January 29, 2009

Pics from the Japanese News: Are You Aware? Edition

The links in this article will all be to Japanese news stories; I hope to provide good reading practice to those of you that are interested, as well as interesting pics and bite-size chunks of news for those of you that don't do the moon-speak.

Nurse prevention Rangers-- I mean Preventative Nursing Rangers are teaching old people how to keep healthy. "Talk to people--Jya! Brush your teeth--Jya!" No word on how they handled the giant geriatric kaiju that showed up. [article]


Schools in Niigata Prefecture will start displaying posters encouraging girls to wear longer skirts, with intentionally humorous slogans such as "Whether it be studying or skirts, depending on your willingness, you can lengthen them more!" I offer two simple solutions to the problem*: Make either pants or tights part of the uniform. And I mean nerdy tights. [article]


Remember my manly posts? This is another example of purifying yourself the hard way. The local temple has been leading the meditations for 6 years. The people gathered chant "南無不動明王" (namu (hail)+fudoumyouou (one of the five wisdom kings). Try saying that three hundred times fast! [article]
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Bonus English story:

Kazuo Umezu won his lawsuit, and despite his neighbor's laments, he can paint his house however he wants. I made a vid about this long ago, but the one I did about his movie was even better. [article]
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Bonus vocab: 啓発 (enlightenment) was a word used in both the ranger and school girl articles to talk about the awareness campaigns.
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*:I know short skirts don't sound like a problem to any man that breathes, but theoretically, short skirts lead to sexual attacks and cold bodies, according to the article.

3 comments:

  1. "The people gathered chant "南無不動明王" (namu (amen)+fudoumyouou( the Mahāvairocana Sūtra). Try saying that three hundred times fast! "

    Actually what they are chanting is "Praise/Hail! Unmoveable Wisdom King!" and is not related to the title of the Mahavairocana [Makabirushana] Sutra. Fudo Myouou is one of the Five Wisdom Kings and is considered to be a manifestation of Mahavairocana.

    This recitation is part of general Shingon belief in the efficacy of mantra 「真言」and Fudou Myouou is popular with those engaging in the "manly" ascetic practice you link to above.

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  2. Thanks for the correction! It is edited now.
    I was pretty much going with what rikaichan told me about both parts of the translation, though it did mention "the immovable" and a couple names, so I shouldn't have made such a quick deduction. Yahoo dictionary and Wikipedia seem to agree with you.

    So they basically say "Hail Bob!" (the name has been bastardized so many times that I though I would get in on the act now)>

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  3. No problem! Glad that I can put my obscure knowledge to good use.

    It is basically "Hail Bob!" when it comes down to it. It's one of the many Buddhist terms translated phonetically from Sanskrit, but like "amen" most people use it without worrying too much about the precise meaning..

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