Liv wrote a piece about why sometimes it’s easier to pretend that you don’t understand Japanese in Someone’s Knocking at the Door.

Nick tell’s us about the struggles of having a foreign name in Japan in What’s my name?

Jaimapanese talks about his strategy to learn Japanese with a combination of Anime, Manga and video games and claims that “Learning Japanese is complicated but not difficult“.

My contribution was a few handy kanji for travelers.

More serious students of the language will enjoy some of the other submissions to “The Language of Japan” Japan Blog Matsuri, but I must admit that some are a bit over my head – I’m barely a beginner!

For people like me, whose foreign language skills aren’t even close to fluent,  10 places to find someone who speaks English is a good resource written by Mary Jo at Fly Away Cafe.  There are actually more than ten as additional suggestions can be found in the comments on the article.

That’s it for this weeks Nihon on the Net.  If you have a craving for news in between editions be sure to check out JapanSoc, Japan’s #1 Social Bookmarking Site.  It keeps me up to date with what others are reading and talking about in the world of Japan news and opinion and I would encourage you to participate if you want to read more than what I can present here once a week.

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

To be able to read or write Japanese you would need to be able to identify more that 2,000 Kanji!  Learning the language of Japan is an overwhelming proposition for the traveler and something that is not very practical for tourists.  With that in mind, I would like to share some Kanji that I have found helpful in my travels throughout the city and how I remember them.

It seems appropriate to start with the Kanji for Japan and Tokyo.  While you might not find a lot of use for the Kanji representing Japan, the Kanji representing Tokyo will definitely come in handy on the subway system or if you are traveling around the country and need to get back to the city.  How do I remember these two Kanji?  No secret here, I simply have them memorized but I do have some tricks for the others, I promise!

The next two Kanji come in very handy in a variety of situations.  Need to find the entrance to the museum or any other building?  Look for the Kanji on the left.

The word entrance in Japanese is iriguchi and is a combination of two characters.  The first character is an inverted ‘V’ and I imagine it is a funnel leading me to the entrance.

The Kanji representing exit, deguchi in Japanese, is also a combination of characters, with the second character being the same as for entrance.  I picture the first character as an arrow of sorts with the base being the starting point and the multiple vertical lines representing people moving towards the exit.

If you plan on doing any shopping or dining out when you visit Tokyo you will definitely wand to familiarize yourself with the Kanji for the Japanese currency, the Yen.

While the price of something is fairly obvious if you are looking at a price tag in a retail establishment it can sometimes be elusive when a lot of numbers are present on advertisements, websites and other documents.

Imagine the split curtains, or noren, that hang over the doorway of a traditional Japanese shop and you will remember the Kanji for Yen.  Keep in mind that you may also see another symbol that is effectively a ‘Y’ with a cross on the lower vertical line (¥).  This is interchangeable with the Kanji for Yen.

Lastly, I will present the Kanji for open and close or closed.  How did I learn these and why do I think they are important?  Have you even been embarrassed when the elevator doors where closing as someone approached the door and you hit the close button instead of the open button?  I have done that when the buttons are in English and after helplessly facing the same situation in Japan, on a number of occasions, I taught myself the Kanji.

Picture the torii gate that welcomes you to the grounds of Japanese shrine and you have the small inset character in the Kanji for open.   The inset character in the Kanji reminds me of a stick figure person with their hands full, attempting to kick a door closed.

Other Kanji that might come in handy are those for the months, days of the week and numbers.

At times you may find yourself frustrated with the language barrier when you visit Tokyo but with these Kanji, a few key phrases in Japanese, English menus and the rare application of your charade skills those instances will be minimized.

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

In honor of the summer solstice here the Kanji for summer or natsu:.   

The three hallmarks of summer in Japan are the yukata (summer kimono), furin (wind chimes), and hanabi (fireworks). 

Check out some more beautiful interpretations of the natsu kanji and others at Kanju-4u.

Photo Credit:  Flickr, Natsu

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler

Interesting Facts:

• The image on the right is the Kanji (Japanese script) for Tokyo.
• Tokyo is the most densely populated prefecture in Japan with approximately 12.5 million residents as of October 1, 2005. These residents all fit into an area of 2,187 square kilometers (1359 square miles)
• Tokyo is the third smallest prefecture in Japan by area. The area of Tokyo is 0.6% of the total area of Japan but it is home to 10% of the total population of Japan.
• The National Census in 2000 lists the daytime population of Tokyo as 14.667 million people, which is 2.650 million more than the nighttime population figure of 12.017 million.
• Tokyo is positioned approximately in the center of the Japanese archipelago which consists of almost 3,000 islands and is almost 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) long.
• Tokyo is made up of 23 special wards (ku in Japanese), 26 cities (shi), 5 towns (cho) and 8 villages (son).

For more information take a read through the Overview of Tokyo presented by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Photo Credit: Personal Collection

Post from: The Tokyo Traveler