First post back / In The News?? - Chopstick Robbery?

Okay guys, I went away for way too long, and now my obsession with Japan and all things Japanese has hit back, and this time it's hit hard.

When I first started this blog I had a crazy obsession, I loved everything Japanese and considered moving there. Then over time I had other things to think about, I still loved everything I knew about Japan, but I didn't have the time to think too much into it. However, it seems now I have been having withdrawal symptoms and my Asian love affair (My girlfriend won't like me saying that, so sorry <3) has returned with a vengeance. Now I don't only want to move there, live there, speak their language and eat their food, I don't feel like I'm at home anywhere else. Which is unbearable considering I've never even been. Crazy right?

So here I am again at the blog, trying to channel my passionate fondling through the medium of words.

Japan fans - Welcome back let's get this show on the road.

I thought I'd start back with the thing I loved writing about the most, a segment called "Is This News?"

For those who do not remember, or have never read any other posts of mine, this segment consists of the craziest things I've found in the news, or things I can't believe even happened to begin with, let alone made it outside of Japan;

The first post I found amazed me, as much as I struggled to call it "talent" (as it's unlawful) it is absolutely incredible, and I will be brave enough to call it; A talent.

As you can see, this guy is chasing after a woman on a bike, with a pair of chopsticks in his hands. Seems legit. Also seems like something relatively normal.

Anyway watch what happens next:

Yup. That's him pickpocketing a woman using his trusted chopsticks. And some of you guys thought eating with chopsticks was hard.
So I was reading this story on www.weirdasiannews.com and I was thinking 'this is really cool, but what does he plan on stealing with a pair of chopsticks'

Turns out - A phone. And here he is using the phone just minutes after taking it out of the pocket of a woman riding a bike with a pair of chopsticks.

All sounds easy enough, right?

All pictures were taken from weirdasiannews - check them out

As I said, a crime but at the same time a stroke of genius. Talking of intelligent crimes;

 


Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the world of a man named Shota Ishibashi.
Mr Ishibashi is a 25 Year Old, Unemployed, apparently pretty clever family man.

Here's the story - As someone who was unemployed, money must have been pretty tight for Shota Ishibashi, regardless of the money issues he may have been facing he desperately wanted to go and visit his grandmother ( a good 260 miles away from where Shota was). Now before I go on, I want you to think about this for a second, as the person you are now;

You are unemployed, money is a little tight but you want to visit your grandmother 260 miles away, what's the first thing you think to do? Find a way of making some money for a train ticket, maybe sell some possessions if you're that desperate? that's what I would do anyway. Maybe that's because I'm not as clever as young Shota.

Mr Ishibashi walked into a Toyota dealership lied through his teeth and gained the trust of all staff there. Somehow he managed to convince them to allow him to take a $77,000 Lexus for a test drive with no-one in the passenger seat. All Ishibashi was told was "Make sure it's back within 30 minutes"

Anyway 2 hours later the delearship realised something was wrong and called the police. The police used the GPS tracker in the car to locate it, along with Mr Ishibashi about 130 miles away in a supermarket parking lot. Ishibashi was later arrested for theft (which is a shame, up until then it was fantastic)

I do wonder what he would of said to them when he returned from visiting his grandmother?
Still, next time you are a bit low on cash and need to visit someone, pop down to Ford and see what they're offering.

Source: - Itai News

Okay guys, don't lose focus now, this is important part.

We're back, and it feels great to be writing and sharing my love of all things Chapanese (Chinese/Japanese)
Albeit a bit bias towards Japan.
Thanks for your patience and continued support.
You can catch us on twitter -  @TurnChapanese or facebook www.facebook.com/turningchapanese
It'd be great to hear from some readers and chat some Japan.

Thanks once again, I'm humbled you chose to read our blog.
See you guys next week with a new blog post (please please please share this one)

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..

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