Tone of your voice

You know when there's a cute baby, how adult raises the pitch of the voice and talk to them with a baby-talk? How news-casters talk / narrate on TV? You would change the tone / pitch of your voice or change how you talk per situation.

You will see them very clearly when you visit Japan. We all have different tone of voice to begin with. But when Japanese person is working at the counter (like airport, restaurant, etc.), all workers will be using high-pitch voice (like octave high-pitch for women). Men won't be using octave high-pitch voice, but they will raise alittle high. It's a Japanese custom to talk in high pitch as part of the service.

Don't worry, the high pitch tone to talk to you doesn't mean they're treating you like a baby. It's just the way that people are trying to be nice to you to serve you better.

Read more...

Not raised to smile

In states, it is very natural for us to smile for greeting. However, Japanese is not raised to smile when greeting, unless you are a close friend. It is weird to say this, but when you visit Japan, don't smile around. Japanese would think that you're from the lala-land.

Just like how it is over-acted on TV, Japanese will bow for greeting. Respect is everything for Japanese culture, especially to the elders. So you may see younger person giving bow as a body gesture while elder person is just nodding. Although among close friends, they would wave hands for greeting. No hugging for sure... unless they are VERY close friends and haven't met for long time.

Many Japanese people (especially in big city like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, etc.) are now getting used to shaking hands for greeting (by having business with companies from foreign countries). But unless you are there for a business with that person from the company, don't even bother to shake hands... most of them would be thinking of what you want, unless that person have visited USA in the past.

Just for a point though... if Japanese person is smiling while you're asking them a question or so, they're most likely being shy while trying to understand what you're saying (looking through their brain for that vocabulary). I guess it's a psychological thing... If you visit Japan's McDonald, you'll even find it there stating, "Service Smile costs 0 yen." This tells you that Japanese doesn't smile unless it's a service to strangers.

Oh another point! When foreigners visit USA, UK, Australia, Canada, you'd expect everyone to speak English to ask a question. But when English-speaking people visit Japan, you'd expect them to understand English. This is very false. (Just think... how equivalent is your skill of second language in high school vs that country's person's fluency of that language) And when you ask / talk to them, talk to them slowly by breaking word-to-word. They're not deaf, you don't need to yell. (I had that experience.. I almost smacked that person)

Read more...

Katakana

Katakana is a form of Japanese writing which is transcription of foreign word or foreign name that is not Japanese or some early Chinese driven.

Again, katakana is made from chinese letters like hiragana. (please take a look at hiragana blog if interested.)

For example, Japanese had rice from the earlier stage. Thus we will have the word, "kome" (rice). In hiragana would be こめ, or in Kanji 米 (this form is used unless you're an infant). However, foreign word like computer, you will use katakana konpyu-ta- (how it is written in Roman alphabet that Japanese use) コンピューター. Yeah, it is hard to know that konpyu-ta- is computer. But if you really seek how it pronounces, you'll get it eventually.

Below would be the chart of katakana.

Read more...

Hiragana

Hiragana is originally driven from Chinese Writing (Kanji). Japanese at that time used Chinese letters which sounds like the what that letter of Hiragana sounds like and converted to each letter for Hiragana.

Just a reminder. All A E I O U is not long sound vowel like we use in English. It's short. So for A, it sounds like "A"bout, not s"A"le. For I, it sounds like "I"t, not "I"ce. For U, it sounds like "oo"ps, not "U"topia. For E, it sounds like "E"lephant, not "E"at. For O, it sounds like "O"ps, not Oct"o"ber. Rest are the combination.

So for example, hiragana will spell ひらがな.

Read more...

Writing Type / System

Japanese writing is formed by 3 types: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Hiragana is used for particles (like "from", "to", "-san") or to support Kanji. All children up to when they start learning Kanji, all infants will use Hiragana.

Katakana is used for foreign word or name.

Kanji is Chinese character-driven but not actually same as chinese words today. There are about 50,000 words in kanji. Don't worry, most Japanese don't know ALL, but I'd say about 30,000 depends on the field that THAT person is into. We use combination of kanji to make words. For example, "社会(しゃかい・sha kai)" means "in society" or "in business world". However, if you reverse the characters to "会社（かいしゃ・kai sha）" it will mean "a company". Even if it sounds the same, you really need to focus on how it is used in character or by phrase. For example, "漢字（かんじ・kan ji）"　is "kanji (this japanese writing discussing now)", but "感じ（かんじ・kan ji）" means "feels like～".

Please take a look at blogs "Hiragana" and "Katakana" for simpler clarification.

Read more...

Summer - Umbrella used to block the sun

When you visit Japan during summer season, you may see some odd culture. Unlike in states, Japanese sees the beauty by keeping white skin as possible, while US prefers light to dark tan to look healthy. But please keep in mind that this stays to woman only!!

In order for Japanese women to stay white, they utilize UVA/UVB protection cream all over their body and other cosmetics. You may see many Japanese people wearing light long sleeves even though they're sweating like a pig. But again, this is to protect from the sun.

The oddest sight you will see is that every woman is using Sun-umbrella which doesn't even looks like a parasol. From year 2006 or so, they even had a trend where they all believed that black one will be the best way to avoid the sun (Yeah, it sounds contradicting, yet it is proven by the scientist... even Michael Jackson used it several times at the interview). Yes, it's a major fashion statement in Japan.

Let me post some of the pictures for you to have some idea. 2 are the major parasol / sun-protection umbrella during summer. To follow, 2 Japanese umbrella (like you may have seen in Kabuki ).

Read more...

Weather and Culture in general

Compared to eastern USA weather, Japan is very humid and rainy in general.

Japan is well-known to have 4 distinctive seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Since Japan is near the Asian continent and surrounded by major oceanic currents, Japan is very humid and rainy (or snow near Sea of Japan in winter-time), especially mid June ~ early July.

I'm sure you have seen many Japanese arts which all indicates THE season. Japanese loves to enjoy 風情 (fuzei) which means a culture to display the accessories per cultural events. For example, many Japanese who enjoys summer season would display 風鈴 (fu-rin) wind-bells indoors or outdoors (outside of the window).

Whenever you visit Japan, I hope you will catch fuzei of that season. It's very charming as I will explain per season on the blog.

Read more...