What an adorable Japanese home

Irashaimase! This is what you hear when entering a Japanese home. What do you answer? O jama shimasu or tatamai? What do you use when?
We got invited to a wonderfully designed Japanese home this time. How delighted we were to be welcomed hospitably by Dolce and Somaya and as we sat down to enjoy some traditional food, we put on our best attire because the food was the traditional food which you east at Shougatsu, the 1st of January and highest holiday season in Japan.

Many thanks to Yuri for providing the following information on a notecard.

Tokonoma (とこのま。床の間）

The focal point of any traditional Japanese room is the decorative alcove, known as the tokonoma.

「和室であれば必ず最も重要になるのが、床の間と呼ばれる装飾的な壁のくぼみです」

Kakejiku (かけじく。掛け軸)

The most important feature in this alcove is the hanging scroll, called kakejiku.

この床の間の主役は「掛け軸」です。

There are many kinds of kakejiku. Sansui-ga feature ink-brush landscape paintings. Kacho-ga depict seasonal flowers or birds. Butsu-ga convey Buddhist symbolism.

掛け軸には多くの種類があります。山水画は自然の景観を墨で描いたのが特徴です。花鳥画は四季折々の花や鳥を描いています。仏画は仏教の象徴を表す絵画です。

An essential aspect of kakejiku is that they are not intended to be hung permanently. They are changed at frequent intervals

掛け軸の大きな特徴は、同じものを掛け続けるのでは

Bonsai(ぼんさい。盆栽）

Bonsai is the horticultural art of miniature potted trees and plants.

Did you know ?

how to distinguish good Bonsai.

1:Good roots spreading in all directions.

2:Good balance of branches.

3:Expressing nature.

Manekineko(まねきねこ。招き猫）

Cat inviting guests &luck.

Here is some of the good food we enjoyed (looking at and using our wildest imagination as to how delicious it might be)
sushi - raw fish
ramen - noodle soup with wheat noodles
udon - noodle soup with rice noodles
soba - noodles (pasta)
miso - cured bean paste soup
shiropoi - white
o sechi ryouri おせち　りょうり - a selection of Japanese food nicely arranged in a box
sakana - fish
niku - meat
roast beef (yes, roast beef exists even in Japan)
ebi - shrimps
ninjin - carrots (used mostly for beautiful decoration as strings)

Kariage as Japanese girl

How much can you talk about art?

O hanashi wa ippai [an aweful lot of conversation]! Today we went to the University of Western Australia art exhibition and were once again fascinated by the variety of art exhibits which are displayed.


Here is the vocabulary that emerged...
kaminari - thunder
douji ni - at the same time
gakki - musical instrument
jaaku na oto - evil sound
mangeko - caleidoscope
ame - candy
sango - corall
utsukushii - pretty
geijutsuka - artist
ongaku poi - like music
mono wo tsukutte iru kannji - its as if the objects were made
mirai - future
hane - wings
kinoko - mushrooms
ki - tree
kao wa kawai - sweet face
kokeshi (japanese traditional toy without hands and feet made of wood)
jimauma - zebra  シマウマ
washoku - Japanese food
aruku - run
okashi - strange
hen - weird
ashi - leg
hitsuji - sheep
yagi - goat
inu - dog
ohashi - chop sticks
arigato - thank you 

Dictionaries

In Second Life everyone can enable google translate for the text chat. You do this in the preferences [CTRL P] and under 'Chat' and at the bottom of the page it will say something like 'Use machine translation whilst chatting powered by Google'. Whilst Google announced to discontinue the many application who are using this translation tool, as long as it exists, many people use it.

There is a problem though when using it for Japanese. It will not translate romanji. It will only translate japanese characters. For more information on how to install Japanese characters on a PC, click here.

Isn't this all that is needed. To translate the japanese characters? Well, since I write romanji and many of our students write romanji, I was thrilled to see that Draceina programmed a tool to turn romanji into japanese characters.

It was so funny to see Draceina hold a box for each of the participants.

Tanabata no hi

 
The Star Festival originates from Chinese legend of the two bright stars, Altair and Vega.Vega, a weaving girl, and Altair, a herder of cows,  loved each other.They had so much fun being together they stop working hard.

The king got angry and separated them by the big river or the Milky Way.

He allowed them to meet once a year across the Milky Way only on the night of July 7th.

On that day, people decorate bamboo branches with paper strips and ornaments to celebrate their reunion.
It is believed that a wish comes true when you write your wish on the paper strips and hang them on the bamboo.


Yoroshiku
Julian wa Kankoku no Souru kara kimashita.
Julian wa Osaka to Nagoya e ryoko o shimashita.
15 nichi kan no ryoko deshita
Gwen: 15 nichi kan dake de benkyo o shimashita desu ka?
yoroshiku – (nice to meet you)

Nihon ni katta koto ga arimasuka?
Nihon ni kitta kotoga arimasu ka?– have you ever been in Japan?
kuru tsumori desu – intend to come
konnichi wa – hello


Kyo wa Tanabata no hi
http://www.y2asmr.net/tanabata.html
tanabata – 7th of July traditional story about the two stars
shichi gatsu nanoka – 7th of July
kami - paper
ni kaku - write on
tana no eda – branch of bamboo tree
eda - branch
subarashii deshi tane – what a great ... bamboo
take no eda ni musubitsukeru – fix on a bamboo tree
kaita kotoba was minna san yomeru, - everyone can read the words
himitsu cha nai desu  - this is not a secret
o negai – a wish
ni naritai – want to become
naruhodo – I see, of course
nagai no kano wa arimasu – the wish becomes true
kyowa tanabata no hi desu – today is Tanabata no hi
boku was sensei ni naritai – I want to become a teacher
shitai – want to be, want to do something

Shashin o torimasho
shashin o toru – take a photo
zenin – all
kawai – sweet
uzukushii – pretty
kirei desu ne – how beautiful

SL specific vocabulary
rirogu - to relog (in SL when you lose voice, you relog)
kikoemasu ka? do you hear me?
kikoemasen – I dont hear
o yobi shimasu – will send tp

How to install Japanese characters

How to get Japanese characters to be displayed in Second Life.

I had a problem displaying Japanese characters in Second Life and this is what I had to do to get this working.

Here are the instructions on how to install the Japanese and other Asian character sets in Windows XP from the disk.
http://newton.uor.edu/Departments%26Programs/AsianStudiesDept/Langu...

These are the instructions for being able to read them and to copy and paste them into http://translate.google.com
or for use of translators in Second Life.

This is not meant to be for writing.

If you want to write Japanese, you will need to installe the Global IME (Microsoft Global Input Method Editor) for Japanese which then works with Word or Outlook. You need to define which version of Office you are using (whether XP, 2003, 2007 or 2010) and then download this from the Microsoft sites. 
For example for Office XP
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=EN&am...

Personally I think a learner of Japanese does not need to be able to write for a while.,It is however good to start to learn to read.