Monday, October 24, 2011

In search of TSU TSU ARU

I am beyond surprised at the moment. Here I was, reading that comic I suggested to you yesterday, and I find a phrase I never thought I'd be able to find. TSUTSU ARU... I've never seen it used except in my textbook, and I've certainly never heard it. My Japanese teacher told me no one uses it when they speak, and of course, my textbook says the same.

But there it is, in a really beautiful scene about omuraisu


The phrase in question is:
  • あなたの子供になりつつある。
  • Anata no kodomo ni nari tsu tsu aru.
TSU TSU ARU means to "continue doing something", and as I mentioned above, it's usually only used in written form. This, of course, indicates that it is a very formal phrase (which may be a very good indicatory on just how Mikako feels). JGRAM also wants me to say that it means "in the middle of doing something", but I'm not real sure about that seeing as my textbook doesn't even mention something close to that. The translation of the explanation my book give is "gradually doing something".

Helpful, right? Sort of...

The context of these scene is that when Mikako was first adopted, her new mother asked her what she wanted to eat, and she replied that she wanted omuraisu. When she goes to put ketchup on it, her mother exclaims something and Mikako thinks she's in trouble. Instead, the mother is just laughing about how childlike it is to use that much ketchup.  The last page is when Mikako is seventeen, and they are having omuraisu as they do every Saturday, and her mother starts laughing about how much ketchup Mikako uses. "You like that much ketchup?" she laughs, "like a child, huh?"

The Mikako narrates with our grammar point before the scene ends. We can divide the phrase like so:

  • あなたの子供になる(I'll become your child)  + つつある (continue doing so)
  • I'll continue being (becoming?) your child.
I think her use of formality here indicates a sort of contrary feeling to what she says, since it implies distance. Since I'm not Japanese, I can't say for sure, but I think I'm probably right.

How to make a TSU TSU ARU sentence:

  • Pre-MASU verb+ TSUTSU ARU
    • The NARU in this sentence became NARI

It it as easy as that!

But before I go, I thought I'd talk just a little bit about omuraisu which is, by far, my favorite food. Oddly, though, Japanese people tend to think it's an American food. Ask an American, and they'll say they've never heard of it.

The basic omuraisu is rice, ketchup and egg. There is usually some sort of meat in it (usually chicken, but I like bacon) and vegetables (like onions and what not), but those are not constant since every store makes them a bit differently. In almost all cases, the egg is fried into a thin sheet, and the rice/ketchup medley are mixed and then folded into the egg. It looks like this:

Image taken from: http://blog.omuraisu.net/archive/2006_03_15_omuraisu_archive.html


What it is, basically, is a Japanese version of an American Omellette (Omu standing for Omellette and Raisu being Rice). It may not look good, but I have to tell you, it is BRILLIANT. I crave it almost every other day... and I don't even like ketchup!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

In search of GACHI and SHIKA NAI

It's a two for one day to make up for the days I missed last week. I must apologize for that. With my mother having broken her collar bone, I've had to spend half of my day doing the farm work, and the other half doing house work. Needless to say, it has not been conducive to studying for the JLPT.

It has been conducive, however, to falling asleep to radio plays at night... namely Torchwood radio plays... and I'm having difficulty getting myself to think about anything other than how damn cool Ianto Jones is.



And that, my friends, is how I surreptitiously sneak my personal life into this blog. You totally didn't even notice, did you? Masterful.

But I have had a bit of a chance to do more research, so let's get on with it, shall we?

1. GACHI

GACHI means "tends to", though it can be actually translated as a million other things. I think the idea it's supposed to present is that there is a proclivity for something, but it doesn't necessarily make it so all the time. So basically... "tends to". The page I am taking this from is from this page of her beautiful website:

http://juicyfruit.exblog.jp/7871394/


It has a very simple caption:

  • 夢見がち
  • Yume Migachi


and if you look at the image and assimilate what I told you of what the word GACHI means, you can see the inherent beauty and loneliness to this scene. There are a lot of commonly romantic images in Japan, one of which is sharing a scarf. Another is sharing and umbrella. 

In the last scene, you can see that she is just tied to a tree, and not her lover.

The phrase, then, is a comment on her life.

  • I tend to dream


Though I must admit, in this case, I thought I might just translate it as "daydream" despite the fact that there are four perfectly acceptable words to use instead simply because there is no subject indicated. But then again, when is there ever a subject indicated in Japanese? I decided against it in the end because it doesn't quite have the same feeling to it as "I tend to dream".


How to use GACHI:

  • Pre-masu form+ GACHI
    • because it's a tendency and it will continued to happen, do not worry about tense! No past tense, okay? :)

or
  • Noun+ GACHI


2. SHIKA NAI


I wish I could tell you more about the wonderful artist. There isn't really much to say. She does a fantastic web comic about a girl named Mikako which you can find here.  From what I can tell, it's a part of Morning Manga, which is a branch of Kodansha publishing (I think!). It seems that you can buy the manga at stores these days, and I'm sorely tempted.

Our phrase comes from the PV for the manga, though it does appear in the manga itself. I'm being a bit lazy and not searching for it though, so I hope you'll forgive me. I'm also hoping I can sort of nudge you to check out the website yourself and take a look at her amazing work. The scene I will be talking about starts at 0:45.



The phrase I'm interested in is at 0:53:


  • 「大丈夫」って答えるしかなかった。
  • "Daijoubu" tte kotaeru shikanakatta.



I suppose, though, I should explain how to use SHIKA NAI first before translating the phrase and explaining the context.

SHIKA NAI basically means "no other way", or "have to". I tend to think of it in terms of something that had to be done because there was no other way, whereas other "have to" phrases such as NAKEREBANARANAI can indicate being forced to do it, as well as not having a choice in the matter. SHIKA NAI only speaks to the latter of that, and not the former.

The context which you can watch before is that her adopted mother asks her if she's okay. When she thinks about that, she realizes that adults are always asking that. Then her next phrase is:

  • I had no other choice but to answer with "I'm okay".


  • 「大丈夫」って答える (To answer with I'm okay) + しかなかった (I had not other choice)


You'll notice this particular phrase in the past tense. That is perfectly possible to do. Since she's narrating the story from some unknown future point, she will of course use SHINAKATTA.

How to make a SHIKANAI sentence:

  • DICTIONARY FORM OF VERB + SHIKANAI
    • Please remember that depending on the situation, you willl have to change SHIKANAI. For example, if you want to be polite, it's SHIKA ARIMASEN.


Both of this mangaka's works are pretty easy to understand due to the purposefully simple language she uses, and they are a great way to practice reading more artistic Japanese and absorbing cultural phenomenon. Please, please, please check them out!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

In search GIMI

I should say, that right off the bat, I have a little trouble with GIMI, even if I have a great mnemonic device for it.

GIMI (Gimee) a little! That's how I remember it! Why? Because it means "little bit" like... "He looks a little bit tired". It sort of means that something has a tendency to be something, or that if seems like something.

Learn Japanese Free suggests that it means that whatever it is, the feeling of the sensation is very low, which I think is sort of a helpful way of thinking about it. Like... he's-not-fat,-it-just-looks-like-me-sort-of-be-on-the-way-towards-it kind of feeling. Or maybe, I'm-not-really-that-tired-but-I'm-sort-of-starting-to-feel-it kind of feeling.

Where I found it is on a great website that I'm now in love with. It's called Hitotsuna which is a really interesting site where you write a message, take a photo of you holding it, and someone responds to it in the same way. Then that person, in turn, asks a question or makes a statement. There is a cute explanation written in very simple Japanese with English translations here. I found our grammar point in this little exchange:



So the first message is:


  • 夏バテ気味です。
  • NatsuBATE gimi desu.



There is a translation provided there, which says "the heat is getting to me" which I think is about as close as you're going to get to a comprehensible English sentence if you're going to translate it. This blog, however, isn't necessarily about translation, so I'm going to try and work out the mechanics of what this grammar point is really saying.


  •  夏バテ= Summer heat (associated with suffering in the heat)
  • 気味です= vague sensation


So what this is really trying to say is that he's starting to feel the heat. Is it hot yet? No, but it's getting there.

The answer, which I love, is from that adorable office lady who says: Let's fall in love!

Haha! I think this also funny because his phrase indicates that it's not quite summer yet (it's just starting to feel like it) and spring is associated with love. So, the ladies response is funny on its own, but there's a little extra layer of hilarity there too.

Anyway, browse the website! It's amazing! It's fun! And sometimes there are some really profound exchanges.

I, for example like:


  • Beer is too delicious.
  • It's a good thing if it's delicious!
Or my favorite:

For the most part, the translations are spot on, so if you're Japanese isn't as good as you'd like it to be, you can rely on those a bit.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

In search of KURAI / GURAI


Wow. Day number five of manga related posts. I really am on a roll.

Today, we are going to talk about one of the longest running manga group, and one of their most famous stories, so I think it’s okay indulge myself for one more post, eh?

CLAMP is famous. When I say famous, I really mean it. They have done everything from Cardcaptor Sakura to Tokyo Babylon, to Angelic Layer to… the list really goes on. They do very serious works filled with blood and gore, and fun uplifting ones where people don’t die tragically but fall in love. They are sort of the Shakespeare of Japanese comics, really.

The only manga I own in Japanese by CLAMP is X/1999, one of their most epic, and most controversial pieces. Truthfully, I’m not overly fond of it. Why do I own it? Because this, even if it takes thirteen volumes of mind numbing repetitiveness to get through his story line, is one of the greatest characters ever created.


I did purposely scan the whole thing just to give you an idea of how cheap it is to buy used manga in Japan.

Subaru Sumeragi. He is originally a character in Tokyo Babylon, which is a bit more light hearted than X/1999. It’s not necessarily a prequel, but it does have a lot of the same central themes as its successor. In any case, Subaru is one of the most believably developed characters I have ever read. It’s too many spoilers to go into, but his transformation into a teenager who wants to protect everyone to a person with a love/passion for a man he wants to kill is just… amazingly well done!

Sadly, while Volume 12 (where we find our grammar point) is very Subaru heavy, our scene today will not deal with him.

But first, a quick run down of X/1999. The idea is that the end of the world is in the hands fourteen people, seven on the side of Earth, and seven on the side of Heaven. The Dragons of Earth (as they are called) are trying to protect the people of the planet, whereas the Dragons of Heaven are intent on destroying it so the Earth can take back what is its. There are many bloody battles, gratuitous decapitations, and torture scenes with the trials of relationships filling the gaps.

Which is.. a lot different than something like says this:


Oh, how I love Cardcaptor Sakura.

In any case, this series has been made into an anime and a movie, but no one actually knows how it ends. Yes, the movie has an ending. Yes, the anime has an ending. The problem is neither of those were written by CLAMP, and they will only reveal it if they can publish it exactly the way they would like. Essentially, the manga was deemed to violent and ASUKA (the publisher) told CLAMP that either they censor themselves, or they stop printing the manga. Seeing as nothing new has been published, and the last chapter is a cliff hanger filled with the likely death of at least one of the main characters, you can guess how that standoff went down. It is pretty unlikely we will ever see how this story ends...

But on to grammar!

KURAI/GURAI means “about” but not in the same way as NI TSUITE.  More like “It’s about (around) nine o’clock"(9時ぐらい). In fact, you usually hear it when it is in relations to numbers. “There are about seven hundred people” (700人ぐらいいる).

What it is, in this case, is an estimation or a guess. But, actually, in Japanese it’s not actually that at all. It’s time for another episode of Lots of Different English phrases for One Simple Japanese Word!



The context of this page is that someone's kekkai (protection seal) failed and the smiley guy's mom happened to be there when it did. Sadly, she is no longer with the living, and Kamui (the main character) is listening to what his friend has to say.

  • 葬式の時目が溶けるくらい泣いたから今度は二人の分までいっぱい笑えるように頑張らなきゃ。
  • Soushiki no toki me ga tokeru kurai naitakara kondo ha futari no bunn made iappi waraeru you ni ganbaranakya.


The thing with KURAI is that you need to think of it at as "as" "or as much as". It's used to say "about" and "around" because it's not a very exact phrase. It's supposed to give you indication of "how much" without it actually being that. We will see that in this sentence translation, but we are going to stop at the KARA, and just focus on the beginning of the sentence.

  • 葬式の時目が溶けるくらい泣いた
  • At the funeral, my eyes melted I cry so much.


That is the most literal way to translate it. Seriously, I would probably add a bit of English in in order to get the idea across properly:

  • At the funeral, I cried so much I thought my eyes would melt away.


Now for the whole sentence, just in case you're having trouble.

  • Because I cried so much I thought my eyes would melt away at the funeral, I'm going to try my best to small enough for both of them (my mom and dad).


Done.

It's not that easy... I hope that gave you some indication of how to use it. I also found this as a nice example sentence:
  • 死ぬくらい笑えた。
  • He made me laugh so hard I thought I would die.

If you need more, please visit JGram. They have a lot of great example sentences.

Before I leave though, I figure I should quickly go over the difference between KURAI and GURAI is. There isn't any, except for you use one after one type a sound, and the other after another. It is sort of like how sometimes you have to change a SHI to a JI depending on what sound is before it. If you would like, I could do a post on what sounds follow what sounds, but it would be a bit too long to get into at the moment. 


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

In search of MAI

My god, this will be post number four involving manga. Don't get me wrong, I do love manga, but I'm not really as obsessed as I seem. I really love art and writing, so comics tend to be the perfect medium for me. But four posts in a row? I'm on a roll, that's for sure.

Today we'll be looking at another one of my favorite mangas, and it is unquestionably my favorite love story involving alien babies who float around, Daa! Daa! Daa!

Daa! Daa! Daa! (UFO Baby) Volume 4 by Kawamura Mika


This is another one of those mangas I bought long before I could read Japanese. I spent hours looking up kanjis just trying to figure out what was going on. Since I didn't know how to use a kanji dictionary, it turned out that looking at pictures was really my safest bet.

But seriously... I love this show. So much so that I have most of the DVDs (which are really hard to get a hold of), the manga, the sequel manga, a few shitajiki, and some postcards. I don't even buy that much for shows I really like. That's the level of love I have for this series.

Daa! Daa! Daa! is named for the sounds babies make. If we were to literally translate the title, it would probably be "Goo goo ga ga" but that seems rather silly. In English, it's usually referred to as as UFO Baby, which is a bit odd because it's never been officially released in America. If it ever gets slated to be translated for the United States, I pray fervently that I would be the one to do it. I've read it a million times, and I could do it in an instant!

The story is really silly. So silly it's embarassing telling people about it because it's hard to get them to believe in the fact that it is great after I explain the plot.

It's like Dean Koontz's Watchers.That book legitmately scared me, but when I try to tell people it's about a genetically altered baboon bent on murdering a super intelligent dog because it felt the dog got all the love, I just get funny looks! I can sense you're doing it right now! Stop it! It's really scary!

In any case, the story revolves around the blossoming love affair of Miyu and Kanata. Miyu's parents go away to America to work for NASA leaving Miyu with a family friend who's son is Kanata. Said family friend is a Buddhist priest, and he is offered a once in a lifetime chance to study with a guru in India. Miyu, unable to stand the guilt trip, consents to let him go and finds herself sharing a house with his surly son.

And yeah... they're fourteen.

So, it's sounds horrible so far right? What if I told you that night, a UFO crashed in the temple grounds, and from the craft emerged a floating baby and its babysitter, a giant talking cat. Now it's fun! The baby thinks Miyu and Kanata are his parents, and Miyu and Kanata can't stand the thought of making it feel sad, so they go along with the charade as best they can. The whole premise of the show is a comedy of errors as they try to hide the baby's alien origins from everyone, and they fact they are not related to one another and living together in the same house. It's fun. It's cute. And, it has a satisfying ending.



But on to grammar!

I'm a little confused about MAI because I thought it was used primarily by old men. That's why my friend Aki told me, in any case, and I don't like to think her a liar. But in the example I have, a fourteen year old girl is clearly using it.







  • 「少女まんが」じゃあるまいしっ。。。
  • "Shoujo manga" jyaaru mai shi... 


So, the context of this scene is that Miyu had a very embarrassing dream where Hanakomachi Kirita confessed to liking her and moved in for a kiss. She's still very much bothered by it at breakfast time. Kanata, who is consistently perceptive in the story, states that this is because she saw him without his glasses and she realized his true beauty and has now fallen in love with him

Our example sentence is her rejection of this idea.

MAI, in this situation, means ないだろう, and I put that in hiragana because it's not an easy concept to translate. I figure it you're at JLPT II level, you know what DAROU means and I don't have to struggle to define it as "an ambiguous phrase to imply that one isn't necessarily sure, usually used to soften the phrase and make one sounds less jack-assy". I should put that in a dictionary....

The translation, then, would be:


  • This isn't a romance comic!!!


As I said, this is not really used very often. I want to believe in Aki when she tells me old men use it. Or, I could believe a website that says it's for formal writing. Both, sadly, seem to be not be in favor of cute little teenager Miyu using it. Above, I mentioned that it usually means NAI DAROU, which is only really half true. It's a negative form, for sure. You can use with a pre-MASU form to say someone will not do something with a hint of "probably" in there.

I'm going to have to go on a much more extensive search to really figure this out. Stay tuned, eh?



Monday, October 17, 2011

In search of WARI NI

It's time for WARI NI! This is awesome because I get to use this manga as an example:

Futsuu no Renai by Konomi Shouko

For those of you who are a bit squeamish about love between the manlier sexes, I will tell you ahead of time that this is not a yaoi (boys love) manga, despite its looks. For those of you are like that sort of thing, bummer for you! Maybe next time? I do have lots of interesting things to say about the yaoi culture both in and outside of Japan.

That, though, is really an entry for another day.

The title of the story is Futsuu no Renai(フツーの恋愛) or "A Normal Love". I'm not going to go to into depth about it because neither it, nor its author, are particularly popular. Its publisher, Hana to Yume, however, is! I think it would be remiss to just gloss over the publishers in favor of the artists as I have been because they are integral to what sort of mangas get published.

Hana to Yume is an fairly old furoku (phonebook manga) that does only shoujo comics. A furoku is a cheap way for manga publishers to get stories out and decide on which ones they will keep and publish into tankoubons and pedal for animes.  They are a big phonebook-sized collection of manga chapters written by various authors. Usually, they are accompanied by a survey so the readers literally decide which stories they want to continue or not. This, is probably why SOME mangas/animes go on forever (*cough* Naruto *cough* Bleach*cough* Inuyasha). They are made with very cheap paper, and each story has its own color of ink (blue, red, purple, pink, etc). You're supposed to throw out your furoku after reading them.... Supposed to... Some waste space saving them however... Okay, mainly me. They also try enticing you to buy things by adding little goodies. I, for example, own a charming Gentleman's Cross Alliance muffler.

Since Hana to Yume deals with young love, it's read primarily by females, and in that group, it seems to be mostly high school girls. Granted, that's through my experiences, and I don't have any facts to back that up aside from what I saw. It's also been, in my experience, that they tend to be rather porny in nature. Hooray! Porn!

Okay, and by porny, I mean very, very soft porn. Still, definitely sex is involved.

This is not always true though. One of their most famous serials is Fruits Baskets, which is about as innocent of a love story as you can get, even though it is a bit like the Dragonball Z of emotional drama. Every time Tohru solves on huge emotional disaster, there is an even worse one waiting around the corner!! Seriously, how traumatized can we make these characters?

But, I'm not here to talk about Fruits Baskets today. I don't even own manga or the anime, despite the fact both have made me cry. Instead, I'm going to talk about Futsuu no Renai which is a one-shot volume of manga about a guy who looks like a girl and a girl who looks like a guy. Needless to say, their renai (love) is less than futsuu (normal).

I should say, before I start, that this is a very unusual story for Hana to Yume to publish. The main character is not a high school girl, and it deals with love in a not-strictly heterosexual way, both of which are staples to the Hana to Yume franchise. It's a credit, then, to the story that it made it into at least one tankoubon.

The story starts with a tall and very handsome Akira asking a small and very cute Kazui out. Of course, Kazui immediately freaks out because he's not gay, and how dare a guy ask him out on a date! The people watching this exchange at the bus stop are also flabberghasted to learn that he is a boy. Later, he finds that Akira is actually a girl, and he consents to go out on a date with her after he runs away very dramatically and needs to be rescued. Okay, that is pretty Hana to Yume...

Then... he finds out that she's actually transgender and he immediately regrets the decision to date her. In his wonderfully politically incorrect way, he thinks someone like that can't be normal and all he wants is a normal love. The love story follows him coming to grips with falling in love with Akira despite her surgery to remove her breasts, and the fact that she's more welcome in the male onsen than he is (he even gets escorted out once because they think he's a girl).

It's a fun story, even if it seems ethically questionable in its addressing the topic of transgender love, and slightly inappropriate in that Kazui is still a high school student and Akira is a full fledged adult when they start their love affair.


In this scene, Akira has convinced Kazui to come back to her flat where he tries to come to grips with feelings he may or may not have. The sentence in question is the lower right frame.

  • お前 私立の学校で働いているワリに妙に生活レベル低くない?
  • Omae. Shiritsu no gakkou de hataraiteiru WARI ni myou ni seikatsu reberu hikukanai?


In order to really understand this phrase, I want you to look at her apartment in the lower right frame. Cracks in the wall. Things in boxes. Patches on the blanket for the kotatsu. The lamp doesn't even have a shade! This is really going to help understand the grammar point.

WARI NI means "for a" or "considering". I like the description given on JGram best, so I'm going to steal it real quick:

「AのわりにB」*This grammar expresses a judgement in which the situation expressed by B does not meet the expectations of A or seem like what A implies.
The A in my example sentence is:

  • 私立の学校で働いている
  • Working at a private school


B is:

  • 妙に生活レベル低くない?
  • Your standard of living is strangely low.


So, this can be translated in one or two ways:

  • Considering you work at a private school, your standard of living is strangely low, isn't it?
  • Isn't your standard of living is strangely low for someone who works at a private school?


If you are at all curious after that, he finds out that she has really expensive things like Dreamcasts (wow, this is old) though she doesn't have a TV because she wins things by listening to the radio. I assume she calls in every time they give something away. Oh Akira, I almost want to like you despite your stalker tendencies.

WARI NI is pretty easy, though, right?


Sunday, October 16, 2011

In search UCHI NI

There is no doubt in my mind that you people have heard of Sailor Moon. If you are at all familiar with anything Japanese, I'm sure one of these three things pop into your mind: 1.) Hello Kitty 2.) Pokemon 3.) Sailor Moon. Maybe Dragonball Z, if you're a guy, or a woman who is madly in love with Vegeta like myself.

As a woman who likes to be respected by men, there is no reason I should love him the way I do >.<


Did I just admit to that? I suppose I could just use the old delete key, but... I don't care enough.

Anyway, Sailor Moon recently (and by recently, I mean about four or five years ago) had a reprinting that involved the original colors for most of the colored pages, unique stickers, and new cover illustrations. I totally thought I was over Sailor Moon until this special edition little beauties caught my eye. Needless to say, I left the store about four thousand yen poorer.


Isn't that a well prettier cover than the original. Of course, I could only find this super low quality version of it on the net, but here you are:


Coincidences of coincidences, I was at the bookstore last night, and I discovered they are rereleasing Sailor Moon as the special editions in English (with the full color pages, but no stickers)! What a blessing! The original translations were absolutely horrid!

In any case, we're going to go over the incredibly easy grammar form, UCHI NI. Hooray! It's nice because it's useful, and that's all I really care about when it comes to learning grammar points. Utility. There are so many I learn and forget simply because it doesn't come to mind fast enough.

UCHI NI means "while A ~ A/B is ~"... which is a little vague. Basically it just means "While". The way I like to remember it is that the word UCHI has two different kanji that have a very enclosed feeling to them. So, 内 means "within" and 家 means "house". So I imagine that housed in one action, is another. Or within an action there is also another. Perhaps that is just my weird way of thinking, but it's worked pretty well for me so far.

There are actually two separate grammar points in my book called UCHI NI, though I'm not entirely sure why. Once we get into, we'll see that they are pretty much the same, even if they are translated different.

But first, let's do it as "while" before I confused with a wily word that goes by the name of "before".

A typical UCHI NI sentence may go like this:


  • 勉強するうちに平井堅を聞くのはいいね〜
  • Benkyou suru uchi ni Hirai Ken wo kiku no ha ii ne~


Was that my facebook status a few days ago? Why yes it was, and I mean every word of it...

...

No matter what you think I'm not going to digress into how cool Hirai Ken is (though I desperately want to).

Strong, Boom. Strong. Okay, this is how you make a UCHI NI sentence.


  • A(action) + UCHI NI + B(action)
  • A(Studying) + UCHI NI + B (Listening to Hirai Ken)


  • Listening to Hirai Ken (B) while studying (A) is nice.
  • While studying, listening to Hirai Ken is nice.


The next is way to use UCHI NI is stay say "before an action is completed, this is done/should be done". While in English, these are two very separate phrases, they are quite similar in Japanese.

  • 暗くないうちに、帰ったほうがいい。
  • Kurakunai uchi ni, kaetta hou ga ii.



It goes like this:

Within the confines of it not being dark, it's best to go home.

Now let's think about the first one:

Within the confines of studying, it's nice to listen to Hirai Ken.

Do you see where I'm going with this? We would never speak like this in English, though, so the second UCHI NI is essentially:

It's best to go home before it gets dark.

That's right. UCHI NI means the same thing, and yet it is translated as "while" and "before". I'm sure some of you must think this is beyond irritating. I, being such a grammar lover, think it's awesome!

So, the example I'm going to give you from the manga doesn't translate very neatly into English like the ones I provided above, but I like it because it shows just how it can be used without strictly confining you into English contexts.

What? I've hooked up a scanner to my computer? No more crappy photos of manga pages?! Happy days!


  • マーズ ーそして マーキュリーまで 目の前で一瞬のうちにつれさられた。 ーーーブラックムーン。
  • MAAZU -- Soshite MAAKYURII made   Me no mae de isshun no uchini tsuresarareta --- BURAKKU MUUN.

Ok, for those who want to know where I am in the series, the first story line is over. Now we have the Black Moon story line, where we are introduced to Sailor Moon's future daughter with a daddy complex, Chibi Usa. If you don't want to have plot spoiled, I would suggest you ignore this post altogether.

You gone?

No. Okay. So, it's not a big spoiler, but Mars and Mercury have been taken away by the Black Moon, and Usagi is struggling to grasp any sort of victory against this mysterious enemy. See, not too bad, right? 

Let's go over the grammar, and translate it the way I say it usually is translated:

  • "While a moment, they were kidnapped before my eyes."
  • "Before a moment, they were kidnapped before my eyes."

So doesn't work, right? That's why my brief and annoying story about how I remember UCHI as something that is within the confines of another action comes into play.

Obviously, the way this should be translated is:
  • "In a moment, they were taken right before my eyes."
Within a confines of a moment, a blink of an eye, Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury were taken. Suddenly it all makes sense, right?



Saturday, October 15, 2011

In search of YORU TO, and YOREBA and KAGIRI

I realize that I have very few days between now and when I take my JLPT, so I'm going to start doing something EVERY day, and if I can, double up on grammar points. So today's inexorably long post is going to be dedicated to YORU TO/ YOREBA and KAGIRI (HA/DEHA). Both are found in volume two of Time Stranger Kyoko by Arina Tanemura.



I used to be a huge fan of Arina Tanemura, even if I could hardly tell her main characters apart. Then, her type of love story started to get a little old (the basic love story is "hate each other than fall in love" which has been her MO for everything except FOS). She is famous for Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, a story about a magical girl who is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc with inexplicably Japanese-styled clothing for her seifuku, and Full Moon o Sagashite, a story about a girl with a beautiful voice who finds out she only has a year left to live and tries to fulfill her dream of becoming a pop idol.

It was once said that Time Stranger Kyoko was Tanemura's favorite work, something I think is true... for the beginning at the very least. What starts out as a fun magical girl manga about a princess who's trying to collect the 12 Strangers so she can awaken her twin sister Ui soon becomes a rushed affair with very poorly constructed twists. I think this is because Tanemura-sensei got the idea for Full Moon o Sagashite and felt the need to wrap up Time Stranger Kyoko as fast as possible. That is just supposition, mind you, brought on by the fact that I wanted TSK to be longer.

1. YORU TO/ YOREBA

First off, I need to make sure you don't ever get this mixed up with NI YOTTE! They have the same root, which is "depends/according" but they are used very differently!

But let's start with the easier of the two, YORU TO/ YOREBA. This grammar point is used when you want to say "according to so and so, this is the truth". For example:
  • ブームによるとJLPTのため勉強していることが楽しいだけど。。。
  • Acording to Boom, studying for the JLPT is fun...

So basically, it's NOUN + YORUTO + Whatever the Noun says.

Shall we to the manga?

The phrase I want to use is in the right hand corner, and is cut off... Sorry!

I'm going to put things in context really quickly here in order to move things along. Kyoko has discovered that the 12 Strangers she needs to find are leaders of various clans. For example, she's of the Royal Clan, so she's a Stranger. Her best friend is of the Flower Clan, and her romantic interest is the leader of the Dragon Clan. Both of them are Strangers. She then goes on a journey to go find more Strangers so she can use their power to wake her dormant twin sister. Of course, she's only doing this so she doesn't have to be a princess anymore, so it's not like she's really all that much of a philanthropist despite the good deeds she manages to do in every chapter.

So, the sentence in question is this: 

  • でもウワサによると仲の良かった2つの村が最近になってケンカばっかしてるみたいなのよね。。。
  • Demo, UWASA ni yoruto naka no yokatta futatsu no mura ga saikin natte KENKA bakkashiteru mitainanoyo ne.
  • But according to rumour, it looks that these two clans who have always had good relations are bickering. 

Yes. I was a little liberal with the translation. But I kept what was important. Moving on.

So using YORU TO and YOREBA is really easy. Forgive me for repeating myself, but it is just:

  • Noun(A) + NI YORU TO/ YOREBA (B) + rest of sentence(C)

This makes:
Rumour (A) NI YORUTO TO (B) + (They are bickering) (C)
According to rumour, they are bickering. 

I'd love to go into the distinction between YORU TO and YOREBA, but I have a lot trouble already trying to distinguish between "if" as in TO and "if" as in BA, so I don't think I'll be any help. Sorry. If someone could enlighten me, though, I'd be forever grateful!

2. KAGIRI 



KAGIRI has three uses. Fantastic. Are you ready?

The kanji for KAGIRI is 限り, which means "limits" or "bounds". What this should give you an image of is that whatever it's describing, it is no more than that. It is used in these three senses:

  • 1. As long as
    • This should make you think of SAE BA a little bit, but the image is a little different. Here, it's like until that limit of something is reached, something will stay the same:
      • 日本にいるかぎり、チンさんはわたしに連絡してくれるはずだ。
  • 2. Within the limits of
    • This is a description of where knowledge comes from. It's often used with 私が知っている限り, as in "as far as I know". The text book has a great example that takes this further and it uses 電話で話したかぎり, which sort of means "as far as he said on the telephone."
    • So, really, the translation is probably almost uniformly "as far as"
  • 3. Up until
    • This actually translates as "as far as" most of the time. Like, 能力のかぎり頑張ります. "Up until the end of my talents, I'll try." Ouch. That reallly sucks in english, huh?


As for context, it's a whole lot of spoilers, so I'm not going to give you it. I don't know if it's that important. It also has nothing to do with the mysterious guy smooching her. The king, on the previous page, is talking about events and his last thought ends as she's waking up to be orally violated.

I will say the king talks a lot about how she has powers like Chronos, and that awakening her sister doesn't mean she'll escape her fate. This isn't a spoiler, I swear, because he doesn't say what fate and it's strongly insinuated that it's her fate as a princess that can't be escaped.


  • 「みんなを守りたい」と思うかぎりー。。。
  • "Minna wo mamoritai" to omou kagiri-...



What sucks is that this sentence doesn't end, which makes it an absolute crap example sentence. Why did I use it then? Well, I'm getting desperate. The test is coming up soon and I need something! Plus, this really challenges my way of thinking about KAGIRI so it's good that I have to think this through.

But first, I want to show this absolutely hilarious translation.


And this is why we DO NOT use online translators. Either that, or we only use translators whose language that it is going to be translated into is their native language. First off, that first sentence is about how Kyoko's hair will change back from red to brown. There is another sentence in there that uses DARAKE (魔族だらけの未来) where he says a "a future full of demons".... but according to this, the Mazoku went to the future where Ui's moment of awakening vanished! 

But I'm digressing. 

Let's look at the three translations for KAGIRI. There is "As long as", "As far as" and "Up until". Which is best here?

Well, I for one, agree with the translation above. It is "'Everybody defended' and to think as much as possible". Oh, wait, no I don't! That's ridiculous! I mean, it suggests that there is a limit, so that's good, but other than that, WHAT THE HECK?!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, it's not definition 3. That leaves us with 1 and 2:

Previous sentence: "After all, you can't escape your fate of awakening Princess Ui." (結局おまえは憂を目覚めさせる運命から逃れらないのさ) 
  • 1. As long as you think that you want to protect everyone...
  • 2. As far as you think you want to protect everyone...


So which one of those sounds right? That's right! One! It's inverted sentence! Oh Japanese, how you love to toy with me.

"After all, you can't escape your fate of awakening Princess Ui... as long as you think you want to protect everyone."

In a normal, formally written sentence using KAGIRI, this would be flipped like this:

結局、「みんなを守りたい」と思うかぎり、おまえは憂を目覚めさせる運命から逃れらないのさ。

I'm a little hesitant to end this post because it makes me feel so nostalgic. I remember ten years ago when the first chapters of this came out. I bought the manga for a exorbitant price online, and muddled through with .txt translations because I had no idea how to speak Japanese at the time. Sometimes, I wonder if child self would be impressed with me. Other time, I wonder if child self isn't a little disappointed that I'm not further along.


Friday, October 14, 2011

End of WAKE WEEK : The summary

It's the end of WAKE week. It shall no longer be wacky!

It should not surprise you that I find it incredibly difficult to write this while listening to audio plays. Nevertheless, I'm not really going to stop.

I was going to pretend they are Japanese audio dramas (which you can find a lot of, but that's really a blog for another day), but it's not true. It's totally Doctor Who. And I love the Eighth Doctor.



This totally has to do with Japan, right?

But if you don't believe that I can relate this to Japan, you are talking to the wrong million-track mind. Take a look at this image of the eighth doctor here on deviantart (if you're at all curious, you can view my artwork at mapend.deviantart.com). That is a Dollzone Yuu, which is a Chinese ball-jointed doll. There is a Japanese version of this sort of thing called the Super Dolfie. What is is a custom doll that you can change the clothes, hair, makeup, and even hands and feet on. There is a second hand market for it, though I've never actually been witness to it. I do know they are expensive though. I've been to one of the stores. I can also tell you that they do not let you take photos of anything.

I imagine if you can think of a celebrity, they have a Super Dolfie. Let's try the ones mentioned on this blog shall we?
Gackt  - yes  
Miyavi - yes (source says this is wig mod she was working on)
Sawada Kenji - no

Okay, that's where I stop. It turns out I'm wrong since I can't find a Moriyama Mirai one, or anyone else that isn't visual kei for that matter. So I should say, as long as it's a visual kei artist, I'm sure you can find a Super Dolfie of it. This is not surprising though. You usually find Super Dolfies in Visual Kei districts of cities. The ones I've been to are usually mixed in with the VK fashion stores of a shopping building.

You didn't think I could do it, did you? You didn't think I could twist British culture into something Japanese. Of course, why I'm talking about them at all doesn't really matter except that I'm listening to Doctor Who radio dramas while I write this. They certainly have nothing to do with this grammar point.

What I actually should be talking about it WAKE, WAKE DEHA NAI,  WAKE GA NAI, WAKE NI HA IKANAI. Why? Because they all have WAKE in them, and they are easily confused. I've have done a post for each one and are linked accordingly.

What I want to do here is  just go over the four of them together, just to really solidify how you use each one. After all, if you're anything like me, you had to do something like this:



Or not.

Anyway, the first thing is that the kanji for WAKE is 訳, which is one of many Japanese words that mean "reason". At least, that's what my dictionary tells me. Jim Breen goes a bit further, and says that its "conclusion brought on by a specific reasoning", which as complicated as it is, is actually more pertinent. Therefore, it's pretty important that you keep that in mind when you try to separate out these three grammar forms.


  • WAKEDA
    • as you know; the fact is that; the truth of the mater is that~.
      • Very similar to のだ。
  • WAKE DEHA NAI
    • It doesn't meant that~; I don't mean that~; It's not that~; It's not the case that~.
      • used most often with というわけ
  • WAKE GA NAI
    • There is no reason why~; It is impossible for it to~; cannot;
      • Very similiar to はぜがない
  • WAKE NIHA IKANAI 
    • cannot; cannot but; cannot help~ing; haven o (other choice) but to~.
Obviously that is it in a nutshell, but let's discuss ways to remember, shall we?

  • WAKEDA
    • DA/DESU is an expression that is closest to "to be" there for it is saying it as a simple fact. 
    • WAKE DA = It is this conclusion that I have reasoned.
  • WAKE DEHA NAI
    • DEHA NAI  means that is doesn't exist. Naturally, it is the opposite. Here, you are saying that there isn't a good reason for someone to think something.
    • WAKE DEHA NAI = That is a crappy conclusion you've come up with. Well, okay, it's probably a bit nicer than that.
  • WAKE GA NAI
    • GA NAI  means that there is no reasoning or conclusion. It's very similar to the one above, but I think it's best to tackle this using my arch nemesis, Literal Japanese. The first one uses DE HA NAI, which essentially means that it doesn't exist. GA NAI is the informal way of saying ARU, which means that you don't have it. Well, not necessarily you, but you get the picture. 
      • I honestly think that subtle different is that the first one sort of implies someone is being foolish, such as saying such a reason DOES NOT exist, whereas the second one is more or less saying that the subject in question alone doesn't have the correct reasoning. 
  • WAKE GA IKANAI
    • IKANAI is "won't go", so it's basically saying that the certain reasoning won't fly. 
      • This is strongly influenced by how you use negative and affirmative statements.
      • It more are reflects a statement of being able to do something. Like: Because I have to drive, there's no reason for me to drink.

Well, I hope this, in tandem with the other four posts I've dedicated to the word have helped a little. If not, ask away! I will endeavor to be clearer!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

WAKE WEEK! In search of WAKE GA IKANAI

That's right! It's day four of WAKE WEEK!

Okay, I'm going to talk about this using a video I snagged off of Nico Nico Douga, which is sort of the Japanese youtube. It's an easy enough site to join, and if you're registering in America, it conveniently does the process in English for you. Coherent English, mind you! It's sort of baffling...

In any case, the site has this annoying thing where it displays the comments on the actual video, which is why you see so many "w"s. For those who don't know "wwwwwww" is the equivalent to "lolololol". One "w" is just "lol". The reason is because the kanji they use for lol is 笑, which means "laugh". 笑 starts with the letter w, hence the millions of ws.




 So the video is called:

  • 死にたいけど、まだ死ぬ訳にはいかない理由
  • Shinitai kedo, mada shinu wake niha ikanai riyuu.


WAKE, as a said every post before means reason, more specifically a reason that draws conclusions. The definitions I have for WAKE NIHA IKANAI are as follows:

  • Cannot
  • Cannot but~
  • Can't help ~ing
  • Have no (other choice) but to~


My notes say that it's like KOTO GA DEKIRU and NAKAREBANARANAI and NAKAREBANARENAI, which is weird because neither of those really have anything to do with each other. The first is "to be able to" and the second is "have to/must".

So, I think that I meant that it's sort of a mix between the two. I don't know. Sometimes I wish I could ask past me questions....

My example sentences are like this:

  • これから運転しなければなりませんから、お酒を飲むわけにはいきません。
  • Kore kara unten shinakerebanarimasen kara, osake wo nomu wake ni ha ikimasen.
  • Because I have to drive from now on, there is no reason for me to drink.


  • この論文が重要だから、読まないわけにはいかない。
  • Kono ronbun ga jyuuyou dakara, yomanai wake niha ikanai.
  • Since this is a principle thesis, I have no other choice but to read it.

*Please note on the first one, I put it into the more formal form. 

Therefore, the WAKE NIHA IKANAI functions as way of reasoning that there is no other choice than what will be done.

Even though I want to die, these are the reasons I have no other choice but not to die. 
It's a bit convoluted in English, I agree. But whatever. The SHINU doesn't seem to have a negative added on to it, but as you watch the video it's pretty obvious that it's reasons why people won't kill themselves yet, such as "I haven't had sex yet" or "I want to play hentai games every day". Also, MADA usually indicates a negative statement regardless if the verb is negative or not, so I'm relatively sure I got it right.

At first I thought the video was about suicide in Japan, because it is a serious issue there. Trust me, I lived near a place that was famous for suicides, and it had lots of signs hanging around that said "you parents love you" and "it's just a test" or "there is still a future". They are more than a little disturbing, especially when they are strewn about a place that has been abandoned due to a bad earthquake. I am talking about Seikinohana in the Ishikawa prefecture. 

It's weird to me that such a serious issue can be made into a joke. Don't get me wrong, some of them were pretty funny. But the thing is, it's done in the style of the classic Japanese BBS, specifically using 2ch as its platform. I was going to blab on about it a bit more, but it turns out that wikipedia totally talked about everything I wanted to, right down to Densha Otoko! That movie is famous for the love story that comes into being because of BBS (the main character gets encouragement from the people on the BBS).

In any case, the reason why it's sensitive, in my opinion, is that it is common for people who wish to kill themselves to come to these boards either as a cry for help because they can get no one in their life to listen to them, or because they want to find other people who also wish to commit suicide. I'll quote an article from Wired:


Mass suicide: Last December, an anonymous post began a thread with this simple message: "28 years has been enough. I live in Hiroshima. I plan to die within the month. Will somebody come with me? I don't have the courage to go alone."
More than 700 messages follow. "Take a nap," one says. "What's wrong?" another asks.

"My college girlfriend was gang-raped, and she killed herself. Plus I have over 4 million yen in debt," the guy responds before disappearing completely from the forum. What happened to him isn't known, but the conversation continues among other suicidal hopefuls, self-hater-haters and gentle negotiators. The last post, published just a few hours ago, is a goodbye note by a woman who betrayed her lover. The conversation is one of many mass-suicide discussion threads.
So, I'm a bit torn about this video... mostly because I know that I shouldn't find it funny knowing what I know. But I also think that humor is based in the absurd, and this isn't making fun of the seriousness of the issue, but the absurdity.




Wednesday, October 12, 2011

WAKE WEEK! In search of WAKE GA NAI

Why yes folks! It's day 3 of WAKE WEEK!

And we arrive at WAKE GA NAI, which is very very similar to WAKE DEHA NAI. We're going to have to try and discover how this one is different together, or in a more likely way, I'm going to stumble about for a full five hundred words.

Today, I'm going to go on the fall back of anime, and talk about 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない, or Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. It's usually abbreviated at Oreimo, which I always think sounds like "I'm emo"。。。

何で誰でも俺の友達なれん??

。。。but that is probably just me. The English dub will be named Oreimo as well, and this post seems to be quite fortuitous because it's going to be released in five days! Check out the aniplex website here.

WAKE GA NAI translates as the following:
  • There is no reason why~
  • It is impossble for ~ to~
  • Cannot ~

As you can see, it's not the easiest thing to translate. The way this anime series is usually translated as, then, is:

There is now way my little sister is that cute! 
Really, that is the best way to go about it. It's not like it's fluid English to say "It's impossible that my little sister is cute" "Or there is not reason my little sister is cute", though both of these are a bit more true to the original feeling behind the grammar point. I suspect that no matter how you translate the title though, it will always sound a little silly in English, and that's why the Aniplex chose Oreimo. I'm sure that's what happened with Saikano. My Girlfriend, the Ultimate Weapon really isn't going to get the demographic that anime is actually meant for, which is people who likes stories about love during the destruction of the world. With the actual translation, you just get a lot perverts who like making love to the barrel of a gun.

Anyway, you'd think that with a title like "There is no way my little sister is that cute!", the anime/manga/novels would be about a guy who is uber protective of his sweet sister who attracts all sorts of guys, or about a guy who can't figure out why all his friends fall in love with his sister. These are reasonable guesses. They are, however, wrong.



Let's join me for another episode of Weird things from Japan!

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai is about a brother and sister who haven't gotten along for years. That is, until the brother discovers that his sister is into hentai games, or eroge, specifically ones about little sisters. Somehow, the brother becomes convinced that he has to help his little sister hide her weird hobby so she can be herself. I'll be honest, I'm not real fond of the series. It really plays on the sister-love theme too much, and the sister's actions (despite her swearing that she doesn't want to have sex with her brother) are just too... erotic and inappropriate. It's also filled with scenes of her in her underwear, or her with her butt in the air... or her with her skirt blowning up... or... you know, I'm just going to stop.

I'm not sure how it is in the books (which the anime and manga are based off of), but I really just don't get it,  nor  do I think it is something that you're even supposed to get. The one redeeming quality of the series is that the little sister is emphatic that 2D and 3D worlds are separate, meaning reality is reality, and fantasy is fantasy. It's stupid to mix them up, she says. I almost wonder if isn't a comment on readers like me, who still think the story is pretty needlessly perverted. I'm just not realizing that none of it is sexual because of the reality of the situation which is... she doesn't like her brother that way. Or something like that.  But you know what? I'd like it to be explained to me why it's necessary to keep placing her in the role that she enjoys watching, but has no desire to play. What I mean is that she plays a little sister sex object though she claims she isn't. For example (and I will not put the image up) she falls down at one point which somehow perfectly pushes her skirt and blouse up to show her bra and panties, and her brother is straddling her because he fell down too. Seriously. Explain that.

It's not that I think the story is horrible (it has interesting point about what are acceptable hobbies and why ordinary seeming people have fetishes) but the scenes are just needlessly perverted beyond all belief. And this is coming from someone who

I feel, though, that I have not successfully described WAKE GA NAI to you, so I'm going to add just a smidge more. In my two year old notebook, I have these two sentences:

  •  こんな優しい仕事が君に出来ないわけがない。
  • Konna yasashii shigoto ga kimi ni dekinai wake ga nai.
  • There's no reason why you can't do such an easy job.
  • 日本語がそんなに速くマスター出来るわけがない。
  • Nihongo ga sonnani hayaku MASTAA dekiru wake ga nai.
  • It's impossible to learn Japanese that fast.


These sentences have an important distinction. Do you see how the first is negative with a negative? Well, Japanese is a lot more carefree about their double negatives, though as a hobby linguist and grammarian, I see very little wrong with double negatives so long as they aren't completely muddled. But the truth is, us English speakers try to avoid them. Japanese people, however, love them. I think it has to do with misdirection in a language that is filled with implication and ambiguity. The second sentence has an affirmative and a negative, making a nicer English sentence. I just want you to know it's possible, and indeed even encouraged, to use a double negative.

So, in the end, I think that the general way to use WAKE GA NAI is to suggest that whatever the sentence is in front of it is, that sentence is impossible, or at the very least, very stupid.

How to make a WAKE GA NAI sentence:
  • Plain form form of whatever, unless it's a noun then add DEARU/DATTA + WAKE GA NAI
    • what you're talking about + it's impossible to do what you're talking about

I assume to make this more polite, you would probably say WAKE GA ARIMASEN.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

WAKE WEEK! In search of WAKE DEWA NAI

Hey! We're continuing WAKE Week here with Day 2! WAKE DE HA NAI.

The wacky thing here is that I'm not going to talk about pop culture in any way. Well, probably. Let's just see as we go, shall we?

As I have said, WAKE means "reason", so that can help you figure out what this grammar point means. I'm not really going to lead you through a long confusing mess today, so I'll just say the following translations (though it is not certainly limited to these) are frequently used:


  • It doesn't mean that~
  • I don't meant that~
  • It's not that~
  • It's not the case that~
  • It's not like~


What I have in my notebook for example sentences are:

  • 君の考えに反対するわけではないが,そのやり方でうまくいくだろうか。
  • Kimi no kangae ni hantai suru wake de ha nai ga, sono yarikata de umaku iku darou ka.
  • I don't mean to oppose your idea, but I wonder if things will go well with that approach.

  • 失敗というわけではない。
  • Shippai to iu wake de ha nai.
  • It doesn't mean it was a failure.


Those should give you the general gist of how WAKE DE HA NAI is used. I should mention that the second form which uses TO IU is a very common way to use WAKE DE HA NAI. It just sort of reinforces the "doesn't mean" with a "really", like "it really doesn't mean that". Imagine that in a sympathetic voice, and we're set!

 The website I'm going to use seems to be a sort place dedicated to things that make people go ふ〜ん (fuuun, pronouned fooooon), which is a hard noise to describe, but I'm pretty sure that disappointment is a large part of it. The post I want to talk about has our grammar form three times, so we're going to go over it! But first, take a look at a screencap!


In case your wondering... yes, I inserted myself in my own very special way of internet tourism with the ubiquitous Japanese peace sign. Love it! I may or may not keep doing that.

Anyway! The three ways the website above use WAKE DE HA NAI are:

  1. 飯田橋の「いいだべぇ」はなまっているわけではないらしい.
  2. JR飯田橋駅のガード脇橋脚に「いいだべぇ」の文字が。調べたところ「飯田橋」と「あかんべぇ」を合わせたとのことで、なまっているわけではないそうです.
  3. フォントは、壁に描かれているクジラの絵と合わせて、クジラをモチーフにしているそうです。でも、なぜ「あかんべぇ」なのか、海が近いわけではないのに、なぜクジラなのか。


So, here's the deal with this post. By Iidabashi Station (a station I'm sure you've at least transferred at if you have ever been to Tokyo) there is sort of mural of whales with the phrase "Iida Bay". What makes this person say ふ〜ん is the fact Iidabashi is nowhere near the ocean. There is a bit more to it than that, but it would spoil the fun of going through the sentences.

Though they use it three times, I must confess I really don't know how to use this word nameru.  I know that word means to go soft, to get duller, or to decrease in something. I hate admitting it, but I literally don't know how to translate those first two sentences despite that I get the gist of them. I'm not really sure, though, that Iida Bay is supposed to be a mix of akanbee, which is the act of sticking out your tongue and pulling down one eyelid, and Iidabashi like the second sentence suggests. I think it's likely an odd usage of hiragana to say that it's a bay, and that's why the whales are there. That being said, it may have do something to do with this song, Akkanbe Bashi:


I fear I may be out of my depth for once, and I find this too weird of question to ask my Japanese friends! Though... they probably should be used to it.

In any case, the third sentence translates as this:

3.  The font, along with the picture of the whale, seems to have a whale motif. But, why "akanbee"? It's not like the ocean is close, however, why a whale?

So there you go!