End of the World: 世界の終わり

I didn't know much about the Toy's Factory record label, and just discovered a nice list of bands to look up! One of them is "End of the World" or nihongo-de 世界の終わり (sekai no owari). Here's a video clip for their song RPG. (If you happen to be afraid of Clowns, best not watch this. I find nice-looking clowns scary, so I thought in case there were others out there who feared them like I do, I should let people know!)

This song comes from their new single, entitled RPG and released in 2013. I thought I'd have a look at some of their earlier stuff and found a nice song entitled "幻の命" (maboroshi no inochi), which apparently made them quite popular. Here it is for your enjoyment! :)

Well, of the clips I have seen, and the songs I have listened to, I quite like their sound and their feeling. If they got rid of that clown, all would be ok! :)

I was going to leave it there, but I just discovered a band called "湘南の風" (Shounan no kaze). Their song 純恋歌 (junrenka) is nice. : ) 

ちびまる子ちゃん

先週、ちびまる子ちゃんの映画をダウンロードした！これから可愛くて、とても好きだ。子供の映画ってたいてい好きじゃないけど、日本の文化にもっとよく知っていたい、映画とアニメの有名なキャラに含めて。

この映画の日本語が分かりやすくて、聴取練習をするために、とても助けると思ってる。「ちびまる子ちゃん」の映画はたくさんだとWikipediaで見たばかりだ。僕がダウンロードした映画の名前は知らないので、皆に言えない。明日映画の名前を見つけ出すね。

おやすみ！

Listening to natural Japanese conversations...

I just watched an interview on Youtube with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and couldn't understand much at all. I know I need more listening practice when it comes to Japanese, but I think my biggest problem is determining what the little sounds are which seem to tag on to the end of words and phrases in conversational Japanese.

Words like ええとね, なんか or the ____と、_____か、____って all really confuse me. I get the gist of one part of the sentence, but then one of these words puts me off and distracts me that I miss the phrase which follows it.

I know this will come eventually after lots of listening practice, but my heavens it is SO FRUSTRATING right now. I have decided to look up more Japanese TV interviews because even though they are hard to understand, they're so bright and fun to watch. Little by little I will hopefully get over this listening rut. 

Here's the video I was watching. The interview is at the end. By the way, Mayuyu is so cute.... 

I listened to the interview (and the song ^^ ) a few times to try and decode it. Hopefully along with my intense vocab workout this month, listening will get easier!

リラックマのビデオ

YouTubeで日本の有名なアニメと日本大衆文化のキャラを探していて、このビデオを見つけた！とてもかわいいだと思った。僕は子供とき、同じ事を持ってたかっただろうね！：P

僕が同じようなビデオも作っただろう！　：P

Notes on Yakuza

So, I've been interested in the yakuza a little recently after watching My Boss My Hero, so I decided to learn a bit more about it all. 

The following are some notes I have made from wikipedia*. I wrote them for my own use, but thought others might like to read a mini-summary (if it makes sense to you...)

* I have put "from wikipedia" in bold as I have no idea whatsoever if it is ok to take notes from wiki which are and are not in my own words and then put them on my blog. I am in no way stating that I wrote the following or am trying to pass it off as my own. Well, it's probably in such "note" form that it doesn't make sense to anyone else... but yeah, as I don't really know if it's ok to do this, I thought I'd clarify myself a bit. Did I say the following words are notes I have made from wikipedia?

---------

Yakuza

General:
- aka gokudou (or bouryokudan by police / media, or ninkyou dantai by yakuza themselves).
- members of transnational & international crime syndicates
- strict codes of conduct / organised nature

Divisions:
- tekiya (one of lowest social groups in Edo / ilicit and stolen goods / later formed own organisations, took over some commerce and admin roles in society, then allowed members to be peddlers or guards at festivals etc. / peddlers paid rent for their positions / Edo govt. formally recognised the tekiya organisations and gave the leaders permission to carry nagawakizashi (previously only noblemen and samurai could have swords on their person).
- bakuto (gambling / the lowest social class as gambling was illegal / opened small gambling houses in abandoned temples etc / the gambling houses ran loan shark businesses / bakuto looked down upon / negative aspects of yakuza originate from the bakuto - even the word yakuza refers to a losing hand in oicho-kabu blackjack.

Structure and other stuff:
- due to economic sitch in mid-period, yakuza groups were made up of delinquants / yakuza initiation ceremonies still incorporate tekiya & bakuto rituals, today's yakuza groups still may identify with one group in particular / kyushu island has been largest source of yakuza members / 60% of yakuza decendants of bakumin (a feudal outcast class) 

- obayan/kobun hierarchy / sakazumi ie. sharing of sake cup / during WWII yakuza organisations declined to focus on war efforts / yakuza members cut family ties to show loyalty to oyabun / women yakuza called nee-san / those that receive sakazumi become part of immediate family and are ranked little or big brother / kobun can offer sakazumi to underlings to form own affiliated subsidiary organisation. / yakuza full body tattoos (when playing oicho-kabu, yakuza may remove shirt to display tattoo).

Rituals:
- yubitsume (cutting of the finger as form of apology or penance / transgressor cuts tip off left little finger and gives to boss / transgressor's superior can spare him and take blame / yubitsume has origins in the holding of katana as it would weaken the grip of the sword and force the transgressor to rely more on his gang / prosthetic little fingers used to hide this from others.

Largest Groups: 
1) yamaguchi-gumi - began 1915 / 55,000 members / 850 clans / make up 50% of all yakuza
2) sumiyoshi-kai - 20,000 members / 277 clans / federation
3) inagawa-kai - 15,000 members / 313 clans

Today:
- yakuza groups have helped during disasters - such as Kobe earthquake. 
- many syndicates ban drug trafficking.
- yakuza has ties with realty and the banking market.

Ref:
Yakuza @ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza
Oicho-Kabu @ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oicho-Kabu

Tonights Vocab List!

Hopefully with this list, I'll improve my vocab. Useful words? What do you think!

Download the PDF!

SHORTCUT PAGE

Here's a little list of entries that might interest you. Hope you like them! 

• チョコチョコ

• ENGLISH UPDATES

• JAPANESE LEARNING RESOURCES

• A J-FILM REVIEW: Survive Style +5

• JPOP

• J-DRAMA REVIEW

• MY QUESTIONS PAGE

Chicken Karaage Recipe!

Ok, so I love Japanese curry rice and karaage (Japanese fried chicken). It's out there now and I can't take it back! Why am I concerned about saying this to everyone? Cos I overheard a lady saying that Japanese curry rice (カレーライス) is usually only a kid's meal! (Please tell me this isn't true. It does sound quite silly... so I'll just pretend I never heard her). 

Anyway, I have been making curry rice with karaage for dinners for the last few months (not every night unfortunately). Oh my heavens, I love it so much. 

However, the problem I have been having is with the karaage (and I kinda wish I could make the curry spicier). When I have been cooking the karaage, it never stays crispy and the batter usually disintegrated while I fry it.

That was until I found cooking with dog's video for making it properly! In case you are all desperate to make karaage at home, here is the video below!

Oh, I love those guys so much. It is by far my favourite cooking show around! (Sorry Nigella, but "cook" and Francis have something you dont...) Oh, and now I'm hungry...

So, I followed their recipe the other night and IT WORKED! I had the most luscious, crispy karaage! If anyone wants to make Japanese food at home (and some other recipes too), cooking with dog make the recipes seem so simple and do-able at home. I will be making mochi ice cream for my friends in a few weeks and I can't wait!

かわいい書体

書体のサイト！

GAHH! あの雑誌、持ってたいよ！

みな！そのおすすめのブログを読んでいるね。この雑誌レビューを見つけたよ！日本ファッション雑誌をいつまでも欲しかったよ！この「Street Jack」の雑誌はその持ってたい雑誌だよ！日本にいるときに、買おう！XD　嬉しい！

やれやれ！今夜、日本語彙を勉強していたと言ったね。

AWESOME BLOG for learners of Japanese!

すごい！I just discovered an awesome blog called チョコチョコ written to encourage other Japanese language learners out there to gang together and study as hard as they can! 

The blogger originally started the blog to write about his journey learning Japanese, but after he realised there were lots of people out there learning just like he was, he began writing to help others learn more effectively. 

Screenshot of the チョコチョコ site.

On his blog you will find study tips, book reviews of Japanese (and Korean) textbooks, kanji study tips, posts about Japanese culture, as well as some other learning resources and grammar notes. You may also be lucky enough to discover a new creature called a チョコチョコ (which may in fact be the encouraging, friendly form of Deva). I am eager to find out exactly what they are and how they can help me learn Japanese!

The main reason why I am mentioning this blog is in fact because of the reading resources offered on the "Great Library" page! I know this may seem simple, but I am going to start reading from the very first story. I need to practice my reading so bad...

In the Great Library, you can select your level of Japanese and then you are presented with some stories  for you to read. I am really impressed, and hope one day to be able to read the stories from the advanced level. (OMG, 漢字がたくさん！）

Well, I'm gonna go and have an even closer look at that blog! 

Happy studying, guys!

今晩の映画

(For the English version, go down)

昨日は、トフグのサイトの日本映画のおすすめを読んだ後で、「SurviveStyle+5」をネットで探す事にした。今晩、パンプキンスープを食べながら、映画を見た。昨日少しスニークプレビューをして、映画の色がとてもつよいので、良い映画だろうと思ったね！　あ、映画はすっごく良かった！

「SurviveStyle+5」は関口現に監督した。それはとても面白くて、すばらしい映画だ。物語は奇妙で、でもとてもおかしい。ミザンセーヌは色がたくさん！　次のビデオを見てください。

ところで、すみませんね。今晩、僕の日本語はちょっと。。。


単語を勉強してみて、でも疲れてるので、本当に出来ない。：（　

I won't translate all of what I wrote above, but I will say that I recommend this film to all those who love colour, love quirky stories, and love Japanese films!

I was wandering around on the internet and stumbled across a blog entry on Tofugu called the "Top 10 Strange Japanese Films You Need TO Watch". I couldn't resist having a look and there, under No.7 was Survive Style +5.

This film, directed by Sekiguchi Gen and starring Asano Tadanobu, Hashimoto Reika and Vinnie Jones, tells five different, distantly entwined stories, each with its own quirks and touching message.

The editing is sharp and does well to enhance the comic feel of certain scenes, and the mise-en-scène is choc-a-block with vivid colours and textures. The scene above is what got me in in the first place. I was blown away by the colour!

I didn't like the hitman's character so much. I thought his scenes were a little awkward and didn't quite work. Apart from his character, I loved all the other characters so much. They were all very well developed and I felt for each and every one of them. Especially one in particular, but I must not mention it in case you go and watch it! You'll know which one I mean. (ポっ、ポっ、ポっ）

Well, I really recommend you see this film. It is on par with タんポポ (Tampopo), and I will be re-watching it very soon!  Oh hell, here's a clip from Tampopo. (I have watched this film numerous times and never ever get bored with it!

A BIG THANK YOU!

Hello all, 

Before I continue blogging, I would like to send a special thank you to Katney & Mishka for helping me fix up my blog. I am so happy it is all back to normal now. 

☆ENGLISH UPDATE☆

This week I decided to take a different approach in regards to the way I study Japanese. 


I was reading a few blogs about study techniques, and one of the blogs asked me to question what is hindering my studies. I came to the conclusion that my lack of vocabulary is my biggest issue and it is really interfering with my Japanese language study. In fact, I am a little upset I didn't come to this realisation much earlier. I had thought about my lack of vocabulary and tried to build it up a little, but I didn't realise how serious an issue it really was, and therefore I tended to move on to other areas of study.


So, how exactly does a lack of vocabulary hinder ones learning? Well, a lack of vocabulary means:

• when you are trying to write, you have to look up lots of words,
• when you are trying to read, you have to look up lots of words,
• when you are trying to speak, you stumble and can't express yourself,
• and when you are listening, you are absolutely LOST. (oh, and depressed...)

You get the picture. 

Well, I kinda knew this ages ago, but you tend to forget the seriousness of having a weak vocabulary. It has now clicked just how important it is, and also how vital it is in order to actually be able to practice listening, reading, writing and speaking. To practice these, you need to know as many words as possible, because otherwise you feel like you don't know anything, and then the whole process of study becomes incredibly boring, daunting and depressing. (Hey, Deva! You mightn't be around for much longer! Muoahahaha!)

All the times I felt depressed about study was really due to my lack of vocabulary. All the times I opened my reading practice book, tried to read a passage and then closed it in frustration was ALL because I didn't have enough vocabulary to keep me going. 

Now, of course, for those who are learning Japanese out there, I'm not saying that you should stop focussing on reading, writing, listening or speaking practice. Not at all! After all, it is through this that you learn new vocabulary and set into concrete the words you have studied that you happen to come across while practicing your reading etc. By practicing your reading, writing and listening, you are seeing the words you have studied in use and in their correct environment (ie. with a certain verb combination etc).

So, what I plan to focus on is expanding my vocabulary as much as I can, so that when I do try and read or listen to Japanese, I don't get so overwhelmed by the words I don't know. By doing this, perhaps the 4 or 5 words of the sentence that I don't understand will turn into a 2 or 3. That could mean a big difference from having no idea whatsoever about the meaning of the sentence, to having an idea of the context and being able to fill in the blanks! 

Ah I feel much better now, so on that note, I will leave and study vocab! 皆、がんばってね！