Tuesday 25 November 2014

Book recommendations: Japanese in Depth

I should probably have mentioned this earlier, but for anyone interested in studying Japanese or just knowing a bit more about some of the cultural differences, I must recommend some books. Even better, they're free!

The Japanese in Depth booklets by International Communication Institute are one Japanese man's insights into some of the differences, based on many years of international working and previously published as a newspaper column. I found them both fascinating and educational, with a mixture of cultural points, pop philosophy, pop psychology and discussion of actual linguistic differences. Of course, a few of the columns weren't to my taste particularly, but I found them very worthwhile; indeed, I've read them all repeatedly. They're not that long, and the e-books are available free from Smashwords.

From the first volume: This is vol. 1 of the collection of monthly columns contributed to The Daily Yomiuri, Japan's nationwide English newspaper. It amusingly illustrates how mindsets are different between English and Japanese. It's an eye opener for English as well as Japanese.

Buying ebooks in Japan, part 1

So, some time ago I started moving away from physical books on account of having filled all the physical space with books. I began buying e-books instead. These are surprisingly good, considering my first suspicious, and I've found it a great help. Now, one of the reasons I have so many books is that I own a lot of books that are quite specialised, and so hard to get in libraries and so on (so hard, in fact, that I sort of stopped using libraries). Of the, um... 1000+ books that I do or recently did own, 200 are in non-English languages, while a large number are genre fiction or just old stuff that doesn't tend to end up in libraries (a lot of this is second-hand, or left over from my childhood, or both).

Well, after a very hesitant and reluctant start, ebooks are starting to become a thing in Japan. I suspect one reason it's slow is that a lot of books are very cheap here already - there are massive bookshops selling second-hand stuff for 75p, and so on - so they feel fairly disposable? Regardless, I thought this was a good time to try taking the plunge, because if I can conveniently get Japanese books as data, that would be really handy in the future.

First off, Rakuten. This is a big player in Japan, a kind of Amazon affair. It also now owns Kobo, the brand of ebook reader I own. In the process of buying it, they managed to make it impossible to log into the UK Kobo website from Japan, leaving me entirely unable to do anything with my account, because I'm forcibly redirected to the Rakuten site which doesn't give access to my Kobo account. Joy! But let's try buying something from them.

I track down a cheap ebook.

Despite Rakuten's ebooks being sold through Kobo, apparently they haven't actually made the systems compatible, so I can't log in with my Kobo account to buy it. I need to create a new account.

I need to register with Japanese address and phone number. This is a bit extreme, I feel. Far too much detail, not necessary, especially when you're only buying ebooks!

After some time, I have successfully registered with Rakuten, but I can't buy anything. Because, even though they let me create an account, they refuse to let me buy any of their Rakuten-Kobo ebooks because I used the same email address to register with Rakuten that I already had with Kobo and these two are apparently in conflict. This is rampant imbecility of a kind rarely parallelled.

I fire off an infuriated email, sigh and go to do the washing up.

A pleasant customer service person writes back:

According to our record, you could not buy an e-book from us because the account you created here was same as the one from your country.

In order to create Rakuten Kobo account you will need to register with other account but my email address. LINK.

I do this, and to my surprise, it works! I buy one book, for about £2, as a test, which is all I'm doing really. Then I open the Kobo desktop application, attach my Kobo to the computer, and wait for it to update. It does. The book still isn't there.

Kind customer service person (henceforth KCSP) writes back to confirm that I own the book, and explains sychronisation (the updating thing) in case I'm doing it wrong. I'm not.

I write back and ask whether the problem is not, in fact, that my Kobo is registered to my original Yahoo email address, used to set up my original Kobo account, whilst the book was bought on my Rakuten-Kobo account linked to my Gmail address. I am feeling increasingly sorry for KCSP by now, but I like to think that my teachers would be proud of me on account of how I'm doing all of this in Japanese.

KCSP replies with various points. Firstly, apparently I should really be talking to Kobo UK since that's where I bought my Kobo. However, they will keep helping me for now. I am grateful for this, because Kobo UK essentially shrugged like a French waiter when I first had problems arriving here, and that definitely didn't reply to my emails within an hour.

Secondly, they are a bit confused by my accounts. I, also.

Thirdly, they want various details.

After a good night's sleep to digest this on a clear head (seriously, you try reading customer service emails about a highly technical matter* in another language after studying for 8 hours) I reply. It's not exactly a direct reply, but I basically write out the entire history of my interactions with Kobo, laying out purchases, accounts, email addresses and what went wrong at each stage, so they can be clear. All I want is to be able to buy books in both Japanese and English, and read them on my device what I purchased from the company what sells these books. The only reason I'm using Rakuten is because I can't get to the Kobo website - although admittedly I'm not sure that sells books in Japanese. Maybe? I don't know, because I'm not allowed to look at it.

Watch this space...

* I'm really not clear on exactly what's going on, but basically they have apparently made a horrible bodge of setting up systems when Rakuten bought Kobo. The Rakuten system is aware of my Kobo account just enough to stop me registering a Rakuten account with the same email address as my Kobo account, but not enough to let me either a) log in with my Kobo account, or b) unify the contents of these accounts in any way. This is a Very Specific Level of unification.

Monday 24 November 2014

It is not unnatural (as Tom Jones didn't sing)

This week I was completely baffled by a textbook reading. As such, I've been spending a lot of time today trying to puzzle out the intricacies of this page. Perhaps too much. I ended up trying to do a full-on analysis, which is hindered by never having really studied syntax, let alone Japanese linguistics. However, I did end up with a complicated table that I thought I'd share. Maybe someone will appreciate it.

The brackets (「 and 」) indicate the start and end of distinct grammatical elements. I've put things in different columns to indicate how deeply nested a particular phrase is.

English Grammar




それが

This NP





普通だ
Is ordinary VP



と思っている

Are thinking VP



日本人


Japanese people NP




Of PRT

習慣



Custom NP
からすると




From the
perspective of
PP



その時


This time NP



一回かぎり


Once and for all AVP





お礼
Politeness NP



だけ

Only AVP





By PP




(topic) PRT

もの足りなさ



Insufficiency NP




(obj.) PRT

感じる




To feel VP




this case PRT




(Emph.) PRT

無理はない



Is not unnatural VP

From the point of view of the cultures of the Japanese people, for whom this* is usual, it is not unnatural to feel the inadequacy of only a single expression of gratitude once-and-for-all on this occasion.**

* that is, repeating your thanks on several occasions

** that is, having done someone a favour

More naturally: From the point of view of the cultures of the Japanese people, for whom this is usual, it's natural to feel that thanking someone only once for a favour is insufficient.

I hope, glancing at the nested clauses and intricacies of this particular sentence, you can have a little insight into what I'm doing, and perhaps feel a smidgen of pity. Right, back to work...

Saturday 22 November 2014

Housematery

So recently one of my favourite humans managed to find the time to pop over to Japan for a week. That would be my old housemate, SC. We'd been talking about it for months, so it was brilliant to see it coming together.

As it worked out, SC basically spend some time with me at the weekends either side, and then shipped up to Kyoto during the week while I was at school. I kind of wish I'd been able to go to, but I really need to maximise my study time while I'm here. This is especially true because I'd missed several days due to illness just before she arrived, and wasn't on good form for a while afterwards. So I'd fallen behind, and honestly I'm still struggling to catch up.

The first night, all we managed was to meet up and eat. After strolling around for a while looking for promising places where I could understand the menu, we picked up some food from a tiny restaurant in Tenjin, and went to this place. It's a financial services building with a cafe outside, but everything was closed by, oh, 8.30pm or whenever we went. So we sat outside in the cool darkness, talking about stuff and eating chicken with curry sauce and rice. It was really nice. The only downside was, as ever, the lack of bins! I ended up taking the remnants awkwardly home on the train, which is a bit of a hassle when it's pots half-full of curry sauce and bones, even when you have a bag for them. Thankfully no leaking occurred.

Temples Galore

The next day we met up near Hakata station, and went a-templing. We wandered up to Shoufuku-ji, the first Zen temple in Japan. It was great. It's a large, very calm, very tranquil place (at least, when we visited!) and after wandering around for a while, we sat and talked on the steps of the main hall. There was nobody around for us to inconvenience, after all.

After that, we proceeded up the street and bumped into Touchou-ji,, the oldest Shingon temple in Japan. Here we pondered the very orange tower, and admired the very impressive inner hall, although neither of us is in a position to appreciate the significance of what we saw.

Since we were running short of time, we returned to Hakata station and discovered the array of shops and restaurants in the huge tower above it. Not something I'm used to - our stations are pretty much two-dimensional. We ate at an Okinawan restaurant, which was mildly bittersweet from my perspective, but the food was good. Then we parted ways for the week.

Kumamoto II: the Return

The following weekend SC came straight down to Kumamoto, and we arranged to meet there. Having already been once, I was in a position to act as guide and show us around. The weather was far nicer than the first time I'd been, and having company was also a lovely change for my tourism experiences, so all in all I had a great time. We saw the castle first, and it was very pleasant.

I have no idea what this is for. Possibly some form of sundail, or a crude compass?

I was delighted to see that the costume performance was happening that day. On my previous visit it had been rained off, but here we were able to get a good spot and watch, although I didn't understand much. The Japanese used seemed a bit old-fashioned (fitting the personas) and mostly seemed to consist of very long sentences that didn't contain much information. But the dancing was fun:

We took a break in the castle to eat some mochi, which SC had been given by a girl she met on route. She seems to have befriended roughly half the population of Kyoto over the course of a week, which doesn't unduly surprise me.

They were delicious, and with that very healthy lunch we pushed on through the Hosokawa place. It doesn't take that long if you're not trying to fill your day, so we were able to cram it in quickly. Although we discovered SC had managed to lose her ticket while walking around the castle, the Hosokawa staff very kindly let her in on the grounds that I had mine (probably guessing it was unlikely we'd randomly met in Kumamoto, and thus we'd presumably both bought castle tickets).

Afterwards we ate ramen in a nice little place, and then went for coffee.

One of the odd little events that holidays get you cropped up when we were getting our coffees. SC spotted a crowd with a van on a corner, and asked me to explain. I worked out that it was one of the many campaigning vans going around recently, this one belonging to Ishihara Yasanari, a candidate for mayor. While I can't quite make out the details of his policies, such crowd-pleasers as "town planning that each individual can be shining symbiosis", "school volunteer grandparents region take advantage of the good technique" and "I want to be able to take the city hall staff test in immediately towards the blind" explain the riotous reception he received. And we can all surely agree that "women are cheerful town, full of full of energy", can we not? As customary, the van was deafeningly loud and probably quite annoying for most of the local shops.

There was also a bit of singing with a rather talented lady; as far as we could tell she just turned up, sang on top of a van and then took her family off home, so I'm not sure whether she was a planned part of the performance, or simply decided it would be a lark and everyone was too polite to stop her...

It hadn't occurred to me that this would be fascinating, but as SC pointed out, an election hustings is a real novelty if they don't really bother with things like democracy or attracting the popular vote in your country. It was one of those teachable moments for me.

Back to Fukuoka

Due to various events going on, Fukuoka was pretty much full to the gills that weekend, and we'd been worrying about where she could stay. However, a friend of mine very kindly stepped in and offered to let SC sleep at her place overnight! Considering they'd never met and I've only known my friend a few months, this was amazing. もう一度ありがとうございました!

We reluctantly took up the offer when nothing else seemed available, short of helping her find a room in a love hotel (probably embarrassing, but a good anecdote for parties!). There was a fair bit of stress with the arrangements, as we were a bit late coming back from Kumamoto, and then had to take locate and take a Japanese bus (for the first time) while texting rapidly in Japanese (also for the first time). In the end we made it, and duly met up, laden with omiyage to thank my friend for this enormous favour. The next morning I called round to pick SC up, and was invited in to meet the family. This was another first, as I've never been in a Japanese home before. It was really lovely, sipping ultra-posh Fortnum and Masons' Orange Pekoe and chatting away. As far as I can tell, I managed not to do anything particularly impolite, which was a relief.

We left after an hour or so, and headed to Ohori Park for a bit of exercise. My friend had explained that there was a traditional Japanese garden there, which I'd always assumed was a temple and so not bothered visiting (I've seen a lot of temples, and I go there for the park). This proved to be another very tranquil place, and we wandered round for ages talking about jobs and politics. Ah, the exciting life of a 30-year-old! Then we picked up something to eat and drink from the cafe, and headed to the airport.

After a certain amount of confusion, SC managed to check in. Meanwhile I was accosted by a lady doing surveys, but we eventually managed to establish that SC, rather than I, should be doing it. A complex trilingual conversation ensued, since the lady turned out to be Chinese. Officially I can speak Chinese, but in this case it was much easier for me to use Japanese most of the time. That added a bit of extra interest to the trip.

And then it was time, and I said my very reluctant goodbyes and headed back home. It was lovely to see an old friend for the first time in months, and I spoke the most English I have since the summer. While I have got to know some very nice people here, and had a lot of fun, it's a different thing from from hanging out with a long-term, comfortable friend and just chewing the fat over ordinary stuff.

Come back soon!

Wednesday 19 November 2014

No stone left unkerned

One of the difficulties I always have with Japanese is reading. While I can glide very quickly over English text (and, to a lesser extent, other Roman languages) my Japanese reading is painfully slow and hesitant. It's not only that my Japanese isn't up to it; I find there's something monotonous about the actual presentation of Japanese text that makes it hard for me to focus and analyse it. After a lot of musing, I think it's because I'm used to kerned, spaced Roman text. What Japanese reminds me of is good old monospaced text, from the days of yore.

"Kerned" means the font has been designed so that letters are spaced elegantly. A slim I takes up less space than a broad W, giving a more pleasing appearance to most readers. The font called Times New Roman is kerned, but Courier isn't.

I am Times New Roman and I am kerned. WWWWWIIIII.

I am Courier New and I am not kerned. WWWWWIIIII.

A lot of written Japanese (such as novels) includes oral features like certain changes to pronunciation. Sometimes it moves towards full-fledged dialect, but even with more standard writing there are some changes to the 'standard' form that adds to my confusion. To make matters worse, there are often three or more ways of writing the exact same word: kanji, hiragana or katakana. Sometimes these have identical meanings; sometimes not. Apparently お化け tends to mean a classic Japanese ghost, while オバケ (exactly the same pronunciation, "oh-ba-ke") tends to mean a cutesy Halloween ghost. ずれている花瓶 and ズレている花瓶 are both pronounced "zurete iru kabin", and are technically the exact same verb, but have mildly different implications.

If you're interested, they mean "the vase is out of place". The first version, in the usual hiragana, implies a physical displacement. The second, in katakana (usually reserved for foreign or emphasised words) implies the vase just doesn't fit in with the decor.

Anyway, the point of this post is, I thought it might be interesting (for both English and Japanese readers) to compare and contrast the two. This will require your computer to understand how to show Japanese characters, so if not, sorry.

Here I have attempted to produce roughly the same effect with English. There's really no way to substitute for the complications of the three Japanese scripts, and I haven't tried. English also provides more clues about word boundaries, because of the way syllables are constructed. For example, you can't start any English words with ng, pth, rd and so on. Japanese is a syllabic script, where any character can (in theory) appear at the start, middle or end of a word, so for the non-fluent reader, it's harder to judge boundaries.

I have, however:

  1. Removed all the spaces.
  2. Put it all in lower case.
  3. Made the font monospaced, giving a similar monotonous look to the text.
  4. Thrown in a few oral features, tweaking the written forms to show some features of authentic pronunciation.
  5. Reduced the spacing between lines of text, so it's harder to focus on the line you're reading.

Because I'm fairly kind, I kept the spelling alterations pretty mild, and didn't attempt to make the whole thing sound like I do.

For really authentic nostalgia, this should be printed in green text on a black screen, like the computers of my youth.

EDIT: after some time (and some readers) it occurs to me that uppercase is probably even harder to parse.

ELIZABETHPASSEDTHECHIEFOTHENIGHTINERSISTERSROOM,ANINTHMORNINGHADTHEPLEASUREOBEINGABLETOSENDATOLERABLEANSWERTOTHEINQUIRIESWHICHSHEVERYEARLYRECEIVEDFROMMRBINGLEYBYAHOUSEMAID,ANSOMETIMEAFTERWARDSFROMTHTWOELEGANTLADIESWHOWAITEDONISSISTERS.INSPITEOTHISAMENDMENT,HOWEVER,SHEREQUESTEDTOWAVEANOTESENTTOLONGBOURN,DESIRINERMOTHERTOVISITJANE,ANFORMEROWNJUDGEMENTOERSITUATION.THENOPEWASIMMEDIATELYDISPATCHED,ANITSCONTENTSASQUICKLYCOMPLIEBWITH.MRSBENNET,ACCOMPANIEDBYERTWOYOUNGESTGIRLS,REACHEDNETHERFIELDSOONAFTERTHEFAMILYBREAKFAST.

ADSHEFOUNJANEINANYAPPARENTDANGER,MRSBENNETWOULDABEENVERYMISERABLE;BUPBEINSATISFIEDONSEEINERTHATERILLNESSWASNOTALARMING,SHEADNOWISHOFERRECOVERINGIMMEDIATELY,ASHERRESTORATIONTOHEALTHWOULDPROBLYREMOVERFROMNETHERFIELD.SHEWOULDNOTLISTEN,THEREFORE,TOERDAUGHTERSPROPOSALOBEINGCARRIEDHOME;NEITHERDIDTHEAPOTHECARY,WHOARRIVEDABOUTTHESAMETIME,THINKITATALLADVISABLE.AFTERSITTINALITTLEWHILEWIJANE,ONMISSBINGLEYSAPPEARANCEANINVITATION,THEMOTHERANDTHREEDAUGHTERSALLATTENDEDERINTOTHEBREAKFASPPARLOUR.BINGLEYMETTHEMWITHHOPESTHAPMRSBENNETHADNOFFOUMMISSBENNETWORSETHANSHEEXPECTED.

The first, lowercase version:

elizabethpassedthechiefothenightinersistersroom,aninthmorninghadthepleasureobeingabletosendatolerableanswertotheinquirieswhichsheveryearlyreceivedfrommrbingleybyahousemaid,ansometimeafterwardsfromthtwoelegantladieswhowaitedonissisters.inspiteothisamendment,however,sherequestedtowaveanotesenttolongbourn,desirinermothertovisitjane,anformerownjudgementoersituation.thenopewasimmediatelydispatched,anitscontentsasquicklycompliebwith.mrsbennet,accompaniedbyertwoyoungestgirls,reachednetherfieldsoonafterthefamilybreakfast.

adshefounjaneinanyapparentdanger,mrsbennetwouldabeenverymiserable;bupbeinsatisfiedonseeinerthaterillnesswasnotalarming,sheadnowishoferrecoveringimmediately,asherrestorationtohealthwouldproblyremoverfromnetherfield.shewouldnotlisten,therefore,toerdaughtersproposalobeingcarriedhome;neitherdidtheapothecary,whoarrivedaboutthesametime,thinkitatalladvisable.aftersittinalittlewhilewijane,onmissbingleysappearanceaninvitation,themotherandthreedaughtersallattendederintothebreakfaspparlour.bingleymetthemwithhopesthapmrsbennethadnoffoummissbennetworsethansheexpected.

Even I have some difficulties with that. Note that the longer words are generally easier to read, because a fluent reader recognises words based on overall shape, not by reading individual letters. A long word tends to have a more distinctive shape and is more unique, whereas passages of short words require you to identify more words in the same space. For example, "judgement" and "accompanied" are easier to spot than "met them with".

And here's the original:

Elizabeth passed the chief of the night in her sister's room, and in the morning had the pleasure of being able to send a tolerable answer to the inquiries which she very early received from Mr. Bingley by a housemaid, and some time afterwards from the two elegant ladies who waited on his sisters. In spite of this amendment, however, she requested to have a note sent to Longbourn, desiring her mother to visit Jane, and form her own judgement of her situation. The note was immediately dispatched, and its contents as quickly complied with. Mrs. Bennet, accompanied by her two youngest girls, reached Netherfield soon after the family breakfast.

Had she found Jane in any apparent danger, Mrs. Bennet would have been very miserable; but being satisfied on seeing her that her illness was not alarming, she had no wish of her recovering immediately, as her restoration to health would probably remove her from Netherfield. She would not listen, therefore, to her daughter's proposal of being carried home; neither did the apothecary, who arrived about the same time, think it at all advisable. After sitting a little while with Jane, on Miss Bingley's appearance and invitation, the mother and three daughters all attended her into the breakfast parlour. Bingley met them with hopes that Mrs. Bennet had not found Miss Bennet worse than she expected.

For comparison, here's some actual Japanese. I believe it is technically kerned, but because of differences in the scripts, I still find it looks essentially monospaced to me.

メル・ヘイスティングスはいきなりヒステリックな笑い声を出した。「これであなたの頭が変だということがわかりましたよ、先生!あのやさしい、愛情深いアリスに心臓《ハート》がないだなんて!彼女はよく言ったものです。『わたしにはアタマがないのよ。そうでなきゃ、どんくさい新聞記者なんかと結婚するもんですか。でも、だからわたしにはハートがあるの。あなたと恋に落ちたのはわたしのハートなのよ。アタマじゃなくて』彼女はぼくを愛していたんです。わかりませんか」

ドクタ・ウインタースは彼をそっと連れ出そうとした。「もちろん、わかりますよ。どうぞこちらへ、ミスタ・ヘイスティングス。しばらく横になって休みましょう。気付けになにか持ってきます」

メルは導かれるままに近くの小部屋に入った。医者が持ってきた液体は飲んだが、横になろうとはしなかった。

「たしかに見ましたよ」呆然としながらもきっぱり彼はそう言った。「でも説明なんかどうでもいい。ぼくはアリスを知っていたんです。彼女はぼくや先生以上にちゃんとした人間だった。異常なんてちっともなかった――もっとも去年ごろから、ぼくらがあるとき一緒に火星に行ったと思いこんでいたけど」

And purely for completeness here's the same text roughly as it'd look given the Roman treatment. It's a little easier for me to read, especially once I added a spacing line between the characters, but still feels somewhat monotonous to me (is it the squareness of the characters, I wonder? I find the very distinctive sized っ makes a word much easier to parse...), and I imagine it makes little difference to a fluent reader:

メル・ヘイスティングス  は  いきなり  ヒステリック  な  笑い声  を  出した。  「これ  で  あなた  の  頭  が  変  だ  という  こと  が  わかりました  よ、  先生!  あの  やさしい、  愛情  深い  アリス  に  心臓  《ハート》  が  ない  だ  なんて!  彼女  は  よく  言った  もの  です。  『わたし  に  は  アタマ  が  ない  の  よ。  そう  で  なきゃ、  どん  くさい  新聞  記者  なんか  と  結婚  する  もん  です  か。  でも、  だから  わたし  に  は  ハート  が  ある  の。  あなた  と  恋  に  落ちた  の  は  わたし  の  ハート  な  の  よ。  アタマ  じゃ  なく  て』  彼女  は  ぼく  を  愛して  いたん  です。  わかりません  か」

ドクタ・ウインタース  は  彼  を  そっと  連れ出そう  と  した。  「もちろん、  わかります  よ。  どうぞ  こちら  へ、  ミスタ・ヘイスティングス。  しばらく  横  に  なって  休みましょ  う。  気付け  に  なにか  持って  きます」

メル  は  導かれる  まま  に  近く  の  小  部屋  に  入った。  医者  が  持って  き  た  液体  は  飲ん  だ  が、  横  に  なろ  う  と  は  し  なかった。

「たしか  に  見ました  よ」  呆然  と  し  ながら  も  きっぱり  彼  は  そう  言った。  「でも  説明  なんか  どう  でも  いい。  ぼく  は  アリス  を  知って  い  た  ん  です。  彼女  は  ぼく  や  先生  以上  に  ちゃんと  した  人間  だった。  異常  なんて  ちっとも  なかった――  もっとも  去年  ごろ  から、  ぼく  ら  が  ある  とき  一緒  に  火星  に  行った  と  思いこん  で  いた  けど」

Why?

There's reasons for these differences, including the fact that in normal Japanese, a reader can break up the text by the placement of the kanji (the more complicated characters). Even Japanese people find text written entirely in hiragana or katakana to be slow and inconvenient to read, apparently.

Studies indicate that spaces are helpful in reading kana text, but not in reading text with kanji. The kanji allow readers to break up the text enough to spot the word-shapes easily. I can see that to some extent, but would really have liked to see this analysed in more detail.

I noticed that the sample "kanji with kana" text has a very heavy density of kanji compared to anything I normally see: 86 of 199 (average) characters were kanji, so nearly half. This is about the proportion I found in a short formal newspaper article about politics. Formal writing often uses Chinese-derived kanji words where more ordinary writing would use a Japanese expression with one or no kanji. Quite a lot of these were proper nouns written out in full, which suggests it would decrease with a longer article, and also vary by subject. I've also seen it noted that kanji use is partly a deliberate choice to save space, as kanji are far more compact. Here, the kana mostly mark certain grammatical information in between kanji words; there are rarely more than two kana terms adjacent. Mostly we have a sort of alternation which means the word boundaries are actually pretty clear.

菅義偉官房長官は19日午前の記者会見で、消費増税の税収を財源に想定している「子ども・子育て支援新制度」について、増税時期を先送りしても「予定通り施行したい」と述べた。

菅義偉  官房長官  は  19日  午前  の  記者会見  で  消費増税  の  税収  を  財源  に  想定  して  いる  「子ども  子育て  支援  新制度」について、増税  時期  を  先送り  して  も  「予定  通り  施行  したい  」と  述べた。

As you can see, in most cases the word boundary occurs at the switch between kanji and kana. There are a couple of more complex cases where it's arguable (to me) whether something is one or two words, like "消費増税" (consumption tax increase) which can't quite be broken down the same way as the English can.

A random blogpost had 62 kanji out of 213 characters, so just over a quarter. As you might expect, it's much harder to pick out the words in this one.

黄のシールお使いになる前に店員に一声おかけください。使用には知識が必要なものに張られていることが多いのですが、自分で動かせることがお貸出し条件となります。赤のシール修理中のものや店員にも使い方が良く分かっていないものに張られています。

黄  の  シール  お使い  に  なる  前  に  店員  に  一声  おかけ  ください。使用  に  は  知識  が  必要  な  もの  に張られて  いる  こと  が  多い  の  です  が、自分  で  動かせる  こと  が  お貸出し  条件  と  なります。 赤  の  シール  修理中  の  もの  や  店員  に  も  使い  方  が  良く  分かって  いない  もの  に  張られて  います。

Having looked around, I can't find a reliable source, but I've seen several places stating that the average kanji proportion in writing is only around 30%, which feels about right for the stuff I see day-to-day (I rarely glance at a newspaper). Novels seem a bit higher, but I would say not much unless you look at Serious Literature. This helps explain why I find reading so difficult... not enough kanji, it would seem!

Basically it seems that reading in Japanese (as opposed to simply being able to read) is a substantially different skill from reading in English. You can't just transfer over existing ability and then learn the language; you have to train your brain to do a different kind of pattern-recognition to interpret the text. Until I manage that, I'm stuck with painstakingly pushing through a character or two at a time, trying to actively analyse rather than having the words and sentence structure leap out at me.

Right, musing over, time for bed.

Monday 17 November 2014

Eating horse: Umaiokonomi restaurant

So a couple of weeks ago, C (of Mongolian restaurant fame) buttonholed me in the lounge and asked if I wanted to eat horse.

I've got to be honest, it's really never been on my 'to-do' list. Write bestselling novel, sure. Eat horse, not really. But it was an invitation, so why not.

We met up with a couple of the same people, but mostly new faces, and headed to 馬庵このみ (Umaiokonomi, something like "Horse Flavour Haven" as far as I can tell).

To my dismay, this place was once again designed for kneeling on the floor. However, it was a fair bit more spacious and the tables higher, and between these I was able to manage okay by shifting between postures pretty regularly.

The food we had was basically all horse-based. First, they brought in a plate of horse sashimi, which is to say, raw horsemeat sliced thinly.

It was okay. There wasn't a very strong flavour to it, so mostly it tasted of the ginger and onions you wrapped in it. By itself it didn't seem to taste of very much, and was fairly chewy.

Next, they introduced a dish of little rings. These proved to be slices of aorta. Yes, I can see the delight on everyone's faces as you read this, but in my country we do eat little skin-wrapped bundles of offal and sausages made from blood, I'm just saying.

The main word I have for these is "rubbery". The taste was pretty good, in my opinion, but the sheer effort of chewing them was rather offputting. It was considerably more rubbery than squid or octopus, say.

Our third dish was some rib meat, this time cooked fairly well. It tasted fine, not particularly strong - I was quite surprised as for some reason I expected horse to have a very distinctive flavour. It was fairly similar to basic beef, as in beef that hasn't been marinated for flavour. This was basically my favourite dish of the evening: not chewy, a bit of flavour. How very conservative of me.

There was also a bit of salad, which refreshed the old palate a bit, although as usual (in all countries) I had to pick out the edible parts least affected by philistines pouring flavoured oil all over it. Why would you do that to a poor, innnocent lettuce?

The meal was rounded off with some sushi - which turned out to, of course, be made from raw horse. I ate some. Because the horse didn't really have a strong flavour, they tasted mostly of seaweed to me. We later realised that the accompaniment was not (bizarrely, we had thought) ham, but delicious sliced ginger! These greatly improved the sushi, making it taste of seaweed with ginger.

Afterwards, there was a certain amount of back-and-forth on the subject of natto, and one of my companions decided to try it. Essentially the Japanese folks were daring us to eat it. A bowl of natto mixed with raw horsemeat was duly provided (euphemistically termed "cherry natto" because of the colour!) and he cheerfully ate the lot. I had a bite, and it was okay, but not anything I feel a strong desire to try again. It seems bland initially, but has a more complex aftertaste.

I have no photos of the natto, certainly not of me trying it, so you'll just have to trust me.

On the whole, I have to say I wasn't particularly impressed. I had a good time because of the company, but compared to our trip to Ordos, or my visit to the okonomiyaki place, the food didn't really do anything for me. I suspect this is partly because we were essentially just eating meat, and that's not really my thing. I'd have probably preferred a plate of mixed veg and some of the fairly standard cooked horsemeat, either the stuff we had or the various other cuts I saw other diners eating. A shame, some others clearly enjoyed it more than me, but hey, I learned something (I don't really care for raw horsemeat).

Afterwards, we headed off to a cafe. They'd run a bit short on supplies, so a few small puddings were bought between us, and a coffee apiece. I stuck to the coffee, having already decided I needed to eat some fruit when I got back to make up for all the meat. M asked us to crowdsource music for her, to help broaden her horizons, so we chipped in and passed MP3 players back and forth. I introduced everyone to the delights of Barrule. I'm hoping at some point the list will be sent round, as there seemed to be lots of cool things on it, but it hasn't happened yet...

Thursday 6 November 2014

A Night on the Town

On Saturday, a friend-of-a-friend kindly invited me out for tea. It's been a pretty lively month, really.

I duly travelled to the Big Screen, where basically everybody meets everybody, and met up with H, as well as new acquaintances Y and T. After the usual pleasantries, we headed out west to a little place H knew. There was a certain amount of complication because T is following the Paleo Diet (the first person I've met to do so). It doesn't seem particularly hard to handle, probably even a bit easier than vegeterianism in Japan, but the language barrier made it a bit tricker, T not being Japanese. We managed.

We ended up going to 豪海丸, which was possibly an izakaya, or possibly just a little restaurant - I'm not that clear on the difference.

Here, the hand-written menu proved a challenge, and the ladies picked food for us. It's the sort of place where you pick shared platters rather than your own meal, so we got about four things to share on a meaty/fishy theme.

Some extremely tender, succulent fish. You take a slice, rub it in the salt, pick one of the array of condiments to add to it, and then it melts in your mouth. Delish.

These are sort of omelettey things, with egg and fish roe. They weren't as good as I'd hoped, but pretty decent.

A simple beef skewer. Rich and tasty.

This was just some form of salad - I can't identify the main section, but it's overlaid with salmon and fish roe. I ate it tactically, managing to avoid most of the dressing. Can't abide dressings.

After our meal, we strolled off and sought out somewhere to get a coffee. As it was getting on for 10pm, places were shutting, but we found that Pronto was still open and offered lattes. On the downside, it was dark and we could only get a seat in the smoking section. Sigh. It wasn't too bad, actually. The lattes were certainly decent.

I had a very nice time, both foodwise and getting to know some new friends. I can recommend the restaurant to future visitors, providing you're able to cope with handwritten Japanese. It was a bit crowded, but relatively quiet, not too expensive, and very tasty. Similarly, Pronto seems very acceptable.

Mooching in Kyushu: Karatsu

We have another three-day weekend right now due to a public holiday - this one is Culture Day, 3rd of November. There's another one later this month, which will be "an occasion for praising labor, celebrating production and giving one another thanks". Other holidays include Respect for the Aged Day, Mountain Day ("a day on which to appreciate Japan's mountains") and "a day to commune with nature and be grateful for its blessings". Having reviewed the evidence closely, I would like to argue for Japan to take over the arrangement of public holidays, not least because they have more than twice the number our miserly government is prepared to offer.

In fairness though, Japan's minimum holiday allowance is a mere 10 days and there's a chronic addiction to unpaid overtime, often followed by compulsory socialising with alcohol, so maybe I'll stick to the British system after all.

I decided this would be a good opportunity to get out of town and visit another one of the places near Fukuoka. As I apparently can't visit places that don't begin with K, I chose Karatsu, which is a little way to the west, lured by promises of a castle and extensive pine forest.

As the weather was okay, I saved some time by strolling north to the Airport Line, rather than riding into town and transferring. This wasn't a particular problem, but the rest of the journey was a bit perplexing. The map gave the impression that I'd have to transfer at Meinohama station from the orange underground line to the grey railway. I started getting off at Meinohama, but realised other people were staying on, so it couldn't be a terminus. Luckily the doors stayed open for a little while, and I was able to quickly check with another passenger. This was a big relief, as if it had gone off without me the next one wouldn't have come for ages.

Having apparently settled down to a full-length journey, I was then bemused a few stops later to see that everyone was getting off the train. Maybe this was just a very important stop, and hardly anyone continued on to the next city? I did see a couple of schoolkids in uniform getting on, which reassured me slightly. Then the doors shut, but nothing else happened. Luckily, a train porter was coming down, so I buttonholed him for an explanation. It turned out that in fact, this train was going to turn round and go back to Fukuoka Airport. I could only be grateful that the doors opened again and gave me a chance to escape.

I did eventually make it to Karatsu, but I'm still a bit confused by the whole business. I presume that, for some trains, they find it more efficient to do a partial run to this significant intermediate stop (whose name I've forgotten) rather than go the whole distance. It just seems unusual to me to reverse a train somewhere other than a terminus.

It's always nice to get out of the city for a bit and into the slightly-more-countryside areas. Being able to see more than a few dozen yards is a rare treat! I've never really got comfortable with the confinedness of the inner city, away from fields and hills to roam over. The train also offers nice views of some of the islands around the coast, which are about as densely populated as a steep tree-covered cone can be. I do wonder what the people living there do for a living; I suspect many are just able to afford either to commute constantly, or not to work at all. There's probably some fishing too.

There are also a few traditional-looking houses with a bit more breathing space than the city allows them. They look far more comfortable with a bit of land around them, rather then the walls six inches from fences on all sides.

Arriving in Karatsu, I quickly grabbed a map and headed out.

Karatsu is known for its pottery, although I saw no particular reason to buy any. It was very pretty from what I saw of it, but so is much pottery. Also, bringing pottery back in a plane sounds like a recipe for disaster.

This is a Buddhist temple, Anrakuji. I wasn't entirely sure at the time, and didn't like to go in through the large, heavy gates.

This is a rather nice bank, apparently. It's important enough to be listed on the tourist map, so I took a detour from the recommended route to check it out. Also, because I don't like being told what to do! Going through the squirrely side-roads filled with little shops was much more interesting than the main route.

This seems to be a remnant of an older building complex, presumably once part of the castle's outermost defences.

This, too, is a bit of a mystery, but I thought it was interesting. Apparently it's a clock tower that was once part of the outlying area of Karatsu castle. This area is now just houses, shops and so on; the grounds are long gone. What appears to be yet another concrete-bound river nearby is actually the remains of the moat.

Houses rather precariously tucked onto the riverbank.

For some reason, this little car in this dusty car park with its background of seaside trees makes me think of 70s-80s album covers.

As I wandered through the town, I noticed that preparations were in hand for a festival. The Karatsu Kunchi runs from the evening of the 2nd of November to the 4th, which meant that I would essentially miss it. However, luck was with me. Knowing the festival wasn't due to start, I made zero attempt to go anywhere relevant or check for goings on. As it happened, though, I was ambling through a particular street at just the time a trial run was beginning! So I was able to see two of the floats being carried out, as well as the various stalls setting out ready for the festival.

Since traffic is still allowed through here, it's not really possible to get a decent picture. Sorry.

You can try to scoop these goldfish with a paper scoop. If you succeed before it disintegrates in the water, you can keep it. It's like winning one on the shooting range at a British fairground. It's a staple of things like manga when they're portraying festivals, but I've always vaguely disapproved of this sort of thing.

Nobody was in costume, but it was interesting all the same. I considered staying a while after my sightseeing and eating from the stalls, but later developments would change this plan.

Karatsu Castle

My first intended port of call was, of course, Karatsu Castle.

This house was just along the way to the castle. Like I said, they take their pottery seriously. I have to assume this is a potter's house, but am surprised they leave it all just sitting outside. You'd think it would get damaged.

A map of the castle grounds. You'll note that what's left is far smaller than the parklike surroundings of Kumamoto or Fukuoka castles. Basically there's a hill to walk up with a turret on top. It seems a lot smaller when you're there than this picture implies.

The castle proved to be rather disappointing. What's actually there to look at is pretty small, and there's lots of scaffolding and hoardings around due to reconstruction or excavation efforts.

On the plus side, you can see the whole outside area free of charge, and the small fee is only for going in. I actually decided against this, because I’d already seen the inside of Kumamoto castle, and it seemed very unlikely this much smaller one would be more interesting. From peeking around, there were apparently displays of various artefacts and so on, but due to my very limited knowledge of the history and my poor Japanese, I assumed that I wouldn’t really be able to make much out of it, and so decided to spend my time elsewhere. The entry fee wasn’t much of an issue, but time was as this was only a day trip. Apparently there's a nice view from the top, but it's probably less nice when it's overcast and a bit misty.

There are some decent views from the hillside. Excitingly, at least half a dozen raptors were circling overhead, probably buzzards of some kind. I really wonder where they nest - maybe somewhere on the castle, or the nearby forest?

The remains of the castle. This is about all you can see, and it's actually a 1960s reconstruction! Very little was left.

It's hard to make out, but this is the traditional sort of compass rose you get on viewpoints in the UK as well, indicating the names of various hills, islands and other landmarks you can make out.

As you can see, the islands are pretty steep, so people can only really live on the outer rim. Presumably you could get a house built further up, but why bother? You'd only have to slog up and down.

An interesting caterpillar. Some local visitors saw me photographing it and thought this was hilarious.

This was the best I could manage of this leaf-like butterfly. The camera needs to be completely still for close-up shots, so couldn't get an overhead view with the whole thing in focus!

Niji-no-Matsubara (虹の松原) Pine Forest

This pine forest was one of the things that had attracted me to Karatsu. It's a ridiculously long time since I was able to walk on anything other than tarmac, paving slab or floorboards. The prospect of a long stroll through a wood was very appealing (although, on reflection, there's probably a tarmac path anyway!).

The forest is to the east of the castle, so I trotted off across a long bridge to the next peninsula.

This seems to be Anyoji, another temple. I didn't go in, as I was on my way to the forest.

The forest area proved to be baffling, at least from the angle I approached from. I’d seen mentioned in several places that you can walk there, but when I finally found it it wasn’t at all clear how. The only apparent route in turned out to lead to a graveyard, and though I wandered around here for a bit attracting confused looks from a few locals, it didn’t offer any walking route.

Also, apparently not many people went there, because I kept running into bits of spiderweb, invisible in the light, populated with those enormous spiders I’ve photographed before. This was a trifle alarming. Eventually I gave up and left, deciding that the distant possibility of a nice woodland walk didn’t weigh up well against the likelihood of wasting my whole afternoon walking down a road looking for the entrance.

Further research suggests I was indeed in the right place, but that the only entrance points are much further east. Since I didn't see a single signpost pointing this out, I'm not sure it was possible for me to discover this, so I feel vindicated. Pro Tip: If you have a forest 5km long with a path through it, why not make the path accessible from both ends and advertise it with a big sign?

Turning back turned out to be a good bet, because the weather turned from overcast to leaden skies, and soon the heavens opened. I was very glad I had, in fact, brought my umbrella, because with howling wind and pounding rain, I was soaked to the waist even with it. I sought shelter under a roof for a while, and managed to traipse the rest of the way into town when it eased off. Here I hoped to find a restaurant, but this was surprisingly difficult, as presumably I was in the wrong part of town. I had passed some kind of café, but it looked very posh and I thought they wouldn’t be that happy to see a sodden foreigner just wanting a cup of tea. In the end I stumbled across a restaurant where I was basically herded inside by a lurking waiter (a common tactic in Japan). Despite some misgivings, I managed to secure a curry and a cuppa, and cheered up a bit. The quick-drying trousers once again proved a worthwhile investment, although my shoes would be out of it for a couple of days.

Takatori Residence

The final stop I'd planned was the old Takatori residence. I didn't know about it when I arrived, but in my wanderings I'd run across it and decided it would be worth a look. This was along the lines of the Hosokawa residence in Kumamoto.

This was a fairly interesting place, but that's quite difficult to convey here because there's an absolute ban on photographs and they don't sell postcards! So there's no way to show other people how interesting something was. I'm still a bit baffled by this cultural difference.

I went around on my own with the pamphlets, giving me time to read everything. However, there were tour guides showing people through as well. Since I didn't understand that much when they were near my, I don't feel like I missed out - there's too much historical, architectural and cultural information that I just wouldn't be able to catch. The downside for me was that they were often a bit in the way! They came fairly thick and fast, and went in opposing directions around the house, so not getting stuck behind one was a bit of an issue at times.

These interior shots are actually taken from the brochure, so I didn't break the rules, have no fear! This is a set of painted wooden doors.

This large reception room incorporates an entire stage for Noh theatre - the shiny part at the end next to the painting of the tree. Apparently the flooring of the adjacent rooms can also be taken up to provide extra space for musicians, people waiting to come onstage and so on.

Time to go

Sopping shoes, the unpromising weather (I'd spent a good half an hour fighting driving rain and wind on my way back into town) and the difficulty of finding any cafés to loiter in made me reluctant to hang around in Karatsu any more, so I strolled back to the station around 4pm. I'd planned to look around the festival stalls, but the prospect of doing this in the rain wasn't very appealing.

I bought this on my way back to the station, from one of the stalls. It's a kind of Taiyaki (鯛焼き , literally "baked sea bream") which is a cake filled with red bean or some other sweet filling. This kind is a croissant-style taiyaki, which sounded odd, but was pretty tasty. To my astonishment, I was able to find somewhere to sit down and eat it! This essentially never happens. I generally assume that Japanese people have some kind of untiring robotic legs.

Overall verdict

Karatsu was a bit of a disappointment, although that's not necessarily a fair assessment. The castle felt like a bit of a con, despite being free - it's advertised as a castle, but there really isn't enough left to justify the label. It's a tower on a hill. The difficulty of getting into the forest was partly my fault for not asking at tourist information, but then I wasn't expecting it to be remotely difficult, and finding it was easy enough. The weather isn't the fault of Karatsu, but it coloured my experience.

It was certainly not awful, but not nearly as interesting as I’d hoped. Other than the Takatori residence, I didn't particularly notice anything that made it a good place to visit. Most of the rest of the town seemed, alas, about as interesting as my own hometown; I can't particularly recommend it. When the festival is on, it's undoubtedly more exciting.