"You've been in Japan too long when you 'teach' someone your phone number." Of course, we all use different words for different functions, and even within dialects of a single language words are "mapped" quite differently -- for example, if you're in North America, do you consider a carbonated beverage to be 'soda,' 'pop,' 'coke' or a 'soft drink'? It
varies linguistically by region. In Japanese, certain words are used in situations that seem odd to English speakers at first. For example, when you ask someone to tell you their phone number, you'd use the word
oshiete, which means "please teach me," which takes some getting used to. Similarly, in my dialect of English I "buy" (
kau) gas for my car, but in Japan you always use the verb "put in" (
ireru) instead, and my Japanese friends kept correcting me when I'd use the wrong word. The strange word mapping goes the other way, too. In Japanese the concept of "good" taste (
oishii) and "good" quality (
ii, pronounced like "ee") are completely separate, so there's a tendency for Japanese to not like using the word "good" about how food tastes -- their brain rebels against the violation of its internal rules, which is why you may notice that Japanese people sometimes over-use the word 'delicious' when they speak English, such as "Don't eat that, it's not delicious."
Like most people, the Japanese have a lot of respect for the business leaders who have created enduring organizations, with Thomas Edison very near to the top of the list. Another man who is well respected in Japan is Konosuke Matsushita. Very poor as a child, he was forced to leave school in the 4th grade and start working to help support the family. Trained as an electrician's assistant, he soon got an idea for a new kind of electric socket, and in 1918 he founded a company to manufacture it with his wife and brother-in-law. This was the beginning of the Matsushita Electronics Company, more famous under its other name of Panasonic, which managed to grow from a tiny shop in Osaka into the largest electronics maker in Japan. That's not bad for a guy with no education or capital doing business in a country that lacks an American-style "two guys named Steve in a garage" type of entrepreneurial tradition. Like all Japanese companies, Matsushita is into a few businesses that might surprise you, including racing bicycles, home construction (as "Panahome"), and elevators. After he retired, Konosuke went on to write books on his approach to business, and founded a Dale Carnagie type management school. He's said that the man he respects the most is Hideyoshi Toyotomi, one of the three "unifiers" of Japan who started out as a peasant but managed to work his way up to the position of de facto shogun of Japan. Like Hideyoshi, Konosuke said he never shied away from any job that was assigned to him, no matter how menial or dirty it was, which was one secret of his success.
For one reason or another, there are certain phrases in English have burned themselves on the collective consciousness of the Japanese, and are quite famous here. When an American named Dr. Clark (universally known as "Clark-hakase") went to Sapporo to help establish what would become Hokkaido University, he left the following advice to his Japanese hosts: "Boys, be ambitious!" (i.e., strive to dream large in all that you do). These three words managed to become extremely famous, and there isn't a Japanese person who doesn't know them. Song lyrics and famous movie lines also provide a bridge to the English language, and speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln ("Government for the people, by the people, and of the people") are studied in school the same way we studied Shakespeare in the U.S., too.
Great news for fans of our
2008 Japanese calendars: the first batch of calendars have come in, and are being posted to the site right now. We've currently got lots of stock of such great calendars as
My Neighbor Totoro and the oh-so-nice
Studio Ghibli calendar, with all new art from the Hayao Miyazaki films; other popular TV anime (
Naruto,
Bleach,
Katekyo Hitman Reborn); beautiful Japanese idols like
Yoko Kumada,
Misako Yasuda and
Yuko Ogura; JPOP stars like
Kumi Koda and
Morning Musume; and much more. These calendars are in stock and ready for your immediate order, so check them out!
Remember that J-List stocks thousands of
"Wacky Things from Japan" for you. Because J-List is actually located in Japan, we've always got a huge selection of rare items that would be very hard to find anywhere else, from T-shirts with weird
Japanese ASCII emoticons on them to
cool Nintendo toys to Japanese
hachimaki headbands with phrases like "Certain Victory" on them. Or check out our wacky Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massagers, which come in different colors and can relieve all kinds of stress. You can find all our wacky Japanese items on our website!
Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work" (a yes/no verification screen will be displayed to filter products from our mature site). To see all the J-List products, check out
J-List or the
JBOX.com updated products link. We also recommend watching our
"new products" RSS feed | | Urecco Gal May 2003. A rare treat, an issue of Urecco Gal from a few years ago. A photographic drink of water to a thirsty man! |
| | Myojo Sep. 2007. Myojo, the leading magazine of Johnny Jr type boys -- a great new issue. By the way, I was surprised to see that this mag has been around for 55 years??? |
| | 2008 Calendar -- Yuko Ogura . Yuko Ogura is another longtime favorite of mine, and of J-List customers in general. And her 2008 calendar is in stock now. Yay! |
Some pictures of my daughter's sports day of a week ago. Here are some kids running a race.
As usual, I had great fun scoping out funny English on people's T-shirts. This woman apparently has many amorous stories for us.
This guy had on an anime T-shirt, of all things. That's rare has heck in Japan.
Decision shaking, appear & existence."
Criminal?
Nice to know there's a difference.
This is the marching band, playing the Yamato theme song like they do every year (it's a local tradition). It was so hot I was happy to stand out in the middle of the ground with my mother-in-law's frilly lace parasol, just to keep out of the direct sun.
There's some strange connection between the Japanese and Cream Soda, because I had a friend who lived in an apartment called Apartment Cream Soda.
