The Islands of Yaeyama

The main island is Ishigakijima (いしがきじま, 石垣島), home to a population of around 50,000, most of them resident in the town at the south of the island. Of similar size, but sparsely populated and covered with thick forest, mangrove swamps, and spectacular coastline, is Iriomote (いりおもて, 西表). Other islands worth visiting if you take a trip to Yaeyama are Taketomi (たけとみ, 武富), with its stone walls and traditional Ryukyuan village, Hateruma (はてるま, 波照間), the most southerly inhabited Japanese island, and Yonaguni (よなぐに, 与那国), with its mysterious underwater ruins.

New Words Learned

My time living on Ishigakijima and traveling to the other islands of the archipelago provided me with a lot of exposure to new words that I would definitely not otherwise have come across. Indeed, what opportunities might a Tokyo resident have to learn of onihitode (invasive crown-of-thorns starfish that is destroying the reefs of Okinawa; おにひとで, 鬼海星), habu (Okinawan pit viper; はぶ, 波布), habukurage (a poisonous jellyfish; はぶくらげ), same (shark; さめ, 鮫), or yamaneko (species of wildcat endemic to Iriomote; やまねこ, 山猫), or terms for delicacies like umibudou (grape-like seaweed; うみぶどう, 海葡萄), soki-soba (an Okinawan noodle dish; ソーキそば), or awanami (rice-based alcohol exclusive to Hateruma; あわなみ, 泡波). Without question, any time spent in Japan outside of one’s big-city comfort zone will require new behaviors to be adopted and new vocabulary to be learned, especially as the number of English speakers is reduced as you get into the countryside.

Japanese Humility

Many a fresh-faced gaijin, recently off the plane at Narita, will note the level to which they seem to be appreciated by the natives. Whether it is one’s proficiency with chopsticks, one’s ability to pronounce “Konnichiwa” almost correctly, one’s height, or one’s blond hair that is being lauded, it can seem as though one can do no wrong in those first few months. However, inherent in these interactions is a basic misunderstanding by the gaijin of the dynamics of conversations with Japanese people upon meeting for the first time. [Of course, this does not apply to conversations in which there is a clear and accepted difference in status from the outset, such as between a new recruit and his/her mentor within a company, namely, the senpai-kouhai (せんぱい, 先輩; こうはい, 後輩) relationship.]

In the West, a conversation between two people, newly acquainted, will often involve some jostling for status, wherein one tries to emphasize one’s own good points or achievements. However, in Japan, showing humility is so important that this conversational structure is inverted. Instead, it is the other’s talents or graces that should be highlighted, that is, self-effacement or obsequiousness is the key to the game. Although those unfamiliar with this kind of approach might consider that one person is simply denigrating themselves to the advantage of the other, after a few such encounters, one starts to understand how completely disempowering it can be, especially when, for example, the chief executive of one’s own company, a former professor, 40 years one’s senior, fluent in both English and Japanese, starts to use it.

Proverbs about Humility

In fact, the Japanese have some well-known proverbs (kotowaza, ことわざ, 諺) that, if not actively encouraging people to belittle themselves, certainly suggest the benefits of knowing one’s place. These include “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” (でるくぎはうたれる, 出る釘は打たれる) and “The more an ear of rice grows, the deeper it should bow” (みのるほどこうべをたれるいなほかな, 実るほど頭を垂れる稲穂かな).

Tokyo

The obvious place to start is Tokyo (東京). These two kanji mean “eastern” and “capital”, which suggests that Japan’s (and the world’s?) ultimate metropolis hasn’t always been the seat of power in the country. This is true, and before becoming the capital in 1868, Tokyo was known as Edo (江戸). The kanji that form the word Edo mean “bay” and “entrance”, which reflects the city’s location at the far northern end of Tokyo Bay (とうきょうわん; 東京湾), providing protection against both whatever the sea might throw at the city and access to a trading route that was vital for the city’s growth.

Kyoto

Prior to the move in 1868, the old capital was of course Kyoto (京都), the kanji for which indicate that it was the “capital city”. Although the history behind this move is best left for another article, the kanji deserve a closer look. The ‘to’ (都) kanji is actually also used alongside “Tokyo” to refer to the prefecture of Greater Tokyo (東京都). This ‘to’ kanji (都) is only used in this way for Greater Tokyo, though; a kanji read as ‘fu’ is instead used for Greater Osaka (大阪府) and Greater Kyoto (京都府). The other reading of ‘to’ (都) is ‘miyako’, also individually meaning metropolis or capital. In addition, the ‘kyou’ kanji (京) in these capitals of Japan can also be found elsewhere in Asia, such as in the Chinese and Japanese words for Beijing (北京; northern capital).

Osaka

Other important kanji to learn include those for the second city of Japan, Osaka (大阪), which is written using characters representing “large” and “slope/hill”, Nagoya (名古屋), written with the kanji for “name”, “old”, and “house”, Sapporo (札幌), written with the kanji for “note” and “covering”, but derived from the indigenous Ainu language of Hokkaido, and Yokohama (横浜), the kanji for which refer to its location further around the coast of Tokyo Bay from Tokyo.　

What might you expect to find there?

The most relevant readings for the two main kanji referring to types of shop are “ya” (屋) and “ten” (店). So, for example, on the Japanese high street, there are grocers (yaoya, やおや, 八百屋), bike shops (jitenshaya, じてんしゃや, 自転車屋), and chemists (kusuriya, くすりや, 薬屋), as well as bookshops (shoten, しょてん, 書店), coffee shops (kissaten, きっさてん, 喫茶店), and booze shops (saketen, さけてん, 酒店).

Of course, the exact composition of your local high street will depend a lot on exactly where you are. If you are close to a station, you can expect lots of estate agents (fudosama, ふどうさま, 不動様) and probably a major department store (depaato, デパート), with uniformed elevator girls, extremely polite and low-bowing clerks (tenin, てんいん, 店員), and extremely high prices. Alternatively, if you are in an old-town (shitamachi, したまち, 下町) part of Tokyo or Osaka, for example, you may encounter an old-style shoutengai (しょうてんがい, 商店街), that is, a Japanese shopping street, often under cover, with a predominance of pub-like izakaya (いざかや, 居酒屋) or noodle shops, as well as pachinko parlors (Japanese pinball; パチンコ) or small family-run stores. Good examples of shoutengai include the 2.6-km-long Tenjinbashisuji ((天神橋筋商店街) in Osaka and the main street in Shibamata, Tokyo.

Another particularly Japanese feature of shopping areas is the extreme concentration of a certain type of shop within one small area. The most well known are electronic/video game districts like Akihabara (秋葉原) in Tokyo and DenDen Town (でんでんタウン) in Osaka, although there are similar areas for, among others, musical instruments (Ochanomizu Gakki-Tengai in Tokyo, 御茶ノ水楽器店街), kitchen equipment (Sennichimae Doguyasuji in Osaka, 千日前道具屋筋), and even dolls and fireworks (Matsuyamachi-suji in Osaka, 松屋町筋).

Any shopping experience in Japan is likely to differ markedly from its equivalent in the West, involving products and etiquette with which you may be completely unfamiliar. The only approach is to dive in, keep your eyes and ears open, and learn by trial and error.

This sensitivity to the seasons is of course exemplified by the cherry blossom viewing (hanami, はなみ, 花見) period, occurring at around this time of year depending on your latitude, and accompanied by breathless reports as part of the TV weather forecasts of how far north the front of blooming cherry trees (sakurazensen, さくらぜんせん, 桜前線) has reached. It is also reflected in kisetsuryouri (きせつりょうり, 季節料理), that is, Japanese dishes specific to certain times of the year, and the seasonality of fruit and vegetables available in Japanese stores, which far surpasses the fairly monotone selection typically available in the West.

Viewing of the kouyou (こうよう, 紅葉), brightly colored autumn leaves, is another seasonal event, where the effects of the progression of the year on the natural world are appreciated and, of course, captured forever in numerous photographs. Other specific ceremonies and traditions are also linked with the passing of the seasons, such as the spring (shunbun no hi, しゅんぶんのひ, 春分の日) and autumn equinoxes (shuubun no hi, しゅうぶんのひ, 秋分の日), at which times it is customary to visit the graves of one’s ancestors, as well as setsubun (せつぶん, 節分), to celebrate the start of spring.

In fact, the four seasons, in chronological order, of haru (はる, 春), natsu (なつ, 夏), aki (あき, 秋), and fuyu (ふゆ, 冬), could be considered to be joined by at least a fifth, tsuyu (つゆ, 梅雨), the rainy season that hits in early summer. Overall, Japan certainly isn’t lacking in climatic variation, even though many other places do have four seasons, too.

大きい big ookii
小さい small chiisai

長い long nagai
短い short mijikai

高い tall takai
低い short mijikai

細い thin hosoi
太い fat futoi (for things or parts of people, not people)
丸い round marui

若い young wakai

Big and small are simple kanji that will pop up all over the place, you can even find big at the top of some mountains, big enough to see for miles. Long looks like a little man with long arms, and shorts right half is that character for bean again (豆 or mame).　　Tall is make by stacking a big piece at the bottom, a middle piece in the middle and a hat on top, when you stack it up, it’s pretty tall. Short has a short leg and a long leg. Thins radical on the left is the character for thread (糸　or ito), and that’s perfect because threads are thin. Fat is the same as big with something in it’s tummy…it looks like it has eaten already. Round has a round curve at the foot, it’s actually the same as the character for nine (九) but with a dash in it. For young, just remember it has a hat like a lot of young kids and make it easy for yourself. These are just some tips for remembering kanji, if you can think of your own, those might work better because everyone sees things differently, this includes kanji and other aspects of studying Japanese.

Now lets look at some of the ways we can use these kanji with the body parts we learned in our last kanji lesson.

We use a simple pattern.

目が大きい have big eyes me ga ookii
鼻が高い have a long nose (tall nose) hana ga takai
背が高い be tall se ga takai
背が低い be short se ga hikui
顔が丸い have a round face kao ga marui
足が細い have thin legs ashi ga hosoi
腕が短い have short arms ude ga mijikai

So in order to make a full sentence, which we don’t necessarily need but is useful when it isn’t understood who we are talking about, we just put person+ha in the beginning.

かれは背が高い He is tall.
アメリカ人は足が長い Americans have long legs.

We can also use の　in order to say “his/her —– is —–”
マドンナの顔が短い Madonna’s face is thin.
ともだちのおなかが大きい My friend’s belly is big.

The face

目 eyes me
口 mouth kuchi
耳 ear mimi
鼻 nose hana
髪 hair kami

Eye and mouth are extremely easy and ear is just like eye with sharp edges. Nose looks like a head, a body and legs and hair is a compound kanji with 3 parts. You will see all three of these pieces in other kanji as well. For complex kanji, the best way to remember them is to look for pieces of the kanji that you know already. Most complex kanji are made of pieces that are actually simpler kanji or resemble simpler kanji. These are sometimes called radicals. For hair, the bottom 1/3 is the same as the first kanji in the word “friend”, 友達　(tomodachi).

The body

手 hand te
足 foot ashi
頭 head atama
首 neck kubi
胸 chest mune
お腹 stomach onaka
腕 arm ude
お尻 butt oshiri
背中 back senaka

While hand and foot are relatively easy characters that will show up a lot, the others are not so simple. They become simpler however when you realize that chest, stomach and arm all use the character for month (月) on the left side. The character for neck also utilizes the character for eye with a head and neck on top of it. Things just got a lot easier. Although you may not know it yet, the left side of the character for head is actually 豆 (mame) or bean; so you can learn an extra character from this; just imagine a bean-head. See from 背中 has the month on the bottom as well.

This is how kanji work, they are similar to the roots of words so you can make connections between them to ease the pain of having to memorize so many. Some of these connections are very logical and some seem like absolute nonsense. It’s best to utilize both in order to make as many as possible.

The body parts and face make up for a fair amount of idioms and expressions so let’s look at a few now.

口がうまい smooth talker kuchi ga umai
頭にくる get angry atama ni kuru (it comes to my head)
耳が痛い hits close to home mimi ga itai (ears hurt)
目がない be fond of me ga nai (have no eyes)
鼻がたかい be proud hana ga takai (have a high nose)
顔が広い be well known kao ga hiroi (have a wide face)
腹が立つ be angry hara ga tatsu (stomach stands)
足が棒になる can’t walk (too tired) ashi ga bou ni naru (legs become sticks)

In English, we tend to change the tone of our voice a lot to express how we are feeling. Japanese is relatively flat. While English has half notes and quarter notes and full notes, Japanese tends to stick mostly to quarter notes. To make up for this, they have particles.

They can even be combined in certain ways but before we talk about combos let’s look at the most basic particles first.

よ　Yo

One of the most simple particles is Yo. Think of this as an exclamation point, or at times, half an exclamation point. Sometimes it also works a lot like the “yo” you hear at the end of a sentence in hip-hop songs. It is a way to express surprise, excitement, or insistence.

知らないよ！　－　I don’t know! (exclamation)
（あなたが）好きだよ　　－　I like you. (insistence)

か　Ka

Perhaps the most easy Japanese particle to get your head around is Ka. It is essentially just a question mark. Throw it on the end of a sentence and it will turn it into a question. There are other ways to make questions such as changing the tone of your voice at the end of sentence (the same way you would when saying “You like him?). But the most basic way to form a question is by ending the sentence with a ka.

おなかがすいてますか？ －　Are you hungry?

ね　Ne

Ne requires you to step it up a little bit with your imagination. The closest English equivalent to the Japanese “ne” is the Canadian “eh?” or adding a “right?” at the end of a sentence (although there are other words that more directly translate to “right?”). Rather than thinking of this as a word though, I like to think of it as a change in tone at the end of a sentence like when you are looking for approval.　 You use ”ne” when you want the other person to agree with you.

あの人は彼氏ですね　－　He is your boyfriend, right?

ぞ / ぜ　The anime particles (zo and ze)

I call these the anime particles because people rarely use them in real life. They sound really childish or overly manly. However they are used in anime and some action films. A foreigner using these is almost a certain signal that they watch anime. These are both full of so much enthusiasm that you won’t need to use them unless you are a sports coach or a personal trainer.

行くぜ！　－　Let’s go!

In the home

The high population density in Japan’s major cities has led to some of the highest office rental costs in the world. This is also reflected in rent for living spaces, with few homes being particularly expansive. To cope with this, certain Japanese traditional approaches are employed to good effect. For example, the use of a futon (ふとん, 布団), which can be rolled up at the start of each day, enables the living space to be utilized efficiently. Furthermore, Japanese rooms (washitsu, わしつ, 和室) often have sliding doors or windows (shouji, しょうじ, 障子, or fusuma, ふすま, 襖), rather than ones that require more space to open forwards or backwards.
Other space-saving features include toilets with an in-built sink on top, from which the water subsequently flows into the tank for the next flush, and half-sized bathtubs that can fit in the smallest of bathrooms. Japanese homes are full of features that make the best use of space.

Commute

The lack of space in Japan may be best known overseas by the situation on the trains during rush hour (tsuukin-rasshu, つうきんラッシュ, 通勤ラッシュ). Trains can be overflowing with people, with ‘pushing staff’ (oshiya, おしや, 押し屋) employed to ensure that everyone gets on and that the doors can close on the busiest lines. Commuting by car would also be extremely time-consuming were it not for the elevated highways of the Shuto and Hanshin Expressways in Tokyo and Osaka, which weave through the cities tens of meters above ground level.

On the city or country scale

A lack of space can also be appreciated when considering the layout of cities or the whole country. While Japan’s population density is up to ten times that of the US or Europe, this is compounded by the fact that only 4% of the land is residential, owing to the mountainous nature of much of the terrain. In cities, there is severely limited greenery, with ten times more parkland per inhabitant in major European and American cities than in their Japanese equivalents. This can partly explain the Japanese enthusiasm for small, ornate gardens, as well as weekend trips out of the cities, with the area around Mount Fuji and the Shonan coast, as well as towns like Hakone and Nikko, for example, being besieged by Tokyoites seeking to escape the urban sprawl for much of the year.

For those who missed the first installment, do not fret. I took comprehensive notes for you, complete with the doodles you would have drawn had you been there. For those who think you’re too good to backtrack because you already have the intro stuff down solid: I understand where you’re coming from, but I should warn you that there is little method to the order and arrangement of material.

Today’s kanji is brought to you by what my friend had for lunch today.

I’ve no doubt you’ve seen these two characters before, and the reason for this is the same as the reason I’ve chosen them. They’re important. Why are they important?

親 is important because:
1. 親子丼 (oyakodon: lit. parent & child rice bowl, where bite-sized chunks of chicken represent the parent and a pulpy layer of egg stands in for the child) is delicious (apparently—I’m vegetarian);
2. Without 親 there would be no 子, and the world would cease to be;
3. It is the finger of 親 (oyayubi) which separates us from animals;

子 is equally important because:
1. The second kanji is in my name, in which it is read ‘ko.’ It is in countless other Japanese lady names as well, capping off ‘Mitsuko,’ ‘Natsuko,’ ‘Yumiko’ and so on with old-fashioned flair;
2. When found after an animal-representative kanji, 子 (as ‘ko’) is synonymous with ‘cute,’ denoting the baby version of whatever it follows;
3. 子 functions as a radical as often as it stars as its own character—perhaps you’ve seen it in 学（the がく of だいがく）、季（the き of きせつ）、教（the おし of おしえる）、or 存（the そん of そんざい）.

The Oyako Digest

Now, to make them as unforgettable as your own parents and children.

In compounds:

親 (したしい ・ したしむ) Behavior

This incident occurred between Hitler and Eva Braun on a base in Darmstadt, Germany. Thus, Darmstadt (pronounced Därmshtät) is our base.

Disclaimer: By no means do I intend to condone the Fuhrer’s iniquitous behavior in casting him as a sympathetic character, but in truth, his (quite volatile) love life makes (and has made) for excellent storytelling. He took many lovers and was, it seems, desperately passionate with every one, not excluding Miss Eva Braun and the ‘Geli’ around whom the mini-comic centers.

Note the bolded words/sounds.

What can be learned from this?

Language lesson: Base + bold = verb forms of 親 ; the shta sound of Darmstadt + she— / she mo = shitashii / shitashimu

Life lesson: A man should be wary of becoming too fond (親しむ) of a girl for whom he is like a parent (親), especially when he is already on intimate (親しい) terms with another. Lacking better sense, Hitler drives Geli to suicide and is inspired to become vegetarian (fact) and recite U2 lyrics (fiction).

From one criminal to the next, to 子 we go

There you have the mnemonics for 親 and 子. For future review, a chart and a reminder that kanji and their readings are more than just shapes and sounds.