Roll-playing in Japan: Finding People

One of the hardest things about gaming in Japan is finding people to do it with. There is some luck to be had with craigslist and meetup.com, and the forums at Wizards have a section for people searching their local area.
I signed up for a site that is basically the Mixi of TRPGers in Japan (TRPG is the standard acronym used over here) called TRPG SNS. The language barrier along with normal weirdness that comes with navigating a Japanese site is a high wall to cross, but I am trying. It would be great to get some bilingual gaming going on...
Here's a little vid explaining (in Japanese) the service.
But hay, this post is boring as is. Why did I foolishly choose to make this RPG week on the blog? I know what will save me, Chinese gamers! Actually, this video makes me feel like I am at school-- what with the Chinese language, copy write infringement, and hot nerds and all.

I'll let you know if I find any Japanese peeps brave enough to storm the proverbial keep that is gaming with foreigners.

Gaming in Japan: Toys!

I guess I totally locked myself into Gaming in Japan Week with that text; what will I post tomorrow? Good question...

White Crone: 10th Anniversary of Juon

Hey haven't done one of my "Pics from the News" in a bit, but like a curse, these posts will always pop up.

Tokyo--This is a scene from the promo event for the 10th anniversary celebration of the first Juon, which came out direct-to-video in 1999, as well as the latest movie in the series, 呪怨 白い老女, perhaps to be translated as The Grudge: White Crone--I've never liked the translation of Juon as "grudge;" it's more like "curse-grudge." Heck, I think Juon is a made up word just for the movies, so why not use it in English? The actors seem rather detached from the horror before them. [Japanese original/bigger pic]

Yoji: Two Yoji with One Stone

Everybody knows 一石二鳥 (issekinichou: killing two birds with one stone), but did you know there is an equivalent 4 character idiom out there, and it is also common? Allow me to introduce you to 一挙両得 (ikkiryoutoku). How is it different? I'll just have to do two yoji with one breakdown!

The breakdown on 一石二鳥

一: one
石: stone
二: two
鳥: bird(s)
frequency: high

On 一挙両得

挙: action
一挙: (adv) in one action
両: both
得: gain
両得: double gain
rarity: common

So there we see... eh? My erudition alarm just went off! It seems we have another equivalent term! 一挙両全 (ikkiryouzen)! Ah, now the breakdown alarm is going off too!

Bonus breakdown on 一挙両全

全:　all
両全: mutual advantage
rarity: uncommon

Well that was a short breakdown, but of course I did use the first breakdown to kill
a few birds. If there are any more in this series, drop me a line!

Nakama Yukie's House on YouTube

Or more accurately, the poor apartment where here character lives in the dorama Trick. Somebody found it and put it on YouTube. You probably won't be as happy to see it as I was unless you are also an obsessive fan.

I posted about Trick the other day too; take a look!

Twitter

Lately, I seem to have a lot of fun spouting Japanese on Twitter, and try to translate everything so people can see whatever strange Japanese is floating through my head. So follow me, or subscribe to my Twitter's RSS.

Also, Twitter seems to be the place where I restore the balance of missing slice of Clay content that some people actually said they miss in the current incarnation of the blog. Please enjoy!

Japanese CM: Regretful Monkey

Below is 反省ザル (monkey reflecting on his conduct). I had reason to use the same pose today, when I forgot to bring my textbook to class.　"反省！(Regret!)" I said dramatically, just as in the commercial.



This monkey, Jiro, was apparently all the rage back in 1991, and even performed in the US. I discovered him because of Trick. The show had Yamada do the pose in season one and it tickled me though I didn't know what she was doing; I didn't find out what it was called until I read the novelization. I really recommend it for Trick fans that want to learn Japanese and enjoy the best J-drama on a whole new level!

You can buy the same book by clicking the above link. Used copies are usually only 1 yen.
Obligatory YouTube video for Trick-curious here.

How Does One Say Haiku in Tamil?

I recently found out a bit more about one of my favorite music videos. I even found a version of it with the Tamil lyrics translated. The answer to the title's question is within, as is the answer to "What do they call eyebrows?"
Ah talk of eyebrows takes me back to teaching English at elementary schools. But hey, were getting off track when I had a natural segway to show the video that I originally pondered about this stuff in:

Spring Break

Hey, spring break starts tomorrow, so I probably won't post much for a little bit. I am toying with the idea of trying to read a Japanese novel each day (one of those train-carry sized paperback ones that are popular over here). Or maybe I will try hitchhiking. Either way, I'm sure I would learn tons of Japanese.
May you all have a productive time as well!

Dragon Ball Eyedrops

Turns out that the recent live action movie is not the first time that the creator of Goku has sold out*. Apparently, the Z Fighters' only weakness is chlorine!


And there are two more that I found here and here. EDIT: Found a couple more in this collection.
Swimming is part of the curriculum in Japan and almost every school has a pool.
--
* Akira Toriyama recently exclaimed that the new movie was very different and surprising, like it was from a "different dimension". This faint praise was good enough that they put it on the movie poster over here. Look, it's like that thing you like, but from a different dimension so you can't get mad at us for doing a hack job on your memories!

Japanese Slang: This Hat is Made of Fail

Today's word is ポシャる. It means for someone's plans to get messed up when they are still half-realized. So lets do a breakdown already!

The Breakdown:
ポシャ: Comes from シャッポ（chapeau), which is the French word for hat. Also, it is reversed.
～る: A verbalizer (動詞化する接尾語 if you wanna get technical).
synonyms: おじゃんになる

The reason why hat was taken from French and then reversed and finally verbalized to come to mean spoiled plans is kind of unclear, but some think it has a relationship to the phrase シャッポを脱ぐ, which is to take of your hat off out of respect.
But anyways, the reversing, or partial reversing of words into slang is pretty common. I remember I did a post way back when I was still green to Japan about まいう (that one was featured on Japundit back then too, because I always had the makings of a Japan blogstar. Oh dear, all this bragging has ポシャらせた my post!) . There are also words like グラサン (reversed from sunglasses) and ワイハー(reversed from Hawaii)
You can find another example or two of a verbalized foreign originating ru-word by visiting a previous slang post I did.
As for usage, it seems to show up most often in past tense, which is not surprising. For example, "運動会は雨でポシャりましたが..."= "The school sports day was ruined by rain".

How to Transport an Asura

Links are to Japanese articles with big pictures and make for good language study.

Nara-- Asura seem to be a cranky bunch, so transporting them should be done with maximum care. This one is being sent the the Tokyo National Museum this month. Buddhist statues are usually transported on their side, but this one will be standing the whole way. [article]

Other interesting art-related articles I noticed recently:

Fuchi-- People unveiled a different kind of 像 (a character that usually means statue), with this cloth image of Kannon* draping a mountainside. [article]

Shibata--Other large cloth 像s can be seen being made here. These are 鯉のぼり, a type of windsock shaped like a carp that is hung out in May to garner fortune for male children.[article]
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*: Are Kannon and Aryavalokitesvara the same? The article seems to switch to the latter name at one point. Well, Wikipedia seems to confirm it. Also, Kannon may be The Virgin Mary to some as well. Sheesh, (s)he's got a lot of names.