は奇妙なのです。ここでは，我々が聞いたこともない，どんな国語辞典にも載っていない言葉が使われています。

The third pictures is of erasers of my students.
They draw an eye on each eraser so that they can concentrate in their study. They say they need an eye watching them studying. I feel strange to hear that and see them, but they say they are sure it works. I wonder when and where such a strange custom started.

３つ目の画像は，生徒たちの消しゴムを撮ったものです。
彼らは，勉強に集中できるように，消しゴムに目を描きます。自分が勉強しているのをじっと見ている目が必要なのだ，と言うのです。おかしな話だと思うのですが，彼らは，確かに効き目があると言います。こんな奇妙な習慣が生まれたのは，いつ，どこでなのか，不思議に思っています。

Posted at Sun Jan 29 10:28:04 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1288976 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1288976 Inukawa Sun Jan 29 10:28:04 UTC 2012 After this news was made, the coming major earthquake has been among the popular topics of our conversation. The research organization of the government had announced that such an earthquake will come for the probability of 70 percent in next 30 years. So, the probability has been much increased by the new estimate of ERI.

On a TV program, Shinichi Sakai, one of the researchers in ERI, complained that although the research team had published this estimate of them last September, both the government and the mass media had ignored it for these four months until Yomiuri Shimbun changed their mind for some reason this month.
The nuclear power plant disaster accident in Fukushima tells us that the government and the mass media in Japan are unreliable and untrustworthy. In fact, the situation is getting worse, as after the disaster, many of the people who were willing to announce "inconvenient truths" for the government about it　had removed from the mass media, the ministries and government offices and the government itself. We can't trust and rely on them any more. I think ERI made a good decision.

So, now the problem is not WHETHER or not the major earthquake will come, but WHEN it will come. It will destroy the whole of the metropolitan area seriously and kill plenty of people.
I hope my friends and I will be somewhere safer at the moment. For example, my apartment is very dangerous. The building is about 50 years old; my uncle and aunts used to live there when they were university students and they are now in their sixties! I don't think it can survive such an earthquake.
Maybe even the 28 loyal and devoted book shelves in my apartment wouldn't prop up all the rubble when the upper floors collapse down on me and them. It seems I should rather be careful not to be crushed flat under my own book shelves!

23日，地震学において我が国で最も権威ある組織である東大地震研究所によって，新たな予測が発表されました。今後４年以内に，約70パーセントの確率で，マグニチュード７級の首都圏直下型地震が起こるでしょう。
この報道以来，来るべき巨大地震が，私たちの人気の話題の一つとなりました。政府の研究機関は，そのような地震は今後30年の内に70パーセントの確率で起こるだろうと発表していました。ですから，地震研の新しい試算によって，確率が跳ね上がったことになります。

あるテレビ番組で，東大地震研の研究者である酒井慎一准教授は，この研究チームによる試算が昨年９月には公表されていたにも関わらず，読売新聞が今月になって気を変えるまで，政府もマスコミも，実に４か月間にわたってこれを黙殺し続けてきたことに，苦言を呈しています。
福島の原発事故が示すように，日本の政府とマスコミは頼りにならないし，信頼もできません。実のところ，事態はさらに悪化しています。原発事故以来，政府にとっての「不都合な真実」を公表しようとした人たちの多くが，マスコミや中央官庁や政府それ自体から排除されてしまったからです。もはやそれらの組織に信を置くことはできません。東大地震研究所は，よい決断を下したと思います。

そんな訳で，今や問題は，巨大地震が起こるかどうかではなく，それがいつ起こるかということです。その地震で，首都圏全体が深刻な破壊をこうむり，多くの人命が失われるでしょう。
その瞬間，友人たちや自分が，どこか安全な場所にいることを祈ります。たとえば，僕の部屋は非常に危険な場所です。60代の叔父や叔母たちが，かつて学生時代に暮らしていた，築50年にもなるマンションなのです。そのような大地震に，このマンションが耐えられるとは思えません。
我が忠実なる28架の本棚たちも，上の階が一度に崩れ落ちてきたら，おそらくそれを受け止めてはくれないでしょう。むしろ，自分の本棚にぺしゃんこにされないよう，気をつけた方がよさそうです！！

Posted at Sat Jan 28 08:47:04 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1287460 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1287460 Inukawa Sat Jan 28 08:47:04 UTC 2012


It snowed in Tokyo last night.
Nowadays, here in Tokyo, it snows only several times in a year and it seems to be rather unusual for snow to accumulate on the ground.　In fact, it was the first accumulation of this winter.
This time, the snow was so-called "bota-yuki or ""botan-yuki" （牡丹雪，ぼたゆき／ぼたんゆき）. It means wet, heavy snow which falls in large flakes.
It snowed only at night and the snow started to melt this morning. Most snow on the road has already gone, but this afternoon, when I looked out of the windows of the train, all the roofs of the houses were still white.

昨夜，東京で雪が降りました。
最近は，ここ東京では，雪は１年に数回しか降らず，雪が地面に積もるのは，かなり珍しいことのようです。実際，今回は，この冬初の積雪でした。
今回の雪は，いわゆる「牡丹雪」でした。それは，大きな塊となって降る，湿った重い雪のことです。
雪は夜の間だけ降り，朝には溶け始めました。路上の雪はほとんど溶けてしまいましたが，今日の午後，電車の窓から外を眺めたときには，家々の屋根は，まだ真っ白でした。

Posted at Tue Jan 24 10:57:38 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1282000 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1282000 Inukawa Tue Jan 24 10:57:38 UTC 2012

I went to Kumano Shrine, the closest shrine to my apartment, for "hatsumode", on the 3rd of this month. "Hatsumode" is our custom to go to the shrine on the New Year to pray for happiness and luck of the year.
There was a "chinowa" （茅の輪, ちのわ） in the shrine. They set it there twice a year; in summer and in winter. We should walk through this ring of grass four times. This action is believed to protect us from diseases. Though, this custom, called "oharae" （大祓, おおはらえ）, isn't so popular as "hatsumode".
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/大祓
In fact, I should have done this before the year changes. I'm not sure if it works in case I do this after the New Year's Day, but maybe it's OK, since they still leave it there now.

初詣
今月の３日に，一番近所の神社である熊野神社に，初詣に行った。初詣とは，１年の幸福と幸運を祈るために正月に神社に詣でる，我々の習慣である。
神社には，茅の輪があった。茅の輪は年に２回，夏と冬に設置される。私たちは，この草でできた輪を，４回くぐらなくてはならない。この行為は，病気を防いでくれると信じられている。しかし，大祓と呼ばれるこの習慣は，初詣と比べると，あまり人気がない。
実はこれは，年を越す前にやっておかなければならなかったのだ。正月以降にこれをやっても効果があるのかどうかはよくわからないが，今でも茅の輪が片付けられていないところを見ると，たぶん大丈夫なのだろう。

Posted at Thu Jan 05 23:54:05 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1254831 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1254831 Inukawa Thu Jan 05 23:54:05 UTC 2012 I looked at the clock. Twenty past eleven... Really? It's time I should be in the classroom!
I rushed out of the bedding. Why didn't they call me?
There was something strange. I looked out of the window. It was still dark.

OK, I still have 9 hours left!
What a lucky guy! And what lucky students! :)

Posted at Tue Jan 03 15:51:44 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1251514 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1251514 Inukawa Tue Jan 03 15:51:44 UTC 2012


There is an old saying that 「一富士ニ鷹三茄子（いちふじ、にたか、さんなすび）」 or "Mt. Fuji the first, a hawk the second, an eggplant the third." What does that mean?
Some people say that's the local specialities of "Suruga", the eastern part of today's Shizuoka Prefecture, where Tokugawa Ieyasu lived in his later years. Others say that the saying means three famous revenge murder events in the history. But the most popular explanation is that they are lucky signs. If your first dream in the year --especially that of the New Year's Day-- was about any of them, then you will spend a lucky year.
I don't usually remember my dreams in the morning. So I don't care about this saying at all.

Many Japanese like Mt. Fuji and they become happy when they see a clear figure of it. Today, I saw Mt. Fuji from Shinkansen train back for Tokyo, but it was covered with clouds. Although I'm not a enthusiastic fan of this mountain, I still got a little bit disappointed.
Anyway, I was pretty lucky to spend calmly having no crying baby, no spoilt child or no group of drunk jerks in the car I seated in.

お座敷小唄（おざしきこうた）

富士の高嶺に降る雪も（ふじのたかねにふるゆきも）
京都先斗町に降る雪も（きょうとぽんとちょうにふるゆきも）
雪に変わりがないじゃなし（ゆきにかわりがないじゃなし）
とけて流れりゃ皆同じ（とけてながれりゃみなおなじ）

This is the first part of a popular song in 1964 by Mahina Stars.
It is known that a phrase in the lyrics is wrong. 「ないじゃなし」 should be 「あるじゃなし」.

“Some snow falls on the top of Mt. Fuji.
Other snow falls here in the amusement quarter in Kyoto.
Are there any difference between the two?
Any snow would melt and disappear someday.”

This comical song is about tragic love between a "geisha" girl and a married man.
I like this song for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXuOo-He_-E

Now I'm in Tokyo, again. I dropped in at Shibuya to buy some stuff on my way home.
At Harajuku Station, I had to get off on the special platform which isn't used in usual time. The ticket gates on the platform lead to the site of Meiji Shrine directly.
This shrine is located next to Harajuku Station and it happens to be the one which gather the most visitors for "hatsumode" （初詣　はつもうで） in Tokyo. "Hatsumode" is our custom of going to pray for happiness and luck in a shrine in the New Year.
I didn't want to go to Meiji Shrine for my "hatsumode", so that was only a detour for me.

Posted at Mon Jan 02 07:13:54 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1249468 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1249468 Inukawa Mon Jan 02 07:13:54 UTC 2012


Today, our family went to a hotel to have lunch of "kaiseki" （懐石, かいせき） dishes together. "Kaiseki" is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner.

Picture-1 is "o-zoni" （お雑煮 おぞうに） we had for breakfast (it's not "kaiseki").

Picture-2 is of my brother, his wife and their son. My brother is the general manager of a gym. My sister-in-law works for a bank.

Picture-3 is one of ten "kaiseki" dishes we had today.

Posted at Sun Jan 01 08:51:15 UTC 2012
]]> http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1248292 http://www.lang-8.com/336743/journals/1248292 Inukawa Sun Jan 01 08:51:15 UTC 2012