Trying to find kanji for my name (Claire).
- For starters possible “ku”/”kure” kanji: 久(ku; used in the term “hisashiburi” – similar to “long time, no see!”)、暮 (ku/kure; can mean in words like 暮れ方 etc twilight/sunset)、紅 (ku/kure; crimson)
- Whilst I really like 暮 and 紅 in paticular, because you can also pronounce them “kure” it might make having a “re(i)” kanji rather redundant, and there is one rei kanji I have my eye on, first given to me by a Japanese friend back home (he gave me the kanji : 久麗亜): 麗, the kanji from 綺麗 (usually written as きれい/kirei; it means pretty and/or beautiful. Like a necklace, or a famous actress!)
- In terms of the “ah” at the end of my name (when accented in Japanese Claire = ku-re(i)-ah) there are a meagre selection of kanji used phoenetically for the sound, rather than a meaning: 亜、阿、亞 or these two: 愛 (love)、安(in compounds like 安心、安全 has a feeling of safety, however, standalone and in other common compounds it means cheap. Lovely.)
Right now likely combinations are:
紅麗阿、紅麗愛、紅愛
暮麗阿、暮麗愛、暮愛
久麗愛、久麗阿
So for a bit of fun I decided to check out their fortunes, called 姓名判断 seimeihandan (say-may-han-dahn). In Japanese, whilst there are different ways to determine the luck of one’s name, it is typically related to a mix of pronounciation/strokes within a kanji/a comparison of strokes between first and other kanji – so given the endless Japanese homophones I presume it must be pretty complex…
(a note; in japanese the “maru” (circle) is used to mark answers as being correct, a triangle is like an “almost there” and the “batsu” (X) is used, like back home, to mark an answer wrong. In the context of fortunes therefore, a circle is good, triangle is so-so, and a cross….well…)
So here’s an example:
紅愛
総運22× 順調な人生も晩年に向かい運気衰退。晩年の家族運悪く、犯罪傾向も。
General Fortune: Have an alright life, though luck will decline as you get older. (Not sure about the translation for this bit, it’s rather strange!) Later on in life your family’s fortunes may turn sour, and there is a possible tendency to involvement in crime. (!)
人運 9△ 特異な才能で注目されるが挫折しがち。誠実だが消極的。
Personal Fortune: You will be noticed for your unique abilities, however you will also be prone to feeling discouraged. You are an honest person, but also quite half-hearted/unmotivated.
外運13○ 明るく、華やかで楽しい人生に。大勢の活気ある環境で個性が生きます。
Outer Fortune (I think this may mean one’s fortunes with other people, in the context of society..): You will enjoy your life cheerfuly and with flair. Living in a crowded, lively enviroment you find your individuality.
伏運31◎ 強運の持ち主。
Hidden(?) Fortune (the first kanji has a meaning of laying something on/in the ground, being hidden or being overpowered/made to do something, so I’m not sure how that relates to one’s fortunes…): You hold good luck.
地運22△ 見栄、薄弱挫折、晩年衰退運。
Earth Fortune: You have charm, but also a weakness for getting frustrated and discouraged. In your later years your luck will decline.
天運△ Heavenly Fortune: So-so
陰陽 △ あまり良くない配列です。 Ying & Yang: Not such a good arrangement.
Conclusion: Eek! Doesn’t seem so good！
Below the cut fortunes for 暮愛、紅麗愛、紅麗阿
もしかしてあなたは日本人か日本語をよくわかったら、書き直すため、ぜひ間違いなどを見付ける場合にはコメントしてね★
最近、さむくなっちゃった。
Recently it’s been getting quite chilly here.
特に今日、風がすごく強かった．．．近頃別にどこへも行かなくて勉強しかしなかった。そのままでうんざりしていた私は、天気を気付かずに、行ったことがない中目黒に散歩して見ようと思った。
Today in paticular, it was extreemely windy…These days I haven’t really been going out anywhere and end up simply studying, so fed up with with the same-old I decided to go visit a place I’d never been before – Naka Meguro – without realising quite how hideous the weather had become.
I fell in like with Naka-Meguro. At first glance, it looks barren; dull, however there is so much life in the area, spaced out and hidden in the network of back streets.
一見したところつまらないような気がするんだが確かにみえるように体験しなけれべならない活気がある。
Reminded me of:
I found the giant Aquariam-in-the-Wall by Don Quixote (a chain store in Tokyo that sells a massive variety of things, practical and otherwise):
I found a Turkish restaurant with porthole windows, a small bar incorparated with a takeaway taco booth, a 3 storey cafe wrung in fairylights with outdoor seating, a bakery born in 1995, and got entranced by an amazing furniture/lifestyle store stocked withall the delightfully random things I-Wish-I-Could-Justify-Purchasing (case in point: felt bird chandeliars, knitted woolen wall clocks, eiffel tower lamps, fake classical book tissue boxes, butterflies on strings, a “samurai umbrella” and toadstool tables).
Since the end of exams, ironically, I am studying more than ever: working paticularly on vocab & listening – the weaker of my skills. It seemed wise to invest time in watching more telly (alas, the dorm’s TV is nigh constantly showing news programmes or political shows somewhat beyond my meagre grasp). The solution? Dramas and movies. (And books and newspapers, but more on that later.)
Whilst siphoning the available options, up came this diamond in the rough Hula Girls.
Based on a true story, HULA GIRLS is a heartwarming comedy about coal miners daughters who took a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape their monotonous lives, only to become unwitting heroes to their depressed mining town as well as the whole of Japan.
I was drawn to it, not only by the overall aesthetic of the film, but also by Yu Aoi, who plays one of the main characters.
Yu Aoi has to be one of my favourite Japanese actors; I haven’t seen that many films, but of those I have, she has starred in the good ones (All About Lily Chou-Chou and Honey & Clover). She has a different look than the typical “idol” you’d see here, all wide-eyed spider-lashed doll like replicas of each other, which I love. It’s no coincidence Yu Aoi is also heralded as one of the figureheads of the Mori Girls.
けさ下北沢駅で友達と会った。けさっと言ったんだが、本当は昼時ごろだった。下北沢に行ったことがないので、どうやって行くのは知らなかった．．．その結果、新宿に着いたとき迷ったようになちゃった。ちょっと遅くなっても、あまり大変じゃなかった。
祭りのために子供たちが仮面をかぶり、人々に豆を配った。その炒った大豆は福を受け取ると幸運に恵まれと言われている。そして、豆を撒きながら「鬼は～ソト！福は～ウチ！」っと言うことがあった。
So today me & some friends went to Shimokitazawa for the “Tengu Matsuri.”
Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests.
Tengu are commonly depicted holding magical hauchiwa (羽団扇), fans made of feathers. In folk tales, these fans sometimes have the ability to grow or shrink a person’s nose, but usually they are attributed the power to stir up great winds. Various other strange accessories may be associated with tengu, such as a type of tall, one-toothed geta sandal often called tengu-geta.
The parade was that of tengu-mask wearing children handing out roasted soybeans, which inevitably got thrown around while people yelled “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (Casting out demons and inviting luck into one’s home).
This special ritual is called mamemaki (豆撒き, lit. bean scattering).
Roasted soybeans (called Fuku mame) are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (鬼は外! 福は内!). The words roughly translate to “Demons out! Luck in!” The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them. Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat roasted soybeans, one for each year of one’s life, and in some areas, one for each year of one’s life plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come.
This man takes all that is wrong with the Lady Gagaism, internet celebrity fuelled era and makes the rest of us suffer for the promulation of the dumbass gaijin cliche. There’s no problem with being at different levels of profiency and trying; it’s when an obvious lack of sustained effort is combined with inflated self-importance that it gets more than a little jarring. It’s also a little bit funny that he doesn’t quite know what they are saying.
I guess a jackass is a jackass in any language.
Frequently, I am assumed to be American. I don’t have anything against “Americans” – that would be pointless, only irratation paired with grim acceptance that as a large land mass of English speaking people, in the game of numbers, gaijin are more likely to be American. However, my encounters post-nationality clarification often delve into a further frustrating scenario: Ignorance About Scotland.
Now I don’t claim to know much about Japanese geography, politics..nada. I am not good with maps on any level, seeming always somehow to get lost anyway. And yet, I am amazed by the level of general ignorance surrounding the UK. Point in case – almost every single Japanese person with whom I have divulged my Scottishness is under the assumption that Scotland “is England”.
Don’t ever let a Glaswegian hear you say that.
In class, when waxing lyrical about Edinburgh in an essay class (in Japanese), I mentioned my nationality as Scottish and used the word 国籍. The teacher picked me up on this, and probed as to whether “Scottish” was even a valid nationality, presuming that I had misunderstood the compound. To which I attempted to explain despite sharing in certain realms, England and Scotland are indeed seperate countries. We have our own parliament, laws seperate from the English system, our own education system, a National Health Service, even our own bank notes (which alas, are not “legal tender” in England if you want to be pedantic about it, though I am loathe to admit such).
For the sake of balance, another clip from TV showing 外国人 in a positive light;
I love that more “gaijin” got the quiz answers right than the young’uns they picked on!
Ah, to get the Level 2 on the JLPT…
Hello, 2010.
So that’s one decade over. Decade. Sounds ominous, so much time. At least we’re over the “Noughties” (my least favourite nickname-for-a-decade) – what are we now? I’m sure someone will come up with something suitably witty before the turn of 2020.
It’s also been a while since my last post – Oops. Here’s a quick update on what’s been up in the life chez moi.
Christmas Eve
- Had a “Secret Santa” present swapping with people from the dorm. Got the bestest SS pressie ever.
Isn't it adorable? It's a model of a Lomo Twin-Reflex Camera, I believe, which has been attached to my phone ever since!
Christmas Day
- Went ice-skating in Akasaka-Mistuke, in the outdoor skating rink with friends and friends-of-friends!
- Afterwards we trotted to a nearby izakaya, had some drinks, light nibbles accompanied by delightful conversation before heading off to Shibuya.
- Took Christmas purikura! In Shibuya. Hung out and then headed off home for a good night’s sleep (not before unwrapping some presents!)
New Year’s Eve’s Eve
- Visited a Cat Cafe with two friends from home – my first time! – in Ikebukuro. It was wierd at first. Being a completely alien enviroment, it was suprisingly easy to get used to once you forget this homely little “cafe” is tucked several stories up in the middle of an arcade center area. Unlimited drinks on tap, cats, and even a Nintendo Wii!
New Year’s Eve/Day!
- Despite having alternate, more wholesome, New Years Plans (namely, to go see the countdown @ Tokyo Tower) I was dragged izakaya’ing and then to a club, where hideous drunkeness happened and the most of the first day of 2010 was spent sleeping it off…
A couple of weekends ago, with some Edinburgh classmates, we checked out a most intruiging cafe in the heart of Shinjuku…
There was quite an Edinburgh feel...though note the ashtrays. Scotland's smoking ban anyone?
Certainly don't serve it like this in Edinburgh! The dedication to gorgeously detailed but diminuitive cutlery was interesting to say the least.
My friend standing outside "Edinburgh"!
Meet my two little friends I picked up in Ginza…
Who are they? A pair of stray Shisa I picked up at the Okinawan store. Shisa are the lion-type guardians of temples in Okinawa, almost always appearing in pairs.
They’re very excitable and curious, so here’s what they found…
Shutterbugs will know, Japan is THE place to go and pick up some new additions to their collections. Tokyo paticularly is teeming with camera stores old and new. So, keeping in mind to make the most of my favourable living location, bought two very lovely film cameras you wouldn’t expect to find in a month of Sundays back home.
Among the cheaper end of the film camera scale, left Fujifilm InstaMax Mini 7s Choco (if I recall correctly) & right Ikimono Flash (Harinezumi “Hedgehog” Model).
While the Ikimono works like the old style film cameras you can simply re-use, the Fujifilm is akin to polaroid: you take a photo and it comes out the top; give it a few seconds in warm hands or a pocket, and viola, you have a photo!
I’ve seen so many beautiful old cameras, Leica and real Polaroids (with film sold too! All kinds of film can be found preety easily, s’long as you know where to go)…alas these models will cost you upwards of 40,000 yen…
Here are some shots from the Fujifilm of Mita-Sai. Feels so long ago!
Couple of more shots. The book was a giant set-up right by the impressive gates, although playing with the settings I got quite an interesting effect!
Of course those cheeky two above or not the only shisa around…
That’s right! Aside from Totoro I also wrangled an adorable wee strap for the keitai (mobile)…
