Alright, here is the first of a series of posts I hope to do where we will tackle the Japanese in advertisements I spot about town. But I have a feeling we won't see one like this first one again, a poster for a girl's school in my town. Click to zoom in--this is an iphone-taken picture, and the resolution was surprisingly large.
Ad Breakdown: Top left verical line, 第三十三回 : "33rd time". 第 is the "rd" (or "th" or "nd") suffixes to numbers, called ordinals. 回 refers to repetitions of an event.
Top left big characters 鈴懸祭: The name of a cultural festival held by the school. I don't know how it's pronounced, but I'm guessing suzuka-sai, from 鈴懸の木 (Plane Tree or Tree of Hippocrates, which interestingly enough has festival associated with it in Greece), one of which stands in the courtyard of the school.
The flag, 熊谷女子高校: "Kumagaya [my town] girls high school", called 熊女 (bear girl) for short. Hey, now the character rampaging about and holding the flag makes sense!
The right vertical text埼玉県立+aforementioned 熊谷女子高校: the second part you can see translated above, but the first part means "Saitama prefectural" (立 is the postfix that adds "al" (established by) to words like 市立 (municipal) and 町立 (townal, only that ain't a word in English so we say "established by the town").
Area below the bear with an umbrella, 熊姫: "Bear-princess". A play on the school's nickname.
Area right below that, 乙女の道は一本道: "The path of the maiden doth not deviate". I took some liberty with 一本道 (straight path). It seems like this is a famous saying (or a variation of one, that one being 女の道は一本道), so I poetrified it. I won't even get into the implications of how 女の道 can mean red-light district too, because our bear princesses are pure! If you don't believe it, they'll claw your eyes out.
The leftovers are just dates, so no need to go into them. All kinds of interesting things in this poster eh? Not to mention the art. I hope you enjoy this series, because I must admit I'm happy with all I learned this time around.
学習院中等科 (Gakushuuin-chuutouka, the middles school division of a prestigious school) in Tokyo-- This old photo shows the current Japanese emperor, Akihito (emperors don't have last names in Japan), on the far left, beaming a smile, and his English/Western Thought tutor, Elizabeth Vining, who is conduction some sort of spelling competition. I looked up Mrs. Vining and found out that she taught the then prince for four years, and was the only foreign guest at his wedding. She was probably one of only a handful of native English speaking teachers in Japan at the time. It is said that Mrs. Vining had a strong effect on the young Akihito, who she called Jimmy instead of the more formal "crown prince" title he at first wanted, instilling in him a sense of independence and courage to break with tradition. Long before she died in 1999, she wrote a book about her time with the prince, entitled Windows for the Crown Prince, and another, Return To Japan. Looks like they've been out of print for a while, but I hope to pick up a used copy. -- Bonus info about emperor names:
While they don't seem to have a family name, the imperial family can be referred to as 皇族 (kōzoku, from the kanji emperor+family).
While it's okay for us to refer Akihito by his name in English, in Japanese they always have to call him 陛下 (his majesty) or 天皇 (emperor) or the like. In the linked article, they referred to his then princely-self as 皇太子明仁さま (crown prince lord Akihitio). I think calling him Jimmy is reserved for Mrs. Vining ;-)
Emperors get new names when they die that supersede the old ones. Lately, the convention is to rename emperors after the era that they lived in, which happens to start and end with their lives. Just remember that Akihito will become Emperor Heisei after his death.
天皇 translates to emperor in English, but within the Japanese language is only used to refer to Japanese royalty, not other kings or emperors. Incidentally, Japan is the only country in the world with a living emperor.
I renewed my license earlier this year. I don't really know why I did it when I don't own a car anymore, but who knows what use it come to be of. Anyways, the interesting thing is, a guy that happened to be at the same place I had to go to renew my license was trying to put a license to a very different use and got arrested for it the other day. Que the "Pics from the Japanese News" music...
Saitama--A man was trying to renew and alter his wife's license so that he could have a license in his name that wasn't creditors' blacklist. Then he was probably going to acquire even more debt in a manner that landed him on the list in the first place. So he dressed as his wife and went down to the car center. Criminals are rarely smart (The disguise included the crafty use of water-balloons), and this boneheaded disguise was immediately caught out. He has confessed to his crime already, saying he thought the disguise wouldn't be found for what it was due to his expertise from working in a gay bar. I wonder if this guy lives in my town; we have a cross-dressing hostess club close to the station.
カブる (kaburu) comes from the game of mahjong. Its a term for when tiles of the same type pile up (from the verb 被る I think) on each other, that has since come to be used for people who act or seem similar. In the commercial below, I believe that kaburu is the term that Boss George Bush is using. "被ってる！"
Drink some tea to wash that feeling away.
[credit to James for finding the vids, see more of these commercials at the Probe]
The latest in the long running Kamen (masked) Rider series will be called Kamen Rider W. In Japanese, the way W is pronounced "double-u" has made it take on the meaning of doubling. Cheesy, huh. Well Kamen Rider is a superhero of awesome cheesyness, so it's a good fit. The newest Kamen Belt (will carry two or three Kamen identities) to be combined in ways that will make the viewing children's heads asplode with rapture. But this example just seems to be the same costume on both sides slightly repainted. I mean, there is a lot of Kamen variety out there. For instance:
, and another, 
. Looks like they've been out of print for a while, but I hope to pick up a used copy.
original J article & bigger pic
Click to see original J article/image