segare
offspring (male), son, or, colloquially, penis
I encountered the term reading some yakuza-esque dialog, and knew right away that it meant 'son'. but it's not the common word for son, which is musuko, 息子.
according to my partner, the use of segare is more common among older men in Japan. it definitely has a rougher, more masculine feel, to the word.
as an aside, both words are used as colloquial euphemisms for penis. apparently, the notion arises from the fact that you can only make sons with your 'son'. as it were.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
一、富士、二、鷹、三、茄子、四、扇、五、煙草、六、座頭
iti, huzi, ni, taka, san, nasu, yon, ougi, go, tabako, roku, zatou
the six lucky items that should appear in your first dream of the new year: Mt Fuji, hawks, eggplant, folding fans, tobacco, blind monks
it was actually another foreigner in Japan, my friend Doug, who introduced me to the 'first dream' notion. the Japanese ask one another what they saw in their first dream of each New Year, and according to tradition, there are six lucky items that can appear.
the first of those is Mount Fuji. a traditional (Edo-period) symbol of Japan itself.
the second is hawks, predator birds that fly high and were also kept as pets by the samurai aristocracy, hence a symbol of wealth.
the third is eggplant. huh? some say that because eggplant are grown (famously) in the region from which the Edo-period shoguns (the Tokugawa family) arose, Suruga, in Shizuoka, that the inclusion of eggplant was just a nod to those in power. however, eggplants also figure as aphrodisiacs and/or allegorical representations of (male) sexual prowess (remember: Japanese eggplants are longer and thinner than those sold in North America). as an aside, chestnuts were also considered in a similar light, because the smell of their flowers in bloom is highly suggestive of the smell of male ejaculate. I think that eggplants made the list for the latter reason. the Japanese (in the Edo-period as well as today) are not known for Puritan values. sex is up there on everyone's wish list.
the fourth, folding fans, is indicative of dancers, particularly geisha, who used fans in their act. since geisha could only be afforded (as entertainers, which is what they were/are, not prostitutes) by the wealthy, again this is a portent of money.
the fifth is tobacco, which was then a status symbol. since it was imported (by the Dutch, to Dejima, the island they were allowed to use in Nagasaki), it was expensive.
the sixth, blind monks, is a bit harder to fathom, but the suggestion is that since such monks were often itinerant and were usually musicians as well, playing either the biwa, a lute descended from the Chinese pipa, or the shakuhachi, a vertically-played flute.
the six lucky items that should appear in your first dream of the new year: Mt Fuji, hawks, eggplant, folding fans, tobacco, blind monks
it was actually another foreigner in Japan, my friend Doug, who introduced me to the 'first dream' notion. the Japanese ask one another what they saw in their first dream of each New Year, and according to tradition, there are six lucky items that can appear.
the first of those is Mount Fuji. a traditional (Edo-period) symbol of Japan itself.
the second is hawks, predator birds that fly high and were also kept as pets by the samurai aristocracy, hence a symbol of wealth.
the third is eggplant. huh? some say that because eggplant are grown (famously) in the region from which the Edo-period shoguns (the Tokugawa family) arose, Suruga, in Shizuoka, that the inclusion of eggplant was just a nod to those in power. however, eggplants also figure as aphrodisiacs and/or allegorical representations of (male) sexual prowess (remember: Japanese eggplants are longer and thinner than those sold in North America). as an aside, chestnuts were also considered in a similar light, because the smell of their flowers in bloom is highly suggestive of the smell of male ejaculate. I think that eggplants made the list for the latter reason. the Japanese (in the Edo-period as well as today) are not known for Puritan values. sex is up there on everyone's wish list.
the fourth, folding fans, is indicative of dancers, particularly geisha, who used fans in their act. since geisha could only be afforded (as entertainers, which is what they were/are, not prostitutes) by the wealthy, again this is a portent of money.
the fifth is tobacco, which was then a status symbol. since it was imported (by the Dutch, to Dejima, the island they were allowed to use in Nagasaki), it was expensive.
the sixth, blind monks, is a bit harder to fathom, but the suggestion is that since such monks were often itinerant and were usually musicians as well, playing either the biwa, a lute descended from the Chinese pipa, or the shakuhachi, a vertically-played flute.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
駅メロ
eki mero
literally, an abbreviation for train station melody, the recording played at Japanese train stations when a train is about to depart
concerned, would be a good way to describe my feelings over the past few days. a major client has suddenly gone dry, dropping from more than 40 hours of work last week, to six so far this week.
since we're dancing on the edge of bankruptcy as it is, this is indeed cause for concern. especially when Hiro continues to press me to either find more freelance clients or else to return to full-time work.
and so the CV gets dusted off and calls go out once more. I'm hopeful that an old associate will like the samples of my fiction translation that I sent enough to send me work. and I'm also hoping to hear more from the head-hunter who spoke with me briefly about possible jobs last week. we'll see.
the connection to this entry?
well, as there is no work, I was casting around for some Japanese I hadn't heard or seen before, and picked up a catalog of gift items from Japan Rail.
there is a clock decorated with all twenty-nine of the stations on the Yamanote Line, the loop line that circles downtown Tokyo, and which I used to ride nearly every day when I lived in Tokyo. each of the twenty-nine stations has a unique melody to announce the departure of the train. in fact, stations are quite cacophonous. lights flash to signal train arrivals and departures to the deaf. announcements are made in Japanese and English and, lately, Chinese and Korean too, and different melodies are used to announce arriving trains and departing trains, which run on average every three minutes. it's always a challenge to remember all twenty-nine stations...
starting with my home station and heading south we have:
so... I'm missing four stations... I know there are a bunch on the northern segment, between Ikebukuro and Ueno, that I've totally forgotten. whenever I rode that segment, it was usually when coming home from the bars in Asakusa, so I slept for most of the way...
what a nostalgic post this turned out to be... yet another reminder that I should be writing a book about my years in Japan...
literally, an abbreviation for train station melody, the recording played at Japanese train stations when a train is about to depart
concerned, would be a good way to describe my feelings over the past few days. a major client has suddenly gone dry, dropping from more than 40 hours of work last week, to six so far this week.
since we're dancing on the edge of bankruptcy as it is, this is indeed cause for concern. especially when Hiro continues to press me to either find more freelance clients or else to return to full-time work.
and so the CV gets dusted off and calls go out once more. I'm hopeful that an old associate will like the samples of my fiction translation that I sent enough to send me work. and I'm also hoping to hear more from the head-hunter who spoke with me briefly about possible jobs last week. we'll see.
the connection to this entry?
well, as there is no work, I was casting around for some Japanese I hadn't heard or seen before, and picked up a catalog of gift items from Japan Rail.
there is a clock decorated with all twenty-nine of the stations on the Yamanote Line, the loop line that circles downtown Tokyo, and which I used to ride nearly every day when I lived in Tokyo. each of the twenty-nine stations has a unique melody to announce the departure of the train. in fact, stations are quite cacophonous. lights flash to signal train arrivals and departures to the deaf. announcements are made in Japanese and English and, lately, Chinese and Korean too, and different melodies are used to announce arriving trains and departing trains, which run on average every three minutes. it's always a challenge to remember all twenty-nine stations...
starting with my home station and heading south we have:
- Mejiro
- Takadanobaba
- Okubo (or was it Shin-Okubo?)
- Shinjuku
- Yoyogi
- Harajuku
- Shibuya
- Ebisu
- Gotanda
- Osaki
- Shinagawa
- Tamachi
- Hamamatsucho
- Shimbashi
- Yurakucho
- Tokyo
- (drawing a blank... it's near Kanda)
- Akibahara
- Okachimachi
- Ueno
- Uguisudani (the most beautiful name on the line, literally means, Nightingale Valley)
- (drawing a blank... it's a stop on the Keisei line out to the airport too...)
- Tabata
- Komagome
- Ikebukuro
so... I'm missing four stations... I know there are a bunch on the northern segment, between Ikebukuro and Ueno, that I've totally forgotten. whenever I rode that segment, it was usually when coming home from the bars in Asakusa, so I slept for most of the way...
what a nostalgic post this turned out to be... yet another reminder that I should be writing a book about my years in Japan...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
躾
situke
manners, bearing, posture, breeding
I had never seen the character for a word I had often heard and used before. and when I saw it, I nearly laughed at loud at how much sense it made...
the left-hand radical is the character for 'body', as in one's physical body:身
the right-hand radical, 'beautiful':美
what a great combination!
another cool aspect of this character is that it only exists in Japanese. it is not kanzi, but rather kokuzi, one of the characters that the Japanese invented for concepts that do not exist in Chinese. imagine not finding a concept among the more than 40,000 ideographs that exist in Chinese...
manners, bearing, posture, breeding
I had never seen the character for a word I had often heard and used before. and when I saw it, I nearly laughed at loud at how much sense it made...
the left-hand radical is the character for 'body', as in one's physical body:身
the right-hand radical, 'beautiful':美
what a great combination!
another cool aspect of this character is that it only exists in Japanese. it is not kanzi, but rather kokuzi, one of the characters that the Japanese invented for concepts that do not exist in Chinese. imagine not finding a concept among the more than 40,000 ideographs that exist in Chinese...
Monday, January 26, 2009
誤植
gosyoku
misprint, typographical error
what I found fascinating about this word was that I originally thought it had to be a mistake itself. the second character is specific to botanical planting. you find it in words like 'bush' or 'transplant' or 'colony'. I wasn't expecting it to be used in a printing or text sense.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
改竄
kaizan
falsification, alteration, spoofing
I love the second character. at top, the radical refers to 'hole', 'cave', 'den'... and then below that, 'rat'. that character itself means 'to flee'. the image is of a rat scurrying away into its hidey-hole. which is reinforced by this four-character Chinese aphorism:
抱頭鼠竄
(there's no immediate equivalent in Japanese, but the meaning is)
covering your head and running away like a rat.
what a wonderful image, in just four characters!
falsification, alteration, spoofing
I love the second character. at top, the radical refers to 'hole', 'cave', 'den'... and then below that, 'rat'. that character itself means 'to flee'. the image is of a rat scurrying away into its hidey-hole. which is reinforced by this four-character Chinese aphorism:
抱頭鼠竄
(there's no immediate equivalent in Japanese, but the meaning is)
covering your head and running away like a rat.
what a wonderful image, in just four characters!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
見計らう
mihakarau
to choose at one's own discretion
first off, I chose to restart this blog in response to an assignment in a class I am now taking, called Ideation. one of the key aspects of the assignment was to make this project something that I could easily incorporate into my everyday schedule, and since I am translating everyday, and encounter new or interesting Japanese words everyday, I thought this might be a good place to start.
it's interesting, because I originally thought of doing a continuation of my floriography project as the assignment, but, in truth, I don't review my photographs everyday, nor can I see myself setting aside time to layout and typeset the associated text for each photo, even though I would want to eventually.
regardless, I chose today's word for a few reasons.
to choose at one's own discretion
first off, I chose to restart this blog in response to an assignment in a class I am now taking, called Ideation. one of the key aspects of the assignment was to make this project something that I could easily incorporate into my everyday schedule, and since I am translating everyday, and encounter new or interesting Japanese words everyday, I thought this might be a good place to start.
it's interesting, because I originally thought of doing a continuation of my floriography project as the assignment, but, in truth, I don't review my photographs everyday, nor can I see myself setting aside time to layout and typeset the associated text for each photo, even though I would want to eventually.
regardless, I chose today's word for a few reasons.
first off, the definition didn't seem to match what I originally thought the word might mean.
見 refers to vision, seeing, looking, and 計 to measuring, gauging.
in retrospect, the definition makes sense, but I thought it might mean something like, measure by eye...
another reason the word stood out was I thought it was neat that Japanese had a compact term for something we need to express in several words. I always love it when a language has a simple way of saying something.
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