How Japan's writing system works, a summary of the past few years in kanji, and Japanese learning to deal with "hen na gaijin"

Kanji (KAHN-gee), the Chinese characters that the Japanese use to express most words in writing, is fascinating to Westerners because they're so unlike the Occidental way of doing things. Kanji may be meaningless to the untrained eye -- I've always liked looking at Van Gogh's copies of famous ukiyo-e paintings, wondering what thoughts went through his mind as he tried to replicate the kanji strokes in his own work -- but of course there's a lot more to kanji that's not immediately apparent. First, the characters are organized into groups based on meaning, with "radicals" (parts of the kanji, usually the left, top or bottom segments) giving a clue about the meaning. For example, words related to speaking, reading and recording of information have a unified part on the left that looks like a stack of books, and words like sea, fish, wave, and steam all share the same left portion which means "water." When you need to look up a character in a kanji dictionary there are three ways to do it: by the pronounciation (not so good as some sounds can be written with dozens of different characters); by the overall number of strokes it takes to write (tedious when trying to find a complex character with 20+ strokes); or by what radical it's written with (the recommended method). Of course this being Japan, there's one and only one correct way to write a given kanji, and children who don't follow the exact stroke order will get points marked off on their tests -- although in reality, no one writes kanji properly once they get out into the real world, and styles differ widely, just like handwriting variations in the West.

One cool thing about kanji is the way it can promote an idea with a picture, create an emotional response with a single image, something we have tried to capture with our line of original Japanese themed T-shirts. Every year the Japan Kanji Foundation, the organization that promotes regular testing of kanji skills to encourage students to study harder, holds a contest to choose one Kanji of the Year, the one character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months. It's quite an interesting way to look back at years past and reflect on what has gone before. Previous Kanji of the Year have included ai (愛, love, 2005) because of the Expo held in Aichi Pref. and the popular drama Train Man, the story of an anime otaku who finds love with a beautiful woman he meets on a train; wazawai (災, disaster, 2004) after the destruction of the quake in Niigata and far worse disaster in the Indian Ocean; ki (帰, homecoming, 2002), to commemorate the five abductees who returned from North Korea; and ikusa (戦, war, 2001), from the terrible events of that year. The Kanji of the Year for 2006 has been chosen, and it is....inochi (命), a word meaning life, in the sense of precious life, a thing to be treasured, in response to both good events (the birth of a new Imperial Heir) and very sad ones (the horrific number of ijime-inspired suicides by young people that has plagued Japan this year).

The Japanese have been dealing with gaijin for 153 years now, but it seems that they'll never get used to our strange ways. We do things like wearing bathroom slippers while standing on a train platform, riding mountain bikes with those funny helmets on, driving our "open cars" with the top down in December, sleeping in the tokonoma, the recessed part of a Japanese room that's used for displaying objects d'art, and buying chrysanthemums, a flower usually reserved for putting on gravestones, as a token of love for our wives. Although some Japanese think there are a lot of foreigners in Japan, I find this quaint, since only around 1.5% of the population of Japan comes from elsewhere, compared with 9% or more in Germany, and that figure includes a large number of Japan-born Koreans who choose not to take Japanese citizenship although they could easily do so. Of course, people aren't evenly distributed over the landscape, and there are communities in which the foreign population has clumped together enough to alter the local culture, such as the nearby town of Oizumi, where around 20% of residents are Brazilians, including many of Japanese descent. As the 21st Century progresses, I think Japan is going to have to take a long, hard look at its homogeneous traditions and learn to embrace alternative ways of doing things.

Remember that J-List is hiring! We've still got two open positions in our office in San Diego. J-List is a company that values an interest in Japan, working hard to satisfy our customers, and having a lot of fun along the way. If you're interested in reading more, see the link on the left of the J-List and JBOX.com websites.

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Blue -- Yua Aida. Yua Aida is far and away my favorite adult video star in Japan these days. She's happy, bright, cheerful, sexy, and is shaped like Japanese women really are shaped.
	Futagami - God of Futanari. When H-manga artist Fusen Club (Balloon Club) named this work, he was really inspired. It is truly the God of Futanari.
	Fruits No. 111 Oct 2006. Fruits continues to delight, bringing Tokyo's hip fashion world to you. These are some more individual issues.
	Midnight Seminar 1 ~ Mayonaka Seminar 1. An etertaining manga about a very lucky guy and a beautiful teacher at a night school.
	Yuutsu na Gakuen - School of Melancholy. If you haven't seen Haruhi Suzumiya, I hope you're planning on it, as it's the only anime series deep enough that Nitche would approve of it. Or something like that.
	Totoro Mini Check Stamp Set -- Set of 9. Cool new OTtoro stamp set for the site.
	Glico Pretz -- French Toast Flavor. New flavor of Pretz for all you Canadian Maple Syrup loving types.
	Rilakkuma DX Bento Box Set. Cool bento set with everything you need.
	Sukeban Deka 80's Yoyo & Iron Mask Set. Cool item for fans of a classic TV show.
	Kitty Accessory Case -- Set of 3. Cool little containers to put all your little stuff in, from jewelry to SD cards.
	Symphony Music Box -- Jiji *Kiki's Delivery Service* ~ Ghibli Orgel Collection. Great electronic music boxes featuring Totoro and Jiji the cat.
	PSE Products #04 UJ14 -- 1/8 Scale PVC Figure ~ Range Murata. Another home run for Range Murata, who is bringing his incredible artwork to the three dimensional world.
	Beck Guitar Collection -- Set of 9 *Full Set*. BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad is a popular anime and manga about what else? Rock music. And now you can own the killer guitars from the series.
	Authentic Japanese Super Loose Socks ~ 120 cm Looking for authentic loose socks from Japan, the kind high schools wear? Look no further!
	Japonica Japanese Practice Notebook (8 squares) Another item near to my heart which I'm glad to be able to make available now. I remember driving up to Little Tokyo to find these things since you couldn't get them anywhere else, back then.

We're, ahem, a little busy these days, okagesama-de. This is Monday's invoices from Japan only. Hope you're having a nice holiday season so far ^_^