beNippon Blog

Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:05:00 +0000

Hi all,
I'll be taking some vacation this month. I may try and get a couple posts in while I'm on vacation if I can. But, if not, I'll be back blogging later this month. Thanks for your support, and be sure to stop by beNippon for your otaku fix.

XD-A9800: Nice body!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:03:00 +0000

Today we're going to take a closer look at the overall design of the EX-word XD-A9800. As I've written previously, it is a marvelous device and if you're studying Japanese you'll definitely want to check this one out to see if it meets your requirements. Although I have not throughly checked out the competition, I can see why the EX-word has had such a long run at the top.

Overall Design:

The XD-A9800 has the usual hinged notebook design with screen and keyboard. For some reason like its predecessor, the XD-A9800 only comes in white. While the body itself is plastic, the back of the screen cover is metal, probably aluminum or magnesium. It feels very sturdy in hand, but you wouldn't want to try dropping it for fun. I would imagine that it would blend quite nicely ;-)

Casio has made the XD-A9800 slightly smaller than its predecessor, the 2009 XD-GF9800, managing to shave a few millimeters off the length and width, and 20 grams off the weight. However, due to the new AA batteries and new screen, the height has increased by over 1mm. In the real world, there shouldn't be too much difference in storage space, but you may have to get a new case if you're upgrading.

Model	Width (mm)	Length (mm)	Height (mm)	Weight (g)
XD-GF9800	154.0	110.0	15.5	320.0
XD-A9800	148.5	106.5	16.3	300.0

Let's take a look at some size comparisons. Unfortunately, we don't have an XD-GF9800 around, but I did have my iPhone handy and since most people are familiar with the size of the iPhone, I thought it would be a good reference. Here we have the top view. As you can see there is only a few centimeters difference in the width and length.

There aren't too many ports on the XD-A9800, but let's take a quick look. The right side contains the slot for the stylus and a microSD card:

The left side houses a standar 3.5mm headphone jack, switch to control speaker/headphone output, and a mini-USB connector:

Here's a shot of the battery bay. As you can see, it indeed takes two AA batteries allowing for an estimated 80 - 150 hours of usage time, estimations that have increased by 20 hours over the XD-GF9800.

Looking at the keyboard, the layout has not changed. You get a standard QWERTY keyboard with chicklet style keys. The keys are nice and big, and while people don't usually touch-type on a dictionary, you can certainly do so if you have small hands like me. Otherwise, thumb typing is easy.

On the right side is the circular navigation with the select (決定) button in the center, voice, and back. The touch input panel at the bottom changes depending on your dictionary selection. The left side holds the speaker and more controls: page up, down, history, jump, font-size, and history.

Located at the top of the keyboard are the dictionary shortcut keys. These allow you to quickly select different dictionaries on the fly. Particulary handy is the second button on the left (next to the circular power button). Press once, and you can search all dictionaries in English, press it again, and you can search all dictionaries in Japanese.

Design Hot:

While a lot of people find the white color too plain, I prefer it over say, black. Glossy black on electronic devices is just a fingerprint magnet, and I prefer not to see greasy fingerprints on my gadgets. The body is very sturdy and the hinge is nice and tight, without being too tight. Keyboards on denshijisho are pretty much the same across the board, which shows that they're pretty user friendly. I can imagine if you're a lefty you might not like the right side navigation.

Design Not:

Overall, I only have a couple complaints about the XD-A9800. First of all, the "feel" of the navigations arrows is a bit lacking. It feels kind of like squishing taffy, and I'd rather have a "sharper" tacktile press, like you get with the other buttons. Secondly, the battery bay cover feels very cheap. When you press on it, it makes a squeeking sound, some re-enforcement there would have been nice, and more in line with the solid feel of the body.

Conclusion:

Casio has managed to pack more into a smaller package. I'm especially happy that they chose to use AA batteries over the smaller AAA type. Giving up 1.2mm for 20+ hours of battery life is a worthwhile tradeoff in my opinion. The Casio EX-Word XD-A9800 and the whole 2010 EX-word line-up gets a huge thumbs up from me.

My only question to you readers, do you remove the stickers on your denshijisho? I'll be taking a look at the Blanview screen in a future post. Stay tuned.

Loco Moco x McDonalds

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:11:00 +0000

When you think of a Hawaiian burger, you'd probably imagine pineapple, maybe maybe some kind of mango chutney sauce if you're lucky. But that's not where McDonald's took their take on the Hawaiian burger. McDonald's chose to embrace a true local dish, the Loco Moco. So unlike the previous New York burger, the Hawaiian burger has true "Hawaiian" roots.

If you're not familiar with the Loco Moco, it's basically a breakfast food consisting of a bowl of rice, hamburger steak, brown gravy, and topped off with a fried egg. It's one of the best breakfast dishes on the planet (IMO), and I'd take it over Eggs Benedict in a heart beat.

This afternoon for lunch I found a sen-note in my wallet, so I headed down to the local McD's joint for to try this month's burger.

I was without coupon today, so I ended up paying the full price of ¥720 for the set meal. Today, instead of 爽健美茶 (tea) I opted to go for some Coke Zero. For some reason, I think they messed up my fries, 'cause the bottom was full of small pieces, somewhat disappointing. Anyway, on with the show:

As usual, the Hawaiian burger does not even come close to the glorious marketing photo. It's a 1/4 pound patty with bacon, lettuce, cheese, egg (a la the Egg McMuffin), brown gravy, and housed on a Parmesan cheese topped bun. The kicker here is that I found this burger quite tasty, and with the other Big America burgers, I felt that I'd tried them in some way, shape, or form. However, this Hawaiian burger was something I'd never tried before... Loco Moco on a bun, and it works, damn well. If I had one complaint, it would be the mess. They put the egg directly in contact with the bun, and with the gravy acting as lube, everything just slides all over the place. McD's food scientists should have placed melted cheese or something in-between to hold everything together.

If you get to try one burger in the Big America series, this is the one. They will probably get my ¥¥ again on this one.

XD-A9800: first boot.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:36:00 +0000

It's been a few days since I first got my new denshijisho, and I'm pretty much in Japanese language heaven. Looking up words is a breeze, and really fast too. In fact, it's such a cinch to look up words on the Casio EX-Word, studying is almost fun! Most evenings I've been leaving it on while watching TV, and punch in words I hear. For example, I've been trying to get the word yurai (由来) into my head, I heard it on TV this evening, looked up the meaning ('cause I forgot) in the Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionary and remembered it meant "derived" from, as in a name, in the show's context. Being able to look up words on the fly while watching TV adds more context to the words making them easier to remember.

Here's a look at some of pics I took on the first day. When you first turn it on, by just opening up the lid, you'll be greeted by this screen:

It's telling you to adjust the keyboard touch panel contrast. You do this by hitting the left and right arrow keys on the circular right hand side navigation. As you can probably guess, left is light (usuku/awaku): 淡く) and right is dark (koku: 濃く). After you get a comfortable contrast (the default setting will probably be fine), just hit the center button of the circular navigation marked, 決定 (kettei) to register the setting.

Next, you'll be shown the screen to set your battery type. The EX-Word now takes two AA batteries called tan-san (単３), instead of the previous two AAA batteries:

The top radio button is for alkaline, middle and bottom are for the eneloop® and EVOLTA branded rechargeables from Sanyo and Panasonic, respectively. Again, just hit the 決定 button after selecting. Since I'm using the stock batteries that came with the EX-Word, I just chose alkaline (default). Has anyone used those other rechargeables? I'll have to purchase a set someday.

しばらくお待ちください, after setting the battery, you'll get this screen. It says "shibaraku omachi kudasai," or "please wait." It's probably changing some settings for the battery.

The next screen is for User Registration. You can click yes (はい) or no (いいえ), I just chose no for the time being, 'cause I was excited to ~~play~~ study. Press the 決定 button. I've always wondered why there kanji isn't used for "hai" or "iie."

After all that tedium, you're greeted with the homescreen. Glorious, isn't it? Over 100 volumes of dictionaries and texts in the palm of your hand. I've only begun to search the various dictionaries, there's just too much information to go through in such a short time.

Get the absolutely amazing, Casio EX-Word XD-A9800 at beNippon. We're here to service all your Japanese language and otaku desires.

Unboxing the Casio Ex-Word XD-A9800.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:14:00 +0000

I walked into the office to find a nice black box sitting on my desk. My brand new Casio EX-word XD-A9800 had arrived earlier than I expected, but who's complaining. Somehow I was able to restrain myself from playing with it until I got home, so I could snap some photos. My kitties found it almost as interesting as I did, but they preferred the cardboard and plastic wrap.

If you haven't seen the box, here it is. Not too exciting.

Opening the box, you can see the nice tight packaging. Momo-chan takes dibs on the USB cable bag.

Here we have Nana-chan proudly displaying the product layout. There's just the essentials inside the box, everything to get you up and running: Casio EX-word, USB cable, ear phones, two alkaline AA batteries, and instruction manuals (Japanese). There is a convenient Quick Guide printed in English that explains the basics... but, who needs instructions anyway.

Nana-chan thought it would be a good idea to take a shot with the screen open, but she wouldn't get out of the frame. Hiding behind the box didn't work.

So my EX-word is in-house, and works fine. The white case is nice, fingerprints aren't as noticeable as the shiny black case. It's a lot smaller than I thought, which is a plus. Casio's Blanview® screen is great, very easy to read. I'll be excited to see how it looks outside. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some ~~playing~~ studying to do.

Order your EX-word XD-A9800 from beNippon, and have it at your home before the JLPT. Stay tuned for more.

Casio EX-Word on order!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In 1994, while on exchange in Tokyo everyone was buying Canon wordtanks, however I ended up with the Sharp Zaurus PI-3000. The Zaurus was more of a PDA than dedicated dictionary, but it did include Japanese, Japanese-English, and English-Japanese dictionaries. I was particularly drawn to the touchscreen interface, which included Sharp's excellent handwriting recognition software that worked incredibly well. Instead of having to look up radicals or search by stroke order like my wordtank owning friends, I could just write an unknown kanji in the input box, and it would usually pull up the correct one. After 14 years of ownership, I passed it on to a friend during the move.

Having restarted my Japanese studies after moving to Japan last year, my main dictionaries have been Eijiro on my iPhone and DS Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten on my DS lite. They work fine for my needs, but are slow. Eijiro for the iPhone loads up in a few seconds, but word entry is a pain, and with Rakubiki I might not have the game card with me when I need it. Even so, I haven't really felt the need to shell out for a dedicated denshijisho. However, after playing around with the new Ex-Words I'm hooked.

If you read my Casio Ex-Word report last week, you know that I was pretty excited with the new models. After a little consideration, I made the decision to pull the trigger. My XD-A9800 should be arriving in a few days, I can't wait! Stay tuned here and join me as I figure out how to work one of these things again.

Find the denshijisho that's right for you, at beNippon.

Barista's Choice Black

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:24:00 +0000

While canned coffee is a relatively new thing back home, in Japan all of the major drink manufacturers have their own line(s) of canned coffee. Coca Cola's Georgia brand seems to be most famous here, and I drink it every once in a while, but I can't say it's all that great.

At the train station the other day, I walked by an Ito En vending machine that happened to have it's collaboration with Tully's Coffee of Seattle: Barista's Choice Black. Since I hadn't had my morning coffee yet, I thought I'd try it.

Ito En advertises Barista's Choice Black as containing 100% Brazilian Arabica beans harvested at over 1200m, and roasted in Japan. I was pleasantly surprised to find the coffee to be quite good, compared to other canned coffee varieties I've tasted. I usually find canned coffee (black) is usually quite acidic, whereas Barista's Choice was not as acidic and there's a subtle sweetness that is found in fresh brewed coffee. Thumbs up on this one, I'll skip Starbucks or McDonald's at the station, and pick up a can of Barista's Black.

A 285mL can is 130 yen at the vending machines. It's 10 yen more than other varieties, but it's a larger can.

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:08:00 +0000

As Sunday comes to a close here, so does the lovely tradition of Valentine's Day here in Japan, and I'm currently suffering from chocolate overdose. See, in Japan, the men get all the luv on this holiday. Giri Choco (義理チョコ) as they call it, giri meaning "obligatory"is given to guys by the girls, such as co-workers or classmates. The lucky few will receive some tasty honmei choco (本命チョコ), which means "true," as in true love.

Small to large boxes of chocolates can be found at most stores selling for as low as 300 yen, and as high as... well, this is Japan... I wouldn't dare to guess. This year, with the economy in the gutter women are cutting back on giri choco spending and only giving chocolates to a lucky few. A lot more people are also venturing into home-made chocolate than in previous years, it would seem.

This year I made out pretty well, as you can see. Anyway, I must tend to my goodies, and not forget to brush my teeth this evening ;-) Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Oh, and for those of you who are upset at the chauvinism, next month has White Day where guys get to return the favor.

How to make a New Yorker laugh...

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:30:00 +0000

I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what about McDonald's New York burger is "New York." It's 606 kcal of beef, lettuce, tomato, bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, and a whole grain mustard sauce on a kaiser roll. Being a sucker for kikan-gentei (期間限定) items, I just had to try it.

With coupon, my set with medium sized fries and a medium drink came to 710 yen (720 yen is the regular price). Once again, the real thing is far different from the campaign pictures, which is to be expected.

The 1/4 pound burger is pretty massive compared to the rest of the burger, but the fixings are pretty much skimped on. I was impressed with the mustard sauce, which was quite good. There seemed to be some avocado flavor, although I couldn't tell for sure.

In the end, the verdict is the same as the Texas Burger. It's a great campaign, and the concept is interesting. However, when you factor in the price to taste, you're hard earned money is better spent at Mos Burger. And the New York label, what's up with that?

Next month's Hawaiian burger is going to be interesting however... I love me some Loco Moco!

Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:44:00 +0000

It's been over a month, and I still have yet to post any pictures from Hiroshima. The truth is, I have not yet gone through them :-( When shooting digital, you tend to go crazy, and when you're back from vacation, you have over a thousand pictures to sort through, delete, and organize. Wish me luck.

In the world of okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), there are two different variations: Kansai (Osaka) and Hiroshima styles. Up until recently, I've only tried the Kansai version which is meat and vegetables mixed up in a flour batter and fried on a hotplate like a pancake. While it's pretty tasty, I've never been a huge fan.

Osaka-style Okonomiyaki by SpiceMan

Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is quite different than Osaka's in that it's made in stages. First, two layers of batter is ladled onto the griddle (teppan: 鉄板), spread out as thin as a crepe. After they're cooked, next comes the noodles (soba or udon) and a healthy heap of shredded cabbage. After that, your "toppings" are added on top. In Hiroshima, toppings can be the usual sliced beef, pork, shrimp, etc, but you should be sure to get the local oysters. Once the toppings are in place, the second "crepe" is added to the top then pressed and pressed until the cabbage is cooked down and it's pretty much flat. Finally, the whole thing is flipped over on top of a couple eggs. The dish is finished with Otafuku Sauce (オタフク・ソース) and there's NO MAYONNAISE like in Osaka.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennerosity/ / CC BY 2.0

In the end, they place the okonomiyaki right on the griddle in front of you, and you just eat it right there with a small spatula (kote: こて), cutting off bite sized chunks.

While I find Kansai-style a bit heavy, Hiroshima's combination of ingredients is perfection. During our stay in Hiroshima we ate okonomiyaki everyday, and I never grew tired of it. If you end up in Hiroshima just head over to Okonomi Village (Okonomi-Mura: お好み村) and join in on the action, any shop... you can't go wrong. But, if in doubt where to go, just look for the longest line.

First day of Spring.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:02:00 +0000

You may have read around the Japanese blogging internets, that yesterday was Setsubun, a time for throwing beans at the Oni and eatting some ehou-maki (恵方巻き).

Well, today is the first day of the Spring that isn't quite here yet. The Hokuriku region was hit with a huge cold front, like the one that blanketed Tokyo with snow last week. For the past two days, we've been getting snow in Kanazawa and it'll continue into tomorrow.

This was the scene on one of the busy streets this evening:

Here's a picture of the sprinkler systems that line the streets here. You won't see these in Tokyo ;-)

This little guy is located outside my house, and is only spraying a little bit. They're called yuusetsu souchi (融雪装置), and spray warm water on the roads to melt the snow. The water is funneled from the local ground water system, and really does a good job keeping the roads ice free. The only drawback is for pedestrians, because the water and slush accumulate along the sides of the roads creating huge sprays of water when cars drive by.

See how the roads are nice an clear? Getting lots of snow is great, I just wish I had more time to enjoy it. Going on a photo walk would be nice, just need to watch for big puddles of water.

Ex-Word, is it time?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:56:00 +0000

Starting late last month, Casio began releasing a slew of new electronic dictionaries (電子辞書) on the market. While electronic dictionaries have been pretty much reiterations of the same ol' stuff, Casio has sparked my interest. I'm not so much interested in the basic dictionaries as I am in the new technology being utilized.

First of all, is the new screen dubbed Blanview® introduced in 2008. Reading up on this new screen brought up comments from Engadget on how bad the naming was. I think it's quite lingocentric to dismiss brand naming based on other languages as aweful. Blan, coming from the French word for white, blanc, and pronounced without the 'k-sound', completely sums up the screen. It's pure white, not the usual grey LCD! I certainly do think the name sounds better than Whiteview or Shiroview.

Aside from being a color backlit screen, this new technology makes the screen easier to view indoors and out, while at the same time reducing energy consumption (33-50%). This means you'll be able to learn more, outside of the library! Casio is touting the following main features on its corporate site:

Excellent visibility both in low indoor light and bright sunlight.
Power-saving LCD module reduces the energy consumption of the backlight to approximately half of the power required by conventional models.
Display color achieves "whiteness," improving visibility in a variety of environments.

Looking at the estimated battery life of the previous versions they range between 45 and 130 hours on 2 AAA batteries. However the new 2010 models range between 65 and 150 hours on 2 AA's. With a color screen and a change in battery size, getting more usage time will be nice.

The other main feature I'm interested in is the unsynthesized pronunciation dubbed: True Voice. While this was a feature of the Canon Wordtank and a couple Ex-Word models last year, in the 2010 line-up 10 models feature about 70,000 words pronounced by real voices, in high quality low noise digital audio:

NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary (69,000 words)
Koujien - 6th Ed. (60,000 words)
Meikyo Japanese Dictionary (47,000 words)

The dictionaries vary depending on the model, but most of them carry the NHK dictionary. Use caution however, because even though some of the models like the Medical dictionaries carry the NHK Accent Dictionary, it does not have the voice component.

Here is a listing of the new XD models that do feature True Voice for Japanese (~70,000 words):

Casio has finally peaked my interest in denshijisho. I just need to decide which one to buy. Do any of your readers own one? Would you consider upgrading?

Summer's in the air.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:32:00 +0000

Arriving in the office yesterday was a pleasant surprise. I was greeted by our shipment of Masane Amaha (Witchblade), in all her 1/7 glory. For some unknown reason, I felt thirsty... very thirsty. In the middle of a cold rainy winter, she brings a welcome ray of hope for a lovely summer.

Sitting next to Masane was Mio Akiyama (1/8, Movic) from the venerable K-ON! series. It looks like she's got some nice absolute territory going on.

Both figures are now in stock, and ready to order.Get yours before they're gone.

ピタゴラスイッチ！

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:21:00 +0000

While starring at my computer yesterday, the TV was tuned to NHK for some reason. I heard some familiar whistling tune, and looked up to find one of my favorite programs PythagoraSwitch. I'm sure you've all seen that famous Honda commercial titled "The Cog" that was shown in the UK, and then spread across the internet, so if you think that's cool, you'll certainly enjoy the short "Rube Goldberg" machine segments like the ones below:

Pitagora Suichi
by Maruk4

If you'd like to see more, denizens of J-land have uploaded vids to all the normal places. Wikipedia has some nice links and more info too.

NHK gold.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:08:00 +0000

Are you looking for quality video content on the interwebs suitable for the whole family? You can thank NHK, aka Japan Broadcasting Corporation, because they've created a virtual goldmine of quality content from their video library. This morning while reading this blog (Japanese), I came across a post about NHK's Creative Library, and spent the rest of the morning browsing it.

While NHK's Creative Library content is not shared under the Creative Commons licenses, their copyright rules very much mimic Creative Commons'. I have not read through the whole agreement yet, but basically you're allowed to download, copy, and share with friends or via the web through homepages, blogs, etc. Video is downloadable in MPEG4 (*.mp4) format at 640x360 resolution. Yay, widescreen. Boo, no high-res!

While the page is entirely in Japanese, navigation can be done using the neato icons:

(Click on the image for a readable image) Starting from the top we have:

Living Things (land animals, aquatic animals, airborne animals, plants/fungi, and insects
Scenes of Japan (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Japan towns/living)
Scenes of the World (Asia, Europe, North America, Central/South America, Africa, Oceania, the Poles)
CG/Special Effects/Images (environmental problems, natural phenomena, space/heavenly bodies, natural environment)
Transportation (land, aquatic, sky transportation)
Colors (red, blue, green, white, black)
Music, Sound Effects (music, sound effects)

Most interesting to me is the color concept. If you chose blue for example, you get different videos of water, sky, dusk or early morning, etc... it's pretty interesting. If you like quality source video, NHK provides some of the best. They're not high-res but they're free to view and share. Yet another way to travel the world from your desk.

I'm sure some innovative ~~hackers~~ programmers out there will come up with some great applications for these videos. I wouldn't mind having a these videos randomly streamed to a media interface like XBMC or something to act as a screensaver. That would be pretty sweet. Enjoy!

Texas Burger??

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:48:00 +0000

In the latest food news, McDonald's Japan has started their Big America burger series. First up is the Texas burger with fried onions, bacon, a large beef patty, bbq sauce, and a spicy-mustard relish.

I tried it last week, but was a little disappointed with the value ratio. Based on the commercials I expecting:

But got:

At a price of 710 yen for the value set (with coupon). We're getting into Mos Burger territory, and at Mos Burger, your burgers do look like the beautiful marketing images.

Still the flavor was quite decent, and I was full afterwards. Granted, I'm not a big eater anymore. If you're in J-land, you should give it a try, and stay tuned for the next one: New York!

Back into Manga.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:29:00 +0000

I believe I've written about this before, but the first manga that I started reading was Dragonball. Luckily a friend had the entire series, so I'd end up borrowing several tankobon a week, and it became part of my Japanese reading practice. Although, the dialog was quite simple, I was able to learn quite a few words: 突撃だ～！was one of my favorites. Thinking back, it was actually a really great way to learn the language:

It was fun.
It was an interesting topic for me.
The words were repetitious.

That final point is the most important in remembering vocabulary. Not only was the context usually clear, but the main words would occur in cycles, kinda like the spaced-repetition learning systems that are all the rage today.

Anyway, after Dragonball (or maybe it was during a break from DB), I read Video Girl Ai, Yaiba, Detective Conan, and Lemon Heart, among others. As most people now realize, there are manga on every subject and interest imaginable, which makes manga (in Japanese) a great supplement for learning the language.

After a hiatus of about 10 years from manga, thanks to working here at beNippon, my interest has come back. First I started reading Yotsuba&! up to volume 6, with vol. 9 out, I need to pick up the latest three. My most recent acquisitions have been several of the Bamboo Blade series. I read volume 1, finished volume 2 yesterday, and I'll be starting on 3 today.

I became interested in this series when I first came across this Tamaki Kawazoe (sold out) figure sitting on our shelves. Then after watching this video on YouTube, I was hooked.

I'm pretty much a sucker for this type of story: a quiet, weak looking person is really powerful, and just kicks ass. Add martial arts, crazy characters, and some humor, and you get a pretty entertaining manga, IMO. In a nutshell, Bamboo Blade is the story of one messed up teacher/kendo coach trying to get his kendo club to beat his sempai's girls' kendo team to win a year's worth of sushi, hilarity ensues.

From a Japanese learner's standpoint, the dialog is not very difficult if you're familiar with daily conversation, but provides enough of a challenge that you'll actually find yourself learning something. Do you have any manga recommendations? I'd love to hear them, so please leave a comment below.

83rd Kasou Taishou

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:57:00 +0000

One thing I always look forward to around the turn of the year is the show Kasou Taishou (欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞), currently hosted by Kinichi Hagimoto and Shingo Katori. Kasou (仮装) means costume and taishou (大賞) is the grand prize. Even if you don't know the title of the show, most peeps on the internets are sure to have seen the Matrix Ping-Pong vid on the YouTubes:

The 83rd edition of the bi-annual show aired on Sunday evening here in J-land. For some reason, there seemed to be quite a few kids this year, possibly more than in previous years. While all of the performances were cute, fun, and for the most part solid, I did not see anything truly outstanding as in years past. I think the judges were in agreement as well, and it showed in their scores. Only two contestants failed to pass, and there was only one perfect score (20 points), for Surfing (サーフィン):

This large group of kids managed to pull the top prize of ¥1,000,000 (a couple bones less than $11,000 US). They said they'd use the prize money to buy an air conditioner for their dance studio.

For those of you who watched, did you have any favorite performances? Aside from Surfing, the Ping Pong Racket was probably my favorite, second would be the Alice in Wonderland one. You can check out most of the performances here.

Back to work, foo!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:21:00 +0000

Ｕターンラッシュ、きょうも続く
日テレNEWS24

New Year's in Japan is a time most celebrate with family. For this reason, the time around New Year's (nen-matsu nen-shi, 年末年始) are some of the busiest of the year. As the majority of the population center around cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, at the end of the year they head back to their hometowns in the "country" (furusato, ふるさと) to visit parents and relatives.

The "U" comes into play, when they all "turn around" and return to the city, hence U-Turn Rush (written: Uターンラッシュ in katakana). Basically, all methods of transportation become hell-on-earth from the traffic on the highways to the floods of people at the airport. When traveling on the Shinkansen (新幹線), all of the reserved seats fill up (even the first class Green Car seats) and you'll find people standing in-between cars and in the aisles of the non-reserved cars.

I've never been one to travel during peek season, so I've always been able to avoid the mess. Even this year, I made sure we were back home early to avoid the rush. Arriving back in Kanazawa on a rapid train, we were the only people left in our car.

Hopefully, your New Year's was as good as mine. Now, it's back to work!

Akemashite Omedeto!

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:00:00 +0000

明けましておめでとうございます

今年も宜しくお願いします

from beNippon

This is the common greeting in the new year, and reads:

"akemashite omedeto gozaimasu"

"kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu"

Or if you're a ギャル (gyaru), maybe you'd say: akeome, kotoyoro.

I'm in Hiroshima right now, drinking some champagne at the moment. Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Kyoto for some New Year's festivities. When I get back into the office, I'll be sure to share some of the photo love.

Hope everyone is having a festive and safe New Year. Happy 2010!!

It's almost time...

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:34:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshades/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Well gang, in a few hours the beNippon team will be starting our Christmas+New Year's holiday. The team is hard at work making sure everyone gets their Black Rock Shooter figures as soon as the post office can deliver them.

We will be at your service again starting January 4th, so you can put your otoshidama to good use. As the beNippon blog had its first birthday this month, I'd like to thank all the readers for putting up with my silliness, and I hope some of you have found some entertaining or redeeming qualities by keeping us in your RSS reader. Please do leave comments if there's anything you're interested in reading about.

In the meanwhile, enjoy a glass of egg nogg for me. Cheers!

Taisho??

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:55:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mackro/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

According to recent news from Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance, the baby name rankings for 2009 are in. For boys, the most popular name in 2009 was "大翔" while for girls it was "陽菜". Normally, the names would not be much of an issue, however with the kanji being used, most adults cannot read them.

Let's take a closer look at these names, first up: 大翔. This name starts with 大 (oo, dai) meaning big. The second kanji is 翔 (shou, kakeru, tobu) meaning to soar or fly. Together these kanji can be read as 2009's most popular name for boys: Haruto. From this kanji compound, the meaning can be conveyed as, "one who soars high in the heavens." (大空高く翔るような活躍). For girls, 陽菜 comes from the kanji: 陽 (you, hi) meaning sunshine, and 菜 (sai, na) meaning vegetable greens or leaves. Together they are transformed into Yuna, meaning "one who grows cheerful and carefree." (明るくのびのびとした成長).

With the world economy in shambles, new parents want to bestow names that convey happiness and a bright future. At the same time, I feel they want to make their children unique by using kanji readings that are not normal, which possibly shows the rebelious side of today's generation.

If you've studied Japanese for a while, you've probably created a Japanese name for yourself. Maybe it was a real name or produced using ateji, using the kanji sounds to create meaning for your name. What kanji did you choose?

Otoshidama Deflation?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:45:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iandeth/ / CC BY 2.0

While Christmas is becoming more popular in Japan, it's not usually customary for family members to exchange gifts. Don't worry though, Japanese kids are not left out of the holiday gift spirit in the least. Enter the otoshidama. During the New Year's celebrations parents, relatives, and friends stuff cold hard cash into small envelopes and present them to the children, usually upwards of 20-years of age. For some lucky ones, the tradition continues into adulthood.

With the recent economic climate, you'd expect that the amount of this year's monetary gifts would be reduced. Surprisingly, according to a recent online survey by SBI Net Bank, this is not the case. Let's check out the headline as published on Yahoo! Japan (12/14/2009):

お年玉はデフレ知らず？「減らない」9割、平均総額1万８０００円

Otoshidama wa defure shirazu? "Heranai" 9-wari, heikin sougaku 1 man 8000 en.

Here's a little bit of vocabulary:

お年玉 (おとしだま, otoshidama) - monitary gifts given during New Year's
デフレ (defure) - (economic) deflation
知らず (shirazu) - not being affected
減る (へる, heru) - to decrease
割 (わり, wari) - a percentage based on 10, 9割 = 90%
平均総額 (へいきん・そうがく, heikin sougaku) - average total amount

Basically this headline can be directly translated as, "Otoshidama knows no deflation? 90% "no decrease," average total amount 18,000 yen." If we expand this headline, it would be more like: "Next year's otoshidama (gifts) will not be affected by deflation. 90% surveyed stated, 'no decrease in amount,' with the average total gift amount being 18,000 yen."

The article goes on to describe SBI's survey in more detail. Some of the more interesting figures are that while 69% stated no decrease in the amount that will be given, 21% stated that the otoshidama amount they will give will increase. 63% of those people cited a rise in age of the recipients as the reason for the increase. On average, those surveyed give otoshidama to 3.66 children and shell out a total of 17,999 yen.

Giving otoshidama is one of the great New Year's traditions in Japan, and while everything from jeans to bento lunches are experiencing major price deflation, it's nice to know that for at least some lucky kids, their otoshidama will not suffer in this depressed economy.

beNippon on YouTube.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? We know that when you're shopping on the internets, you don't get the touchy-feely-ness of the brick-and-mortar stores. We've attempted to give our customers more product information than just photos via YouTube. You can view and subscribe to our channel here.

This is one of my favorite vids at the moment.

You can also view our videos on the product pages.

Ghibli for Yomiuri Shimbun

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:20:00 +0000

I've been seeing this commerical on TV quite often recently. Only yesterday, did I realize it was created by Studio Ghibli. They really are branching out into lots of different ventures: commericals, movies, tv, video games...

This commercial is for publishing giant Yomiuri Shimbun, which supposedly has the largest circulation in the world, and is the owner of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, among other things.

What do you think? It's not quite the Ghibli I'm used to, but I'm sure they have a variety of young directors nowadays.