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【No. 0450】Chabashira

Mar 12, 2016 22:47
In Japan, standing chabashira is thought of as an auspicious sign.

(Chabashira means stem portions of tea leaves.)

One of the reasons is because it's very rare that chabashira stands on tea.

First of all, stems of tea leaves seldom pass through a tea strainer.

Then, when one side of the stem absorb water, you can see it stands on the tea surface for only a short period.

Timing is important.

Unfortunately, since recent tea strainers are very finely, it became really difficult to find the standing chabashira.
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【No. 0449】Shapes of Eggs

Mar 11, 2016 22:03
Shapes of eggs differ depending on the organisms.

For example, many kinds of fish lay spherical eggs.

On the other hand, reptiles and birds lay elliptical eggs.

It is said that one of the reasons is to make easier to lay eggs that are large compared to their bodies.

In addition, birds' eggs have characteristic elliptical shapes, one side is thin, and the other hand is thick.

It is thought that the reason is to prevent eggs from rolling farther and farther away from their nests.

In fact, since owls that make their nests in holes of trees don't worry about rolling eggs, the shapes close to a sphere.
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【No. 0448】Shovel And Scoop

Mar 10, 2016 14:23
Today, I will talk about the difference between "shovel" and "scoop."

According to the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards), it is defined that the shovel has a portion that you can put your foot, and the scoop doesn't have it.

However, most Japanese people distinguish them in their sizes.

In western Japan, people call big ones "shovel," and small ones "scoop."

On the other hand, in eastern Japan, people call small ones "shovel," and big ones "scoop."

I'm not sure the reason.

Anyway it's confusing, so you have to be careful.
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【No. 0447】Celebration of Longevity

Mar 9, 2016 13:45
There are some special age in Japan, and we celebrate the birthday of the year in different ways from usual.

First, when you reach the age of 60, it's called "kan-reki," where "kan" means "return," and "reki" means "almanac."

Since the Oriental zodiac is composed of 60 kinds and it repeats itself every 60 years, we think the 61st birthday is special.

In the celebration of the kan-reki, we present a red chanchanko (red padded sleeveless kimono jacket, red Japanese vest) that have the meaning of an amulet, and the kan-reki person wear it.

Also, to reach the age of 88 is called "bei-ju," where "bei" means "rice," and "ju" means "almanac."

The reason is because the kanji "八十八 (which means 88)" looks like the transformation of the kanji "米 (which means rice), and we present a yellow chanchanko wishing for good health.

To be the age of 99 is called "haku-ju," where "haku" means "white."

The reason is because the kanji "百 (which means one hundred)" becomes "白 (which means white)" when you subtract "一 (which means one)" from "百," and we present a whilte chanchanko.

My father will reach the kan-reki this year, so my brother, my sister and I have to prepare the celebration.
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【No. 0444】Standing Desk

Mar 6, 2016 10:44
In recent years, doing desk work while standing up has got a lot of attention.

By standing up constantly, you can improve your posture and blood circulation of your feet.

Also, you can continue to concentrate, and won't become sleepy.

Of course it will make you tired, but you also will divide your break from your work sharply.

On the other hand, people who sit for a long time every day seem to have back pain and stiff shoulder, because of decline of muscle for supporting your hip.

Furthermore, they have higher risks about heart disease due to poor circulation and diabetes due to insulin decrease.

I might consider a purchase of a standing desk for my new workplace.
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【No. 0443】Nikujaga (simmered meat and potatoes)

Mar 5, 2016 16:11
Today, I will talk about "nikujaga," which is a familiar simmered dish in Japan.

The ingredients of the nikujaga is meat, potatoes, onions and konjac, and the cooking procedure is divided into two steps: fry the ingredients, and simmer them with soy sauce, sugar, and mirin (which is an alcoholic condiment).

It is easy to cook the nikujaga, so we often refer it as "a taste of mother's home cooking."

However, it is said that we actually made the nikujaga by imitating a beef stew.

In 1870s, a Japanese, Heihachiro Togo was studying in the UK, and he liked the beef stew, then he tried to make someone to cook it in Japan.

However, there were no wine and a demi-glace sauce in Japan.

For the reason, we tried to cook the beef stew using soy sauce and sugar, as a result, the nikujaga seemed to be made.
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【No. 0442】Baumkuchen Day

Mar 4, 2016 21:06
Today, March 4th, is Baumkuchen day.

This is derived from the fact that Baumkuchen have been manufactured and sold since March 4th, 1919.

Today is also the sewing machine ( which is called "mishin" in Japan) day, because "mi" means "three," and "shi" means "four."

Furthermore, today is a sash(sasshi) day, a magazine(zasshi) day, and a three sisters(san-shimai) day("sa" and "za" means "three," "shi" means "four" in Japan).

However, most Japanese people don't think that March 4th is a special day.

I think that one of the reasons is because March 3rd is a special day as Dolls' Festival for Japanese.

Japanese set up a lot of dolls, and wish girls both health and growth on March 3rd.
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【No. 0440】"Iro-iro" And "Sama-zama"

Mar 2, 2016 19:38
Today, I will talk about the difference between the Japanese phrases "iro-iro" and "sama-zama."

Both of them have almost the same meaning like "various," and you can replace them in most cases.

"Iro" of "iro-iro" means "color," and "iro-iro" had used for flowers or fabrics as the meaning of "colorful."

However, currently it came to have the meaning of "various."

On the other hand, "sama" of "sama-zama" means something like "state," and "sama-zama" is a more formal expression than "iro-iro."

Also, you can write both of them in Kanji, but to use Hiragana is recommended due to readability.

【No. 0438】Leap Year

Feb 29, 2016 12:54
Today, February 29th is a leap year.

I can write this sentence only once every four years.

I'll do my best so that I write "today is a leap year" on Lang-8 again.

The leap year has been established to correct deviations of the calendar, because one year is not 365 days, but about 365.2422 days.

In addition, in the Gregorian calendar, there are two other rules to correct subtle deviations due to leap years; if the year is divided by 100 then it's regarded as a common year, but if the year is divided by 400 then it's regarded as a leap year.

On the other hand, in the modified Julian calendar, if the year is divided by 100 then it's regarded as a common year, but if the remainder of the year when divided by 900 is 200 or 600 then the year is regarded as a leap year.

Both of them are very accurate calculation methods of the calendar, but the modified Julian calendar is more accurate.
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【No. 0437】Shikato (Disregard)

Feb 28, 2016 13:35
Today, I will tell you about the Japanese word "shikato(シカト)," which means "disregard."

Since "shikato" is mainly used by young people, it is often thought of as a youth slang expression, but it exists from of old.

This word is derived from a picture of hanafuda that is Japanese playing cards.

In the hanafuda, there are four cards for each month that seasonal flowers are drawn.

In these cards, although autumn leaves and a deer ("shika" in Japanese) are drawn in October of a 10 points card ("10" is called "ju" or "to" in Japan), the deer doesn't see the autumn leaves and looks away.

From the looks of it, the word "shikato," which means "disregard" was made.
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【No. 0436】Scholarships in Japan

Feb 27, 2016 10:09
Today, I will talk about a weird scholarship system in Japan.

Japanese scholarships are divided into three major categories, "benefit scholarship," "interest-free loan type scholarship," and "interest-bearing loan type scholarship."

Currently, about 60% of Japanese college/university students are using these scholarship systems.

However, the allocation of the benefit scholarship is very small, so almost all students have to borrow scholarship loans.

Furthermore, about 85% of them seem to borrow "interest-bearing loan type scholarships."

We call all these systems "scholarships(奨学金)," but I think that the loan type scholarships are just "student loans."

It can be called "debts."

It's not rare that Japanese people who went on to doctoral courses have debts of 10 million yen (90,000 dollars) when they graduate.

In fact, I heard many people are suffering from the repayments of the scholarships.

I think we should allocate more national budget to education fields.
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【No. 0435】The Reason Why Seawater Is Salty

Feb 26, 2016 13:48
Seawater contains salts, and about one-third of produced salts in the world is made from seawater.

According to the Japanese old tale, since a millstone that continues to produce salts sunk into the sea, the sea water became salty.

However, the true reason is because the seawater was strongly acidic in the ancient times.

The acidic seawater and the acid rain melted rock strata, and mineral seeped into the sea, then the seawater became salt water.

Currently the feed rate of salts is almost commensurate with the removal rate of salts, so the saltiness of the seawater is constant.
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【No. 0434】The Meaning of "Unique"

Feb 25, 2016 15:11
The word "unique" is one of foreign words that are often used in Japan.

It is said that "unique" was derived from "unus," which means "one" in Latin, and it has several meanings such as "individual" or "sole."

However, somehow many Japanese misunderstand the meaning of "unique."

If we say "he is a unique person (彼はユニークな人だ)," the meaning will become something like "he is a funny person (彼は面白い人だ)."

In my opinion, Japanese confuse the meanings of "unique（ユニーク）" with "humor（ユーモア）."
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【No. 0433】A Dog Person and A Cat Person

Feb 24, 2016 19:06
Dogs and cats are very popular as pets.

I heard the number of dogs and cats kept as pets are almost the same.

However, according to a questionnaire survey, the ratio of dog persons is around 60%, while cat persons is around 40%.

Also, there seems to be some good trend in dog persons.

For example, the questionnaire result showed that dog persons have more friends on SNSs, and are more liked by various people.

Especially for men, an average annual income of dog persons was about 10,000 dollars higher than cat persons.

On the other hand, the number of cat videos is overwhelmingly larger than dog videos.

I like both dogs and cats.
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【No. 0432】Fujisan (Mount Fuji) Day

Feb 23, 2016 17:56
Today, February 23 is the Fujisan Day.

The reason is because we can read "2" as "fu(tatsu)" and "ji," and "3" as "san."

This day was established by Shizuoka Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture, where the Mount Fuji is located.

In many public schools in Shizuoka Prefecture, today seems to be a holiday.

Also, there are a lot of events related to Mount Fuji in various places.

It sounds fun, but there is almost no event in other prefecture.

Actually, I just found out the day today.
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【No. 0431】A Tanuki's (Raccoon Dog's) Sleep

Feb 22, 2016 10:00
Today, I will write about a Japanese proverb "a tanuki's sleep (tanuki neiri)."

"A tanuki's sleep" is to pretend to be asleep when you feel bad.

The tanuki (raccoon dog) is a very timid animal, and pretends to be asleep (or loses consciousness) when it senses danger.

Since the figure looks like a pretended sleep that deceives humans, we made the proverb "a tanuki's sleep."

For the same reason, there is an expression "play possum" that means "a pretended sleep" in English.

Also, there is another expression "a fox's sleep."

The reason is because foxes are sly and it's thought that they deceive humans.

By the way, I heard that there are little expressions like them except English and Japanese.
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【No. 0430】Kaminari-sama (Mr. Thunder)

Feb 21, 2016 12:57
In Japan, there is a popular belief that Kaminari-sama (Mr. Thunder) falls from the sky and picks your belly button.

Therefore, we are taught to hide our belly buttons when we hear a peal of thunder.

It might sound strange, but there are rational reasons.

When a thunderstorm comes, especially it is due to a cold front, it causes an extreme drop in temperature.

For this reason, you have to cover your belly button so as not to cool your stomach.

It is said that this belief was created to prevent children from catching a cold.

Also, there is also another reason to avoid lightning strike by hiding your belly button and lowering your head position.
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【No. 0429】Mysterious Biology of Giant Panda

Feb 20, 2016 12:25
Today, I'd like to tell you about mysterious biology of pandas, especially giant pandas.

It is said that the name "panda" is derived from "bamboo" in Nepali, and as the name indicates, pandas eat mainly bamboos.

However, pandas' digestive organs are ones of carnivorous animals such as bears, so the bamboos are not digested enough.

In addition, since bamboos have less nutritional values, pandas have to eat massive amounts of bamboos to supply energies.

Also, to excrete when the digestion is insufficient is associated with sharp pain, so pandas seem to become limp after the excretion.

For these reasons, pandas spend 55% of the day on their diets, and 40% of the day sleeping.

Although this might sound really bad efficiency, there is an advantage.

Bamboos never wither even if ice age comes again, so pandas can survive while the ice age.

By the way, it's not really know the reason why pandas have white and black pattern hairs, unlike in the case of zebras.
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【No. 0427】Handing Out Pocket TIssues

Feb 18, 2016 18:02
Today, I will tell you about handing out pocket tissues, which is referred as one of Japanese cultures.

In many streets in Japan, a large amount of pocket tissues are handed out for free every day.

A flyer is included in the pocket tissue, but it's an normal tissue.

If you live in a big city in Japan, it's not difficult to get 10 packs of pocket tissues a day.

I heard that pocket tissues are handed out in Taiwan and Germany too, but it seems to be rare in the world.
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【No. 0426】The Height of Mount Fuji

Feb 17, 2016 15:37
Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, and most Japanese people love this mountain.

Today, I will introduce information about the height of the Mount Fuji.

In 1885, the height of the Mount Fuji was 3778 meters.

However, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck in 1923.

As a result of the re-measurement three years later, the height became 3776 meters.

After that, we seemed to reinforce the summit part of the Mount Fuji with concrete, so as not to decrease the height any more.

For this reason, currently the height is still 3776 meters.