Let's Get Funkei

Recently, I ran across a post about the phrase 刎頚の友 (funkei no tomo, or decapitation friend), which seems to translate as "a friendship that could survive mutual beheadings." Be sure to check out the comments on the post for the origin of this phrase and how it may relate to seppuku.

I got interested in the kanji 刎, which seemed to be supplying the cutting meaning of the compound (頚 means neck) at that point. It's made from 勿 (absence) and 刀 (sword). It appears in the word 刎ねる (haneru) which means many things including flip, spatter, hit with a vehicle, and of course chop off a head.

Here are some other goodies WWWJDIC supplied for me:

刎 words:
刎 [はね] (suf,ctr) (arch) counter for helmets, etc.
刎死 [ふんし] (n,vs) decapitating oneself
自刎 [じふん] (n,vs) committing suicide by slitting one's throat
刎ね上がる [はねあがる] (v5r,vi) to jump up, to spring up

Intriguingly, a word with the same pronunciation as funkei, 焚刑, means burning at the stake. That may have led to some confusion at the courthouse, eh? Ha, ha, I kill me.

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Bonus morbid knowledge: Ladies don't do seppuku, they commit jigai.

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Spinning Hammer Mouse Shrine

What's going on with the mouse in the video? I read a description at the shrine, but it didn't seem too clear as I have a loose grasp of ancient Japanese mythology. Luckily this site has some info about why the gods Susano-O and O-Kuni-Nushi were being mentioned so much and what was up with the arrow the mouse found. Read on:

Traditions have O-Kuni-Nushi being sent straight to the underworld after his brothers tried to kill him in order to avoid their revenge. In the underworld O-Kuni-Nushi met Suseri-Hime, the daughter of the god of the underworld. They were married, but first Susano-O made O-Kuni-Nushi pass three tests. The first test was to put him to sleep in a room of snakes. O-Kuni-Nushi saves himself with the scarf that Suseri-Hime gave him. The next night he had to sleep in a room full of centipedes and wasps, but he again used another scarf that Suseri-Hime had given him to protect himself. The final test that Susano-O gives him is to find an arrow, which Susano-O had sent into the middle of a huge meadow. When O-Kuni-Nushi is in the middle of the field, Susano-O set fire to the grass, luckily however; a mouse saves him by showing him an underground room. The mouse then brings the arrow to O-Kuni-Nushi. O-Kuni-Nushi's success helps Susano-O to feel more at ease with him, so he has O-Kuni-Nushi wash his hair and finally goes to sleep. O-Kuni-Nushi then ties Susano-O's hair to the rafters of the house and with his wife on his back fled. He also took with him Susano-O's sword, bow, arrows, and his Koto (harp). Susano-O is awakened when the Koto brushes against a tree. In the time it took for Susano-O to free his hair, the two were far away. From the slopes of the underworld, Susano-O advises O-Kuni-Nushi, whom he sees in the distance, to use the weapons to fight his brothers, foretelling that O-Kuni-Nushi would conquer them and reign over the world. He also asked O-Kuni-Nushi to make Suseri-Hime his main wife and to build a palace at the foot of Mount Uka.

But heck if I know why those mice are holding hammers at the shrine. I also don't know if mention of a main wife alludes to Heian polygamy practices (it's good to be the kizoku !), when I imagine these stories may have been collected. Any ideas, Dear Reader?

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How Much Clay can One Fit into a Tiny Yokohama Apartment?

This much. I'm quite settled into my new place now, and my neighborhood is awesome!

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Watching Japan Grow Up

Greetings! I've been pretty busy lately, but I noticed something cool the other day. There is a lot of construction in Yokohama, which means walls must go up. One has an art contest of sorts adorning it. These two pics comprise one entry:
Photo one (the 80s?)


Photo two (all grown up):


EDIT: Took a closer look at the wall. Turns out that the artist is 西尾美也 (Yoshinari Nishio) and the the work is named Costume Play.
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This has been a mobile post; click the pics to zoom/visit their album

J News Pic: The Best Bobsled this Side of Jamaica

I know you remember Cool Runnings.

Click to see more pics and
read the original Japanese article

Canada-- When practice began for the women's pair bobsledding on the 22nd, one country really stood out. Japan, with an awesome sleigh design that includes a lady in a kimono, sakura petals, and Mt. Fuji, turned everyone's heads.
Some people in Japan are probably complaining that the whole thing is a little yanki though.

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My Review of Chocolate Sparkling, with Mouth-breathing

So my boss was like, how often do you talk to your mom? I and my daughter in America talk three times a week.
And I was like... Uh, yeah, all the time. But it was a lie. I have the blog to communicate what is happening to me here, but I have fallen short of that duty of late and just posted funny commercials. Well no more waiting, parental units and other people that I guilt into reading. Here is a video staring me at long last. I talk about the awkwardness of trains and the amazingness of carbonated clear chocolate drinks. Watch. Gnash those teeth. Enjoy.

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Japanese Slang: Sagging Pants Kill Dreams

Olympic dreams that is. I don't watch sporting events, even the Olympics, but escaping news of the pants-sagging scandal was impossible if you live in Japan. In Japan, they call sagged pants 腰パン (koshi-pan) which is made from the words koshi (hip) and pan (pants). Another slang word for this, when it is unintentional, is ハミパン (hami-pan, from hamiwoderu [jut out of bounds] and pantie).

The scandal was centered around a snowboarder who--shock!-- looks like a snowboarder, named Kazuhiro Kokubo. He showed up at the airport with a loose tie and pants and Japan went into hyper-conservative spasms. Look at this shocking video, complete with his half-assed (see what I did there?) apology, "Hasei shima~su" (yeah, I'm totally reflecting on my actions). It got him bared from the opening ceremony later.

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Yu Aoi is the Most Endearing Assassin Ever [vid]

Among Japanese models and actresses, Yu is, to me, the ultimate girl next door. For one thing, she doesn't seem trim her eyebrows. When you've seen as many butchered brows as I have, natural ones start to look pretty good. Her fashion and makeup are also very understated.

But speaking of eyebrows, in this video she provides the voice for Golgo 13, hardened womanizing assassin of manga fame. It makes for a nice juxtaposition. The video is actually a whole press conference type thing (dang Japan likes promotional press conferences), so I set the video to automatically start at the commercial. Rewind by hand if you want to see what comes before that point.

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Change the Skin on Your... Butsudan?

I spotted an ad for these on the train. They are butsudan (Buddhist house alters for honoring your ancestors--totally different from kamidana) with swappable colors. This one is a spring-fall combo.

You can see other modern butsudan designs at the company's online catalog.

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Ryoma Sakamoto has Taken Over Japan!

I can't go anywhere lately without spying the famous samurai Sakamoto Ryoma, the man that helped to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate before being assassinated on his birthday at an inn. For me, it all started with this softbank ad:

Ad breakdown (top three lines only):
supiikaa zeyo= electronic speaker+emphasis particle
shaberu zeyo= speak +emp particle
shaberu otousan supiikaa= speak+father+speaker

So this is an ad for the To-san (the father/dog from softbank commercials) speaker promotional gift.
It seems ぜよ is from Kouchi prefecture's dialect (or Tosa-dialect if you want to get more accurate).　It also seems to be an inflection of admonition. From what I've read it isn't really used by people in Kouchi anymore.

And then I heard that he was the official subject of this year's Taiga Drama. Every year Taiga Drama airs a different historical figure's life, and this time it's the Ryomaden (legend of Ryoma).

Ryoma-fever set in. I noticed he had spread like a virus to the book stores. This store section is completely dedicated to him:



Even food is not safe from his touch:



Links of interest: You may remember the actor in the drama, Masaharu Fukuyama, was featured in a karaoke training post here at THR (second one down).

Japan Probe found an ad that explores how his life could have been saved by a good car.

The Probe also found a clip where scientists reconstruct his voice.

The Tei-park museum has an exhibition of Ryoma open until the 21st of this month.

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Crazy Miyuki is Crazy Hot?! [vids]

Take a look at this allergy swab commercial. Do you know the actress in it?



If you guessed Miyuki Torii, you somehow saw her hotness through the mask of crazy and odd eye makeup that she usually sports, as in this vid:



She recently did a press event related to the allergy commercial, where she was back to her old creepy self.

She's pretty annoying to most people, but I found an amusing CM of hers promoting a Black Jack anime:

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Suntory Strong Zero: For When You Want to Get Wasted Without Sugar

Strong is a drink I noticed in combinis about a year or so ago. At 8% alcohol and a price of 200 or so yen, it is perfect for the current economic climate.

Here we have a girl (Satomi Ishihara) lecturing a wrestler that being strong alone is pointless. You need to be sugar-free too.





But actually I just want to use these CMs to remind you of the background music's source: The Peanuts. I did a post with them where you can hear this song, Love Fugue, here (it's the second one down, and don't forget the English version!).

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