The 招き猫 ( まねきねこ [Maneki Neko]- Beckoning cat) is a prominent part of Japanese culture. Seen in many stores & restaurants, these cats are meant to beckon customers in & bring the owners luck.  To foreigners, it looks like the cats are waving, but in Japan, the motion to call someone over looks much like a wave (to me at least, lol.) They’re also called Lucky Cats, and will bring different kinds of luck depending on which paw is raised. Generally the left paw is to bring in customers, while the right paw usually means wealth & general good luck. Nearly all Maneki Neko are holding a koban- a coin from the Edo period in Japan which also signifies wealth & prosperity.

The Lucky Cats are depicted as a Japanese Bobtail, and are usually white with spots.  The pokemon Meowth is said to be modeled after a Maneki Neko.
Many times, the figurines are made of plastic, ceramic or porcelain, but it doesn’t really make a difference. Most Maneki Neko are seen wearing a collar and/or a bib. The wiki article says that

“The bib might also be related to the bibs often decorating statues of the divinity Jizō Bosatsu. Protective statues of Jizō can be found guarding the entrances to Japanese shrines and graveyards. Jizō is the protector of sick and dying children and grateful parents of children recovered from illness will place a bib around Jizō as a gift of thankfulness.”

I bought my lucky Cat from a little gift shop when I was in California. /shrug
Poor little fella doesn’t have a bib, but he was only a dollar or two when I got him. Hooray for discount luck!

Read more »

In my ever-ongoing search for a solid hiragana chart, I came across these gems, floating around the internet. I’m not sure where I first saw them, but I tracked the original creators to deviant art- na-insoo & starshock12. They’ve done a fantastic job with these posters (which you can order through deviant art.)

So what makes these posters so great? It’s the fact that each kana (one poster for hiragana & one for katakana) features an anime or video game character that use it in their name.

Apparently the artists got some flak for mixing the English & Japanese names, but I think it’s a great thing.
You can check out the posters here: Hiragana  |  Katakana

With the A & ka lines under our belts, we can move onto the Sa & Ta lines.
Same as before,these are pronounces just like the hiragana. (The hiranaga sa & ta line post is here.)

サ   シ   ス   セ   ソ
sa shi* su se so
タ   チ    ツ    テ  ト
ta chi* tsu* te to

Some words using these kana:
シール
shiiru- sticker/seal

テスト
tesuto- test

Practice! http://www.realkana.com/

かたかな is the 2nd Japanese syllabary we’ll cover. It is setup & sounds JUST LIKE Hiragana, but it used to write foreign & “borrowed” words & names of non-Japanese people. Words like  テレビ (terebi - television) &  ニコラス (nikorasu - Nicholas) will always be written in Katakana.
(かたかな (katakana) itself is written in hiragana since it is a Japanese word :P)

Don’t forget that these are pronounced just like the A & Ka lines in hiragana.

ア イ ウ エ オ
a  i  u  e  o
カ  キ  ク  ケ コ
ka ki ku ke ko

Some Words using these kana:
アルファベット - Alphabet
arufabetto

コアラ - Koala
Koara

Don’t forget to practice!  http://www.realkana.com/

Hiragana has one more part to further complicate it, but still not adding any more new characters. What we’ll be talking about today is described in several different ways. I was taught Contracted sounds, but it can be called double consonant hiragana, or just double hiragana. Take the 1st entry in the chart below- きゃ (kya. ) You’ll notice that the や (ya) is smaller than the き (ki) this is what tells the reader that it’s a contracted sound.

きゃ Kya
きや Kiya
^ at first glance, they appear to be the same, but there are different meanings & pronunciations.

Read more »

I know it’s been awhile, but I’m back & ready for the next part! Today I’ll be covering age, along with asking & answering how old you are.

On the basic level, you say the number of years you are the then add さい (sai.)  If you’re 10 yeah old it’d be じゅうさう (juusai)

As always, there are exceptions. 20 when counting is nijuu, but as an age it gets a special name. Hatachi is used to describe 20-year-olds (this is like turning 18 in the U.S.) since this is the age when people are officially adults.

In Japan at the beginning of the year a person will turn 20, there’s a big celebration for all of them, even though it my not be their birthday yet. Read more »

じかん (Jikan - Time) is the next section of numbers we’ll be covering. This post will cover hours & half past. (i.e 4:30)

Fist things first: Questions & Answers.
What time is it?
Ima nanji desu ka?
いま なんじ です か?

It is ___.
___ desu.
___です.

To get the hour, basically take the number & stick じ (ji) on the end.
3:00 would be さんじ (sanji). Ji is kind of like adding “o’clock,” but it literally means hour.

**Take note of 4,7 & 9. They use these specific forms of the numbers.

To get half-past you just add はん (han). Han actually means half.
4:30 is よじはん.

Also, to differentiate between am/pm you’d use gozen for am & gogo for pm.

3:00 am
gozen sanji desu
ごぜん さんじ です

5:30 pm (This one makes me laugh)
gogo goji han desu
ごご ごじ はん

If you are in the video game section of most stores you’ll see at least 1 of the My _____ Coach games for DS. They have SAT prep, other languages , a version to increase your vocabulary, and even a weightless coach.

IGN gives a release date of 10/14, and at 29.99 it seems like agood deal in comparison ot electronic disctionaries & all that.

Here’s some Key Points from Amazon:

Key Features

Explore Japan as each point of interest opens up your vocabulary

• Lesson plans take place within interesting locations ranging from Tokyo to the country side
• Useful information for first time Japanese speakers planning to visit the country
• The world map is identical to the Japanese map and the locations of the country

Learn to pronounce sounds unique to Japanese by comparing your voice to a native speaker

• Voice recording and playback feature of the DS allows the player to compare his or her accent to a native Japanese speaker
• Ability to listen and compare phrases not just words but also phrases as well

Develop your calligraphy skills as you trace over animations showing the proper way to write in Japanese

• Write Japanese characters using the DS stylus and touch screen
• Stroke order and comparison ability allows players to properly write hiragana / katakana / kanji

Participate in mini-games that will test your grasp of the structured lessons featured in the game

• 12 mini-games reinforce lesson plans and the ability to write in Japanese
• Variety of mini games ranging from whack-a-mole, word search, bridge builder, and kanji writing

Use the built in reference tool to look up useful words and phrases

• Japanese Dictionary and phrasebook with over 12,000 Japanese words and hundreds of useful phrases
• Strong reference points and serves as an independent tool from the game that’s very practical and useful

This won’t be the only resource you’ll need to learn Japanese, (like someone said on the gamestop site) but it’ll be a fun way to supplement the other tools you’re using now. This game won’t make you fluent in Japanese, but it’ll help for sure.

Now we can count from 1-20, 20-100, 100-1000 & 1000-10,000. This post will cover the 10-thousands.

I mentioned before that in Japanese there’s a separate unit for Ten-Thousands. It took me a bit to wrap my head around it.  Say we have a huge number like 98,765.
In English, we’d read it 98 thousand, 7 hundred, 60, 5.

In Japanese it’s essentially read like this: 9 Ten-Thousand, 8 Thousand, 7 Hundred, 60, 5.

To me, it’s really hard to think that there’s something else to put in there. It almost makes sense, because Japanese currency ￥ (Yen, or えん [en] in Japanese) is usually listed in much larger numbers than we’re used to with dollars.
￥100 is about $1.00 give or take.
If our big number above was  ￥98,765… it’d be $987.65 roughly.

1,000.	sen	せん
10,000.	ichiman*	いちまん
20,000.	niman	にまん
30,000.	sanman	さんまん
40,000.	yonman~	よんまん
50,000.	goman	ごまん
60,000.	rokuman	ろくまん
70,000.	nanaman~	ななまん
80,000.	hachiman	はちまん
90,000.	kyuuman	きゅうまん

Using this new list, lets look at the big number again, & break it down:

90,000	kyuuman
8,000	hassen
700	nanahyaku
60	rokujuu
5	go

So all together 98,765 would be read:
きゅうまん はっせん ななひゃく ろくじゅう ご
kyuuman hassen nanahyaku rokujuu go

It’s alot to take in, but I found for myself that breaking it down helps.

I learned a nifty phrase today, which ‘ve heard many times (watching anime lol)  and finally know what it means.

がんばって ください - Please try your best
ganbatte kudasai

In finding this out I’ve found that ganba がんば is “go for it” or “keep at it”

I just need to keep telling myself this & everyone else trying to learn Japanese.
がんばって ください!!