Etymology of Sasuga

流石　(Sasuga)
The word represents the feeling you have when a person whom you expect to perform well does, in fact, perform well, and you feel a sense of awe all over again at their amazing feat.

To learners of the language, sasuga is a little frustrating in that it's one of those ridiculous ateji words whose reading and kanji characters don't match. But there's a cute little story about why sasuga is written this way today:

Etymology of Arigato

The word "arigato" (有難う), or "thank you" in Japanese, finds its roots in the word arigatashi (有り難し), an archaic adjective describing rarity.

Words to Express Condolences in Japanese

A quick translation from an all-around useful site on Japanese funerals.

When you want to express condolences to a Japanese friend or acquaintance over his or her loss of a loved one, the appropriate phrases are:

It's in Your Blood: Japan's obession with blood types

For a long while, I thought that the standard blood groupings ( A, B, AB, and O) only had to do with microscopic antigens on my cells. Boy was I wrong. As it turns out, your blood type determines everything about you core personality...or at least that is what many people in Japan seem to believe.

What is a "Special Permanent Resident", Anyway?

"Special Permanent Resident." It's a term that plagues Japanese immigration legalese, and I've only ever had a vague inkling of what it means. It identifies a group of people that, for some reason or other, has been granted special permission to be in Japan indefinitely without needing to notify the immigration bureau of working situation or marital status, but whose members are still not recognized as actual citizens in Japan.

I'd heard stories of how, especially in the late 80's and early 90's, the MOJ wrote out some special immigration laws to encourage ethnically Japanese Brazilians and other South Americans to come to Japan as laborers. And I knew that there were a lot of ethnic Koreans in Japan whose families had lived here for generations but had been and sometimes still are marginalized to certain communities and severely discriminated against. They had been encouraged to come into the country and stay here for the long haul, but not as citizens.

All these people were the ones the government was talking about when it used the term "Special Permanent Resident," right?

Popular Words to Propose With in Japan

A few recent comments from friends have set me wondering about Japanese marriage proposals. (No, I'm not planning on making one sometime soon.) My college professor once pointed out in class that a traditional way to ask a Japanese girl for her hand was with the suave line, "Will you make my miso soup for me every morning?" But it turns out that with a modern audience, that bit gets more mileage in laughs and jokes than in swoons.

So what do Japanese women these days actually want to hear? How should Japanese guys pop the question? Are any of the modern alternatives less gender-stereotyped?

Entertainment statistics giant Oricon proffers answers to all these questions and more with the results of a 2007 survey of single females:

If a Man Proposed to Me With These Words, I'd Be Happy:

From the top:

#1 ... "Let's get married."
#2 ... "Let's be together forever."
#3 ... "Let's be happy together."

#4 ... "I'll protect you for the rest of our lives."
(The submitter, in her 30s and from Osaka, explains, "I'd feel as if I were really important to him if he said that.")

#5 ... "I can't think of anyone but you."
(I want to feel that I'm number one. Kanagawa, 40)

#6 ... "Can we endure hardships?"
(I think more than anything else endurance is crucial to marriage. Saitama, 40)

#7 ... "I want you by my side for the rest of my life."
(It feels like he's giving me permission to be beside him for a long time--for the rest of our lives. Hokkaido, 30)

#8 ... "Will you be my wife?"
(Subtle proposals are romantic, too, but if he asks me clearly I'll be able to take it more straightforward. Okayama, 20)

#9 ... "Let's live our lives together."
(I don't ever want to be thrown away. Chiba, 20)

#10 ... "I need you."
(I would feel how important my presence is to him. Tottori, 40)

#11 ... "Let's make a happy home together."
(I want to be happy forever. Mie, 30)


Translation Notes:
実感　じっかん　　actually feel like, realize
苦労　くろう　　　 hard work, labor, toil
傍に　そばに　　  next to, beside, the same kanji as in かたわら
許容　きょよう　　 allowance, concession
遠まわし　とおまわし　roundabout
ときめく　　　　　makes your heart beat fast

#6, 苦労してもいいか and its comment, were the most difficult for me to put into realistic English. If you have any other suggestions for how you'd translate those, please share!

6 Varieties of Japanese Green Tea

Last week, we covered four popular kinds of tea in Japan. We ended the article with a note on green tea (緑茶, ryokucha) and its ubiquity in Japan, so much that the general term "tea" is understood in this country to mean "green tea" unless otherwise specified. Here are some of the many varieties of green tea in Japan:

4 Kinds of Tea in Japan

Though not all of these tea varieties originated in Japan, they are all quite popular drinks across the country:

How Japanese People Take Their Tea

Black tea is a popular "Western" drink in Japan, and it is widely available at restaurants, cafes, and in bottled form at supermarkets and in vending machines. Specialty shops offer a wide variety of black teas to the enthusiast, but in casual restaurants and cafes, the popularly available black tea is Earl Grey.

Black tea is usually served in one of four forms in Japan:

Japanese Speech Content in Kitakyushu City

Kitakyushu City is holding a Japanese speech contest in June this year. Applications are still open until April 14, 2013. (Your written speech and application must arrive at the specified address by that date to qualify.)

Any non-native speaker of Japanese who is at least 15 years old and who hasn't previously won the annual competition is eligible to participate. The speeches can be on any topic and up to six minutes in length.

Full details are available at the Kitakyushu City official homepage.

Eye Exams in Japan

Eye exams (視力検査, shiryoku kensa) in Japan are pretty similar to those of other countries. You get them as part of a general physical check-up at the doctor's office and when you renew your driver's license.

The only thing that caught me off guard about eye exams here is the difference in design. In the US, I was used to naming alphabet letters (a Snellen chart). However, sometimes I would be presented with a chart of "E"s pointing in different directions and asked to point my hand in the corresponding direction (an E chart).

That second test is similar to the eye exams used most commonly in Japan. However, instead of "E"s, the Japanese chart uses circles with little sections cut out of them.

Police Home Visits

Just this weekend I got another visit from my friendly neighborhood police man. This was the second visit this year, although my wife had the pleasure of handling the first one.

Now you may ask. What heinous crime did I commit that warranted a visit from Nagano's finest? Was it lazy garbage sorting?  Or perhaps downloading pirated music? Nope! Actually it was just the police paying a courtesy call the let me know about recent robberies in the area.

Guile and Deceit in the Ranks of AKB48

The well-populated song and dance group AKB48 has been a pop culture staple in Japan for the past four or five years. Their creator, Yasushi Akimoto, kind of took the nation by storm with his idea to make a gigantic 48-girl pop performing group that could then be split into several subgroups to tour and perform live in multiple locations simultaneously, increasing accessibility to fans. Additionally, with 48 "varied" personalities, fans can choose and follow a member that they find specifically appealing. It was like everyone had completely forgotten about Hello! Project's Morning Musume.

Anyway, AKB48 holds a variety of annual televised events to popularize the group and give fans a sense of interaction. One of those events is a giant Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament held between all of the group's members in single-elimination matchups. The grand victor is awarded the lead spot on one of the group's CD singles released in the following year.

Ugai: Japanese People Love Gargling

When I was a little kid, my parents and teachers drilled into me the importance of hand-washing for staving off colds and other illness. At the time I was terrified to think that there were things crawling around on my skin that I couldn't see, and I became paranoid about shaking other peoples' hands or sharing a glass or utensil with anyone else. I eventually got over it, but it took the better part of two decades.

In Japan as well, hand-washing is considered an important sanitary measure and children are taught to do it from an early age. Elementary school teachers and junior high school teachers (yes, really) demonstrate proper hand-washing behavior to students and then watch as students practice. Presumably offering tips. "Make sure to scrub all the way up to your wrist, Timmy!"

Now, hand-washing in Japan offers plenty of tangents to spiral off on, like the rarity of soap, paper towels, and hot water in public restrooms or the crazy little sink lids outfitted on toilet water tanks (you are supposed to wash your hands with the water that pours into the tank at the end of the flush cycle).

But the one I want to talk about today is the inseparable partner of hand-washing in Japan: The gargle.

Statistics on Japan - Everything from Savings to Facebook Users

Whether you want to know where all the poorest people congregate, or where the most whiskey in Japan is being consumed, I have the site for you!

Destination: Ushuku Daibutsu, Ibaraki

Having just relocated from Nagano to Ibaraki-ken, AJ co-founder Dom and I have a lot of exploring to do!

We started with the largest standing Buddha in the world, located in Ushiku, southern Ibaraki. 

Finding Private Baths and Onsen in Japan

I love Japanese onsens. I love the relaxing water, the pleasant designs of the tubs, and the views they often overlook--even the smell of sulfur has grown on me.

In fact, the only thing about onsens that I don't enjoy is the whole getting naked with a bunch of other guys part.

Find Your Local Fireworks Displays

We're in the midst of summer now, and any long-term visitor of Japan knows what summer here means: Weekend after weekend of crepuscular booming in your neighborhood!

Event news and entertainment site WalkerPlus just listed its annual Fireworks Display Calendar, with a cute (and highly distorted) little map of Japan you can click on to find dates and locations for fireworks and summer festivals going on wherever you live or are visiting in the country.

Once you pick an event, take care to arrange your method of travel and accommodations beforehand. Large displays in Japan are well-known for their massive crowds, blocking off whole segments of cities from vehicular traffic, tying up mass transit lines for hours following the grade finale, and booking their city's hotels solid.

Enjoy!

Kanji Mixup? Natto and Tofu

Ever looked closely at the kanji for natto (納豆) and tofu (豆腐)?
Both appropriately use the kanji 豆 (mame), which means "beans." And the other two kanji in question here are 腐, which is used in words like "to spoil" (腐る, kusaru), and 納, which refers to something fitting neatly into a designated space. (Yes, seriously. That's a meaning of 納まる, osamaru).

So, we've got tofu, all packed into its neat little white squares, and natto, rancid and fermenting, but the kanji don't line up. Sure seems like somebody screwed these two words up, doesn't it?

Turns out there's an urban legend in Japan to just that effect:

Why Are The Japanese So Lean?

Okay, so not all of them are. But the Japanese have and somewhat deserve the reputation of being skinny, despite eating huge amounts of white rice. Japan has just over 10% of the obesity rate of the USA, and sits at the bottom of this table of rankings.

I took my nutritional knowledge on a short path to the bottom of this for your reading pleasure.