Your Japanese word of the week is...

not a word........ it's a phrase.

"osoku narimashita", which means "I'm late".

Well, not exactly............. Let me break it down for you.

"osoku" derives from "osoi" which can mean either late or slow. Lopping off the last syllable and changing it to "osoku" transforms it from an adjective to an adverb. Similarly, "hayai" (fast or early) becomes "hayaku". And "sugoi" -> "sugoku", and so on and so forth.

"narimashita" is the past tense form of the verb "naru", which means to become or to turn out.

In otherwords, "osoku narimashita" means "(it) turned out/came into being late". It's often used as a polite way of saying "I'm late".

What am I late for, you ask? I meant to write this post earlier this week but I've been relishing my time off that I completely forgot.

To get you guys up to speed, last week I met an old UBC friend whom I haven't seen for nearly 5 years. He also practices karate (but a different style) and is currently helping coach the BC Karate Team. He came to Japan for some vacation and, conveniently being friends with Richard Sensei, I managed to make it out to see him.

This week is also Golden Week in Japan, where many people get some time off, especially students. I get May 3-6 off (yes, my Golden Week isn't a week long heh) and I'll be going to visit Peter in Fukushima from the 3rd to the 4th.

So who knows what kind of trouble I'll get myself into there haha........ Stay tuned to find out heh....

The war...

So, as I promised, I got around to asking some Japanese people about what the Japanese view, personal or national, on the war was. Long story short, it doesn't seem like they're overly proud and yet, they make no attempt to hide or deny their involvement. The war happened and they've moved on. This is unlike the German view on their involvement, which essentially dissociates themself from the Nazi party.

I also asked a student how World War II sections in history books were worded and, similarly, it sounds like the books take a rather objective approach to it.

I even talked to someone who's father volunteered to be a human torpedo for the IJN- an underwater kamikaze if you will (which, I found out, was not the original Japanese term for those suicide pilots). The war ended while his father was in training but one only needs to consider that had his father done what he resolved to do, this man (my friend), wouldn't be here today.

Besides that though, lots of desk time means I can do lots of research on WWII which, I readily admit, is the topic I have the least command over of the 3 that I teach.

Of course, I also readily admit that I'm really only 4 years old and, as such, all the things that interest me about the war are the battles, betrayals, guns, planes, bombs, tanks, and ships.

Going from that, I stumbled upon this, the Schwerer Gustav.

If you look closely, you can see the men walking towards it and it truly was that massive. They only ever built two and was designed, as might be visually obvious, to pulverize heavily fortified targets. While the first gun was free (wtf?!), a second one was built at the cost of 7mil Reichsmarks which was $1.7mil USD in 1941 (!!). It saw usage in Germany's invasion of Russia but was ultimately destroyed to avoid its capture.

It weighed 1350 metric tonnes, had a barrel 32m long, had a firing rate of 1 shell every 30-45 minutes, and could fire its 7 ton, 80cm shell as far as 37km.

It also had to be transported in pieces by a train nearly a mile long and needed to be set up on its own PAIR of railway tracks, the assembly itself taking between 3 to 6 weeks. All this considering that the entire detachment assigned to the gun consisted of 1420 men.

Crazier than this was the Landkreuzer P 1500 Monster, a tank designed around this gun so that it didn't require railway tracks to be moved. It was proposed to have a weight of 1500 metric tonnes, would've been 42m long, and needed a crew of over 100 men. But it was cancelled. Not like a tank like that would've ever been able to realistically go anywhere considering it would just destroy roads and break bridges in half. Or get bombed by planes as it ran away at its top speed of 15 km/h.

But I appreciate the sheer audacity of plans like these. Or the more audacious fact that some of those plans were actually built.

But the most audacious of them all was the Langer Gustav, a planned rocket projectile version of the gun with a range of 150+km (!!!!). That would've let them hit London. Imagine that....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"maji de". We're getting into a bit of colloquialism but this word is derived from "majime", meaning "serious". In other words (no pun intended heh), this is the English equivalent of "seriously?!". I wanted to bring this up because as different as Japanese and English are, there are quite a few parallels too. Some people, for instance, will say "nanka". Contextually, it means "kind of" or "... or something", just like someone in English would say, "So, is that bear going to eat me or something?".

I find it interesting that "nanka" sounds like "nani" which means "what", even though this connection is technically incorrect. Regardless, it interests me that many English speakers use "what" as a filler as well ("So, what, is that bear gonna eat me?"). To semi-misquote the saying, the more things change...

Or perhaps I'm overthinking this.................

Anyway, I thought I'd toss in some scenarios that had me thinking "maji de?!" as examples......


Sit?? Here??.......... Ok...... I guess....

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but about a 15min train ride away (5 of which is waiting to change trains) is a free Japanese class offered by volunteers at a local community centre.

Obviously happy to have more students, they print new posters every year. And new posters mean a new picture is needed. And, for no apparent reason, I was picked to be one of the ones to sit in the chair at the front.

If I'm honest, I quite like the class. The people there are very nice and, having established "regular" instructors, it's become more like a hangout for me; a place I go to for two hours most Sunday mornings and (attempt to) chat with them in Japanese.

The thing I never figured out, however, is why they insist on printing nearly the entire poster in Japanese. The only non-Japanese on that poster amounts to, "For foreigners", "Japanese language class", "Let's speak Japanese", and a list of various students' nationalities.

Most critically, the day upon which the classes occur is written in Japanese. I know they put effort into it and printed a lot of posters, so perhaps it's a bit too late now. But the next time, I'll make sure to get a word in heh.....

PS- I was given a name tag in my very first class that I've "conveniently" forgotten to bring to every class since. So they gave me another one to wear in the picture. It said "Tanaka" on it...... hence why it's been digitally erased from the picture haha......

Dr. WHO?!?

I don't mean the Dr. on a certain popular British TV show. I'm talking about Dr. Seuss.

See, I found a copy of One Fish Two Fish in an English class and, upon showing it to one of my 11 year old students, she promptly replied, "The fish are scary looking!!" (in Japanese, of course hah)

"Maji de?!", I thought (in English actually, but you get my drift heh...).

Looking at it again, I suppose the fish are a touch freaky but being so tied into Western culture, many accept it as is. And, as you might have figured out from my other posts, it's these different cultural perspectives that interest me the most.

PS- She found the "One fish" particularly unattractive heh...

PPS- I've added those "letter tests" in order to post comments to see if it'll stop the comment spam. Just to let you know =)...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kashish" which is the word "cassis" translated into katakana. Cassis itself is actually a French word which English speakers know better as blackcurrant. Blackcurrant, at least for me anyway, is better known as those delicious candies in Mentos-esque purple tubes I used to eat in Hong Kong (or buy from Chinese supermarkets).

I bring this up because, on a grander scheme of things, katakana really is a double edged sword I find. For starters, I understand the need for a purely phonetic pronunciation alphabet in a syllabic language. It happens in Chinese newspapers, for instance, where characters are used for their sounds rather than their meanings.

But then again, to people who speak that foreign language, it really doesn't make any sense sometimes. Or worse, it just flat out sounds like something else.......

I'm sure most of your recognize the "Calpis" name. For those of you who don't, Calpis is, according to their website (where I got the logo [in case they sue me hah]), a "cultured milk drink" that has a distinctly yogurty taste to it. If you've ever have those "Yee Lik Doh" yogurt drinks, it's sort of like that but less thick. Actually, Japan has those small plastic bottles as well, sold here as "Yakult".

You also might be able to guess that the word "calpis" just generates lots of giggles........... hee hee "cow piss" hee hee..........

In the picture, above the word itself is their new slogan, "karada ni piisu". "Karada" is body, "ni" is in, and "piisu" is peace. So, "peace of body" or "peace in the body". Anyhow, it's certainly a nice idea.........

The only problem is that it isn't any stretch of imagination to read it in another way. In English, the spelling differentiates the meanings, but when it's written purely based on phonetics, it opens up lots of different ways of reading the word. Like the "piisu" sound...... or "kashish", which sounds a lot like "hashish". Imagine ordering that at a restaurant. You get my drift.... =P

Which is too bad, because the drink is quite tasty....... especially Calpis Soda, which is a carbonated form of the drink. Urinary jokes aside, it's quite good.....

Speaking of bodily functions, I've semi-confirmed my curriculum for my students this year.

For math, the 1st year student (or Gr 10) will be doing stuff like rational numbers, polynomials, equation solving, and trig. The 2nd year students will be working on algebra, so more equation solving, factoring, quadratics, exponents and log functions, conics, etc. That'll stretch through to their 3rd year.

In science, because all three students are soccer athletes, they're quite interested in anatomy and physiology for futures in kinesiology (or being a soccer pro), so the 1st year curriculum will be about body systems while the 2nd year curriculum will go into more depth about bones and muscles (composition, mechanism of action, naming) as well as going into the human body with more detail. Sort of like high school bio but with more focus towards certain areas.

Lastly, I'll be leading them through history, which will be World War II. Depending on their interest and how fast we get through the major events of it, we'll move on to latter century events like the start of the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War......... they're kids so conflicts seem to interest them heh.....

I have textbooks on order for all but the history subjects, so once those come in, it's full steam ahead.

So that's it. Last week was a nice slow start to the school year (I taught two classes out of my scheduled 16 per week) but starting Monday, everyone settles into the schedule and pushes on through the year............ thumbs up on that =P.......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"okiru" which means, to wake up. That's been pretty much the biggest thing on my mind lately....... getting up on time.

I started my new job at a private high school in Tokyo last Friday and, so far anyway, it's been quite a breeze. I'm mainly in charge of teaching the international exchange students (of which there are three, since the program only started 3 years ago) their biology, math, and history. Extra time I have allows me to do things like help out with the regular English classes as well as help with the English club and the karate club.

Ultimately, the past few days have just been prepping the lessons (a month's worth of which the last teacher so kindly set up for me) while the students slowly get into the groove of things. I'm constantly forgetting that I'm a teacher because, not that long ago, kids of this age (this is a senior high school, so Canadian grades 10-12) would've been my friend.

The other thing I forget is that everyone still thinks I'm Japanese. So as I'm walking through the halls or greeting students at the gate in the morning with "Hello"s and "Good Morning"s, they all do a double take............ good fun =).......

Oh yeah, so what's this about getting up?? Yeah, I have to be at my desk at 8am. Which means I catch the train at 6:57am from my station. Which means I get up at 6am..........

Luckily, Japan doesn't do daylight saving time, so while it doesn't set at 9:30pm like it does in Vancouver, it's up by 5:30am. It was annoying last year when I didn't have to get up, but now, it's rather helpful.........

Stay tuned for more high school adventure stories =P............

Spring is in the air...

That's right, it's been noticeably warmer these past few weeks, which is quite a relief considering how shiver-inducing past 4 months have been. Make me almost wish for 40 degree humidity again............. wait.........

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw out a few spring thoughts.......

Tollbooth Chicken

Sounds like a cost effective way of manning the tollbooths, but the "chicken" I'm referring to is the game to see who chickens out first. Who are the players?? Drivers and the tollbooth gates.

Japan has an extensive highway network to go with their expansive rail network. The roads are rather well maintained and well laided out, which makes high speed cruising rather easy. However, the highway networks require tolls and they can add up. A car trip from my town to Tokyo costs over $10CDN each way.

Luckily, you can get toll passes that you put under your dashboard so, when you drive up to a booth, the toll is automatically charged to your bank account or credit card, and you can go on your way.

Signs say you should approach the toll gate at 20kmh just in case it doesn't lift in time and you smash into it. But some people do twice that speed and seem to have full trust in the system to get out of the way before smashing in their windshield.......... freaky.......

I personally like the idea of slowing down................ because you can then blast all the way back up to highway speed as you come out of the tollbooth........ yeah!.....

........... if only I had a car......... then, yeah!........

Cheery Cherry Blossoms

No doubt some of you might know Japan is well known for it's cherry blossoms (sakura) trees. They even have what's called a "hanami" (hana being flower, mi being miru or look) which is basically a little party/picnic where people go to parks and sit under the sakura trees and..... do picnic-y things..... drink, mostly haha......

If I'm honest, I never understood what the big deal was. I mean, Vancouver has cherry blossoms and while I do think they look nice, I never gave them much though. They were just...... there......

Looking at the trees here, I've noticed a couple different things.......

First off, the weather is different. Vancouver's drizzle tends to weigh the cherry blossoms down. Or cause them to fall and stick to my car, which of course I had to hose off heh....... Here in Japan, it rains less so the trees look flufflier somehow.......

The other thing is the mindset. When everyone's harping about how beautiful they are, you tend to take a few extra seconds to look and realise, they are rather nice. It's just I never gave them much more of a passing glance in Vancouver and, thinking back, I do think that in the right day, Vancouver cherry blossoms are just as nice.......

I took this picture by the river that runs behind my house. There are parks around with rows and rows of well maintained cherry blossoms and they're really nice. Too bad they only last, like, two weeks.........

Oh yeah...

One more thing I'd like to add........ I've been stocking up my desk at work and I realised that the key to looking productive is to never to have a brand new eraser. An unused eraser is the rubberized equivalent of never having done any work.

So, even if you buy an eraser, spend a few minutes at home erasing so when people see it lying around on your desk at work, they'll think, "Wow, that guy must be working hard....... look how much erasing he's done......." =)

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"okoru" which is to get angry or get upset. I'll tie this in a bit later........

In the meantime, this past Sunday was the Kita-Kitatsushika-Gun Tournament, which is a local, all-style tournament. I lost my kata match to the eventual champion and, after lunch, I was warming up for my kumite match when I saw something that upset me quite a bit........

See, all over the world, there used to be a time when the line between discipline and just plain abuse was a bit hazy, and the world of martial arts used to be the same. However, there's been a big shift away from that and apart from some really dark corners of the martial arts world, it's all but non-existant. And yet, some instructors still seem to believe in it......

I was watching this instructor practice some sparring drills with his two students. And he was pegging one of them in the head so hard that it would snap her head all the way back, and he continued to do so every single time he ran the drill, despite her crying inside her helmet (thank god she had a helmet on). That she looked about 12 years old and was being subjected to rather discouraging words from her teacher didn't help at all.

I'm the first to concede that sparring can hurt. I also know that according to the rules of a kumite match, there are certain requirements of power and control to differentiate between an honest attack and something with no meaning behind it. But when a young student is crying, that's just crossing the line. Even if it was a student old enough and motivated enough to take that verbal and physical abuse, that's just not right. The other important thing is that kumite matches require strength AND control, not only the former.

Which got me thinking, how on earth does this teacher still have students?? I know if I was 10 years old and having such a horrible time that I was crying, I wouldn't want to go back. Or if I was a parent and saw that, I'd pull them out of the class. Karate is, first and foremost, something that should be done for self improvement and for fun, especially for children. Obsessing about strength and winning removes all sense of budo and you essentially become a brawler.

The ironic thing was that, in our adult male division, there was one white belt because there wasn't any other division for him to compete in. Said brutal instructor was pitted against the white belt in the sparring match and he piled on so many warnings for lack of control, he eventually lost the match.

The worst part is that this kind of abusive behavior still happens all over the world. Which was a bit of a sad realisation.

Nevertheless, I had a fun time as did the kids from Arakawa Sensei's dojo. The good thing about local tournaments is that it's a great place to further your skills because the level isn't usually as elevated as, say, regional or national competitions.

But in two days, I start my new job so that'll take up most of my time. I also have to wear a tie everyday........ fantabulous =P haha.....

A couple of Shiramizu kids getting ready for their matches.

About 1/3 of the dojo members in attendance were still around for this final picture. (Courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's blog)