Learn Japanese Pod is four years old! Happy birthday to us! Four years, three apartments, two mac books and one relationship later, here we are still making podcasts for all you eager students of Japanese. I had no idea LJP would become such a great place to meet people interested Japanese and Japan. We’ve made some great friends and had a great deal of fun along the way.

Learn Japanese Pod started out under the vaguest and most pathetic of plans: “I guess I’ll just do it for a laugh”. So here’s to vague and pathetic plans. And here’s to all of you who listened to the podcast and supported it. Without your help, support, comments and general correspondences LJP would only be a mere shadow of itself and not the gargantuan, green, Tokyo skyscraper munching monster it has become.

As we are on the thankyous, a huge thank you to:

Beb: She made the podcast possible. Let’s face it, you only listen because of her don’t you?

Waka sensei: She spent countless hours recording podcasts, checking the show notes were OK and generally being cute.

Karamoon: He was the tech guy and ideas man for us. On one occassion he single-handedly saved the forums from digital oblivion.

Daniel and Yuki: They’re a cute couple. Daniel has been our audio engineer and Yuki has appeared on various shows teaching us Japanese.

You: yes YOU! Not you! YOU! Another huge shout out to all of you who listened to the show and are interested in Japanese culture.

This list is endless but for those of you who haven’t been mentioned you know who you are. Thank you, thank you, thank you and that’s three thank yous!

Here’s to another four years.

I love okonomiyaki.

if you don’t know what that is, wikipedia is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki

A quick summary would be, it’s a pancake like dish served in two main styles, Osaka style (kansai) and Hiroshima style. (I don’t count Monjakayi – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monjayaki – it’s just a mess)

Having just been to Hiroshima, I’ve now sampled both and the grand debate over which is better can now be settled, once and for all.

Osaka style

With Osaka style you do it yourself, mixing a prepared bowl of ingredients together and then slapping it on the hot plate in a pancake type way. Turning it over once in a while you cook it until it’s as brown as you wish it to be, then take it off, sprinkle fish bits and seaweed on it, as well as a nice coating of okonomiyaki special sauce (which I hate) and mayonnaise.

The sauce is the apparent key to it all, as an amazed shop owner asked me ’本当に美味しい？’, which I translate as ‘You eat it without the sauce? Disgusting, surely?’.

My favourite has to be octopus (タコ), closely followed by a cheese version (チーズ), and a pizza version (ピザ). The last one may only come from my local okonomiyaki place, I don’t know. It’s nice thou.

Hiroshima style

In Hiroshima they don’t mix the ingredients and, by default, layer it with soba noodles. I don’t like soba noodles however they do a version with udon noodles which was better for me. Again, no sauce as it’s horrid, although the end result tends to be a bit dry unless you have it. However, mayonnaise came to the rescue and made for a tasty meal. You can mix and match ingredients as you like, with a similar range of toppings as with the Osaka style. However they cook it for you due to the layering of ingredients which would make it a bit tricky for the customers to do it themselves. As a local specialty on top of a specialty, you can have a oyster one too, which my Japanese friend spooged himself over.

Behind the Parco department store in Hiroshima is the I presume famous okonomiyaki village. There are 4 floors of nothing but okonomiyaki shops (maybe 40 or so in total), all bustling for your attention in a clearly overcrowded market like arena. However none of them seemed to do the oyster version, which a shop a door or two down on the first floor did (the one in the photo).

Overall, which do I prefer?

Osaka style wins. You cook it yourself, which is fun, and it’s moister and comes in a few more varieties as far as I can tell. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the noodles I suppose, although I’m sure if the sauce wasn’t so unpalatable to me things might be different.

If you are in Japan, please go sample some okonomiyaki. There are chain stores all around Tokyo as well as a similar number of private establishments.

Links

Okonomiyaki village location in Hiroshima

Or rather apologies. Sorry for not posting more on this. I’ve been doing alot of studying on my own in other subjects, so my japanese fell by the wayside for a bit there. So to make up for it, lets give you a quickie lesson on apologizing. We won’t actually get into excuses till later…meaning when I get the hang of it myself.

すみません。

This first one (Sumimasen) is a very handy dandy one that gets used alot. It can be used for many situations. I think I shall touch on to the utility of the phrase later. Sometimes gets said (suimasen).

ごえめんなさい。

Gomennasai is another one of those common apologetics. The usage for this one is limited to apologizing. It seems to be a bit less formal than other forms of apoligizing so I would recommend being careful where you use this one.

ごめん。

A more casual apology. Can sometimes be replaced with (Gomen Ne) or (Gomen Na) the second being a more masculine way of use.

Now I will admit I have heard this following two as well, but as for their exact usage and whatnot, I cannot be too certain.

もうしわけありません。

Breaking open the dictionary on this one, it says that this is a very formal apology and is typically used when addressing a superior, like a boss or somesuch. Shows more feeling that Sumimasen.

しつれいしました。

Also formal apology but not quite as strong as (moushiwake arimasen). Now if I’m not terribly mistaken (and please please correct me if I am) it also can be used to the extent of (Sorry for the intrusion) when you come over to someone’s house or enter their office or something.

Anyway thats what I’ve got for today. I hope to get a bit more into the swing of things with this lovely blogspace.

Now since I am an optician by trade I have decided at the last minute to through some terms at you.

Optometry – kengan (けんがん）

Optometrist – shiryokukensai （しりょくけんさい）

vision test – shiryokukensa (しりょくけんさ）

Optician – meganeya（めがねや）

glasses – megane（めがね）

contact lens – kontakuto（コンタクト）

This list is back to the basics of what I am trying focus on with my vocabulary.   I have been rather happy with the way flashcards are working out for my independant study so far.  I do feel that they would be much less effective if I weren`t handwriting them.

いえ　　　　　house           家

へや　            room            部屋

だいどころ　　kitchen        台所

しんしつ         bedroom      寝室

いま　　　　　  living room  居間

よくしつ　　　  bathroom    浴室

ゆか　　　　    floor              床

かべ　　　　    ceiling          壁

てんじょう　    roof               天井

かいだん　　  stairs           階段

まど　　　　    window         窓

だんろ　　　   fireplace      暖炉

えんとつ　　   chimney      煙突

かがみ　　　   mirror         鏡

たな　　　       shelf             棚

ほんだな　　  bookshelf     本棚

おしいれ　　  closet           押入れ

ゆぶね　　     bathtub       湯ぶね

いす　　　　   chair             椅子

つくえ　　　　 desk             机

こんろ　　　    stove

ながし　　　 　sink              流し

げんかん　　 entrance      玄関

れいぞうこ　  refrigerator 冷蔵庫

ごみばこ　　  trashcan      ゴミ箱

かたい　　　  hard              固い

やわらかい　 soft               柔らかい

せまい　　　  narrow         狭い

ひろい　　　  wide             広い

I was at a recent gathering with several of the people I practice martial arts with and the 3 year old of one of the practitioners was talking about a woodpecker she saw in a tree.  She was describing how the bird would hit the tree with its nose. 

One of the barriers I run into speaking is knowing that there is (most likely) an exact word for something and rather than using “nose” in such a speaking situation the 3 year old was in.  My sentence would have been derailed since I didn`t know “beak.”

On that note, I recently found out, though a little childish, that ふね　fune (boats), ひこうき　hikouki (planes), しゃりょう　sharyou (traincars), and バスbasu (buses) all have both an あたまatama (head) and an おしりoshiri (bottom/butt) to use for describing location.

I have heard Halloween celebrations in Japan are pretty limited to a few gaijin riding around on the trains in costume, but I wanted to do a list with these sorts of things that aren’t considered that high of a priority in text books.  I thought this time was appropriate to pickup some words I have run into in books and movies that were previously unfamiliar.

くも                        - spider

くものす                - spiderweb               くもの巣

こうもり                  - bat

ねずみ                -  rat

がいこつ             –  skeleton　　　　　　　骸骨

かいぶつ            -  monster　　　　　　　怪物

おばけ                -  ghost / spirit　　　　お化け

ゆうれい　           – spirit from a person　幽霊

おおかみおとこ – werewolf　　　　　　　　狼男

きゅうけつき       –  vampire　　　　　　　　吸血鬼

まじょ                  -  witch　　　　　　　　　　　魔女

あくま　　　　      -   devil　　　　　　　　　　　悪魔

あくりょう             –   demon    　　　　　　　　悪霊

ミイラ                  -   mummy

はか　　　　       –  grave　　　　　　　　　　　墓

ぼち                   –  graveyard　　　　　　　　墓地

ち　　                 –  blood　　　　　　　　　　　血

しゅっけつする – to bleed　　　　　　　　　　出血する

とりつかれて　いる – haunted

おばけやしき         –  haunted house　　　お化け屋敷

ちかろう                  -  dungeon

きみがわるい         – spooky

のろい                     – curse　　　　　　　　　　呪いをかける　curse someone

つき　　　　　　　　-  moon　　　　　　　　　　月

まんげつ　　　　    - full moon　　　　　　　　満月

かぼちゃ                - pumpkin

かめん                   –  mask　　　　　　　　　　　仮面

いしょう　　　　      - costume　　　　　　　　　衣装

ちょうちん             – lantern　　　　　　　　　　提灯

びっくりする          - to be surprised

おどろく                - more formal way of saying surprised

こわい                   – scary

きょうふ                 – fear                                      恐怖

こわがらせる        - to frighten

ひめい                  - a scream out of fear or for help n.　　　　　　　悲鳴

ひめいをあげる   – to scream out of fear / for help v.

さけぶ                  - shout / scream (loundly yelling something)　叫ぶ

いたずら              - trick

にせもの              - fake　　　　　　　　　　　偽物

にせもの　の　こうもり – fake bat

**Notes

かぼちゃ  -  pumpkin, comes from a communication error on a ship when pumpkins were being imported to Japan.  A Japanese person on the ship tried asking what “that” was, but the English speaker thought the question was “where is that from?” and the response was Kambodia

おばけ – is the general term for spirit or ghost.  Totoro and the spirits from “Spirited Away” are all おばけ.

かめん – used for costume type masks, but not the medical “mask”

あくりょう 　- This is the kind of demon that you hear about in Japanese stories of people trying to beat or outwit that often get the better of the person.

にせもの の。。。 – fake item, this can be used for the  fake sushi in windows at shops as well as many of the decorations used for halloween.

さけぶ – the kind of shouting you would attach words to for what is shouted.

<Show 95 / Show 97>

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Waka Sensei and I hung out on the beautiful roof garden on top of Marui in Shinjuku. Today’s lesson focused on the word “流行” or Hayari which has various meanings related to being popular and fashionable.You can hear us talk about some of the latest trends in Japan.

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