Summer 2019

 I usually post something related to Japanese language, culture or video games, but this time, since I don't really have anything to talk about related to these things, I figured I post a little about how my summer went this year.

Needless to say, it was one of the most memorable ones for me and my family. This is the first time we went camping together. Another family with whom we are friends invited us to go out camping with them. They let us borrow everything, from the tent to the sleeping bags. We took turns cooking and watching the place.

There was lots to do. There was a nearby river in which we cooled down during the afternoon. There was a trampoline near by and the kids had fun playing on it. The camp ground had equipment we could use, such as bug catching nets and cages; the kids went out hunting for dragon flies and rhinoceros beetles.

The camp ran a fishing lake where for a small fee, one could borrow a fishing rod complete with bait and a hook. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout, it was almost guaranteed to result in a catch. The fishing experience was over in 15 minutes or after catching 3 fish, which ever came first.

It was fun going fishing with my kids and actually catching something. The camp offers to gut and clean the fish for free, so we ate the catch soon after, and we didn't even have to do the dirty work! The fish were great. Almost sweet!

It's almost obligatory that during the summer, children in Japan play with fireworks, and this camp wouldn't have been complete without it. It's just sparklers so they're not too dangerous.

It was definitely one of my most memorable summers. I hope that my kids will also look back on this as one of the best summers we had as a family.

Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution Review - POSSIBLE SPOILERS

It looks like I'm accidentally a Pokemon fan... well. No. Not really; my kids are into Pokemon so I'm kinda obliged to tag along.

Believe it or not, 3 years later, my family is only just getting into Pokemon GO.

My kids only just heard of it, and they have convinced me and my wife to install it on our iPhones.

One thing lead to another, and now my kids not only watch Pokemon on Japanese TV, they also often buy the Pokemon bread sold at grocery stores and collect the reusable stickers included.

My wife and kids drive me CRAZY with this Pokemon stuff!

"There's a Raid Battle going on! We HAVE to go! OMG! We need to get this new Pokemon! Tell your American friends to send you gifts! You might get an egg with an America only Pokemon!"

On weekends it's "Pokemon." In the middle of the night it's "Pokemon."

"Daddy, can I borrow your phone to play Pokemon Go? Mommy's going on a Raid battle and I want to come with."

It's taken over my phone!!!

OK. ANYWAY, I digress.

It must be known that I am unwitting, and oftentimes unwilling in all of this.

My wife thought it would be a good idea to take the kids out to see the Mewtwo Strikes Back movie. Afterward there would be an event where you could play rocks-scissors-paper with Pikachu and win some stuff.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Do not read past this point if you're one of those people who haven't seen the movie yet and it would end your world to hear what happens.

I'd have to say the movie wasn't all that special.

Like, it seemed like any other obligatory 3D rendition of a cartoon with no real plot.

What plot is there to Pokemon other than "gotta catch 'em all?"

Essentially, "the best Pokemon trainers" meet up to have a battle royale against Mewtwo to see who wins.

Can you guess who wins?

The movie shows how Mewtwo is basically a man-made creation using Mew's original DNA.

Mewtwo, wanting to show he is the "better" of the two wants to beat Mew.

He creates "newer, better pokemon, designed to be superior" and pits them against Ash's "normal" pokemon.

Ultimately, the show down boils down to being between Mewtwo and Mew himself.

The fight arrives at a stalemate, proving both are "as good."

Someone gets hurt in the battle though, but I won't say who.

All I'll say is it's the usuall sappy ending that all kids know and love.

Anyway, I thought it was alright... Nothing special. I mostly did it for the kids.

My kids enjoyed it and that's really all that matters.

I later came to find out that the movie was actually already released in normal cartoon format, and that this was just a re-imagining of that same movie.

At any rate, we watched the movie, ate a ton of popcorn, drank a lot of soft drinks.

There were no seat-wettings in the watching of this film.

After the film, we headed out to a stage to wait for the arrival of the pikachus which would be the stars of the event. Here are pics of what happened.

Hydrangeas 2019

I've been pretty busy this year taking care of this or that, so I haven't had much time to sit down and think of something meaningful for my blog this month.

For now, it's June, it's the rainy season, and the flower of the month is the hydrangea, so enjoy some pictures of hydrangeas in my local area.

Related Posts 
Tsuyu Series: The Wonder of Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas 2017

Tsuyu Series: A Tribute to Frogs in Video Games

Tsuyu Series: Rain in Videogames

Tsuyu: More Japanese Rainy Season Trivia

Tsuyu: The Rainy Season

Satsukibare - Sunny Days of May

Being the month of May, I'm going to talk about a term the Japanese like to use around this time of year. That term is "satsukibare." (五月晴, sa-tsoo-kee-bah-ray)

The meaning of this term has changed over time. Taken apart, it just means "a clear day in the 5th month," and it referred a day in May when it didn't rain.

You see, back before the Japanese adopted the Gregorian Calendar, the Japanese used the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which varied by about a month.

The rainy season, or "tsuyu" (梅雨, tsoo-yoo) was expected during the 5th month at that time. In fact, an alternate kanji spelling for the 5th month was 皐月, which means "the month of pools."

Today, however, the rainy season is expected in the month of June, so the term "satsukibare" has taken on a slightly different meaning; it now refers to the typical sunny days of May.

Old Months, New Months
Before the Japanese adopted the Gregorian Calendar, the months of the year had different names. They were:

Mutsuki (睦月, moo-tsoo-ki) - "The Month of Friendship"

Kisaragi (如月, kee-sah-rah-gee) or alternatively Kinusaragi (衣更着, kee-noo-sah-rah-gee) "Month of Changing Garnments"

Yayoi (弥生, yah-yoh-ee) "Month of New Life"

Uzuki (卯月, "oo-zoo-kee") "Month of the Rabbit Flower"

Satsuki (皐月, sah-tsoo-kee) "Month of Pools" or Sanaetsuki (早苗月, sah-nah-ay tsoo-kee), "Early-rice-planting Month"

Minazuki (水無月, mee-nah-zoo-kee) "Month of Water"

Fumizuki (文月, foo-mee-zoo-kee) "Month of Scholarship"

Hazuki (葉月, hah-zoo-kee) "Month of Leaves" or alternatively "Haochizuki" (葉落ち, hah-oh-chee-zoo-kee) "Month of Falling Leaves").

Nagatsuki (長月, nah-gah-zoo-kee)  "Long Month"

Kannazuki (神無月, kan-nah-zoo-kee) "Month of the Gods" 
Shimozuki (霜月, shee-moh-zoo-kee)  "Month of Frost").

Shiwasu (師走, shee-ah-wah-soo) "Busy Priests"

But today, the months of the year have boring old names in Japanese:

Ichigatsu - (一月 - ee-chee-gah-tsoo) - One Month
Nigatsu - (二月 - nee-gah-tsoo) - Two Month
Sangatsu - (三月 - san-gah-tsoo) - Three Month
Shigatsu - (四月 - shee-gah-tsoo) - Four Month
Gogatsu - (五月 - go-gah-tsoo) - Five Month
Rokugatsu - (六月 - roh-koo-gah-tsoo) - Six Month
Shichigatsu - (七月 - shee-chee-gah-tsoo) - Seven Month
Hachigatsu - (八月 - hah-chee-gah-tsoo) - Eight Month
Kugatsu - (九月 - koo-gah-tsoo) - Nine Month
Juugatsu - (十月 - joo-gah-tsoo) - Ten Month
Juuichigatsu - (十一月 - joo-ee-chee-gah-tsoo) - Eleven Month
Juunigatsu - (十二月 - joo-nee-gah-tsoo) - Twelve Month

Isn't that a pip!

Related Links:

Tsuyu: The Rainy Season

The Name of the New Japanese Imperial Era Unveiled

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga holds up

the name of the new Japanese Imperial Era: "Reiwa"

Earlier this year, I talked about how 2019 was going to be an important year in Japanese history because it would mark the end of the 30-year Heisei (平成) imperial era, and the beginning of a new imperial era whose name would be announced.

 Well, today the name of the long-anticipated name of the new imperial era was finally unveiled to the Japanese public. This will be the name of the era of the duration of the reign of the new Japanese emperor, as a new chapter in Japanese history begins.

Crown Prince Naruhito, pictured with his wife Princess MasakoSource: https://pressfrom.info/us/news/world/-260675-new-emperor-new-era-how-a-single-word-defines-japan.html

Crown Prince Naruhito, pictured with his wife Princess MasakoSource: https://pressfrom.info/us/news/world/-260675-new-emperor-new-era-how-a-single-word-defines-japan.html

Crown Prince Naruhito with his wife, Princess Masako

Crown Prince Naruhito will become the new emperor, when the current emperor, His Majesty Hirohito, abdicates at the end of the month. Thus, the reign of Heisei will end, and the reign of Reiwa will begin.



What's in a name?
Using Chinese characters, or "kanji" as they are known in Japanese (漢字, lit. "Chinese character"),  to name something is notoriously tricky. A Chinese character has three main aspects; its visual or graphical components, its phonetic components, and its semantic components. When a person, place or thing is given a name, much consideration is given to each and every one of these components.

Kanji are magical characters, because different meanings and/or sounds become more, or less prominent depending on how they are used. The trick to coming up with a name is choosing kanji that complement each other, and that result in a desired sound and/or meaning.

To complicate matters, different meanings to a lot of the kanji have come to dominate in both China and Japan, and so what can look and sound beautiful and harmonious to the Japanese, can have completely different, if not indelicate meanings in Chinese.

Take, for example, the kanji 湯. In Japanese it can be read "yu" by itself, or "tou" in compounds. (Though these aren't hard and fast rules in themselves.) By itself, it means "hot water," or "hot bath." In the compound 銭湯 (sento), it means "public bath." 銭 can be read "sen" or "zeni," and it means "money," "coins" or "loose change." So 銭湯 literally implies "paid bath." In Mandarin Chinese, however, 湯 is read "tāng" and it means "soup" or "broth."


The kanji compound for a written letter of correspondence; 手紙. ("tegami" - read "teh-gah-mee"). It is composed of "hand" (手), and "paper" (紙). It makes sense to Japanese readers, because a letter is written on paper by hand. In Mandarin Chinese, the same characters are read "shǒuzhǐ" (show-jee), and the compound means "toilet paper," which makes sense; it's paper you use with your hands after using the toilet.

Separate, the characters for "Reiwa" are 令 and 和. 令 is read "rei," and it has current meanings of "command," "order," or "dictation." It's used in compounds such as 命令 (meirei, "command"), 法令, (horei, "law, ordinance, decree, mandate") and 号令 (gorei, "order, command"). 和 has a few different readings and meanings, but by itself, the most prominent reading is "wa." It has meanings such as "harmony," "peace," "soften," and has come to mean the country of Japan itself. Quite possibly the most well-known compound that 和 is used in is 平和 (heiwa), meaning "peace." The word 和やか (nagoyaka) means "calm, gentle, quiet, friendly, harmonious, peaceful."

So when I first saw this name, it gave me an unsettling feeling. "Commanded," "ordered," "dictated" "peace/harmony?" Peace and harmony will happen "by law?" Does the government intend to make Japan into a dictatorship? Where they issue orders and Japanese citizens obey?
What on earth is this character compound supposed to mean?

Upon closer inspection, the compound 令和 was taken from an ancient collection of poems called the Man'yoshu (万葉集, lit. "collection of a thousand leaves"), where the kanji 令 has meanings of "revelation from the gods," thus "auspicious."

 Here is an excerpt from the poem:

于時初春令月　氣淑風和梅披鏡前之粉

Note the underlined characters.

And here is a rendition of it in modern Japanese:

初春の令月にして、気、淑く、風、和ぎ、梅は鏡前の粉を披き、蘭は珮後の香を薫らす

Here is a rough translation:

"On this auspicious month at the beginning of spring, the scene of plum blossoms evokes peaceful serenity. Nature skillfully makes herself up in blossoms as a woman powdering her face in front of a mirror. Their fragrance is as the lingering scent of her scent pouch, as she passes by..."

The entire poem sings the praises of spring, beauty and glory after enduring the hardships of winter, auspicious beginnings and the pleasure of being in convivial company.


When 令 appears as a prefix, it means "fine" or "venerable" such as 令嬢 (reijo, "venerable daughter"), and 令息 (reisoku, "venerable son") both used to talk of other people's children. In this case, 令 appears as part of the compound 令月 (reigetsu), which is an old name for February, which was supposed to be a month of good luck, new beginnings, and the best time to do anything.

Thus, 令和 has a meaning of "venerable peace," "auspicious peace," or "peace as was foretold to us by the divine."

I can see now that this name was chosen in hopes that this era will be one of blessed peace.

May the reign of Reiwa be one of much awaited peace and prosperity for Japan, and for the rest of the world!

Related Post:

Oshogatsu: Japanese New Year


Related Link:
The Japan Times Article

The Sumomo Challenge

 

The Girl Festival, also known as the Doll Festival just ended a few days ago. For this Japanese festival, parents put out a set of special dolls for display. I wrote a blog post about it right here.

A lesser-known name for this tradition is the “Festival of Peach Blossoms,” or “Momo no Sekku.” (桃の節句) And so I thought, why not write a post about that idiotic Momo character that actually accidentally became a thing on the internet, and mash it up with a bunch of random “momo” things?

Momo Challenge Hoax
Perhaps it’s my age, but nowadays there are a lot of  "things" out there I didn’t actually know were "things" until much later, after the craze has dissipated. In a way, it’s probably for the best, kind of like an immune response that keeps things I don’t need out of my life.

Like this Momo thing.

I first learned about it a few days ago from my Facebook news feed. Someone on my friends list had posted a video of some pastor warning a Christian group about this "messenger of Satan telling their children to commit suicide." The thumbnail showed what looked like the head of an ugly woman with scraggly hair, with the body of a chicken. I should have ignored my first impulse, but morbid curiosity got the best of me and I clicked the link and read the comments, and sure enough, there were users rebuking this "demon" in "the name of Jesus." I couldn't help but roll my eyes and LOL. Of course this wouldn’t be a problem if you’re a parent who actually monitors what your child watches online.

All I could think was "Really... you think parents had learned to watch their kids on the net after MySpace over a decade ago. If you let the iPad babysit your kids, it’s not Satan’s fault. Quit the fake outrage and watch your kids!" I navigated my way back to my news feed so I could keep scrolling down. That was the end of that. Or so I thought...

 A few days ago, I hadn’t known that this "demon" had a name. Then, just the other day at the lounge at work, I overheard one co-worker tell the other "I’m going to make a Momo mask." The other co-worker asks "What’s that?" "Oh you hadn’t heard of it?" the other co-worker said. Morbid curiosity strikes again as my ears perk up to hear the rest of this conversation. "It’s this weird bug-eyed character on the web with the legs of a chicken," he responded.

I knew immediately what he was talking about. There was no mistake. I Googled "Momo", and sure enough, there it was, staring me in the face. Apparently Momo was a hoax that became a "thing" by accident. Apparently there was this "challenge" that was never actually a real "challenge" like the other "challenges" that gripped the internet (E.g the Ice Bucket Challenge and the Tide Pod Challenge), but apparently still went "viral" none the less.

Even though no one actually took the "challenge" seriously, people still spread it around. This silly thing went so viral so as to warrant its own Wikipedia page, and according to it, Momo peaked in July last year (2018), but Momo reared her ugly face again in February this year, when idiots like Kim Kardashian "pleaded" with YouTube on her Instagram account to have the Momo videos removed.

OMG! What absolute level of ridiculousness humanity has come to! Who makes these videos? Who actually watches? Who cares? Why is anyone actually watching? Why aren’t parents monitoring what their kids watch? I seriously did NOT need to know this sad attempt at something viral existed. I could have lived the rest of my life knowing this thing rose and fell in the still of the night. May my BS immune system continue to block out wastes of time in my life.

Kind of failed this time though, didn't it. X-D

Things Momo
Did you know? The word "momo" means "peach" in Japanese. (桃) It’s also the name of a Nepalese dumpling. It’s real good. If you get a chance, you should try it.

 Nepalese "momo"

The dish bears a striking resemblance to the Chinese dish "xiǎolóngbāo" (小籠包), which, you should also try if you get a chance.

Chinese "xiǎolóngbāo" (小籠包)

The Japanese word for what we call "plum" is "sumomo," (李). (The Japanese plum is its own separate fruit the Japanese call "ume," 梅.)

Japanese plums or "ume" (梅)

Plums as they are known in the west, "sumomo" to the Japanese (李)

Incidentally, the Japanese make a sweet wine called "umeshu" (梅酒), as well as a tart, salty, pickled snack called "umeboshi" (梅干し) from Japanese plums.

Umeshu (梅酒, plum wine)

Umeboshi (梅干し, pickled plum)

The Sumomo Challenge
Hey! Here's a challenge for all you Japanophiles out there. As you already know, the Japanese word for peach is "momo," and the word for plum is "sumomo." In Japanese, the syllable "mo" can be added to words mean "as well" or "including." Consequently, there is a delightful little tongue-twister that goes “Sumomo-mo momo-mo momo no uchi.” (李も桃も桃の内。➡ すもももももももものうち。) It means, "Plums, as well as peaches are both part of the peach family," which I call the "butt-fruit family." Because they all got a little butt down the middle, though the technical name is the "stone fruit family" because they've all got "stones" or pits.

Now isn't all this just peachy!!! X-D

The challenge: Say the Japanese tongue twister three times fast.

Good luck!

Related Posts:

Hina Matsuri: Japanese Doll Festival - AKA "Girls Day"