Hello again. Remember me?

So it’s been a bit less than two months since I started attending a Japanese language school here in Tokyo. In that time, I’ve managed to attend three different class levels for varying amounts of time. The result is that, even though my time having attended the language school is still quite limited, I have a bit of insight into how things seem to work that I might not have noticed so clearly had I progressed in the normal fashion. So today I’ll tell you just a bit about how my Japan-based Japanese language school seems to work. I think we can assume that it many of the others follow a similar model, but I of course cannot make any claims regarding this matter.

First of all, the classes are conducted in Japanese, of course. Being one of the very few (or the only) English speaking students in all of my classes, it would be quite strange to conduct classes in English. And of course, attendance is not limited to any other nationality, either. Not to mention that immersion is a great advantage in learning a language. That’s why you study the language in its native country, is it not? So how do you teach a language (to non-infants) using the language itself? Unfortunately, I never attended the first class, so I can’t say definitely how they went about this. However, by seeing the textbook used, I can guess that many pictures, gestures, and so forth were used.

Beyond this, something peculiar that I noticed when reviewing the first book used by the school was that it seemed to progress so quickly. The same seemed true for the second book that I received. So I wondered, do they really advance this quickly? From my observations thus far, the answer seems to be both yes and no. Huh? Here is what I mean. When I left the first class that I was placed in, we were discussing the grammar for aida. During the second class I was placed in, we were discussing the grammar for aida. In the third, or my current class, we have at one time or another once again discussed aida.

So what does it all mean? To sum it up, things move very quickly in the language school. In a three month session, hundreds of words, hundreds of kanji, and a good number of grammatical constructions are covered. But rather than moving on completely, these words, kanji, and constructions continue to pop up again and again in addition to new material being covered. The result is that a very large amount of material is covered while constantly reviewing past material. I will have to spend more time in the class before I solidify any feelings regarding this method, but it is quite interesting and seems to make sense.

I should be advancing to a new class before long, so I’ll let you know if my conclusions turn out to be completely wrong.

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

Hay Fever, called 花粉症 (かふんしょう, lit. pollen sickness) here in Japan is a significant and growing problem. In most countries, grasses and weeds account for a large percentage of the cases of hay fever and reach their peaks in the Spring. However, the largest cause in Japan is 杉 (すぎ – sugi), which is usually translated as Japanese Cedar. Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) is actually a type of cyprus tree found in large quantities throughout most of Japan and it usually begins pollenating in January and peaks in February. And as just as the sugi pollen season dies down, the pollination of 檜 (ひのき – hinoki, Chamaecyparis obtusa), another type of cyprus, begins. So, for the poor souls, like me, who suffer from both pollens, there is an unbroken period of sniffling from late January through Golden Week (early May). Ugh.

The amount of pollen in the air varies from year to year based on factors like the warmth of the preceding summer and the natural cycle of pollination for each species. In my experience, it seems that sugi peaks about every five years or so. This year definitely seems to be an off-year, but there are still plenty of people suffering. In those peak years before I started visiting a specialist clinic, I would take an over-the-counter anti-histamine that would make me drowsy. It was miserable.

In the peak periods, I can smell sugi pollen. Most people I have spoken to are not sure what sugi smells like, so it may be that I am especially sensitive to this smell. If you have a dark paint color on your car (like I do), you can see the build-up of pollen on your car. It has a slightly yellow look to it.

What really upsets me is that the amount of suffering in Japan due to sugi is largely because of government decisions. In the period following WWII, the government wanted to plant trees that would be cheap, abundant and native to Japan for the purpose of construction. So, which tree did they choose for this role? You guess it – sugi!

Clinics specializing in nose and eye problems are crowded in this season. In addition to medicine, a common preventative measure taken is wearing masks not unlike those which you find in hospitals. And while they look uncool, they are very effective. In my first few years in Japan I refused to wear the masks and suffered for it. But when I began working at a high school, since most of the people was around were Japanese, I began to wear them. And I discovered just effective they were. So, these days, I don’t hesitate to wear them and buy them in bulk at Costco.

In particularly bad years, some people will wear goggles to keep the pollen out of their eyes. Now, I’ve never done this. I do remember in a really bad year seeing on the news people wearing ski goggles!

Another treatment that seems to be fairly effective is acupuncture, or hari. I’ve never tried this, but I’d be willing to.

Well, I do hope that you will not suffer from hay fever whether you are in Japan or any other country. But if you are, let me just say, かわいそう!

Heroes is a TV show from America’s NBC. It follows a group of men and women who suddenly develop superhuman powers.

There is a woman with a split personality, a man who can fly, another who can paint the future, and a girl who can regenerate her injuries.

But my personal favourite¹ character is 中村広², who can bend time and space. Not only is his superpower the coolest, he has the added power of being able to speak Japanese at a native level.

中村広 (広 for short) has a sidekick, Ando, who he speaks almost exclusively in Japanese to. Try closing your eyes and listening to what they say; you might find out you will understand more than you think you could!

Here are some words I have learnt from Heroes:

運命・うんめい　Destiny/Karma. Chinese learners will recognise³ the characters as the same as the Chinese, except backwards: the Chinese word is 命運. Whenever Ando doubts their mission, 中村広 tells him that it’s their destiny: 「運命だよ！」　or something similar.

ピンチ・大ピンチ　A problem. Taken from the English word ‘pinch’, as in ‘I say, I’m in a bit of a pinch, can you help me out?’ When 広 gets a gun pointed at him (I won’t spoil the plotline for those who haven’t seen the series, but suffice it to say that it happens a lot) he gets a sheepish look and says 「ピンチ！」

やった！　よし先生⁴　explained this Japanese word in a Jpod lesson much better than I ever could. “Sometimes I just wake up and the sun is smiling and I just say…　やった!” I’m paraphrasing though, as I can’t find the right lesson. It was one of the funniest lessons I’ve heard. なつかしい！I can’t for the life of me find which one it was though… Perhaps someone with a better memory could put the link in a comment to this post? But I digress. The first time 広 successfully uses his superpower to teleport, and at other moments of elation, he pumps his fists into the air, closes his eyes, and yells 「やった！」

I’m now going to write a little about the latest episode. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to stop reading now, as I’m going to talk about plot points that might ruin the story for those who haven’t seen episode 16.

In last week’s episode, 広 and Ando were separated, so there wasn’t much dialogue in Japanese. They meet up towards the end of the episode,　and 広 reluctantly tells Ando that he will be continuing his journey on his own. Ando isn’t too pleased. He says,

運命じゃん！

After seeing that line, I did the same thing as many readers did just now, I typed the line into Firefox, toggled Rikaichan, got no answer on the じゃん part of the line, and scratched my head.　I kept watching until the end, taking note of the celebrity cameo appearance made during the scene between 広　and Ando.

愛香⁵ explained quite simply to me that じゃん＝じゃないか and that she had explained this to me before. 「おぼえてる、じゃない？」　she said, which just confused me even more. Is Ando saying that it’s not destiny? Was 愛香 saying that I didn’t remember? It was all too confusing. Then I did something I should have done a long time ago.

I called up the Jpod grammar bank in the learning center, looked under ‘J’ for ‘じゃない’　and found out what it meant. I won’t get into too much detail, I’ll let you have a look through it yourself!

After jumping through all those hoops to find out the meaning of those 3 syllables, it took me about 10 seconds to find it in the grammar bank. 早かった、じゃん？

Check your local guides for when Heroes airs, or watch it at the NBC website.

¹ favorite
² なか・むら・ひろ　or ‘Hiro Nakamura’ in the show
³ recognize
⁴ せん・せい
⁵ あい・か

Source: https://www.nbc.com/Heroes/images/cast/bio_hiro.jpg

One day I was at a 上海¹ sports centre², playing table tennis with some friends. Table tennis is very popular here; the place I was at had about 10 tables in a gymnasium.

While the others were playing doubles, I had a wander around the centre. Next to the table tennis hall, there was a gym where a group of approximately 20 people were practising 空手³. There were men and girls of many ages, all in neat formation, doing drills. The instructor was at the front, barking out orders and counting. He wasn’t counting in English, or even Chinese, but was yelling out in a bloodcurdling voice 「いち・に・さん・よん」

Whenever people practice 空手, they do so using Japanese instead of the language of whichever country they are in. So all over the world, or at the very least all over 上海, there are instructors yelling out 「いち・に・さん・よん」　to their students, in deference to the Japanese origins of 空手. The same is true of Taekwondo, which has its origins in the Korean peninsula. When practising Taekwondo, commands are yelled out in Korean.

But as you can imagine, there aren’t many things that a 空手 instructor has cause to scream out at the top of his voice to his class. Anything spoken to individual fighters, or instructions on how to perform moves was said in Chinese. Language doesn’t play much part in beating an opponent to a pulp.

At the end of the training session, everyone got the opportunity to practise their 日本語⁴. Everyone lined up in single file along one of the walls, from tallest to shortest. Then the tallest one broke off, faced the second shortest, bowed and said a very polite thankyou. Then he continued to the third tallest fighter, thanking him also. Then the second shortest broke off, and did the same to the third tallest. This continued, and in this way, everyone got the chance to thank everyone else. Only the Japanese could have come up with such an efficient, polite way to end a training session.

Allow me to sidetrack a little though. This ‘polite thankyou’ had not been taught to each fighter. This was a 空手 lesson, not a language lesson. So no one had bothered to correct anyone else’s pronunciation, and no one in the room was a native speaker. I’ll also tell you that this greeting is usually rushed over very quickly by Japanese people when they have to say it to many people. Combine that with the fact that it’s usually mumbled under the breath, while bowing at 45 degrees, and you’ll find that in real life this utterance doesn’t always sound like it does when 夏子先生⁵ and her colleagues say it on JPod.

Let’s continue with the language lesson though. What do you think that each fighter said to each other? As I mentioned, it was a very polite thankyou.

Of course, it was 「ありがとうございます」, often the first phrase that a Japanese learner learns.

But it came out rather differently. As I mentioned, no one had taught anyone in the room the proper pronunciation, or explained the lightning-fast pronunciation of native 日本人 when saying this. So there was a room full of people bowing deeply to each other and yelling at the top of their voices,

“Osssss… Ossss… Osssss…… Ossss…..”

And I totally agree with this pronunciation. I have been in a roomfull of サラリマン⁶　when they have greeted each other. They have bowed deeply to each other and said what sounded to my ears like “Osss….”. I actually expected them to come up from their bows with a sheepish grin, expecting “Osss” to be a joke or something.

I have even tried it out. I met a group of Japanese friends last week, and upon meeting them, bowed and said “Osss….”. I expected them to laugh at me, but they returned my “Ossss….” with an “Osss….” of their own.

¹ シャン・ハイ
² center
³ から・て
⁴ に・ほん・ご
⁵ なつ・こ・せん・せい
⁶ Japanese white collar workers. ‘Salary Men’.

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

Romance is in the air here in Tokyo as Valentine’s Day approaches. And in Japan this year we have a three-day weekend as建国記念の日 (けんこくきねんのひ – Foundation Day) is moved to Monday in accord with the Happy Monday* policy. And since Valentine’s Day is on Wednesday, the department stores, bakeries and convenience stores will be busy catering to the romantically-minded. But, it’s not just those romantically-inclined that will be lining up. But, more on that momentarily.

As the Japanese are masters of adaptation, they often take Western traditions and reshape them with a distinctly Japanese twist. And this is certainly true of Valentine’s Day. Whereas in the West the heavier burden of responsibility of gift-giving falls on the men, the exact opposite is true in Japan. In Japan, it is the fairer sex that is expected to give chocolate to the men in their lives. Girlfriends give to their boyfriends, female students give to their male teachers whom they like, wives to their husbands. However, it doesn’t end there.

Another Japanese innovation is 義理チョコ (giri-choko – obligation chocolate). In this modern tradition, Japanese women almost invariably give chocolate to their male bosses and frequently also give to their male colleagues. While this practice may seem unfair, the men usually return in kind on White Day. But, I’ll save that topic for another time. The opposite of giri-choco is 本命チョコ (honmei-choko – true feeling chocolate, lit. favorite) There is also 友チョコ (tomo-choko – friend chocolate), which is chocolate women give to their women friends.

Being an American, I go to buy chocolate for my wife every year. But, when I do, I am usually the only man in a crowded space in front of the Godiva counter in the basement of a department store. It’s almost embarrassing to be the only man in a crowd of women like a man buying lingerie for his lover at Victoria’s Secret.

My wife also buys chocolate for me, which is nice. And having been a teacher at both high schools and colleges, I have received chocolate from some of my students. These are often 手作り (tezukuri – homemade). And, as Mikiさん pointed out in her audio blog, Japanese girls will often leave these on the desks of those boys they are interested in. Alas, this year I don’t teach on Wednesday, so I may be out of luck.

This year, I learned of a new development. Recently, some Japanese women will buy very expensive chocolate for themselves. They will spend twice or three times as much as they do for their boyfriends on the same amount of chocolate, ¥1000 or more. I believe there may be a word for this new “tradition”, but no one I spoke to seemed to recall what it is. I suggest 自己愛チョコ (jikoai-choko – narcissistic chocolate). If I find out the current term, I will post it in the comments.

Next month, I plan to write about White Day, the day where men return the favor.
Until next time, saraba.

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

In the Samurai Theologian in Tokyo series, I plan to give a behind-the-scenes look at JapanesePod101.com and to provide reviews of places and events in and around Tokyo. Some reviews, like the previous one on anpan, will look at more traditional Japanese topics. However, I also plan to review spots where foreigners can get a taste of home.

In this entry, I review the Blue Parrot, a used book store in Tokyo that caters to the needs of English-speakers. The Blue Parrot is located in Takadanobaba near the station. The station is on the Yamanote Line, the line that circles Tokyo. It is also served by the Seibu-Shinjuku Line as well as the Tozai Subway Line. From the train station, take the Waseda-dori exit and turn right as you leave the station. Cross the street and walk up the left side of Waseda-dori approximately 200 meters. From the subway line, take the #6 exit, turn right and walk about 100 meters. For a map, visit their website.

The Blue Parrot has a large selection of English books from a plethora of categories. There are also DVDs, CDs, video tapes, and more. Books are priced at a fraction of the list price, and single DVDs sell for 980 yen, while CDs sell for 2 for 500 yen.

You can sell you books for cash or store credit. If you opt for cash, the amount is fairly low, so most people go with the credit option. So as you clean out your apartment and bring in your old books, you can use your credit to obtain new books and DVDs. They also have a point card system where you receive a stamp for every 1000 yen spent, which you can save up for more store credit.

If you are also looking for a place to check your email or surf the internet, the Blue Parrot also has computers with internet access for 100 yen for 20 minutes. And now, they have an online bookstore. You can access the online store.

I have found the Blue Parrot to have a good selection at a fair price. In fact the DVDs may be underpriced, with the exception of some TV series on DVD. But, they are considering their policy on DVD sets, so this may change for the better as well.

For more information about the Blue Parrot, visit their main website at and their online store.

If you would like to download the enhanced version (podcast file with photos, urls and/or chapter marks) of this audio, visit my Samurai Theologian Podcast page. Consider subscribing to receive future enhanced podcasts. You can also the photos in an online slide show from my site. Look for the enhanced podcast and photo gallery in the next couple of days.

I went to a concert last night, put on by a Japanese band playing African drums. Everyone I met was 日本人¹.　Just before leaving, I went over everything I had learnt about saying goodbyes in Japanese. I rehearsed it in my head: 「でわ、さきにしつれいします」².　Arms by my side, lowered eyes and a bow from the waist. A bow as deep as I could, look at the floor for 3 seconds, then come back up. I quite proud of my bowing technique, I’d practiced it in the トイレ³　earlier. But instead of returning my carefully rehearsed bow, everyone kept shaking my hand, patting me on the back, giving the half-hug. Everyone kept saying “see ya”, “bye”, “Thanks for coming”, “再见”⁴.
It was a bit strange. After hearing so much about ritualised traditions in Japan, and preparing myself for them, I had received a hi five, a bright smile and a ‘Thanks for coming’. All my practice for nothing!
I am always amazed by Japanese culture. Just when I think I have a grasp on it, it changes!
¹に・ほん・じん, Japanese person
²“Well, excuse me for leaving first”. A very polite thing to say before leaving the room.
³Toilet/bathroom.
¹Zai Jian, Chinese for ‘goodbye’.

Daniel here. Reporting for JapanesePod101.com.

In the dialog and explanation for Beginner Lesson Season 2 #10 – Morning Coffee, they discussed あんパン (anpan), which was described as a bun filled with sweet bean paste. Also, they discussed 木村屋 (Kimuraya), the bakery in Ginza, Tokyo, that is most famous for it. So, I headed down to Ginza to get a closer look. But, first, a look at the origin of anpan.

Yasubei Kimura was a samurai in latter part of the 19th Century who, like many others, lost his job during the Meiji Era. He took on the role of baker and moved his business to Ginza. He was unsatisfied with taste of the bread at the time, and came up with anpan as a bread that was more to the liking of the Japanese palate. He knew he made it big when one of his customers introduced his delicacy to the Emperor and the Emperor requested to have it brought to him daily. The word got out. And as we say, the rest is history.

The easiest way to access the store is to ride the subway (either the Ginza line or the Marunouchi Line) and get off at the A9 exit, which comes out right in front of the store (and only a block away from the Apple Store!). Ginza is the famous shopping district in downtown Tokyo, and is one of the few places in crowded Tokyo with wide sidewalks.

There were many people walking by in both directions shopping at the expensive boutiques and stores. Kimuraya has a glass front, and there is an accompanying restaurant occupying the immediate floors above the store, with the actual bakery above the restaurant.

There are many baked goods sold at Kimuraya, but anpan is their signature product. So, as you enter the store, the anpan is on display near the door and can be bought directly from the sales people who bag your choice of anpan and other types of buns (I noticed cheese buns, sesame buns, chestnut buns and jam buns in addition to four types of anpan). For the sake of our investigation , I picked up the original style anpan, the signature style anpan (anpan with a small pickled piece of sakura), and shiro-anpan (the white bean paste mentioned in the podcast).

After performing a very scientific test at the JapanesePod101.com labs, the consensus was that the shiro-anpan was the best. However, I found all three varieties to be excellent.

If you would like to download the enhanced version (podcast file with photos, urls and/or chapter marks) of this audio, visit my Samurai Theologian Podcast page. Consider subscribing to receive future enhanced podcasts. You can also these photos in an online slide show from my site.

Daniel

Well, here I am.

Thrice I said that I would post my next entry, and today will make it thrice that I have fallen short of fulfilling that promise. On the upside, I’ve spent that time helping to make sure that you get your daily lessons! However, today, instead of simply telling you that I might post my entry next week, I will give you something a little different (that should be a much quicker writeup).

As I mentioned previously, I have recently started attending a Japanese language school here in Tokyo. Whether it’s been one or two weeks since I started, I can’t quite remember. Nonetheless, I know this topic may be of interest to some of you, so I will intertwine updates about this experience with my kanji learning entries from time to time. Today will be the first update.

My first class. The first class that I was placed in was about fifteen Chinese people and myself. Well, to be fair, one is from Taiwan. I’ve always heard that Chinese people have a large advantage over westerners when learning Japanese because they already use kanji daily. The largest discovery while attending my first class was probably that I don’t believe this to be true anymore. While they probably have a better idea of the meanings, the manner of writing many of the kanji is different, especially for those who use simplified Chinese. And although the onyomi is supposed to be the Chinese pronunciation, the difference is large enough that many times the Chinese are unsure. Of course, for a complete beginner, anyone from a country that uses kanji will have some kind of advantage over someone from a country that does not use kanji. However, I feel that we all have to study kanji diligently, no matter where we’re from.

Now, you may be wondering why I said my “first” class. Two days ago, I switched classes. I moved up one level because the class I started in was a bit too easy. My new class has a little bit more variety. I’m told that the statistics are as follows: 1 Myanmar, 1 Indian, 5 Koreans, and about 8 or so Chinese. This class is a bit more lively because the students feel confident enough to make jokes every now and then, and understand enough to laugh at them. My first class had two male teachers, but my current class has two female teachers. Both sets consist of one fairly young, and then one slightly older (let’s be nice here).

Having only spent a short time in school, and an even shorter time in my new class, I can’t tell you a whole lot more. Over all, though, I am enjoying my time there so far. I will try to make more updates as time moves on. And now I must go. (I stayed late just for you!) Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you next week (I think).

Nathan

My apologies.

I just began attending a Japanese language school here in Tokyo this week. Due to this, I have unfortunately been too busy to write my new entry that I had promised on the 11th. (Peter’s PDF promises seem to have rubbed off on me in some way.) So let’s move my promise forward one week.

If you’re interested, school is fun so far!
Thank you again for your patience and understanding!

Until next week (hopefully),
Nathan