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Monday, October 20, 2008

katakana1

Katakana is Japanese one of basic charactor. They are constructed by 46 characters and express pronunciation. The function of katakana is almost same as hiragana. So, what's the difference? The difference is it's use. Hiragana is used to express Japanese word, and katakana is mainly used to express exotic words. So non-Japanese names are expressed by katakana when they are written in Japanese. They are also used to express the reading of Kanji words, since kanji words sometimes have multiple reading or irregular reading and not all Japanese can read them correctly. Below is complete list of katakana.

This list does not seems enough to express pronunciation of English or other language. This is because Japanese has less sound than other language. For example, Japanese does not have pronunciation of "L", so alot of Japanese can't tell "Right" and "Light". Because they are same when written in Katakana.
This may be one of the reason that a lot of Japanese can't speak good English, and non-Japanese people has difficulty in learning Japanese.
But if you want to convert your name to Japanese Kanji, don't need to study Japanese. Just use NinjaNameDatabase!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Red Mt.Fuji



Mt.Fuji is one of the symbolism of Japan. Normally most people, including Japanese, imagine blue triangular mountain with snow on its top. But in Summer and Autum, we don't see snow on the top of Mt.Fuji.


This is Mt.Fuji without snow. And this Mt.Fuji is red! I took this picture from Fuji Speed Way circuit on the day of F1 Japanese Grand Prix.
We can see red Fuji only 5-10 minutes on sunrise of fine day, especially in the Summer and Autum. Red Fuji is called "Aka Fuji" and told as a symbol of good luck. Often seen in the picture of Hokusai's ukiyoe.
Why don't you get up early and see Red Fuji, when you visit!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Pink Tokyo Tower






Tokyo Tower was colored pink today. I didn't know why, but I have look into it after come back home and know that it was "Pink Ribon Campaign". I don't know this is global or domestic, but this is campaign of Breast Cancer. Anyway there was pretty much people around the tower.


There is always pretty much people around the tower, but not bad as around Shibuya. Comparing to Eiffel Tower, there's less people. There's a lot of people who never been to tokyo tower, even though they live in Tokyo. But I think it's not bad to visit tokyo tower, if you visit Tokyo.







This is how they color Tokyo. This way, color of tokyo tower changes sometime. I think tokyo tower is colored green on end of April.


This is standard color of tokyo tower. It is heigher than Eiffel Tower, but I think Eiffel Tower seems bigger. What do you think?
I sometimes climb up the tower to middle level and drink beer. There was also somoking seat which makes me comfortable for me. This place is most standard for tourist, but blind spot for Tokyo residentiary.