tonari no shibafu

Vocab of the day

丁々発止 (chô chô hasshi)

To cross swords with. To have a heated argument with.

The hasshi is (according to the kojien) meant to represent the sound that swords make when they strike each other.

It came up just now during Sono Manma Higashi's day addressing the Japanese diet. Higashi is an entertainer turned politician that recently became the governor of Miyazaki prefecture.

Who knew that governmental proceedings could be educational?

Foreigner crime file

I have been trying to avoid it, but I take a turn as the dutiful expat and report on the Foreigner Underground Crime File. This is a small book that someone found in stores (Family Mart convenience store chain) a few weeks ago. The book apparently uses some inflammatory rhetoric, tells half-truths about foreign residents' propensity towards crime, with downright mean-spirited and unfair portrayals. I can't say much about it as I haven't read it (yet) myself, but here is a sampling of the discussions that have been going on in the Japan-related interverse.

James' empty blog finds out about it. Then he learns that evidently, 'nigger' is not considered an offensive word in Japan. This comes on the heels of many stern words from the resident foreigner community, and the resultant decision by Family Mart to pull the books from the shelves. James' third? post on the ongoing issue.

Mutantfrog Travelogue talks about some reactions to this book, and includes some perspectives from predominantly Japanese sites mixi (a Japanese SNS) and 2-ch.

Japan Probe has excerpts from the response by the editor of the company that publishes the book. The response is originally from Metropolis.

Japundit points readers to a scanned copy of the book on the web.

I may have more on this later. Still waiting to see a (legal) copy...

When I get asked if I can use chopsticks I usually just respond "Well, I have hands, don't I?"

interesting post over at conbini bento

Rikai XUL

The excellent site Rikai.com has launched a new service called Rikai XUL.  I have been using Rikai.com for years now.  If one surfs to Japanese pages via the Rikai portal, moving the cursor over any kanji, brings up  in a text box the English meaning for the character(s).  The site also has Englsih ~ Japanese capabilities.  This has been an enormous help in reading Japanese newspapers, and also is a quick and dirty way to learn vocabulary outside of one's specialty.

Well it seems that they have addressed my only serious complaint with the site: having to go to the site.

Via AchiKochi

Via Japundit.com:

    "Rikai XUL is probably the coolest Japanese language learning tool, although you’ll need to be running the Firefox browser to make it work. After installing the program onto your browser, just right-click on unfamiliar kanji to get a definition."

Q-Chan

The top story on the Japanese news programs last night was that Takahashi Naoko (aka Q-chan) was not selected to represent Japan in this summer's Olympic Women's marathon.