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【No. 0242】The Silent Bon Dance Festival

Aug 17, 2015 14:12
In summers in Japan, we often join a bon dance festival that was originally a Buddhist event.

In the bon dance festival, we play music, hit drums, and dance.

However, recently in Japan, people who feel annoyed to the sound of the festival has increased.

Therefore, some bon dance festivals became silent ones.

They wear an earphone, and just dance.

From afar, this may seem like zombie dance.
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【No. 0241】Healthy Train

Aug 16, 2015 13:37
In Mexico, there is an interesting system in subway.

When they do 10 squats, they can get a free pass.

This is a kind of obesity measures, and some Japanese people are demanding to introduce this system in Japan.

It is said that one third of population in Mexico are obesity, so they introduced such an interesting system.

In addition, calorie tax was introduced, and commercials of carbonated beverages and sweet treats are forbidden in Mexico.
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【No. 0240】Got Lost

Aug 15, 2015 18:47
This morning, I went to cycling to the neighbor mountain on my road bike.

My plan was two hour cycling.

However, somehow I decided to pass through a new route, then I got lost.

Eventually, it took more than five hours to come back my home.

I was really exhausted, but there were also some good things.

Scenery of new route was really beautiful, and I found a lovely lake.

Someday I would like to go there again.
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【No. 0239】An Impressive Pun

Aug 14, 2015 12:03
Today, I found an impressive Japanese pun on the internet.

It is "よくできた内容ですが、欲で汚いようです。（yoku dekita naiyo desuga, yokude kitanai yodesu）," which means something like "it is a great content, but it's also greedy."

I think this pun is not so much funny as impressive.

Even though the same string is just repeated twice, not only it makes sense, but it's really natural Japanese sentence.

Even if someone say this pun, I might not notice that it's a pun.

Therefore, when you say this pun, you probably need to explain about it.
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【No. 0238】Burnt Bread

Aug 13, 2015 10:38
I sometimes make toast, but I also sometimes sear the bread.

It is thought that eating burnt bread is bad for health.

Above all, it tastes bitter and bad.

However, there are some effective way to use burnt bread.

In fact, the burn bread has "deodorization effect" and "dehumidification effect."

If you put it in a refrigerator or a room, it will provide functionalities of dehumidification and deodorization.

Also, it is organic matter even if it's burnt black, so you can use it as fertilizers.
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【No. 0237】'歳' and '才'

Aug 12, 2015 09:11
Today, I'd like to introduce the Kanji, '歳（さい） and '才（さい）.'

Both of them are often used in the sense of age, for example, "20歳（20才）" means "twenty years old."

However, only '歳' is the precise kanji as the meaning of 'age.'

In fact, '才' means talent of 'ability.'

A common point of these kanji was how to read it.

Since '才' is more easy to write, we got to use it as a abbreviation of '歳'.

However, '才' is just an abbreviation, so we should use '歳' in the formal situation.

【No. 0236】 Lost Property

Aug 11, 2015 10:27
In Japan, even if you lost your wallet, camera, or iPhone, there would be a very good chance that they will be found.

I think many Japanese people are willing to deliver such lost properties.

When I was young, I lost my wallet.

I felt sorrow, and cried, but immediately got a phone call from a police box.

"Did you lost your wallet?"

I was so happy, and at that moment, I vowed that I deliver lost properties when I find them.
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【No. 0235】Oyatsu

Aug 10, 2015 16:35
Today, I'd like to introduce the Japanese term 'oyatsu（おやつ）.'

Oyatsu means snack, but I think there are a little different nuances.

Since the time when we eat snacks was around 3 p.m in the past, so we often say "3時のおやつ（afternoon snacks eaten at about 3 p.m.）."

Actually, 'やつ' of 'おやつ' means the time about 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

'お' of 'おやつ' means a just polite expression.

But these days, people who say the term oyatsu as the meaning of purely snack has increased.
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【No. 0234】The World's Biggest Sandglass

Aug 9, 2015 15:30
The world's biggest sandglass is located in Nima Sand Museam, Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

The sandglass was given the name Suna-goyomi, which means 'sand calendar.'

The height is 5.2 meters, the diameter of the container is 1 meter, and the diameter of the center nozzle is only 0.84 millimeters.

The total amount of sand is 1 ton, and it is falling at 0.032 g a second, 114 g a minute, 2740 g a day, 1 ton a year.

The fall speed is strictly controlled by pressure management using a computer.

The sandglass is turned over at 00:00 a.m, January 1st annually.

It was produced by Miwa professor, and the production cost was 100 million yen, the production period was three years.

I would like to see it directly someday.

By the way, the nozzle part is called orifice, or 'hachinokoshi(means a waist of a bee)' in Japan.
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【No. 0233】Japanese Like a Kleenex.

Aug 8, 2015 14:44
Japanese people really like a Kleenex, and annual consumption of it in Japan is the world's highest.

Amount of the Kleenex used in Japan per person per year is around 4 kilograms, while it is around 1.2 kilograms in the US.

Since we often use it, the price is less than half of the world average.

In city in Japan, pocket Kleenex on which company advertisements printed are often handed out for free on the street.

We use a Kleenex when blow our nose, and we almost always discard it quickly after the blow.

Therefore, I think we would be surprised when we saw that the Kleenex was reused in oversea.

By the way, we call Kleenex 'tissue(ティッシュ),' instead of 'Kleenex.'
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【No. 0232】The Deadline for Proceedings

Aug 7, 2015 19:30
Today was the deadline for proceedings submission of an academic conference.

Nevertheless, I had not gotten any good experimental result.

Therefore, I worked all through the last night, but the result did not change.

I gave up and submitted the discontented paper.

Hehehe, I'm feeling a very weird sensation.

I'm not sure whether the reason why is attributable to my own disappointment or lack of sleep or energy drink.

Anyway, good night!
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【No. 0231】Rules of E-mail Addresses

Aug 6, 2015 11:13
Today, I learned about rules of e-mail addresses.

The form of e-mail addresses is defined by the global common standard called RFC.

If you violated this standard when you created your address, the address would not be used properly.

The basic four rules are the following:

・You have to put an alphabet or a number just prior to '@ (at sign).'

・You have to use an alphabet as the first character of your address.

・You must not use two or more dots(.) or underscores(_) continuously.

・You must not use the signs like / ! “@ # $ % & ‘ ( ) = ~ | \ ^ : ; * + ? < > , ` [ ] { }

However, if you try to create a violated e-mail address, the recent system will alert the violation and you can't create the address.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about these rules.
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【No. 0230】Repair of Air Conditioner

Aug 5, 2015 17:40
This summer, an air conditioner of our laboratory will be repaired.

To make matters worse, not only we can't use the air conditioner during this summer, but also we can't use our laboratory.

Since this year is my graduation year, I have to do many things regardless of the summer vacation.

Why... why such a repair...

So today, I was looking for a refuge, and eventually found it.

The space takes some money, but it's very inexpensive to students and looks like comfortable.

I had the move until a while ago, so now I'm tired.
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【No. 0229】Sound Characteristic of Japanese

Aug 4, 2015 13:20
Today, I learned about how Japanese language hears by foreigners.

Firstly, Japanese language is thought to be spoken fast.

We don't think so, but we feel Chinese and Thai languages are spoken very fast.

In fact, Japanese, Chinese and Thai languages are composed mainly of vowels, and there is no consecutive consonants.

Therefore, these languages seems to sound like tongue twisters.

Secondly, Japanese speakers seem to be thought as if they are angry.

Since Japanese language have almost no accents, changes of intonations are less, it sounds like angry.

Also, we need not to use high pitched sound in Japanese, so our voices tend to be low.

This low voice is also related to the fact that Japanese speakers look like angry.

I don't know whether these information is a perfectly true, but I'd like to be careful when I speak to foreigners in Japanese.
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【No. 0228】Yokkoisho(よっこいしょ)

Aug 3, 2015 11:13
Japanese people (especially adults) often say "よっこいしょ(yokkoisho)" when they stand up or lift something heavy.

People are able to output their force effectively when they are exhaling or holding their breath.

Therefore, it's natural thing that we put our muscles while calling out some phrases to reduce burdens on our bodies.

In addition to "よっこいしょ," we say "どっこいしょ" and "よっこらせ" and "よっこいしょういち," though those precise etymologies are still unknown.

Note that if you say "よっこいしょういち," you may be questioned like "what era are you from?" because the phrase is very old Japanese joke derived from "横井 庄一（よこい しょういち）" who were a Japanese soldier about a hundred year ago.

By the way, I learned some countries' calling out phrases like "よっこいしょ."

According to the internet, American say "alley-oop," French and Italian say "hop la," German say "hau ruck," and Russian say "Давай(davai)."
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【No. 0227】Countries' Smell

Aug 2, 2015 12:23
Today, I learned that some people can feel countries' smell when they arrived at the airports.

Japanese airports seem to smell like fish or soy sauce.

The US airports seem to smell like butter or coffee or something sweet.

French airports seem to smell like perfumes.

Indian airports seem to smell like several spices.

Hawaiian airports seems to smell like fruits or flowers.

Hawaiian airports seems to smell like mints or traditional Chinese medicines.

According to some tweets, delivery products and letters from abroad have the smell of the country.
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【No. 0226】The Reading of ASUS

Aug 1, 2015 13:17
ASUS is a PC/mobile phone manufacturing company, and I use some products of ASUS.

The company name is derived from Pegasus.

However, many of my friends can't read "ASUS" correctly.

Some says "エイサス(A-ses)," and some says "アスース(Asues)."

Actually, the official corporate name in Japan was "アスース・ジャパン" until 2012, but the reading was officially denied.

Now the corporate name in Japan is "ASUS JAPAN," and the correct pronunciation is "A-seuss."

【No. 0225】Happy Birthday to You

Jul 31, 2015 12:20
Tonight, a birthday party will be held in our laboratory.

We prepared a birthday cake, and we will sing "Happy birthday to you" as usual.

This song is the most recognized song in the world, and it is registered in the Guinness Book.

Regardless of the country, this song is often sung in English.

However, the original lyrics of this song was different.

This might be famous fact, but I didn't know that until today.

The original title is "Good Morning to All," and the head of the lyrics is "Good morning to you."
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【No. 0224】Roller Coaster Trivia

Jul 30, 2015 10:47
I like to ride roller coasters.

When roller coasters fall, you can feel a unique floating sense.

This feeling is called air-time, which is due to the fact that minus gravity floats your internal organs.

I really like this moment.

If you rode a roller coaster, about 50 kcal might be consumed.

Furthermore, it is said that riding roller coasters have a beauty effect, because they give you the willies and make you secrete female hormone.

Also, in order to scare you, most roller coasters are clockwise.

Many of us we feel discomfort for clockwise, while feel safety for counter clockwise.

By the way, roller coasters are called "ジェットコースター" in Japan.

The name seems derived from Japanese manga.
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【No. 0223】The Japanese Tongue Twister "Sumomomomomomomomonouchi"

Jul 29, 2015 11:09
Today, I will introduce two Japanese tongue twisters.

The first one is "sumomo mo momo mo momo nouchi."

In Japan, "momo" means "peach," and "sumomo" means "prune."

So the tongue twister means "prunes and peaches are included in a kind of peach."

Since we don't use spaces between words (like すももももももももものうち), it's difficult to read it in Japanese.

The second one is "haha wa hahaha, haha no haha wa hahahaha to warau."

This means "mother laugh with saying "haha," and mother's mother laugh with saying "hahaha.""

If we write it only in Katakana, it will be "ハハハハハハハノハハハハハハとワラウ."

This may look like a cipher.