photo: Mt.Fuji from Lake Yamanakako (Nagaike area)
Since Mt.Fuji was officially registered as a World Heritage site on June 26, 2013, lots of foreign travelers have been visiting Yamanshi prefecture and Mt.Fuji. According to report from Yamanashi-prefecture official, numbers of foreign visitors to Yamanashi prefecture gained 34.5% in 2014 comparing to 2013.
Koshuben is a dialect spoken in Yamanashi-prefecture. There are some differences in the area of Kofu (prefecture capital city) and Fujigoko area (near Mt.Fuji). More about Yamanashi prefecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamanashi_Prefecture
Some visitors may speak fluent Japanese and have noticed Yamanashi dialect or confused by what Yamanashi people are saying. So, I will introduce Koshuben(Yamanashi-prefecture dialect) on this blog with linguistic point of views, and I hope it will be helpful for the visitors who are planning to travel to Yamanashi-prefecture.
This first Yamanashi dialect is “to come/go to get it or pick up”
To pick up (To go/come to pick up)
standard: 取りに行く/来る（Tori ni iku/kuru）
Yamanashi dialect: 持ちに行く/来る (mochi ni iku/kuru)
In standard Japanese, “to go/come pick up” is translated into
“tori (pick up) ni (particle direction + purpose) iku(go)/kuru(come)”
but in Yamanashi dialect
“mochi (carry) ni (particle direction + purpose) iku(go)/kuru(come)”
I think this dialect can be understood, but sounds very strange for the non-Yamanashi dialect speakers. However, “Toru(dictionary form of /tor/)” means “to pick up” and also “take (a photo)”. If you are in a situation asked “where is your pictures?” (you forgot to bring), then you would say “Sorry, I will get it from home”. In standard Japanese, “Tori ni iku” would be used, but in this context, the hearer might get confused because you are saying “go to get it from somewhere or go to take a photo”. In Yamanashi dialect, “mochi ni iku” causes no confusion to hearer that you mean “go to get it from somewhere”.
Happy new year 2015. Hoping you will have a great year!!
The first blog post of 2015 is about a manner of Japanese money gift. In Oshogatsu(New year’s holidays), Money gift is very common in Japanese culture; for example, there are a money gift called “Otoshidama (New year’s money gift)” for children. In some countries, money gift is not preferred in some occasions; however, money gift is usually appropriate in certain events such as “Coming of age”, “marriage”, “funeral”, and “admissions to schools” in Japan. There are lots of events related to money gifts, but manner of money gift in Japan is not quite simple. In this post, I will explain a manner of Japanese money gift in general especially how to wrap cash in special envelopes called Goshugi-bukuro and Koden-bukuro.
Goshugi-bukuro and Koden-bukuro (an envelope for presenting a gift of money)
When you hand a money gift, envelopes are very important and there are certain manners to wrap cash. The picture below explains the names and meanings of the envelopes.
These envelopes can be purchased at any convenient stores.
Types and manners of envelopes in different occasions.
There are few basic manners to wrapping gift money in each events. I will explain 5 basic rules of Japanese money gift wrapping.
1) For happy event, use red(pink) envelopes and for mourning , use grey colour envelopes.
Noshi is only used for the happy events.
For mourning, the name or title for the money gift is little complicated. If you do not know the person’s religion (most of the time in Japan), you need to use “御霊前 Goreizen“. There are several ways to write the title for different religions. Therefore, “Goreizen” would be the best way to use for mourning.
2) Mizubiki (the ribbon on the envelopes) rules
As you can see on the picture above, there are few types of the ribbon on the envelopes.
– bowknot: is used for the happy events that is preferred to happen again such as admissions to schools, birthdays. – Awazi-musubi: is used for occasion that is not preferred to happen again such as marriage and funeral. bowknot is able to be untied which implies the money gift are favored to be presented again, but Awazi-musubi is not able to be untied and the money is not favored to be opened again.
3) Amount you wrap for marriage
The amount you wrap for the marriage gift money is preferred to be odd numbers, especially the first or second number of the amount because even numbers are dividable; for example, 15000 and 30000 yen are preferred. Recently, 20000 yen is acceptable because 2 is “a pair” which implies the good luck for a married couple, but you might need, 10000 + 5000 + 5000 yen so that 3 bills still following the odd number rule.
4) A direction you put money
For mourning, it is preferred to put back side of bills and for happy events, put the front side of bills into the envelopes.
The side of bills can be find by the drawing of person in Japanese bills. For example, the picture below is an example of front side of Japanese 10000 yen bill.
5) A direction you fold the backside of the envelopes
For mourning, the back size of the envelope is preferred to be bottom under and top front, and for happy events vice versa as picture below.
These are the basics of Japanese money gift manner. Now, you are ready to go to special occasions with appropriate manners in Japan. Hope you only have happy events in 2015.
As I said last year, one of the interesting end of year events in Japan is an award of new words and vogue words of the year by U-CAN(a Japanese education support company). These words are nominated based on frequency of appearance, degree of recognition on media especially TVs in all generations. These represent the highlight of the year. This event is a thing that remains end of the year in Japan. I am not always familiar with terms and words that nominated, but have heard at least once. (I am not a heavy TV watcher). The award started in 1984 selecting Top 10 words and grand prizes. The last year 2013, there were 4 grand prizes which was unusual comparing to previous years, but this year two grand prizes are awarded.
Top 10 Japanese vogue words 2014
Grand prize
集団的自衛権(right to collective self-defense)
The current prime minister Shinzo Abe declared reconsideration for interpretation of “Article 9 of the Constitution“. Japan owns self-defence force, but it is under the condition of pacifist constitution called “right to individual self-defense”. It is basically, Japanese self-defence force counterattacks only if Japan is attacked by foreign nations and if it is necessary to protect own land. However, right to collective self-defense allows Japanese self-defence force to join a war when allied countries are attacked. This arouse much controversy in Japan. If “right to collective self-defence” is approved, Japan officially joins wars.
ダメよ〜、ダメダメ (Dameyo Dame Dame)
Dameyo, Dame Dame is simply translated as “No, no, no”. This phrase was created by a Japanese female comedy duo “Tokyo Elekiteru Union”. They appear on TV everyday now, but until today, they were a minor comedians. Their short story consists of two characters, a middle aged man and a talkative sex doll Akemi. “Dameyo Dame Dame” is a phrase that Akemi only says.
Others
ありのままで (Let it go)
The phrase is coming from a well-know 2014 Disney movie”Frozen”. The main song of the movie “Let It Go” and the chorus part is translated as “Arino mama de”.
Carp Girls are girls who are a female funs’ group of one of the Japanese professional baseball team Hiroshima Toyo Carps (AKA Hiroshima Carp). Hiroshima Carp is only professional baseball team which is own by the city (Hiroshima). There are enthusiastic fans all over in Japan. Generally speaking, Japanese professional baseball are enjoyed by males, but Hiroshima Carp took a strategy to bring female fans more into games such as ladies day and ladies only tours to the away games. The strategy was successful to bring more people to their games, and they are 3rd place in this year which is a remarkable achievement for them.
壁ドン (Kabe don)
source:subcultureblog.fc2rs.com
This one is hard to describe, but the picture above describes the situation very well. Literally it is translated as “wall banging”. This was awarded not only by the Japanese vogue words 2014, but also the situations that girls want to experience at least once in their life.
This is fairly strange word, “dangerous drugs”???. Hey, where is the safe drugs? Drugs are drugs. Anyway, this word is used in media since a “noncontrolled drugs” (often called noncontrolled herbs) spread in Japan. There are lots of tragedies caused by the noncontrolled drugs this year. Japan is known as a “non drug friendly county” and very restrict to possession and dealing comparing to the other developed nations.
ごきげんよう (Gokigenyo)
source: http://kaz794889.exblog.jp/21900659
“Gokigenyo” is a greeting word. It is very useful, but not used in common. It sounds like noble and higher class. I have not used this word in my life. The usage of this word is broad. It can be used as “Good morning, good afternoon, hello, how do you do, good bye, and see you later” The reason of award is that the popularity of TV drama called “Hanako and Ann”. This word is used at the end of each episodes, and I believe that it catches the people. The TV drama is about the life of Hanako Muraoka who is the person translated “Anne of Green Gables” into Japanese. Personally, I am very disappointed by the award of this word because the place she was born is Yamanshi prefecture where I am from. There are lots of dialects and idioms used in my family and I really hoped that Yamanashi dialect would be nominated in Japanese vogue words of 2014.
マタハラ(Matahara)
This is an abbreviation of “maternity harassment”.
妖怪ウォッチ (Yo-Kai Watch)
Yo-kai watch is a very popular video game and anime in 2014. Since its release on July 2014, it has been rising popularity among kids and younger generations. I have not watched anime and played video games, but it is highly rated by my friends and their children. Since Pokemon’s mega hit in the world, there are no mega hit video games and anime among kids, but Yo-Kai watch seems to have a potential to be like a Pokemon. However, comparing to Pokemon, getting into the world popularity might be hard because of few reasons: 1) Yo-kai (creature? ghost? ) is very Japanese original comparing to the concept of monsters in Pokemon, 2) Pokemon is still popular in the world. Pokemon series are still continuing.
レジェンド (Legend)
source: http://www.the-nana.com/2319.html
Legend is a nickname of a Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai , who won the silver medal in Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014. At the Sochi Olympics, he was 41 years old and the oldest ski jumper in the Olympics. The ski jumpers in the world call him “legend” showing their respects.
