Extraordinary Ordinary Guy In Japan

Child's Play

After reading your comments to my last post, I was surprised to hear that many of you have played the "do-not-touch-the-ground" type games. Children are always seeking their primitive pleasure, no matter where they live. So it may be no wonder that they can happen to discover the same way to play.
We used to play many types of games in our childhood. Some of them have descended through the generations and some were created by ourselves. Although the rules of each game would be slightly different, many people in various countries may have played similar types of games.
The following are the games I played again and again (over 30 years ago). (Note that those explanations are based on the local rules which I used to play. There may be many other different rules than them.)

Janken (Stone, scissors, paper)

You won't need my explanation about this because the stone-scissors-paper seems to be played all over the world. (This page describes its history and variations among the countries) Most of our games start from the JANKEN. Also, we adults sometimes do JANKEN when we have to choose one person from group or decide an order of priority.

ONI-GOKKO

This is a very similar game as "tag". We call "it" in tag as "ONI" which means devil. The first ONI is choosed with JANKEN. The ONI have to count ten (or other certain number) just like "hide-and-seek" and other kids run as far as they can while the ONI counts. After counting, the ONI chases the other kids until touching one of them. The kid who was touched becomes the next ONI. Many of our games are variations of this simple one.

KEI-DORO

Maybe it's the short name for "KEISATSU TO DOROBOU" (police and thieves). In this version, ONI is a policeman and others are thieves. At first, a small circle which means a jail is drawn on the ground. When you are touched by the police, you have to stay in the jail. But if a free thief comes and touches you, you can run again. The police wins when all the thieves are arrested.

IRO-TSUKI-ONI

First, the ONI yells a name of a color. You have to find and touch the part of something which has the color the ONI specified, or you can be touched by the ONI.

TAKA-ONI

The ONI can't touch you when you are on higher place than the ground, like on doorsteps, stairways, rocks or trees. But you can stay the same place only during you count ten.

DARUMA-SAN-GA-KORONDA

This also requires an ONI. The ONI stands face to the wall and yells the spell "DARUMA-SAN-GA-KORONDA" (a DARUMA doll fell over). While the ONI casts  the spell, you can approach to the ONI from the specified position. But when the ONI finishes the spell and turns against the wall, you have to freeze and stay in the same pose. If the ONI finds you are moving, you have to keep staying by the ONI's side. But if any other kid can approach and touch the ONI, you can run until the ONI yells "stop". Then you have to freeze again. The ONI can walk a certain numbers of steps to touch and make someone as the new ONI. The spell has many local variations. In Kansai area, it used to be said like "BONSAN-GA-HE-WO-KOITA" (a monk farted).

YANE-SHOGATSU

This requires a ball (ranges in size from super bouncing ball to beach ball). The winner of the JANKEN throw the ball onto a sloped roof or shade structure and yell the name of one of other members. If your name is called, you have to catch the ball. If the ball touches the ground, you have to leave. If you can catch it, throw it to the roof and call another name. The last player wins. Do not use a bowling ball for this game! It killed two of my friends. I lied.

JIN-TORI

This was my favorite because it is a very strategic game. So I'd like to describe in detail with some terrible figures I drew.

When you play this with two other kids, you have to draw a regular triangle which has sides of length of 30~50cm on the ground. Four members need a square and five members need a pentagon. This is a shared area.

Each of the members can specify his/her initial territory by extending the each side of the shared area. The expanding length was specified as five times of length of your foot (in our local rules).

Then, all the member stand face to face placing their toe on the edge of the shared area and do the JANKEN.

The lowest one of the JANKEN becomes an ONI and chases the others. But both the ONI and others can't step out from their own territory.

When you are the ONI, you can win if you touch any other members. But if your hands can not reach to anyone's body and you have nothing to do but surrender, or if you step out from your territory, you lose.

When you are not the ONI, you lose if you are touched by the ONI or step out from your territory. But you can win if you are not touched by the ONI until he/she surrenders.

If you win, you can add one more length of your foot to your territory. You can extend your territory any direction as far as you don't invade the others' territories. You can also bend or add branches to your territory by adding new fields.

When your territory grows big enough to catch all other members wherever they escape, you win the whole game. Stretch your territory so that it surrounds the others' territories.

How Common Are Our Behaviors?

In the trial that a newspaper publishing company Asahi Shimbun charged a publisher Shinchosha with defamation over a magazine article which described two of Asahi's columns as ripoffs (one from a personal website), The Supreme Court accepted the Asahi's appeal and ordered Shinchosha to pay indemnity. I think it's a doubtful judgment because one of the columns was obviously resembling the website which was mentioned. But I don't want to take about the corruption of newspapers and judicial system of this country any longer, because I really hate Japanese newspapers and I get upset even thinking about it. (I've written about one of the reasons before)

But the contents of the column, i.e. the article in the original website, was pretty interesting. The summary was like this:

When I (the author of the article) talked with my friends, we realized that all of us were thinking that entering bookstores always made us have to go to the bathroom. We supposed that reading would bring a desire to defecate to our brains, or the smell of ink and paper would work like that, but could not find a satisfactory reason.
In Japan, there are not so many bookstores which have comfortable bathrooms and even enough selling space to sit down and read books comfortably. Although I know they are suffering from depression now, they should answer our needs then it would bring them prosperity.

We often talk with friends about our habits or usual behaviors that we think of as very personal, and we sometimes feel funny when we find the behaviors were actually common in others than we thought. Like this:

"I know it's so weird but... don't you start to have to go to the bathroom when you are in a bookstore?"

"Why do you know that?"

But actually, I can't sympathize with this example. I surely rush to the bathroom everytime I go to a bookstore, but I'm a person who needs to go to bathroom very frequently like a newborn baby. So no matter what kind of store or place I'm in, my brain orders me to defecate so often. It has no relation with books for me.

However, I have some behaviors that I'm suspecting they may not only my own habits. I'm not sure about those things are peculiar to our country, the place I was raised, my hometown, or completely personal. I sacrifice my pride to let you get to know that they are common or I'm only a weirdo. Please let me know if you shout "You, too?" when you read the following.

1. When you look down from a high place, can you help but say like "Will I be dead if I fell over here?"
...I can't.

2. When a person whom you have idly looked at realizes you, do you turn your head away and pretend to be just looking around the surroundings?
...I often do that.

3. Do you sometimes pinch your nose with your fingers so that fat come through the pores?
...I rather like it.

4. When you read a novel, do you cast every each character in the novel with a real actor and actress and reproduce each scene as a movie scene in your mind?
...That's why I'm a slow reader.

5. When you eat an ice cream cone, do you eat it while pushing the ice cream into the cone with your tongue?
...I do, because by doing that, even the tip of the cone can be filled with the ice cream.

6. This is for men only. When you go men's room for "no.1" and realize that there's someone in the toilet compartment, do you intentionally make a noise by clearing your throat or something to let him know you are there, so that he won't be surprised to find you when he comes out.
...I do. I know I always think too much.

7. Do you like squeezing some soft things like towels or blankets between any two fingers on your hands?
...Don't you feel it good?

8. When you are a kid, have you played a game with an imagination like this?
"You have to walk on only curbs of the road, stones, or concrete lids of the sewer, because you will be dead as soon as your feet touch the bare ground or the asphalt."
...I did. And even after I grew up, when I walk across a zebra crossing, I sometimes try to put my feet on only the white lines, of course without any purposes.

Sensitivity of Taste

I found a great blog written in Japanese by Mr. David, an American studying Japanese. I was amazed by his language skill and amused by all of his posts.
In this post, he is wondering why the Japanese describe both salty and spicy taste by the same word "KARAI". It's strange to us, too. And it gave me a good opportunity to think about our sensitivity of taste.

We write the word "KARAI" with kanji as. This kanji has another pronunciation "TSURAI", with the meaning of "to be hard or painful". I think its meaning is very similar to "bitter", it is the name of another different taste though. "KARAI" is also used to express being strict to judge, and you say "bitter judgement", right?
Conversely, "to be loose to judge" is expressed as(AMAI). It also has meaning of "to be sweet". Seeing that an English word "sweet" also has the meaning of "beautiful" or "kind", maybe the sweet taste is welcomed by all of the world.

And I assume that spicy taste would be the most disliked taste by the Japanese, not "bitter". Of course there are a lot of ethnic restaurants in Japan and many people love spicy food. But we can hardly find any spicy food in traditional Japanese food except sushi with too much WASABI. Isn't it because our sensitivity of taste is more acute than foreign people? We love food which have no strong taste like rice or tofu, don't we? So we would express too salty taste as the same word as spicy, right? Who am I asking? So I tested it with my own tongue.

Look carefully at these four beer cans. What do you think the differences between them are? They are almost same, but each of these beer is made of different kind of water from different areas in Japan. Do you know any other countries that make this kind of sensitive things? Only we are supposed to be able to find out those subtle differences of water with our delicate tongue! I opened all pull tabs and sipped them alternately.

Nothing different! They were completely the same to me! The four cans of beer brought me nothing but a hangover. Who cares about the difference of the water in beer? Forget about my assumption above. We're only sick!

Voice from Customers

Some supermarkets have small postboxes that shoppers can post their feedback to the store. They put up those posts on the store's wall with their comments. We can see a lot of rants people throw their anger at, and overly polite answers from stores.

From customer:
Your clerks are cheerless aren't they? You never smile and we can't hear your greeting to thank us. Although I know you always care about your stuff to sell, "humanity" should be more important than them.  (The second floor can pass my test)

From store:
We are very sorry about that. We will instruct our all cashiers to serve you cheerfully.

I really sympathize the store manager for answering this kind of arrogant customers who think they are God or something. People seem to be taking out their frustrations pent up during their daily life (even no relation with supermarkets) on those posts.

On the other hand, sometimes I can find posts like this:

From customer:
I usually do shopping at your store. I'm enjoying canceling or dressing up myself.

From store:
Thank you for using our store. It's good for you that you seem to be happy with shopping or dressing up. Please take care of yourself and let us hear from you again.

I have no idea what he/she is canceling and why it brings enjoyment. And as you can read, the poster didn't show any of his/her claims, questions or suggestions to the store. There's only a "state".
Perhaps, this post may have been written by one of lonely elders who have no relatives and friends. They always want someone to talk to and are waiting any response from others to their statements. We often see old people alone and talking to the air.

The next one is similar.

From customer:
I hardly go to other town these days. Everyday I go shopping to your store. I want to change something to be better than now.

From store:
Thank you for your daily use. It must be tough for you to go shopping everyday! The rainy season and the hot summer are coming right now. Please take care of your health. We are waiting for your next post.

It was hard to translate because its original sentences are so weird and I can't understand what this poster meant to say. There seems to be something he can't accept but he doesn't seem to figure out  what it is. But it's not a big deal because what he really wanted is supposed to be a reply from others like this. I think this store manager can succeed as a good mental health counselor.

Comical Synchronicity

Most of foreign words are converted to KATAKANA characters when they are imported to Japan. Of course those 45 types of characters can not describe every words from every other country completely. We select a KATAKANA character which has most similar pronunciation to each syllable of original words. Since there is no Japanese pronunciation for both L and R, these two consonants are converted to the same Japanese consonant. So they always confuse us.
And when we pronounce those imported foreign words, we follow the pronunciations of those KATAKANAs. This custom prevents us from improving speaking foreign language.
Sometimes the same foreign word has several ways of description in KATAKANA, because those conversions are very subjective. For example, the English word "mobile" had been described like (MOHBIRU), but it has changed to (MOBAIRU) in these years.

Sometimes, those converted foreign words happen to have the same pronunciation as other Japanese words. And on rare occasions, these foreign and domestic words happen to be related in their meanings. It's so funny.

Because a new pope was elected several days ago, the word "Conclave" (the conference for election of the pope) has been seen many times on news reports. Conclave is written in KATAKANA like (KONKURAHBE) and this pronunciation is very similar to Japanese word (KONKURABE) which means "patience contest". I heard that the word "Conclave" came from the meaning of "with a key" because the voting cardinals are confined in a room not to be influenced by anyone else while the election goes on. So it's very funny since they must have been required to be patient in those several days. It's just like a patience contest, isn't it?

"Taberna", which means "restaurant" in Greek, is converted to (TABERUNA). It has the same pronunciation as (TABERUNA) which means "do not eat".

In the following examples, each pair of words does not have any relation in their meanings. But, I think they're still funny.

"Scheveningen" is a name of a place in The Hague, The Netherlands. If you write it with KATAKANA like (SUKEBENINGEN), its pronunciation changes to be the same as (SUKEBENINGEN --lechery human).

There is an island named "Erromango" in Vanuatu and it seems to be a very beautiful place to visit. But please forgive us that we can't help associate its name with (EROMANGA --erotic comics).

Her name is mostly called as (YUMA) by Japanese people because "Uma" means (UMA --horse). "Horse" may not be suitable for the name of an actress in spite of her narrow face.

I found "Bimbo" means "shallow woman" in English, "child" in Italian, "bread" in Spanish. Are they correct? In Japanese, (BINBO) means "poor".

It's easy to imagine that some opposite things can be seen. We describe beautiful things as (KIREI), but I've heard that it sounds just like a Thai word "keeree" which means "ugly".

Although it is off topic, I'm wondering what does the word "kuso" mean in Chinese. Because every time I search the word "kuso" (which means "shit" in Japanese, but it's typed with English alphabets in this case) with Google, a bunch of pages written in Chinese are hit in these years. (Don't ask why I'm doing this!) By using an online translation service, I found that "KUSO-culture" in Chinese seems to mean some hilarious or foolish things, but I'm not sure. I'm also wondering whether this came from the Japanese word or not. Please let me know if you have some information about it.

What Is Actually Lost

We can often see or hear Japanese words in a lot of Hollywood movies in these years, like "The Last Samurai", "Kill Bill" or "Lost in Translation".
But we can laugh at their incorrect use of Japanese words no longer, because most of them are grammatically correct when comparing with the old movies of Sho Kosugi's era. (I have watched a ninja movie over 20 years ago that a ninja was repeatedly saying "Sit down and I give you my sword" in awkward Japanese but it didn't make any sense in that situation.) The filmmakers seem to have realized about the importance of good language coordinators.

I saw "Lost in Translation" on US version of DVD and found that there is no English subtitles for Japanese lines on the movie. So I guess many people are wondering whether something was actually lost in translation, and if so, what was lost. So I tried to translate them to English.

 

In this scene, an American actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is being directed to star in the commercial for Suntory whiskey. The director speaks to Bob  only in Japanese and a Japanese lady translate it, but she doesn't seem to be a professional translator. Bob starts to suspect the translation is not correct, and to feel uncomfortable with being in Japan.
The following italic words are spoken in Japanese in the movie.

Director: Mr.Bob-san, you're now comfortably sitting in your den. And there is a bottle of Suntory whisky on the table, you know? Please speak with full emotion, slowly, looking at the camera, tenderly, and just like meeting your old friend. Like Bogie in Casablanca. "Toast to your eyes, Suntory time!"

Translator: Um, he want you to turn, look in camera. Okay?

Bob: That's all he said?

Translator: Yes. Turn to camera.

Bob: All right, does he want me to... to turn from the right, or... turn from the left?

Translator: (to the director) Well, he is ready to act. But he's still wondering whether he should turn from the left or turn from the right when it starts...

Director: Who cares about such things! We don't have much time Bob-san, you know? Then quickly give me more high-tension. Look at the camera. Keep staring at it. Slowly, okay? Show more passion in your eyes. Alright?

Translator: Right side, and, uh, with intensity. Okay?

Bob: Is that everything? I mean, it seemed like he said quite a bit more than that.

Director: What you say (in this commercial) does not mean only about the whiskey, you know? Like meeting an old friend, tenderly and gently. And an emotion flowing out from your heart! Don't forget it!

Translator: Like an old friend, and into the camera.

Bob: ...Okay.

Director: Get it? You love whiskey. "It's Suntory time!" Okay?

Bob: ...Okay.

Director: Okay? Ready? Action!

Bob: (to camera) "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time."

Director: Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Do you really understand? Or you joking? This is Suntory "Hibiki" which is the most expensive whiskey in Suntory. Give me more high-grade feeling, okay? It's not an ordinary booze!

Translator: Uh, could you do it slower...

Director: (to the translator) Luxury feeling. Translate it!

Translator: and with more ...intensity?

Director: (with pointing his finger to Bob) "Suntory time." (to the crew) Okay? Ready? Action!

Bob: (to camera, a bit more slowly than the last time) "For relaxing times, make it Suntory time. "

Director: Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Give me a break!

Bob: (says nothing and scowls at the director)

The funny thing is that the director (I think it's stereotype of Japanese commercial directors) says only abstract things and there's no logical direction at all. So Bob would not understand him even if his words were translated correctly.
When the classic movie Casablanca was released in Japan, the lines, "Here is looking at you, kid" were translated quite lyrically like "Toast to your eyes" in Japanese by some oldtime translator. So many Japanese people believe that Humphrey Bogart actually said so in the movie.

And one more funny thing I found on another DVD. In "Kill Bill vol.1", we can see a Japanese actor Sonny Chiba obviously missing his lines in Japanese. In the scene that his role as Hattori Hanzo finishes his new sword and passes it to The Bride (Uma Thurman), his required lines were: "MOSHI KAMI GA TACHIHADAKAREBA KAMI WO MO KIRERU DAROU" (If the God interrupts you to go, this sword can even kill him). It's very serious scene, but the word "TACHIHADAKARU" (to stand to interrupt) is pretty hard to pronounce even for us. In the movie, Chiba once says like "KAMI GA TADA..." and quickly corrects it "KAMI GA TACHIHADAKAREBA". I guess that he must have spoken those lines without any mistakes in another take, but sadly, no one in the editing room might understand Japanese language to find which one was an OK take. Isn't it rare that such a clear mistake remained unnoticed until the movie was released?

In addition, in "The Girl Next Door", Elisha Cuthbert wore a t-shirt that said "A happy new year, January 1st".