Comrade Yuri wishes to say a big THANK YOU to all of you at IJS Class 02! You've all made this hectic and challenging journey somewhat fun - I haven't had a lot of classes that I actually looked forward to having each week. It was almost as if I liked the course quite a bit, that probably I no longer cared so much for our other "random" courses that we are forced to take.
When it came to Kanji, which I know to be somewhat very painful yet essentially useful, I thank ゆうきーさん and ジョイエーさん, ほんとに、あんたたちは天才！！
cheers to イレーンさん、ヘレンさん、マルコさん、クリスタルさん、クラウヂィアさん(DuRararara!!~~)、カーチィスさん！ I wish you all every bit of success I can imagine - whether or not you decide to continue your study in HKU SPACE or proceed to do other things. 皆さん、がんばってください！
Thank you also 赤城先生と瀬尾先生! You've tried quite a bit to arouse my interest in pursuing Japanese, and I must say, you both are probably the friendliest Japanese teachers I know so far.
The reason why this entry is even here is due to the fact that I am LEAVING HKU SPACE as this semester ends - I will not proceed to AD Year II. It seems, I have other options that have become plausible for me, and my circumstances have definitely changed after suffering a rejection from HKU. HOWEVER, this doesn't mean I'll stop learning Japanese. I've been quite fine picking it up on my own, but after taking IJS, I think I've been given a boost on how to learn better! I will continue, and perhaps, I'll live in Japan someday. haha~(^_^)
We may never meet each other again as soon as things move around for me after summer this year. So, at least I was able to say thank you to those I've known here and deserved it.
And so, for this final transmission:
Quickly drawn via pencil and Corel Painter Essentials 4, with WACOM Pen and TOUCH table
作戦うまくいった!!
Feel free to send me an email (the working address for this blog is yuri.juno@gmail.com) and ask for further contact details if you wish, or you may try looking me up at Facebook. Best wishes to all of you!
Comrade Yuri himself has quite a bit to say about the Hong Kong Education system - and mostly about its flaws and negative aspects. But before he begins to discuss any of this, we must all somehow bear in mind that no education system in the world, has ever stood perfect and faultless.
***
The education system, ideally goes hand in hand in influencing the economy and to a larger extent, society as a whole. However, without a doubt, education must also serve the needs and interests of the individual that experiences it, the student.
After years under British colonial rule, Hong Kong's system is quite comprehensive in its education in the English language. Literacy in English in Hong Kong overall is probably much respectable, compared to that with another "advanced" counterpart, Japan. In Hong Kong, the English language is and its fundamentals are introduced quite precisely. Where I teach, I am part of the mechanism that shows Kindergarten/Early Primary children the basics of English. It is true, that language exposure, especially at an earlier age, brings about quite some noticeable effect on language literacy.
The system itself, especially concerning mainstream education from the Primary and Secondary stages is unique in its own concept. It maybe true that the exam system is by name and thought, borrowed from the British system (A-Levels). However, the way education has been facilitated for many years in Hong Kong, has been quite Chinese in character.
Traditional Chinese education doctrine roots a lot from memorizing, drilling for examinations, and overall, a force-feeding of the syllabus into the young mind. This is the major and prevailing criticism of education in Hong Kong. I am inclined to agree: I believe that education here has lost its definitional meaning. It is no longer "actual learning", but meaningless memorization and drilling for exams, and to earn pieces of paper known as degrees and qualification. Hence, the competitive and machine-like nature.
This can prove to be destructive in both micro and macro aspects. For the individual student, it is probably a form of brainwashing and ill-mannered conditioning. They are told that such things are actually the measure of success in life. Psychologically, this can affect self-esteem drastically and to a further extent, fail to inspire motivation for the student to study, which should have been one of the purposes of education in the first place. For both the individual and the rest of society, a sad fact is that students graduate with nothing much that is useful and practical. In all their years of study, there are still a lot of courses and subjects that are somewhat, pointless and doubtful in how learning anything from them benefits both the future of the student and the people around him/er. These subjects, which I have termed as "rocks" are burdensome, only worth studying for its exam and extra credit - only to be worked for the numbers one can earn out of it.
University education is also, not exempt from this problem. The University of Hong Kong is ranked (currently) as the top tertiary institution in Asia (QS World Rankings). However, how is this "quality" truly measured and quantified? Student experience is usually rife with complaints about being "forced" to take random, unrelated courses simply to meet programme credit requirements. Indeed, there are courses that just somehow, need to be taken, whether or not they were even fully augmentative to the programme's intended learning outcomes. The issue of how heavy the typical schoolchild's school bag and homework load at Primary schools is and has been the talk of some concerned observers. Some of the parents, who traditionally have been those who have pushed schools to work their children like horses simply because they feel this makes them competitive, have also begun to question the absurd amount of work the youngest of children are subjected to.
Previously, the culture in Hong Kong's Secondary education system centered much around two examinations: the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE, now defunct as of 2010), and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations (HKALE, its final cohort generations finish off within this and the next school years). It was nothing but a mere competition for future places in University, void of skill and practical meaning. Hence came with it, the culture of cram schools, mindless drilling and memorization into how to pass/ace the exam, not so much on what the subject matter really was. This somehow is both a result and reinforcement of the traditional Chinese/Asian ideal that examinations are largely, the defining point of education. "Exam-focused" was one of the keywords to describe the Hong Kong education system.
In the years of 2006-2007, a new generation of students were put forth in a new system, the result of the much needed and discussed education reform - the New Senior Secondary (NSS) system curricula. Its new exam, the Hong Kong Diploma in Secondary Education (HKDSE) is to succeed the moribund HKCEE and HKALE, replacing two exam tiers with one final one at the end of a shortened tenure of Secondary education. Indeed, this probably may have been a step away from exam-focus and a leap forwards into progress. However, the same problems persist when it comes to coursework and whether or not they achieve any actual learning outcomes. Subject lines such as "Liberal Studies" and History are currently under extreme scrutiny for their apparent ineffectiveness to deliver the research and critical thinking skills they purportedly aim to bring students. It is again, still doubted whether they new programme systems would be able to bring students much needed practical skills needed for employment and further study. We have yet to see how the HKDSE helps in getting graduates jobs and opportunities.
The education system can probably be reformed and revised to focus more on practical, work-related skills and other interests that cater more to everyday life, rather than insisting on the theoretical, textbook, exam-relegated non-sense force fed into students. Work is good, but if it is void of meaning and purpose, it is a waste of life and effort.
But what can we mere students do to change this? The Hong Kong government has always been expert at not listening to the pleas of its people. After all, why fully eliminate the problems in the system that has earned you an elite place in the society? Of course, you will want to do everything possible to keep the throne you've worked so hard to attain. There's no point changing anything if we can never change the minds of idiots in power.
I myself, am very, very disappointed and displeased with education in Hong Kong. I've always hated, how it in itself is a mere lie. It's not opportunity it gives, it's purposeless waste of effort. Not critical thinking, but exams and memorization. Not education, but brainwashing. It is already a fact that after all, not everyone is fortunate enough to land a place in University, but how much has education here provided for the students who end up looking for employment? Even University fresh graduates have difficulty competing for jobs. What is is that is lacking in all their years of education?
I've already pretty much, given up hope in the system. It is bound to prevail or eat itself, either way, I no longer care. All I know is that what is more important is what the student him/herself takes from all these years of study. The willingness to learn, to achieve, to find and work for what they want with what they've picked up from school. Education, teachers, and schools after all, only provide part of the individual's learning experience. There is so much more out there that one can learn and pick up as a skill and interest. So much more that means grander, helpful, and purposeful than any piece of paper used for degree qualifications.
Intelligence and ability are one thing, but marks, GPA, Degrees Qualifications, Diplomas and all that, are still just paper in the end, and always will be. Human intelligence evolves and improves, paper only gets old.
If change is to come from anywhere, it's from the common public. It's from the students and teachers, not the system. It rises, bottom-up, not from those powerful bureaucrats in the government who at times can be themselves be ignorant. Hence, we the people cannot afford to be ignorant and idle.
My main point for a solution: The students of Hong Kong must take a proactive attitude and find the skills and improvement that they need and want to compensate for what the system fails to give. Teachers on the other hand, and hopefully myself too, should also take an active part in shaping this attitude among students. This is after all, what learning really is about. This is how we can reverse the brainwashing how it has long enslaved many and led them to think that opportunity is long gone due to their failures in the system.
***
That is all about this issue. The next entry, will be the final, closing transmission of Operation 53. Until then, Comrade Yuri wishes all confronting HKU SPACE examinations the best of luck and effort.
And so...the survey project is done. The presentations have all said something about a unique featurette of Japanese culture. We all tried, with an online survey, to obtain a picture of how the modern Japanese live out certain things.
With Joeie-san, our survey covered (or at least attempted to study) the preferences of music among the Japanese these days. It was most fascinating, how a majority of Joeie's expectations on preferences on pop-music collapsed with the results of the survey being quite different. Ayumi Hamasaki is not THE big artist-icon as she'd thought her to be - and Classical music still owned most of the hearts of the Japanese when it came to music!
Like most of our class, our survey was also conducted online. Unlike most of our class, 19 people responded. Overall, no study group obtained 20 or more participants, hence, we had the most respondents. Clearly still however, 19 respondents does not make for a good statistical sample to represent a consensus. That was somehow, an achievement for us.
For a detailed elaboration on another thing that I found interesting that was found out in the survey projects, please check the previous transmission.
As for now, the next transmission will contain a few final things. it would (probably) be the last transmission from this blog, Operation 53. Look forward to it, and as for our comrades and everyone else, 今週、いしょにがんばろう！
Before starting with anything, it would probably be most appropriate to mention that the Japanese language is rival to no other in its uniqueness.
In the Japanese language, one can express him/herself in various ways. There are even a majority of quick, everyday phrases and sentences that do not even require a subject noun/pronoun...all that is needed is a verb! In English, this would probably be unthinkable in everyday conversation. In communicating themselves, the Japanese have a choice of three: use their own name to refer as the subject, pick from a basket of Japanese first-person pronouns (which is to be discussed here), or use no pronoun at all. Choice is always a good thing when you want variety and interesting experience!
In that basket of various Japanese pronouns, each one is unique in its usage. Hence, classified in their use in formal/casual situations, whether they are extensively polite in nature or severely rude, the character of the person speaking it (such as historical background, social status, or Japanese geographical locality), or even how the speaker is related to the persons being spoken to.
With the use of anime, film, and some other things, here is Comrade Yuri's findings on this intriguing phenomenon.
A1 - わたし is perhaps what I would call the all-around, all-purpose Japanese first-person pronoun. It can be used for most situations, both formal and informal, and is probably unisex in its usage. It has a more formal variant - わたくし, which can still be considered unisex. According to the joint linguistics research of MGU (Moscow State University) and UMASS (University of Massachusetts Amherst), わたし has recently been observed to be tending to be a "neutral female" pronoun in common usage in modern Japanese.
A2 - While the previous sets have been described as "unisex" (with the debatable recent finding on わたし), there is a set that has been typified for male usage. The first one I would point out is おれ. This pronoun is most definitely male and certainly informal in usage. It is probably the most masculine of pronouns, bearing a possible connotation that you are a man of strength, action, and pride. It can somehow make the male speaker feel "tough" or "dominating". According once more to the MGU/UMASS documentary mentioned, the use of おれ somehow makes the speaker appear "superior" while at the same time making his audience inferior and weak. With this sense, it has been thought of as also, a quite rude pronoun to use.
- Video excerpt from anime, 美鳥の日々(Midori no Hibi - Midori Days). The male lead character, Sawamura Seiji is a tough-gangster-type highschool student, known for beating up people. He uses おれ.
A3 - Another pronoun that is considered masculine is ぼく. The manner it is used is similar to おれ, where it is meant only to be used informally and along with your familiar friends. The only difference would be that it does not carry anything that would make your audience inferior. It is not essentially rude, but not essentially exclusively male either. There are exceptions, where in certain contexts, female Japanese use ぼく.
- Kanon (カノン)'s Ayu Tsukimiya uses ぼく. Any real-life Japanese female that uses ぼく usually ends up being considered either childish or tomboyish. Hence, in this anime, Ayu's childishness becomes evident not just in her stupidity, but her speech as well.
- Tough, smart, and uncompromising, the titular character of キノの旅(Kino no Tabi - Kino's Journey), Kino, is a gunslinger traveler. Her actual gender is revealed later in the anime, hence, it was not only easy to confuse her for a boy due to her appearance, but also due to her use of ぼく, which reveals her immensely tomboyish personality. [this excerpt only has subtitles in Spanish, sorry to those who wished to understand what Kino was asking the operator, but she is primarily asking about why this land has not much people working the machines in the room]
In this sense, ぼく's usage is contextually flexible. Certain popular Japanese songs sung by female J-pop/J-rock singers also use ぼく not simply because of the fact that the songwriter may have been male, but for the purpose of bringing a certain appeal to the singer and the song.
A4 - Further into the exploration of gender-specific first person pronouns, we have the female tier. あたし is known as the "girly" feminine pronoun. Most Japanese females can get by with simply using わたし, but あたし brings forth that the speaker is really being girly. In this assertion of feminism, the female speaker would appear more "cute" if not, attractive to audiences. Professional Japanese Geisha (芸者) have been known to use this to emphasize the femininity their nature of work entails. Its usage is usually restricted either to among females or those people the female speaker is familiar with. Male usage of あたし is almost unheard of (it must be VERY awkward), but here is an exception...
- in 02:47, the character on the right is Chen-san (played by Tonoyama Taiji) is one of the leaders of the Chinese Triad's cells in postwar Japan. His character speaks Mandarin and a variant of Fukien Chinese in the 1961 film by Shohei Imamura, 豚と軍艦 (Buta to Gunkan - Pigs and Battleships). However, when he speaks in Japanese, he refers to himself as あたし. The estranged usage of this pronoun brings about the fact that Chen is a not only non-Japanese, but he is a man of strange personality. This trailer also features the extensive male usage of おれ with members of the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza やくざ, which are a focal point of this classic film. The Yakuza are known to be extensively rude to Japanese who are not Yakuza, feeling that they are of a superior rank to these citizens being weaker.
A4 - next in the female tier is あたい , which is simply a slang, highly-informal variant of あたし. Its usage is usually more exclusively among females, and a girl who uses it supposedly "increases in degree of cuteness".
- The game series Touhou Project (東方Project) features an ice fairy, Cirno. She sees herself as the ultimate genius (天才) with cuteness that rivals no other. This video is her theme song, and she refers to herself exclusively with あたい. Complete lyrics of the song can be found here for closer inspection.
B1 - Another possible classification of of Japanese first-person pronoun use is with age. あたくし is a variant of あたし whose usage primarily lies with older, or elderly women. Its usage brings about a sense of wisdom and aged experience. Its male counterpart would be わし. The usage of these also brings an emphasis of respect for your elders, which has been a tradition in Japanese social etiquette. Both however, have fallen to relative disuse in modern Japanese language, hence, I do not have much examples to share here.
C1 - Alongside age, there is also the the issue of social status. 朕, ちん was used for a time by the lineage of Emperors of Japan, until the Showa period, where after the surrender of Japan to the Allied nations that concluded World War II, Emperor Hirohito dropped its use, even as an Emperor of Japan himself. He most probably did this to reduce the "sacredness" that connoted his position as Emperor. All the way until August 1945, the Japanese have been taught to revere the Emperor as a living god, descendant of the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu (天照大神) in Japanese mythology. He did this not just in accordance to General MacArthur's demand that the new constitution would reduce Imperial political influence, but also that he can approach and speak to the common Japanese person in a down-to-earth manner in their time of great crisis in postwar Japan. Now, the Heisei Emperor, Akihito also no longer uses 朕.
C2 - In popular culture and literature, archaic and antiquated pronouns such as 朕 have long been used to either denote someone from a older, ancient time-period. While 朕 was used to probably denote the Emperor's immortal importance, another example can be seen in Eri Takenashi's かんなぎ (Kannagi)...
The title character of the series: Nagi-sama (found by Google images)
Nagi-sama, in both the anime and manga uses a very old-fashioned pronoun, わら/わらわ, 妾 when referring to herself. In the story, although she may have materialized in human form in present-day Japan, she is still in fact the ageless and ancient goddess that watched over the local forest and lands for many years. Hence, she uses わら both to show that her speech pattern is from older times in Japan, but also that she is a goddess. Youtube and various manga sites no longer host a workable copy of Kannagi, due to royalty and publishing rights. Here is however, a video example that took much searching. It is unofficial (and may not exactly be legal), and was last workable on the 16 of March, 2011. Load the player and fast forward to 05:33, where Nagi can be first heard in action, using わら.
D1 - By geographical locality, Japanese speech patterns may vary due to accents. The male protagonist of the 2006 film, 硫黄島からの手紙 (IooJima Kara no Tegami - Letters from Iwo Jima) uses a variant of おれ, おら. This is not a common form and neither is it standard Japanese. It has been thought to be "rural" Japanese, primarily those from the regions northern of the Kantou area. Known only as "Saigo" (played by Ninomiya Kazunari), he attempts to comfort his wife as he is conscripted to fight in Iwo Jima with the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). In the process, he uses おら.
- This excerpt from the film also showcases the usage of わたくしたち, the formal, plural form spoken by the IJA female recruiter-representative and also, われわれ, which is a plural form that can be used to refer on behalf of a group, company, or in this case, General Kuribayashi Tadamichi (played by Watanabe Ken) referring to the IJA in the defense of Iwo Jima (seen in 04:52 of the film excerpt).
E1 - Shirane Haruo's Classical Japanese is a textbook that was meant to examine and inform readers of older Japanese grammar. Its objective was to help readers, especially scholars who delve into Classical Japanese literature and artifacts.
Shirane Haruo's Classical Japanese (Taken from Hong Kong Public Library - Yau Ma Tei Branch)
In the book, there is a section that discusses first-person pronouns (p. 256 sec.17.2.1). It brings to mention the examples われ and まろ, 麿. 麿 is a pronoun that is very ancient and nowadays, has fallen to extreme disuse that it is probably already an extinct form of "I" in Japanese. With this said, no examples are available here at the moment on its usage. The only probable useful information known of its usage is that it is strictly for males.
F1 - On a final note, the Japanese language prides itself as a language that gives speakers a choice that is not seen in English. There are instances where no first-person pronoun is used. Either none or your own name...
- Of course however, when referring to yourself using your one name, you present yourself to be quite juvenile. クラナド (Kuranado - Clannad)'s Ibuki Fuko is a high school girl with an increasingly notable childish personality. This excerpt shows how much this habit of hers prevents her from being considered as an adult.
In conclusion, Comrade Yuri details his personal thoughts:
"With all these information in mind, I feel that I would be using the pronoun おれ in reference to myself if I was Japanese. I may not look like it (especially in Japanese class), but I have a rather rude and violent personality. Others however, would simply say that my lively personality just does not tend to be girly. Akagi-sensei has cautioned me on its use, and has told me to stick with わたし. The only other reason why i would use おれ was that I recall a time speaking some Japanese with a friend who was apparently Japanese. He laughed at me slightly when I referred to myself as わたし, saying that it made me sound feminine. I have used おれ for the longest time, and probably, that research from MGU/UMASS now supports that claim."
"It is probably safe and appropriate to say, that the beauty of the Japanese language lies in its complexity and difficulty. NO other language (that I know so far) has more than three ways to refer to yourself! I like to stick to that beautiful piece of philosophy I've always had since taking up Japanese."
Before I begin, it appears what I mentioned in class was a little inaccurate when I was asked by Seo-sensei when I visited Japan. I was in Japan back in January 2004, and stayed for about 12 days, not 20 or 30 as I may have mentioned. Along with my family, we went to Tokyo for about 8 days and had a brief visit to Sapporo in Hokkaido for about 4 days before heading back to Hong Kong.
I do not have much photos apparently, This was probbaly due to the fact we didn't own a digital camera yet. We only had film-fed analog cameras. Most of my photos are from the Tokyo area. We didn't even take much photos. Most were from the times we visited the Tokyo Disneyland. I will however, not include those here - I don't think it's that interesting.
We got to Japan first via Narita Airport. To get to Tokyo proper, we took a bus. It was more or less a 1 hour bus ride. This I remember well, to be one of the best bus rides I ever had. The path it took showed me a lot of various features of the surrounding areas - from suburbs to the industrial area. Everything was so new.
Here's the very first thing we encountered in Tokyo...
This is the railway system of Tokyo, known nationally as the Japanese Railways Group (JR グループ). The Tokyo network is operated by the East JR Company known as JR Higashi-Nihon (JR東日本), which also serves the Kanto area, where Tokyo is located.
What really surprised me was how the station map appeared...it looked very cramped and was probably like a confusing maze. Compared to the MTR system here in Hong Kong, this is crazy!
This is me (on the right), my younger brother, and my mother back then. We were buying tickets from the machine for the JR. But like I said, my memory seems to be very weak - I don't remember either which station was this, nor where the hotel that we stayed in was.
A thing that I remember quite well, was eating in Yoshinoya (吉野家) in Tokyo. This wasn't the first time I ate in Yoshinoya back then. My mom first "discovered" one of its restaurant branches in Hong Kong near my home in Yau Ma Tei. Upon eating Yoshinoya in Japan, you know the difference with the original...
Yoshinoya is known for its beef bowls (牛丼). This was also probably the only thing I ate in Yoshinoya. Compared to the 牛丼 I ate in Hong Kong, the ones in Japan have a better textured beef and its rice seems to be more enjoyable - it's not too soft. I also believe that the 牛丼 there is a lot less oily than the one from Yoshinoya Hong Kong. There are even rumors that Yoshinoya Japan uses American beef for its 牛丼.
Another major difference is how the restaurant was set. In Hong Kong, the setup looks very similar to fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's. There are separate tables and the ordering counter is located as a bar near the entrance. In Yoshinoya Japan however, the ordering counter is more like a "station", where it is surrounded by the table eating area, much like a sushi bar. It is set up like this primarily to enable service to be faster and easier to clean up. Rush hour in Tokyo is much faster, maybe. (Please note that the above phtotos are not mine, obtained by Google search.)
The most significant place (for me at least) that we visited was...
This is my mom somewhere near one of the main gates to the Imperial Sanctum.
Imperial Palace, 皇居, or otherwise known as こおんきょ, "Imperial Residence". The Palace only opens to the public on two special days in the year: December 23, the Emperor's Birthday and January 2. Due to using an analog camera, you can still see the date stamp. It's quite obvious we visited on one of the 354 days you cannot see the Emperor.
ば かやろ！! That's me to the left. Yes, that stupid boy "trying" to move one of the huge doors that are characteristic of the Imperial Palace's gates. This gate was part of the outer sanctum, the outer area is always open to the public...however, all you can see and walk on is a whole bunch of pebbles...
..leafless tress and birds.
We probably visited Japan at a bad time. The "off" season was the best to get cheaper airfare. There was still something to see near the Imperial Palace grounds. The entire compound is actually surrounded by a series of small waterways, or moats. 皇居 was like an island in the middle of Tokyo. History has it that the fief area was once Edo Castle, renamed only as the Imperial Castle when the Imperial Household moved its residence there in 1868. Most of its original structures were destroyed over the years by fires, but it was almost especially demolished during the Second World War, due to the American bombing campaigns over Tokyo, thus, most of what we see standing in the Imperial Palace grounds are reconstructions since 1948, also the time when it was renamed to what we know it now today.
Near the Eastern Park Grounds of the Imperial Palace is Hibiya Park, (日比谷公園 ひびやこおえん) which is home to two things that I was very surprised to see...
<---FAT CAT?, GARFIELD?! I was either so happy and thrilled to see such a sight. I've never seen cats this big anywhere, not even Hong Kong! It is probably due to people feeding it...too well in the public park. Such a healthy cat then...but still. The next thing I encountered was also a bit unexpected...
Here, alongside my brother, we pose next to a bust of Dr. Jose P. Rizal, a patriotic writer in the Philippines, who is also known as the national hero. This statue was said to "commemorate Dr. Rizal's visits to Japan", which was one of the places he went for his studies and research. I believe this statue is one of the many efforts of the Japanese government has taken to establish closer ties and mutual respect with my home country, The Philippines.
The last thing that I would like to share about Tokyo is the Ginza area. Probably known as THE shopping district (although Tokyo itself is pretty much one big shopping district), Ginza is quite crowded, far more crowded than you would imagine Mong Kok or Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong. Its best features apart from its shopping complexes is...
Pedestrian Crossings in Ginza (These photos are not mine)
...The Pedestrian Crossings in the streets of Ginza. As you can see, it's like they're all over the place! It looks a little dangerous, but the local people in Tokyo seem to see some order and purpose to it. It's zig-zaggy at some instances, and once it is time to cross, hordes and streams of people flood the entire road from all directions. If you have a child with you (like my brother back then), it may be easy to get lost in the crowd, literally.
Temperatures in Tokyo back that time averaged around 9C. the lowest we encountered on an open day was 7C. I wore a thick layered jacket back then as I wasn't used to cold weather just yet. Years in Hong Kong Winters however, have trained me to like it better. Probably, the next time I go to Tokyo, I wouldn't need such a jacket, like some of the local the Japanese there. The other reason we had these jackets was due to our trip to Sapporo later. It's rather unfortunate that most of the photos we took with our analog camera was wasted on Disneyland. Either, way we couldn't find much time nor extra film for photo-taking when we went to Sapporo.
All I could remember about Sapporo was...
Downtown Sapporo at night
At night, downtown Sapporo looks VERY VERY similar to Tokyo at night, due to its countless and restless battery display of neon lights and signs. The streets are also, just as crowded with cars and people alike.
Downtown Tokyo at night
Temperatures in Sapporo got even lower than that in Tokyo. At that time, I remember that the temperature was usually between 1 or subzero. It was the first time in my life, that I encountered a day at -0.80C or even -2C! It was probably a given fact that I was also too cold that time to hold a camera, hence the two pictures used here for the nightview of the two cities are not mine too.
It is rather unfortunate that I do not have much photographs, nor do I remember too many details on my first ever trip to Japan. It is such a shame that we didn't stay longer...my memory would probably have had more to say if that was the case.
Here is one souvenir that I got free of charge while walking on one of the rails of the JR system.
I am not yet that well versed in reading Kanji, but I am assuming that it is a ticket that either advertises going to the Kansai area or is actually a ticket that could get you there.
Either way, it seems that on the next probable time I go to Japan, I've made a promise to myself - to visit a city in the Kansai region (most probably Osaka), and go back to Sapporo at the right time. I intend to see the Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり), which I missed when I was there. It is said to be usually held sometime in the days of the first week of February.
This series of operations aims to look into how Japanese characters and scripts, otherwise known as Kana (かな) are used.
The three prominent かな in Japanese are Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (かたかな) , and Kanji (かんじ). It appears that in everyday instances, usually more than one set can be seen in use side by side.
ひらがな is the most basic of the かな set. It looks curvy, and if not, kind of cute. Its uses are somewhat multi-purpose, and can be widely seen in many texts. It is usually the first character set encountered by students of the Japanese language.
According to the Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary, ひらがな is used as the building blocks of the Japanese sentence. Grammatical particles and items (such as "wa" わ and "desu" です) are done in ひらがな.
かんじ on the other hand, are more complex-looking scripts that can be used to convey meanings that can vary among contexts and situations. They are derived or if not, directly taken from the Chinese character sets.
The Dictionary also mentions that かんじ is used for more formal, structured, or professional readings such as essays, reports, business advertisements, and even newspapers.
<-- Japanese newspaper extract Asahi Shimbun (朝日新聞). Newspapers are the perfect example to see instances of having ALL 3 かな used in one publication. As seen here, characters are written both horizontally yokogaki よこがき and vertically tategaki たてがき.
かんじ is also used for proper nouns and names. The name "Yamada Yuki" can be written as 山田雪, but there can be also instances where a composite format is used, such as 山田ゆき. This would probably not appear in formal name lists, but occurs usually because either the writer or reader is not well aware of the proper かんじ to use.
かんじ is usually made for more knowledgeable and mature Japanese. Even children are not yet readily expected to read a lot of かんじ. It is said that once you are able to comfortably read newspapers in Japanese, you've grown up in the Japanese language. With that said, the Dictionary advises that beginners start simply with writing with ひらがな. Poorly written かんじ can produce disastrous effects!
かたかな on the other hand, are more solid, rough looking character scripts. "katakana" written in かたかな would be カタカナ. CIS/Heinemann's Ima! いま! textbook series indicate that one of the most prominent uses of かたかな is with the propagation of Japanese "loan words" from foreign languages, (mostly from English) and the depiction of foreign, non-Japanese proper nouns.
アメリカ would denote America while ハムバーガー is hamburger. Usage here indicates that neither words could originally and traditionally be found in the Japanese language before they were introduced by the non-Japanese.
Names of nations and countries (国 orくに in ひらがな) can also be depicted in カタカナ.
フランス would be France, イタリア would mean Italy (literally Italia from its native address), and フィリビン, literally Firripin would be my home country, The Philippines. However, for countries such as Japan itself, Nippon, the かんじ is used. That being 日本 or 日本国. The same is the case for its neighbors China (Chuugoku - 中国) and Korea (Kankoku - 韓国). Both are derived from their pronunciations in their native language. The かんじ is used in these contexts simply due to the fact that all three countries have language scripts that have roots in the Chinese language. This common factor is then put into consideration.
Names of non-Japanese persons are also depicted in カタカナ. For example, the common name "Sam" is サム in Japanese.
In relation to my point on the varied uses of Japanese かな, here are some examples I have collected.
These scanned images are the DVD leaves of the Japanese release of the 1984 British film The Killing Fields. キリング フイールド is literally Kirringu Fuiirudo, the Japanese phonetical localization of the title.
Below is another scanned DVD leaf. This time, of the Japanese live-action film adaptation of the 1994 Japanese manga, あずみ "Azumi". Since あずみ is given name known in Japan, there is no need to adopt it into カタカナ.
Note that both DVDs were purchased here in Hong Kong.
As a final example, here is a photograph of a sign I found near the Pre-school center I work in.
This notice can be found on the doors of The Peninsula Hotel's shopping arcade compund "The Arcade". It is in the Tsim Shat Tsui, an area that is known to draw tourists not just due to its abundance of shopping centers, but also of its hotels, motels, and other accommodations. A good number of Japanese tourists can be found spending their time in Hong Kong Island and the Tsim Sha Tsui area. This sign was meant to both show an awareness to that and to cater to the Japanese that may walk around in Tsim Sha Tsui.
This warning notice is also yet another good example of two かな sets being used at the same time, being ひらがな and かんじ. Below it is the Chinese version, done in Traditional Chinese characters as is the norm in Hong Kong. かんじ may be a derivative of the Chinese character sets, but still, there are exceptions that show that not all of Chinese script is readily used in かんじ. So far, it has been observed to take from both Simplified and Traditional character sets, albeit it borrows more from Simplified Chinese.
ごめん！ごめん！It seems that this transmission has been rather long. However, it was imperative that explain everything known to me so far, in detail, so our fellow Japanese students may be able to join in the discussion. Until then, more findings will be put forward in the next transmissions.
To close, I shall follow the esteemed advice of the Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary - I shall attempt to write as much かんじ as I am already able to recognize. If not, most of my Japanese for the time being will be in ひらがな.
