Jgram is an interesting page for people learning Japanese and are struggling with the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT – 日本語能力試験). Its goal is to tackle how to learn Japanese grammar, which is one thing that online dictionaries, textbooks, and even many Japanese teachers never go in to to any level of complexity. Continue reading JGram – The Japanese Grammar Database
J-WOTD: 波瀾万丈
はらんばんじょう (haranbanjyou)
* “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day”
“Full of ups and downs” This pharse basically means that something has been eventful, but in a negative way.
Examples: 彼女の波瀾万丈な生活にずっとつきあってきたよ。 “I have put up with her rollercoaster of a life for so long”
It can be used for almost anything, even for more formal usages, 波瀾万丈な経歴 means a “checkered career” etc.
One More: 話が時代を超えて展開する時、波瀾万丈の物語の幕が開けます。”This creates an exciting saga as the story jumps through different periods in history”
J-WOTD: 物別れ
ものわかれ (monowakare)
* “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day”
I thought this was a cool phrase, and I was surprised that I had never heard anyone use it before yesterday..
Basically points out a situation or a confrontation, or even just a discussion between two parties that did not go well, and ended with no conclusion. It also portrays that the meeting or discussion was a waste of time. This happens so much in Japan, that this phrase will be so useful for me.
物別れで終わる
end in disagreement, or without any conclusion.
話し合いは物別れになったとの電話連絡を受けた。
I got a phone call saying the talks had broken down.
その二国間の協議は物別れに終わった
Talks between the two countries got nowhere.
物別れのままである
remain stalemated
WaiWai: Japanese prove easy prey for Chinese honey traps
This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.
A “badger game” is a type of extortion scheme in which the victim, often a married man, is coerced into a compromising position and then subjected to some form of extortion, either for money or information. The Japanese word for this, “tsutsumotase,” is written with the characters for “bijin” (beautiful woman) and “kyoku” (affair).
According to Asahi Geino (Aug. 31), who knows how many Japanese men in China — convinced they’ve met the girl of their dreams — have been falling victim to such entrapment.
Continue reading WaiWai: Japanese prove easy prey for Chinese honey traps
E-WOTD: Self-aggrandizing
Aggrandize
1. To increase the scope of; extend.
2. To make greater in power, influence, stature, or reputation.
3. To make appear greater; exaggerate
Example:
Seriously, I think personal blogs are one of the most self-aggrandizing activities of our generation. More so than MySpace. With MySpace, you are at least not pretending that anyone cares about you beyond looking at that hot picture of you covered in nothing but whipped cream. With a personal blog, you are pretending that people care enough about you to read your random musings about a random selection of stuff that’s going on.
Koizumi, Yasukuni, War Veterans and Respecting the Dead…
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a week ago paid homage to Japan’s World War II dead at the Yasukuni Shrine, drawing South Korea’s and China’s condemnation, which was heightened by the date of his visit – the anniversary of Japan’s surrender. Despite repeated protests from Beijing and Seoul, Koizumi kept a promise to make a sixth pilgrimage as premier to the shrine – which honours Japan’s 2.8 million war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals – before he steps down next month. The visit was the first made in 21 years by a prime minister on the anniversary of the war’s 1945 end, which is remembered in Japan as a defeat but which South Korea celebrates as Liberation Day after it and China both suffered under Japan’s often-brutal wartime occupation.
That colonial past has worsened relations between Tokyo and the two countries, and the shrine and Koizumi’s visits there have brought charges from Seoul and Beijing that they glorify Japan’s past military aggression and imperialism.
Continue reading Koizumi, Yasukuni, War Veterans and Respecting the Dead…
Blackout in Tokyo!
At around 7:38am this morning, there was a widespread blackout in Tokyo. This is all but normal in this city. Stopping all trains, and traffic lights, it was a shock that lasted over an hour. A blackout of this scale has not happened in Japan for 30 years, some 800,000 households were affected.
The blackout seemed to be caused by a boat on one of Tokyo’s many rivers that was carrying a crane. The top of the crane clipped one of the high tension high voltage power transmission lines above the river, and ooops, who turned out the lights..
E-WOTD: Paucity
“The presence of something only in small or insufficient quantities or amounts”; “scarcity”
Example: A paucity of information.
Actually I found it in this excerpt in some newspaper on “Americans and Soccer”:
There are various theories why Americans, almost alone in the sporting world, still don’t “get” a game that elsewhere can make or break governments, economies and even people’s lives. The psycho-sociological view is that, accustomed to instant and repeated gratification, Americans are bored by the relative paucity of shots, the long gaps between goals, the “ties”. As one sports commentator put it, they find football “like Swiss cheese: flavourless”.
The geo-political view is that Americans are not just parochial – is there any greater sporting misnomer than “World Series” baseball? – but also imperialist. Losing at something the rest of the world takes so seriously makes them feel insecure.
WaiWai: Ladies flash the cash, but don’t want the money shot in their dirty DVDs
This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.
Picture the scene… A woman wearing a floral micro miniskirt and white jacket enters a room with her boyfriend. He gently sits her down on a chair and approaches her from behind. He raises her arms and wraps a blindfold around her. She seems worried as he slides a hand into her underwear. Later, she stands naked, facing a window offering a glorious nighttime skyline view as he approaches her from behind and slowly penetrates, Josei Seven (6/15) says.
Continue reading WaiWai: Ladies flash the cash, but don’t want the money shot in their dirty DVDs
J-WOTD: 実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな
みのるほど こうべをたれる いなほかな (minoruhodo koubewotareru inahokana)
* “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day”
“Those ears of rice that bear the most grain (people in high positions) should be the ones that bow lowest”
This is a kotowaza.. Heard it used (sarcastically) today about an 偉そうな guy at work, who is supposedly a head of a division, but in fact often is found boasting to his subordinates about how many airline miles he earned on his 6 last business class work trips to the US, and how he often gets upgraded to first class because of how often he uses business class. In this sense, he should be the last person in the company to be saying anything to subordinates (who rarely get to go anywhere, let alone by business class) about how much of a “VIP of the sky” he is.