In the news/ Yamanote Line Accident:

The Yamanote line is one of Japan's busiest railway lines. Consisting of 29 stations circling Tokyo, it is used to connect most commuters to both Major and Urban areas of the City.

I have to admit I am personally a fan of Rail lines/Trains etc, especially those Japanese ones.

Although, it's not that I am really a fan, I just love the look of the Japanese trains, and if they had a Japanese train line on any simulator I would play it..

Here's your average train running on the Yamanote Line:

There's something very stylish about these trains, well I think so anyway. I will probably do a post about Japanese Trains at one point, just because their system is amazing.

However this post is slightly less upbeat unfortunatly.


A couple of days ago the words "Jinshin Jiko" echoed around all stations on the Yamanote Line.

Jinshin Jiko literally means "Human Body Accident".

Of course accidents happen all the time, but unfortunately as this is Japan (and the suicide rate is relatively high there) I would assume this is more of a suicide than an accident.

The area of glass that is smashed seems to be just the right height of that of someone who would have jumped a bit.

All thoughts will undoubtedly go out to the mans family (if he had family) but more so I think to the driver. Who came to work the same as he did everyday, but went home to a life that will never be the same again. It's a horrible thing from all angles.

Eye witnesses of the event, took to twitter to post some pictures from the station:

The train lines were up and running again pretty fast as Authorities rushed to remove any evidence of the "Accident" and return the trains to normal service. However after doing a bit of reading online apparently one twitter user stated that "as much as all the evidence is removed, the rush of air pulling into the station brings with it a scent of blood".

It's a real shame, not only that this incident occurred but the sheer number of times it occurs in Japan. It seems that people have become numb to the words Jinshin Jiko. Although the sight of the accident will most likely remain horrific, the words seem to no longer have effect on people.

The reactions started out as tweets expressing the fact that there will be delays on the JR (Japan Railway) line, although once the news about what happened spread the tweets soon change to that of Horror. It just shows that the words alone were not enough.

It's a terrible accident and hopefully theres not too many blog posts like this.

However it's in the news and it deserves to be shared.



@TurnChapanese

facebook.com/TurningChapanese


Enjoy your weekend, and be careful.

Dan

Cultural Note: Sumo Wrestling

Today I thought I'd write a little post about Sumo Wrestling.
Before writing this post I knew absolutely nothing about Sumo, however I have done some researching and as per usual I will write my understanding and you will (hopefully) enjoy it and share it on (hint hint; share it on..)

 

 

 

Before we start an interesting fact, Wrestler in Japanese is "Rikishi"

That might cause a light bulb to go off with a few folk. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interesting looking guy above is your stereotypical Sumo Wrestler. Sumo wrestlers (would you believe) live a very regimented life, they require a very strict diet and even worse living conditions.

 

I say living conditions loosely, what I mean by that is how they are expected to live, not necessarily the conditions in which they live.. (It's all a bit confusing right now, but bare with me - I'll explain)

 

 

 

Your typical Sumo would start training at 5am every morning and train for around 2/3 hours. Training would consist of many different exercises and spars (I assume - but I have no plans on becoming a sumo wrestler so I didn't really research how they train)

 

By the time 8am rolls around (rolls, ha, no pun intended)..

 

Anyway, by the time 8am rolls around the sumo wrestlers are ready to prepare what is known as Chanko. Chanko is the name given to the foods eaten by Sumo Wrestlers.

 

Here is an example of Chanko;

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks pretty appetizing right?

 

 

Consider this, Chanko is usually made up of;

 

Chicken, fish, Beef, Noodles, Rice, Vegetables and a soup broth.

 

Still not too bad, I agree, however that one bowl you see up there is actually enough to feed two people (roughly, it's a pretty big bowl)

 

A sumo wrestler would never have just one bowl of that, they would be eating in stupidly large quantities and any left over (which I doubt happens much) will be used as a broth to make more the next day.

 

So, you think it sounds nice, Imagine eating 3/4 bowls of that for breakfast..

 

 

After that I'm guessing the sumo doesn't really do that much, who would?

 

So the next part of Sumo Wrestling -

To our right we can see what is called a "Dohyo"
You should be able to pronounce that if you
read the last post "Hirigana Lesson" ;)



So the dohyo is... a ring.


A ring made from rice straw bales.. I just get the feeling that there is a little too much rice in japan..
But hey, they work with it, and my god it works well. (That'll be talked about more when I discuss food at a later date)

Anyway I've gone off track the dohyo ring is made from rice straw bales and is roughly 5m in diameter.
Usually mounted on a base platform of clay, then covered in sand.

Inside the ring are two white lines, these are called Shikiri-Sen. I believe they are just used to determine the wrestlers starting positions.

Around the outside of the ring is very very fine sand refered to as Snakes eye (ja-no-me). As the sand is so fine it allows the referee to determine whether a wrestler has placed any part of his body outside the ring.


Which leads me on to how it is played.. (is played the right word to use? who knows..)


The idea of Sumo is very simple (as with every sport there are 100's of different rules that I suppose you pick up the more you watch/partake)

You start in your starting positions, which you know are behind the Shikiri-Sen.
The aim is to do one of two things;

Either force your opponent to touch the ground with any part of their body other than the souls of their feet
Or to force your opponent to step out of the ring.

That's it, that's how you partake in sumo.

Of course there is so much more to it, but as far as actually playing a match (again that doesn't sound right, can you play a match of sumo?) It's very simple.

Matches often last only a few seconds, but are then followed by Ritual Ceremonies and the likes.






I have included a video below of some Sumo Wrestling highlights I found on YouTube.


Enjoy it, and I hope you feel you have learned something today. I certainly have.

As always you can follow us on twitter @TurnChapanese

And guess what, you can now find us on facebook - www.facebook.com/turningchapanese

So share this blog around, we are slowly growing together but we have a long way to go before we're as big as the guys below.

Until Next time..

Hirigana Lesson: Very Basics

Okay, so I'm going to attempt to teach you some basic Hirigana. (if you want information on the Japanese Language, then please read my previous Cultural Note post)

If you have read it already, then great I will get started.

There is a great trick I have noticed since learning Hirigana - Almost everything sounds the same.
Well it sounds completley different, but if you can learn the 5 basic Vowels then almost every japanese phonic after that includes a Vowel. Once we get started you will know what I mean.

The first phonics to learn when learning Hirigana are the 5 vowels I mentioned above.
These are the same as in english - A E I O U

Let's get started - I will set it out like this from now on:

Japanese Hirigana / Romanji Letter/ Pronounciation




あ  / A / Like you would pronounce the A in fAther







え / E / Like you pronounce the e in bEar. Like saying the word there quick. A Very Short "Eh" sound.

い / I / Like you would pronounce the ey in kEY or the e in Cheese











お / O / Like you would pronounce the o in cOugh or pOt











う / U / like you would pronounce the u in jUpiter.


Sorry, I did have pictures for the characters, then blogger decided to not show them, so I had to make do.







So they are the 5 main vowels and how to pronounce them. There are hundreds of youtube videos telling you how to pronounce the vowels if my words are not clear.

Now you will start to see what I mean:

Hirigana is segmented into what I call Series'. The above syllables are the A series. Next in line is the K Series which consists of;

Ka / か
Ke / け
Ki / き
Ko / こ
Ku / く

All pronounced exactly like the vowels were, but with the addition of a K at the beginning.
There is a Hirigana Chart below to check how the rest of the Syllabary looks. For now I will write the series and the hiragana from my iPhone.

The S series (this includes an exception to my trick)

Sa / さ
Shi / し
Su / す
Se / せ
So / そ

The T series (another exception)

Ta / た
Chi / ち
Tsu / つ
Te / て
To / と

The N Series

Na / な
Ni / に
Nu / ぬ
Ne / ね
No / の

The H series (which had the exception of Hu/Fu - it can be pronounced both ways)

Ha / は
Hi / ひ
Hu/fu / ふ
He / へ
Ho / ほ

The M Series

Ma / ま
Mi / み
Mu / む
Me / め
Mo / も

The R series (which is pronounced by placing your tongue in between where you would for a D and an L sound)

Ra / ら
Ri / り
Ru / る
Re / れ
Ro / ろ

There is a couple other hirigana characters. Three Y's - Ya Yu Yo (やゆよ)
The N - ん
Two W's - Wa Wo (わを)

They are something to look into further at a later date.
For now read over the series and get a little understanding of it.
I would recommend (if you have an iPhone) to go into your settings and add a Japanese keyboard to it.
That can be done by going to Settings > General > International > keyboard.

This is what it will look like..

From left to right you have the A series then the K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, emoticons, w and N and finally all punctuation marks.

With this try making some simple words using the hirigana above and your iPhone keypad.

Start with these words and then try to find your own; [almost all of these words will have a kanji but ignore that for now)

I will start of by combining the characters Su + Shi;

Sushi - すし

Katsu (A form of Japanese curry) -

Sake -

And if you want to be really adventurous..

Konnichiwa -

(That last one is pretty difficult so if you think you have it/ want clarification/ or just want the answer then give me a shout on twitter)

There is a lot more to discuss, a serious amount more. But this is at most the very very basics and a good starting point.

Here is the Hirigana Chart:

Once again I can't thank you enough for reading. I know there was a lot of information in that post, I really can't stress how little is actually there.
I hope it helps in some way or another.

I understand my writing style and teaching methods are a bit wild and scattered. So excuse me for that.

As I said above, if you want to get me on twitter then follow @turnchapanese

Please also share this blog around. It's building slowly. I'll keep putting the effort in as long as you put the time in to read it.

Thanks again guys.

Dan

Cultural Note: Japanese Language

This week I started Language lessons with a Japanese Tutor. There was a lot to take in, a lot of new stuff but also a lot of very interesting stuff.


If you're thinking of learning a language (Japanese or otherwise) I wouldn't recommend a tutor. My lesson was really fun, really interesting and I will carry it on, but to be honest all the information they teach (and more) is on the internet for free.
However I spent time on the internet, I learnt to read the Hirigana and Katakana Syllabary myself, I then went to a tutor to practice pronunciation and I find I learn best when there is someone in front of me to answer any of my usually ridiculous questions.
There is of course Pro's and Con's to having a tutor and to learning on the internet. I would recommend Tofugu as a great starting place online (Also I must add, if you have an Iphone/Ipad then the "Human Japanese" app is amazing, one of the best purchases I've ever made. It seems expensive, £6 on iphone and £10 on ipad but believe me it's more than worth it)

Of course the decision is yours.

Anyway, that links in nicely with today's cultural note. As I had my first tutor lesson this week, I thought I'd talk about the Japanese Language.

Something very interesting about Japanese language is that, to this day, it's still unclear of where it actually originated from. 3rd Century Chinese Documents contain some Japanese words, but large amounts were not recorded until much much later.

As far as I am aware the first authenticated form of Japanese writing came around the 8th Century, conveniently tilted "Old Japanese". This "Old Japanese" came in the form of a document named the Kojiki which consisted of a selection of myths regarding the main islands of Japan (apparently).

Old Japanese soon found it's way to "Late Middle Japanese" (all very easy to remember). Late middle Japanese must of been terribly confusing for the people of Japan, especially those older generations. Why I hear you ask? (If you didn't ask why, then I shall give you space to do so now..)




Why I hear you ask? well because late middle Japanese saw the introduction of European words (Tobako - tobacco etc). A lot more happened in Late middle Japanese, if you are interested do some research on Google, if not you are more than welcome to ask me.

More importantly I wanted to talk about Modern Japanese. Again there is a lot of information that I could talk about, but it will probably bore most people so I won't (and again if you want the information just ask me or ask Google).

So, present day Japanese consist of 4 "alphabets" known as Syllabary. The 1st one is Romanji, which is Roman letters. If you don't know Roman letters, then you're wasting your time reading this as everything I've written has been in Roman letters. In Japanese they're pretty useless though, so don't panic.



The second and quite possibly most important Japanese Syllabary is Hirigana. Hirigana is used to write Native Japanese words (when there isn't a Kanji - which will be discussed). This seems to be the first syllabary learned by both Japanese students and those learning Japanese.
 If you have a good understand of Hirigana then you can start to really open up your Japanese learning.
I am more than happy to teach anyone Hirigana, as I have a relatively good comprehension of it now.



I will write a new post tomorrow which contains much more information on Hirigana and Katakana, and will also be a good start for you to learn.

Okay so next is Katakana.
 Katakana is used to write "borrowed" words.
More appropriately called Foreign or European words (like Tobako, Pan, Glass etc etc).








And last but by NO means least is Kanji.
 Kanji is probably the hardest to learn (hence why I haven't yet).
There is way over 1000 Kanji to memorize, some Kanji have more than one meaning as well, which makes it very very hard.

Essentially it is the borrowed Chinese writing system, used for Japanese words.

As I said a million times over, there is a lot more information, I don't want to bore anyone but you are more than welcome to ask me for any information you want. I have just provided brief notes for you to read.

I will write about Hirigana and Katakana tomorrow, which I hope to provide a learning tool with.
Apologise if this post feels rushed or slightly boring, it's a little later than I usually write and I am slightly tired, which means I tend to waffle.

I hope you have enjoyed my brief lesson on the Japanese Language system, you probably havent learned anything, but there is always another day. Hopefully that day is tomorrow when you come back and read my Hirigana and Katakana Lesson.

Be sure to follow us on twitter - @TurnChapanese
I appreciate any help in promoting this post. There is links to share this page on facebook and twitter, so I hope people use them.

I also hope this post makes some form of sense.

Thanks again

Dan

This is news?:

As you know, I have been adding new sections to the blog. So far it has only been Cultural Notes. 

Today we see the introduction of "This is news?"

 I personally love the idea of this;

In it's basic form, it's just news from across Asia that made me think 'this is news?' 

or just made me laugh, but in it's more complex form it's news from across Asia that... 

Na' it just made me laugh.

So here goes the first post for This is news..

A Japanese company named Seiren has released a pair of pants. .

You can imagine my surprise when I realised this made the news, then I read further into it. 

These pants are genius!

Have you ever been in a situation where you  need to "let off some gas" but really can't. You know; on a date or in a really important meeting.

 Well Seiren have you covered!!  these pants are Odour Eliminators.

They work via "Odour absorbing ceramic particles in the material fibre"

I know, none of us actually understand that, but they stop your farts from smelling, so hey, what more do you need to know?

Originally they were designed for nursing care and hospitals but apparently your average Japanese businessmen decided they were a good idea (which they are) and started buying them.

Now available for men (in grey) and woman (in pink) these pants could save you from a lot of embarrassing moments. 

Brilliant.

Now, if you thought that was good, wait until you see this;

This is number 2 for today's blog post (pun intended) 

The image you see above you is South Korea's newest theme park, dedicated to the humble toilet.

Yup, it's real.

Located in the city of suwon - known for being the home of Samsung - the theme park has replaced what used to be the home of Sim Jae-duck (he happens to be the founder and first president of the world toilet association - bet you didn't know that existed either)

Now I know what you're probably not thinking, "I bet it's only good from a birds eye view". Luckily for you I put that thought in your head, and I can tell you that you;re wrong.

If you ever took a walk into the park you would be greeted by the lovely bronze statues below, of people that seem be "Mid Squeeze".

All laughing aside, deep down this actually has a relatively good meaning behind it. 

Jim Sae-Duck who I believe was dubbed "Mr Toilet" lived in a time of poor living conditions in South Korea. 

He founded the organisation to promote the benefits of hygienic toilets. Since then Korea has had a pretty rapid economic growth and the hygiene of their toilets has greatly increased.

Thank you Mr toilet.

A bit more to laugh at though, the city of Suwon plan on building a "Toilet Culture Centre" next to the park.

Amazing.

So if you plan on taking a trip to South Korea any time soon, then make sure you visit the Toilet theme park.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the blog today. I certainly enjoyed the research for it.

Again, I can't stress enough how much help I need promoting this blog. I really want to be up there with the best. I realise I have a lot to learn, and a long way to go but I'm in it for the long haul. I hope you are too. 

If you liked the blog, there is a share button to post it to facebook, twitter etc. 

I really appreciate anyone doing that.

If you would like to follow us on twitter @TurnChapanese 

Thanks again, Dan

Cultural Note: Ninja (Japan)

So I was thinking, the blog will start to get stupidly boring if I only document my life. I don't want that to happen at all. My plan is to start adding other features into the blog. Here's what;

Anything entitled "My day/Week" Etc - will quite clearly be, well, my day or week.
"Cultural Notes" will be a post about a certain aspect of Asian culture, whether it be Chinese,Japanese, Korean or any other part of Asia that has taken my fancy throughout the week.

If you haven't already guessed, my post today will be about, what I believe to be, one of the greatest things in the world - Ninja.


Here's what I've learnt so far;

There seem to be two predominant theories as to why Ninja's exist. I shall explain both of them in my way (My way usual consists of talking in circles, an overuse of punctuation and a sentence structure that makes no sense, so bare with me)

The first theory I read about is that Ninja were the average working men of Japan. Farmers and such like would train in the art of Ninjutsu to defend their self from unwanted infiltrators. I wasn't so keen on this idea so I did not do much research into it, you're more than welcome to research and educate me in this theory if you would like.

The more widespread theory seems to be that Ninja were the "James Bond" of ancient Japan. Essentially Spies and infiltrators. I liked this idea a lot more, so I'll talk more about it.
It is said that the actual fighting skill of ninja was secondary to stealth. Which should be common sense for a spy, but many of us are under the impression they are mainly fighters.
On saying that, they were taught to fight. As I've already said they studied a Martial Art called Ninjutsu or "Ninpo". This martial arts could have been taken from China and adapted by the first Ninja.

One very interesting thing about ninja (other than everything about ninja) is their clothing. Contrary to our belief Ninja did not wear Black clothing. Which is strange as every ninja film /picture or video game is depicted in a black costume. In actual fact ninja wore blue. The black comes from Old Japanese Theatre productions. Black costume were used against a black curtain background to give the appearance and idea that ninja were very hard to spot and could move around relatively undetected.
So next time you see a Ninja in a black costume, you can either boast of the knowledge you have learned, or thank Japanese theatre houses for providing us with one of the most famous misconceptions of all time.
Although to their credit, it was an ingenious idea.

Of course there is a lot more I could write, but most people will have either stopped or be ready to stop reading. If this post gets enough response I might do a Ninja part 2 at one point.

Still thankyou for reading, and I hope you look forward to a lot more Cultural notes and a lot more posts on this blog.
Please help me spread the word, and follow me on twitter @TurnChapanese
Any questions, ideas or adivce, hit me up on twitter.

Thanks again
Dan

Images on this post are from google.