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Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today brings us the September installment of Alberto's beautiful haiku calendar! Explanation of the Haiku ... I'm curious about the last kanji in the haiku, 紅, particularly in the following word. How would you interpret this? 紅潮     crimson + tide When I saw this compound, my mind went to the "red tide" problem, a high concentration of toxic algae blooms that can prove fatal to sea creatures and indirectly to humans. But that's not what 紅潮 means. Well, then maybe it means "Red Sea," the body of water between Africa and Asia. Or the football team of the University of Alabama—the so-called Crimson Tide. Or perhaps the "red tide" a... Show more

たこ焼き、たい焼き、お好み焼き。あなたは食べたことがありますか？　文字だけ並べるとよく似ていますが、実は全く違う食べ物です。 まず、たこ焼き。材料は、小麦粉、卵、ネギ、紅しょうがなどで、ボール状に焼くのですが、真ん中に小さく切ったタコが入っています。タコが入っているので「たこ焼き」。分かりやすい名前ですね。 では、たい焼きは？　タイは結婚式などのお祝い事に食べられるめでたい魚で、高価であるため、めったに食卓に上ることはありません。たこ焼きにはタコが入っているので、たい焼きにもタイが入っているのだろう…いいえ、残念ながらタイは入っていません。たい焼きには餡子が入っています。ならば「餡子焼き」と呼ぶのが正確なのでしょうけれど、秘密は形にあります。たい焼きは、タイの形をしているのです。ちゃんと胸びれやしっぽまで再現されています。 では、お好み焼きは？　「お好み」という名の何かが入っている、あるいは、食べる人が好む形をしている…？　お好み焼きの「お好み」とは、食べる人が好む食材が入っている、という意味です。形は丸く平たいのですが、キャベツ、卵、豚肉、エビ、イカなどがオーソドックスな具材で、たくわんや餅、こんにゃくなど変わったものを入れて焼いてある場合もあります。 「○○焼き」という名前でも、こんなに材料や形が異なるものなんですね。 ＝＝＝＝＝ "Tako yaki," "Tai yaki," "Okonomi yaki": have you ever eaten any of these things? Just looking at the words themselves, you might think that these are... Show more

This week marks the 20th Kanji Scrabble! Thank you so much for playing each time so far! To celebrate, we'll be giving away FREE 1 month subscription to the first 5 tweets with at least 3 correct answers. Already have a subscription? Then we'll extend your current subscription by 1 month! Kanji Scrabble #20, Key Kanji: 名、友、人、間、一、会、入、小、新、来 (Learn How to Play Here) To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) Answers: Kanji Kana English 一人会社 いちにんかいしゃ (n) one man company/ 人間社会 にんげんしゃかい (n) human society/ 会社 かいしゃ (n) (1) company/corporation/(2) workplace/(P)/ 会社人間 かいしゃにんげん (n) company... Show more

Today, August 31st 2009, is the final day to enter to WIN! Enter to Win Your Share of $10,100 in FREE Subscriptions! To Enter, Simply Subscribe to JapanesePod101's YouTube Channel, follow  JapanesePod101's Twitter Account, or Become a Fan of JapanesePod101's Facebook Fan Page. The No-Holds-Barred, BEST Japanese Language Course Ever is Here. Gengo Japanese is Live! Save 33% for a limited time! Almost 100 Audio and Video lessons! Best Lessons and Blog Entries for August!  - Find out what's popular this month! The blog has some great content for you to see. Welcome to the JapanesePod101.com newsletter. These periodic newsletters will deliver  to  you  all  the  exciting developments that are going on at JapanesePod101.com. ... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've found the nearly perfect kanji sandwich! Check this out: 徒競走 (tokyōsō: running race)     to go on foot + to compete + to run What a thing of beauty! If you took the first kanji, 徒, and removed 彳 (a radical that Henshall defines as "movement along a road" and that Spahn has as "to walk a short distance, stop, linger"), you would have a completely symmetrical compound! (Well, it would be symmetrical in the ABA or ABBA sense. Sticklers might argue that true symmetry requires the word to start with the mirror image of 走. But such people are not permitted to take a bite out of my kanji-sandwich joy.) Tokyōsō is also one of those great... Show more

Hi everyone! Welcome to Everyday Kanji! In this series, we're going to present pictures of kanji seen in various places in Japan taken by the team members at JapanesePod101.com. That's right - kanji seen and used everyday! This Everyday Kanji theme is Clinic signs! There are good to know in case you get sick when you are in Japan! In almost every clinic sign, you will see the kanji 科 (ka) which means “department”.  Words on clinic signs are usually “one or more kanji + 科” and the kanji before 科 indicates which medical field the clinic specializes in. 歯科 (shika) ：歯 means “teeth.” This literally means “teeth department,” so this place is a dental clinic. 歯科 (shika) = dentistry ● 歯 (shi) = tooth ● 科 (ka) = department 眼科... Show more

「早起きは三文の徳」ということわざを知っていますか？　辞書には「早起きをすると、何かしら得になる」と書かれていますが、具体的にいくらの得になるか気になりますよね。 「文」というお金の単位は、江戸時代に使われていて、蕎麦につゆを掛けただけの「かけそば」が「十六文」であったという記録が残っています。現在、かけそばは500～700円くらいですので、「一文」は31～44円くらいになると計算できます。もっとも、江戸時代の貨幣価値は変動していたので「一文」が現在のいくらに相当するか諸説ありますが、早起きをすると100円前後の得になる、というわけですね。 ちなみに、「徳」と「得」は同じ「とく」と読みますが、文字自体の意味は少し異なります。「徳」は「経験によって身につけた、優れた気質」を表わし、「道徳（社会の秩序を成り立たせるために個人が守るべき規範）」の「徳」の字です。一方、「得」は「もうけ、利益」のことです。 しかし、「徳」と「得」は同じ意味に用いられることもあり、「徳用」ということばがそれを示しています。あなたが日本のお店で、「徳用品」と書かれた品物を見つけたら、それは通常の量に比べてたくさん入っているので「割安で得だ」ということを意味しています。 さて、「文」という通貨単位はなくなりましたが「一文無し」とか「びた一文、貸さない（「びた」とは価値のないお金の意味）」などとことばの中には今も残っています。 ＝＝＝＝ Do you know the Japanese proverb 'Hayaoki wa sanmonn no toku' (早起きは三文の徳) (Like the English proverb "The early bird... Show more

The Kanji for this week are as follows: (Remember, each compound must use the Kanji in the brackets .) Kanji Scrabble #19, Key Kanji: 車、小、上、気、食、新、人、早、大、入 (Learn How to Play Here) To start, all you need is a Twitter account and to follow our Twitter account @japanesepod101 (What’s Twitter you ask? Read our guide here.) Answers: Kanji Kana English 上気道 じょうきどう (n) upper respiratory tract/upper airway/ 人道 じんどう (n) humanity/sidewalk/footpath/(P)/ 入道 にゅうどう (n) (1) (Buddh) entering the priesthood/priest/monk/(2) man with a shaven head/(3) bald-headed monster/ 大入道 おおにゅうどう (n) large, bald-headed monster/a giant/ 大道 たいどう (n) main street/avenue/ 小道 こみち (n) path/lane/ 新道 しんどう ... Show more

Welcome to Forum Spotlight! Here we’ll be introducing interesting and useful posts made by members at our very own JapanesePod101.com Forum. This week's forum spotlight post is by mint, who asked how to buy tickets to the famous Ghibli museum (for the works of animator Hayao Miyazaki) in Mitaka, Tokyo. Forum users robopanda and fangorn responded with the answer and a useful link! ======= Question from mint ======= I'm trying to buy my tickets just now as i fly out in a week's time and havent got anything sorted out yet haha, Well i have my hostel's etc and rail ticket etc but no set plans on what were doing for 2 weeks... Anyone know where we can get them? I believe we can get some at Lawson's shop?? Im guessing Lawson's is... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I've made an exciting discovery! As you may know, I've been collecting exceptions to a rule. If there are back-to-back instances of the same kanji, the repetition symbol 々 typically replaces one (as in 時々, tokidoki: sometimes). Thus far, we've seen five anomalies: 夜中中 (yonakajū: throughout the night)     night + middle + middle 中城城 (Nakagusukujō: a castle in Okinawa)     inside + castle + castle 民主主義 (minshu-shugi: democracy)     people + to play a central role + to play a central role +     righteousness One occasionally sees 民主々義, but it's not common. ... Show more