A Japanese and Chinese Major

Archive for June, 2010

These days samurais are rare, but in feudal Japan times they were large in numbers and could be seen about the grounds guarding government buildings and training for war exercises.

We briefly spoke to Kenichi Yokonawa, a modern-day samurai who is trying to bring the tradition back into mainstream Japan.  He runs his own gym and prepares young men for a life fashioned as a Japanese samurai warrior.

For Mr. Yokonawa, samurais have a new meaning and a new purpose for modern-day Japan that can benefit all of society.  “In the past, the main duty of a samurai was to protect and fight for the people in war, but these days that is no longer required.  To be a samurai today means to serve the people, act in honor and always respect the ancestors that have come before us”, says Yokonawa.

The Japanese people hear his words.  Every year dozens of new recruits volunteer to join his samurai training program.  They come from all over: Tokyo, Hokkaido, Okinawa, to uphold the traditions of the samurai and learn what it is to be one.

I asked him what he thought about foreigners becoming samurai.  He said, “I have not yet seen one that has the ability to understand the responsibilities, but I am waiting”.

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I found a really great website where I can order all of my favorite Japanese video games, and ones that I have never seen before.

For the past couple months I’ve been playing a lot of games that I had sent from Japan, and it has greatly improved my kanji memorization and reading comprehension.

I’m really excited that I can learn Japanese while playing video games.  I’ve also re-discovered a lot of my old favorites, like Kirby and Zelda, in Japanese.  I always wanted to spend some time re-visiting these games and now that I can do it and practice my Japanese at the same time it’s the perfect excuse.

The packaging and translations are totally different, it makes the game feel new again.  It’s for those reasons I have decided that whenever I buy an video game I will always buy the Japanese equivalent.

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It is easy to see why Riyo Mori won the 2007 Miss Universe contest.  Not only is she stunningly beautiful, but she has a great personality because she grew up with many parents and teachers surrounding her.  I’m sure you would like to surround her too.

Before she was known as Miss Universe Riyo, she was a dance instructor and taught students at the Quinte Ballet School of Canada.  She was crowned on May 28th, 2007 and she was the third Japanese woman to place in the top five in the last five years.

Why do Miss Universe pageants favor Japanese women so much?

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Real Kanojo, which means real girlfriend in Japanese, is a game that will give you a happy feeling down in your pants and a sick feeling in your heart.

The game only consists of animated Japanese girls with great big boobs and beautiful bodies.  You can control their movements, and they react to web-cam motion.

So far, it is only available and Japanese and it has been difficult to find a Real Kanojo English trial, if it even exists.  Your best bet is to download the Japanese trial to see if you like it.

You can take a look at the official website here:

http://www.illusion.jp/preview/real/character/04.html

but some say the website only loads for people in Japan.

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During the time Japan was at war, certain baseball words were banned from being spoken and more native Japanese terms were used. Here is that list.

If anyone knows any of these translations, please help out!

BANNED JAPANESE BASEBALL WORD LIST DURING WORLD WAR TWO

プレイボール ＝ 始め
ストライク ＝正球 数え方は 一本、二本 ワンストライク ＝ ヨシ一本
ボール ＝悪球 数え方は 一ツ、二ツ、三ツ ツースリー ＝ 二本、二ツ
三振 ＝ それまで
アウト ＝ 無為
セーフ＝安全
フェア(ヒット)＝正打
ファール＝圏外球
ファールチップ＝擦打
バント＝軽打
スチール＝奪塁
ホームチーム＝迎撃組
ビジターチーム＝往戦組
フェア領域＝正打区域
ファールライン＝境界線
グラブ（ミット）＝手袋

ルールとしては
１．ユニフォームのロゴはすべて漢字
２．打者は球をよけてはいけない
３．隠し球の禁止
４．「盗塁」の文字を「奪塁」に変更
５．最後まで戦い抜くために選手の途中交代禁止
６．９回表で勝負がついても敵を徹底的に打ちのめすために９回裏の攻撃もあり

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There’s some kind of sick and twisted game in Japan where at least two people or more play a tug of war with panty hose on their heads.

Each person fits the tight hose over their head and face and whoever pulls off the other’s hose first wins.

You can purchase the game, which is just basically a pair of panty hose attached together, for 105 yen at the 100 yen shop.

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The Legend of Koizumi is a unique anime because the characters are based on real life politicians and world leaders.  Some of the cast includes, but is not limited to:

Yukio Hatayama and Mrs. Hatayama

He is infested with a squid-like alien and acts as a puppet to the Chinese.  His wife is an alien, which plays into the real life story about his wife admitting she has visited other planets before.

George W. Bush

A gambler from Texas who teams up with his father on occasion and doesn’t care how reckless he has to be to get things done.

What’s really unusual in regard to this anime is that the producer himself, Kosei Kawase, willingly uploaded the first episode of this series on Youtube and the popular Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga.

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Yuna Kim unfair?

Kim Yuna has a history of claiming that players have been unfair to her; for example in March of 2009 she accused her top opponent Emi Watanabe of intentionally disturbing her practice routine.  She is also known as a very aggressive competitor.  She wrote a blog post in 2005 stating that she had hoped her biggest rival at the time, Mao Asada, fell in a skating competition.

It is known that she is quick to accuse other players being unfair to her, but is Yuna Kim unfair herself?

Concerns have come up regarding the integrity of Korean figure skate judges.  Some people are beginning to believe that the Korean judges are not entirely honest with their performance grades and are tipping the ball into Kim’s court.

It is hard to prove that the Korean judges are biased towards Yuna Kim because she is such a talented figure skater, but it is interesting to think that while Kim Yuna is accusing of everyone being unfair it may just be that unfairness is what is keeping her at the top.

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