Overseas Consciousness

I think that Japanese people's consciousness towards overseas is generally high.  I would like to divide this consciousness into two large categories: outbound and inbound.

I define here outbound as Japanese people's interests on things in overseas, whereas inbound as our interests on how Japan or Japanese is viewed by foreign peoples.

Outbound case, therefore, should include our interests on people, culture, thought, etc. in overseas.  Inbound should should include, for example, how Japanese, our culture, our thought, etc. are viewed by overseas.

I think our strong consciousness towards overseas is largely due to the facts that Japanese are mono-cultural people, and our contacts with overseas have been historically limited, like it or not.

Japanese people's curiosities for foreign related things seem to be becoming stronger recently.  For example, the number of TV programs relating to foreigners or foreign countries have been increasing.

These TV programs include:

• Introduction of popular things, such as food, clothes, cultures
• Any Japanese matters which interest foreigners
• Customs in other countries
• Interview foreigners at airports, who just arrive in Japan, the purposes of their visits and follow their trips in Japan

Many foreigners view that Japan is a closed society, which might give an impression that Japanese are not interested in other countries' information or do not like to share with foreigners Japanese related information.  I don't think it's true at all.

Living in an island, Japanese have had less opportunities to deal with foreigners than many of other peoples and are not good in dealing with other peoples regardless of our desires.  English should be other major challenge which stays us away from foreign people and matters.

The world is getting smaller due to advance technologies, however, there are still many foreign things that Japanese do not know.  I'm sure that the overseas consciousness of Japanese people, or at least myself, would be getting higher for a while.

Free Kanji Translation

What's Up, Tokyo!

I'm living in the center of Tokyo, and maybe I should be able to see most changes going on in this city.

However, these changes are going on so fast that I can't follow all of them, particularly past a few years.  Tokyo seems to me something like a fast growing creature.

Even just picking up major opened facilities since last year makes a long list as follows:

Skytree

Shibuya Hikarie

Tokyu Plaza Harajuku

Oak Harajuku

Tokyo Square Garden

Kabukiza (renewal)

Tokyo Station (renewal)

Diver City

Japan, including Tokyo, has been economic depression (although it seems been a bit improved just recently), however, opening of these many facilities causes me wonder "Really depression?"

Even I, who is living in Tokyo, feel "Wow" by knowing these changes, so you might do the same if you have ever been to Tokyo and when next time visiting here.

Make sure to bring the most updated tour guide book with you then!
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More Children Needed!

Today, May 5th, is a Japan's national holiday, The Children's Day, to cerebrate and hope children's growth.  Some people fly carp-streamers and display samurai dolls.

While we hope the children's growth by having this kind of a national holiday, we have been having a problem of reduced birth rate.  Recent stats provide a birth rate of around 1.3.

There are several causes for the low birth rate in Japan, and I think the most significant reason is the Japanese government's less supports to have more kids, such as less cash aid from governments, lack of nurseries, etc.

The Japanese government seems to be trying to learn from successful cases in some European countries to improve the birth rate, however, many of those ideas might be difficult to be applied into this conservative society.

It is no doubt that Japan needs some workable political measures to increase the birth rate soon besides cerebrating the Children's day.  Also, Japanese might need to change our mindsets to a bit more liberal to accept some changes in our society.
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Pain to Read Translated Literature

As I mentioned in the last blog (Translation), I like reading Japanese literature.

There are recently many Japanese authors in modern Japanese literature.  These include Haruki Murakami, who is also popular overseas and some of you may know.  I feel his writing is just like drawing painting and shows me some different world, which seems very close to the real world.

Other modern Japanese authors, as well as Haruki Murakami, express something very profound by usually using a plain Japanese, which is one of major reasons why I like these Japanese authors.

In contrast, most translators of foreign literatures often use difficult Japanese, which takes my interests away from the foreign literatures.

Understanding many difficulties to translate foreign languages to Japanese as mentioned in my last blog (Translation), I still have strong desire to read those literatures in original languages without relying on those translators, which is almost impossible if written in languages other than English.

Good news, however, is that some foreign masterpieces have been re-translated by other translators in different way.  These new translations look very easy to read as new translators use a plain Japanese among other reasons.  In fact, The Brothers Karamazov became a bestseller a few years ago, when it was translated by other translator, regardless of its difficulties in the original story.  Since then, other old foreign masterpieces, including many of Dostoevskii's have been re-translated by other translators.

I welcome these new translations and am looking forward to good translations of modern foreign literatures, which have not been introduced in Japan yet.
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Translation

I like to read literatures, most of which are Japanese.  I'm also interested in foreign literatures, particularly French and Russian, however, seldom read them.

This is because I don't like to read translation.  Unfortunately, I need to rely on translation if it's written in foreign languages other than English.  However, I think translation more or less changes original writing.  Also, Japanese translation is somehow difficult to read as the Japanese used for the translation tends to be different from normal Japanese.

In order to translate a foreign writing, a translator has to fully understand not only what the writing means, but the author's intention behind the writing.  Then, the translator needs to find a Japanese word or phrase, which best describes the original writing.  Such a Japanese should not be too literal or too loose, but somewhere between these two.  Finding the right degree of literal and loose is a very difficult task.

As an English to Japanese Kanji translator myself, I understand the difficulties the translator usually faces as the above.

In my Facebook page, there are Japanese proverbs, which are translated into English.  These are Japanese to English translation, not English to Japanese, but I take the same process for the translation, i.e. understanding of what the original Japanese proverb means and finding right word/phrase to best describe the original.

Taking 鶏口牛後 in my Facebook page as an example, I put a literal English translation in the Facebook page, which is "Better be a head of a chicken than the tail of the bull."

However, I also knew there were similar English proverbs for this, which are "Better be a head of a dog than the tail of a lion" and "Better be a head of a pike than the tail of a sturgeon" and wondered using the equivalent English proverb might have made a better sense to readers.

I finally decided to go with a sort of literal translation as it might interest readers by showing that the Japanese proverb uses a comparison of a chicken and a bull for the proverb, rather than a dog and a lion, or a pike and a sturgeon.

Well, Facebook is just for fun, but translation still makes me feel certain challenges to overcome.
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Cute Mascot Characters

There are many popular Japanese characters, which seem to have some similarities.  I think one of the similarities would be their cuteness or what is called kawaii in Japanese.

Hello Kitty

Doraemon

Pikachu

This Japanese tendency to favor kawaii characters seems to be getting stronger.  By knowing such a popularity of kawaii characters, for example, many local municipalities have started to create their own mascot characters mainly for the purpose of promoting their municipalities.  These mascots are generally called Yuru-Chara, abbreviation of yurui-characters (loose characters), and there are currently around 300(!) of such mascots.

I first thought those municipalities' aims were very easy and did not think many people were attracted.  Very surprisingly, however, many of those mascots have been getting very popular and been promoting their municipalities.  Some of those popular mascots are as follows:

Kumamon (Kumamoto Prefecture)

Hikonyan (Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture)

Barry-san (Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture)

Honestly, I'm tired of these kinds of kawaii characters, however, they are still favored by many Japanese, and such a boom seems to continue for a while.

I'm not personally aware of many of the similar type of kawaii characters in other countries.  Disney characters are also cute and attract many Japanese people, but their cuteness looks different to me from the Japanese characters', which seems to be more goofy.

I know Kitty, Doraemon, and Pikachu above are also popular in many of other countries but am not sure if the Yuru-Chara are also popular overseas.  If they are, then I would like to know whether such a popularity of these kinds of kawaii characters are due to any common natures between those overseas peoples and Japanese, or any different reasons.
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Gorgeous Wedding Ceremony

Japanese wedding ceremony is generally gorgeous spending a lot of money.

I remember the average cost spent for the wedding is around USD 30,000.  An invitee also has to give gift money called goshuugi in Japanese in the amount of around USD 300 if s/he is a friend of a bride or groom, which could be increased depending on the relationship.

How gorgeous?  Let me show you some pictures of the wedding below:

The bride and groom appear to the stage by using gondola...

Or they might come down stairs...

Cutting very tall cake...

Going around each table to light candles...

By the way, they are all normal brides and grooms, not famous people like singers or movie stars.

Such a lavish wedding might be usually preferred by bride than groom, as many Japanese girls dream to have this kind of wedding since they are very little, where the bride is treated as just like a princess.

The other possible reason for the gorgeousness would be that families of the bride and groom try to show their better public image, prestige, and possibly others, which seems rather superficial.

I know recent couples tend to be more interested in having the wedding which is more cordial party, rather than a ceremony.

I like it!
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