さくぶん３

にじゅうねんごのわたしはレコーディングエンジニアです。うちはニューヨークにあります。でも、よくイギリスとにほんへしごとにいきます。ニューヨークのうちはとてもたかいですから、うちはあまりおおきじゃありません。それから、けっこんしません。ひとりでいますが、ときどきりょうしんにあいます。しごとはとてもいそがしいです。いっしゅうかんによっかぐらいはたらきます。いちにちにくじかｎはたらきます。たいへんなせいかつねすね。でも、おんがくがすきですから、しごとはたのしいです。やすみにかぶきをべんきょうします。せんせいはゆうめいなやくしゃです。そして、よくともだちときっさてんでいろいろなことをはなします。これはにじゅうねんごのわたしのせいかつです。ひとりのせいかつですが、さびしくありません。

Katakana literary work final

How bad can one's ネーム skill be... ハー～

Katakana analysis final

The first case I will analyse is the title of an album by Yellow Magic Orchestra back in 1993 called テクノドン, Technodon.
As far as my knowledge goes Technodon does not come from any foreign language. Google results for the name also all point to this album. Therefore I would suppose it as a Japanese self-created name, neither borrowed nor original. Apparently this type of words is categorised into Katakana-using words in Japanese.

Technodon's cover, unfortunately with no "テクノドン" printed on it. In case someone wonders about the big cross on the name YMO, it seemed the band got bored and decided to credit itself Not YMO during the 90's after a reformation.

On a more personal account, using Katakana here seems also helps to deliberately create certain ambiguity on the intepretation of this name. Obviously テクノ refers to the music genre. However, for ドン, Technodon's Wikipedia tells me it can refer to 丼(どん), meaning a bowl of food (the Wikipedia page made a mistake for the Kanji here,) "ドン", the onomatopoeia sound for explosion, or even don, the Italian honourific term. In this artistic expression sense, using テクノドン is way better than using テクノ丼 or something else. I believe Technodon is not the only example of such usage.
By the way, this is a fantastic album.

My second pick is the name of a type of Toyota's cars, カムリ, kamuri. The car is named Camry in English, though.
By the first look it seems to be a loan word, yet amusingly the origin of this loan is Japanese itself. カムリ comes from 冠 (かんむり), roughly a series of headresses to worn indicate diferences in officers’ ranks. It is believed to be introduced by Prince Shoutoku during the Asuka period, which is more than a thousand years ago.

Heian period male aristocrat (Fujiwara Koremitsu?) wearing kanmuri, 京都風俗博物館.

Therefore カムリ doe not really count as a loan word, but still Katakana is used here. It seems to serve for commercial use in the Japanese market only (because in the west kamuri is not the car's name). I do wonder why did Toyota bother to create such a word. Wouldn't simply using かんむり in Japan and Camry in the west be better? One possible answer maybe that the contemporary Japanese are not quite acquainted with かんむり, therefore it is better to keep the word simply as a source of explanation rather than use it directly as a line name. But anyways, カムリ is definitely an interesting example of Kanataka usage.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technodon
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/トヨタ・カムリ
http://yaplog.jp/amika-voice/archive/715 (for the second picture)

あたらしいえをしました

Thanksgivingのホリデイがひまですから、えをしました。えがとてもにがてですが、すきです。
これ、おにです（or so I hope）。Corel　Painterでしました。１０時間ぐらいかかりました。

Living Japanese or Chinese people of the old times would fold their collars left over right. But for the deceased it is the opposite way. I used this little feature to hint its status of an oni ;)

I tried to immitate the style of Japanese bijin-ga （美人画）, but returned to the Chinese way of drawing still... can't really do it. ╮(╯_╰)╭ However the hikimayu（引眉, the act of shaving natural brows and re-drawing them very high on the forehead） remains...

Katakana literary work draft

Please click the picture to view clear texts. I try to make a sad story in this manga. The lady waits for somebody in such a persistent fashion that she is not aware she already turned into a spirit. Hope it works.
I used Katakana the onomatopoeia way in ハー (sighing) and カキカキ(writing), the loan word way in コスモス(of course it is a mistake. Cosmos flower did not come to Japan until the Meiji period but I can't find anything better now. I will fix this in the final), and the emphasis way in ゼヒ. I am aware there are a lot of things to improve and fix in the final...

Some notes:
まって: To wait. Dictionary form is まつ. I didn't use polite verb ます form because here she speaks to herself.
だします: To send a letter.

さくぶん２

やまださんへ、

やまださん、こんにちは！わたしはおうあきこです。いま、コロンビアだいがくのにねんせいです。きょうみはかぶきとおんがくです。ポップがすきじゃありません。クラシックがすきです。にほんのりょうりがとくいです。でも、スポーツはとてもにがてです。

コロンビアだいがくはちいさいですが、とてもきれいです。アメリカでいちばんのだいがくですから、わたしのだいがくのせいかつはいそがしいです。 わたしはいつもごぜんにじにねます。そして、ごぜんはちじにおきます。あまりパーティにさんかしません。としょかんでほんをよむのがすきです。

わたしはしちがつむいかにきょうとにとうちゃくします。ようかにやまださんのうちへいきます。じゃあ、どうぞよろしくおねがいします！

あきこより

Katakana Analysis draft

The first case I will analyse is the title of an album by Yellow Magic Orchestra back in 1993 called テクノドン, Technodon.
As far as my knowledge goes Technodon does not come from any foreign language. Google results for the name also all point to this album. Therefore I would suppose it as a Japanese self-created name, neither borrowed nor original. Apparently this type of words is categorised into Katakana-using words in Japanese.

Technodon's cover, unfortunately with no "テクノドン" printed on it. In case someone wonders about the big cross on the name YMO, it seemed the band got bored and decided to credit itself Not YMO during the 90's after a reformation.

On a more personal account, using Katakana here seems also helps to deliberately create certain ambiguity on the intepretation of this name. Obviously テクノ refers to the music genre. However, for ドン, Technodon's Wikipedia tells me it can refer to 丼(どん), meaning a bowl of food (the Wikipedia page made a mistake for the Kanji here,) "ドン", the onomatopoeia sound for explosion, or even don, the Italian honourific term. In this artistic expression sense, using テクノドン is way better than using テクノ丼 or something else. I believe Technodon is not the only example of such usage.
By the way, this is a fantastic album.

My second pick is the name of a type of Toyota's cars, カムリ, kamuri. The car is named Camry in English, though.
By the first look it seems to be a loan word, yet amusingly the origin of this loan is Japanese itself. カムリ comes from 冠 (かんむり), roughly a series of headresses to worn indicate diferences in officers’ ranks. It is believed to be introduced by Prince Shoutoku during the Asuka period, which is more than a thousand years ago.

Heian period male aristocrat (Fujiwara Koremitsu?) wearing kanmuri, 京都風俗博物館.

Therefore カムリ doe not really count as a loan word, but still Katakana is used here. It seems to serve for commercial use in the Japanese market only (because in the west kamuri is not the car's name). I do wonder why did Toyota bother to create such a word. Wouldn't simply using かんむり in Japan and Camry in the west be better? But anyways, it is definitely an interesting example of Kanataka usage.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technodon
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/トヨタ・カムリ
http://yaplog.jp/amika-voice/archive/715 (for the second picture)

ソホ区とEast Villageへいきました

せんしゅうの土日に地下鉄でソホ区とEast Villageへ行きました。There is a lovely Japanese store called 『きてや』 on Greene Street。この店のしょゆうしゃは京都からきました。とても面白い。。。it seems that 『きてや』means "please come and visit us" in Kyoto dialect. At least I understood the 『き』part...(_ _;

きものセールが『きてや』にありますね。またはいいろのはおりを買いました。must stop squandering on きもの.

それから、一風堂のラメンがほしいですから、East Villageへいきました。でも、ラメンがたべませんでした。。。the waiting queue was about one street long.

NHK Eテレの新番組

 

http://www.nhk.or.jp/schola/gaiyou/index.html　 

「スコラ　坂本龍一　音楽の学校」　

毎週土曜日に午後１１時から１１時半まで放送です。今回（第一回～）のトピックは「古典派の歴史的位置づけと音楽的特徴」です。

古典派の歴史的成り立ちを解説。また、バッハ、モーツァルト、ベートーヴェンを例に、古典派の音楽的特徴とその時代の代表的な作曲技法・ソナタ形式を講義。
ワークショップは、生徒たちによるソナタ形式の作曲に挑戦。

あのう、坂本龍一さんが本当に大好きです！！The Stoneと日本協会に彼のパフォーマンスを見ました。美しいですね。。。

先週

日本協会にメデイアを見ました。この劇のディレクターは宮城聰さんです。I am utterly shocked by this impeccable production of Euripede's Medea. It interpreted a Greek tragedy with an almost Kabuki-like way. The music, movements, costumes and facial make-ups all have a Kabuki touch to it. The actors were divided into speakers and movers; speakers (those black-clad men in the back) didn't move and movers didn't speak, sort of like 人形浄瑠璃.The most interesting thing was movers were all female and speakers were all male. So we audience would see women playing Creon and Jason, and the gorgeous Medea (the lady on this still, actress's name is Micari) speaking with a man's voice. It must be really hard work for the actors, but the entire play was carried out wonderfully. Oh and it was livestreamed to Japanese Literature students at UIUC. I think it was a shame that Columbia, with all these Lit Hum students, didn't know anything about this production.

そして、ぼくはきものが大好きです。この美しい小紋を買いました。パターンは竹の葉らしいです。ビンテージきものですから、とてもおもしろいですね。前のしょゆうしゃはどなたですか。。。

こんにちは！ええと。。。

わたしはリズです。かんじのなまえは亮子（あきこ）です。ちゅごくからきました。コロンビアだいがくのにねんせいです。にほんのおんがくはだいすきですね〜みんなさん、どぞよろしく！

I choose to learn Japanese mainly because *hopefully* I'm going to deal with Japanese music and Kabuki performance a lot in the future. Speaking Japanese seems to be a must for those...