Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with japanese

Common use of Japanese 'Mu' Prefix

0bvious — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:41:32 -0800

I am looking for interesting uses of the prefix 'mu' (無) in Japanese. I want to find an example of mu's general use that attains to its meaning as -less or an absence of. The example I have currently, 無線 'musen' meaning 'wireless', is a little boring. I lived in Japan for 2 years, but my Japanese is very bad and getting worse. Any interesting words or concepts would be extremely helpful.

Thanks

Rising sun rock and roll?

soma lkzx — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:56:43 -0800

Tokyo Damage Report's list of shows and venues has sold me on going to see bands play while I'm in Japan, are there any resources like this for cities besides Tokyo? Turns out that going to a show alone isn't so bad when you're in a foreign country and your cultural/language skills are that of a 2 year old - I just need to know where to go! My musical taste in this case is just guitars and energy; I'll take anything from hardcore to twee to psychobilly. I think my guidebook has things like jazz pretty well covered, but feel free to bring suggestions from that end of the spectrum as well.

I'm going to be hanging around in indeterminate cities between Tokyo and Nagasaki for the next ten days, so the net is pretty wide. Show lists, venue lists, or even venue names would all be really helpful.

(And while I'm at it, if you have any amazing suggestions on less rock-n-rolly things to do or festivals in the next week, you can drop that in, too!)

gas explosion in apartmen short film - name?

dabitch — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:46:07 -0800

Trying to find a Japanese short film "Tension" that I saw at the Rotterdam Film Festival 1999 or 2000. I saw this film at the Pathé Schouwburgplein either 1999 or 2000. The director was there and ready to answer questions after the screening.

The story: in a grey apartment block, inside a cramped apartment someone leaves the gas on while cooking. Each family member is doing something that theoretically could spark the gas to explode - sister is blow drying her hair, little brother is playing with a toy that sparks, someone is lighting matches - etcetera and so on. Tension builds, the edits get faster, matches are lit (gas does not explode), toy guns are shot (gas does not explode) and all sorts of other things go on until finally, the whole apartment blows up in the most amazing slow-mo explosion you've ever seen (and as I recall set off by an item you didn't suspect would be the one to set it off). We even get a nice shot from outside the apartment building watching the whole floor go kabloom.

Now, I can't for the life of me find out what this film is called or who directed it. Ring any bells?

Do I have to turn このファイル.dat into 00001.dat?

Ookseer — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:51:02 -0800

Is there some way to bulk rename files from kanji/kana to romaji? Or any other solution to keep some of the Japanese file name while only using ASCII characters? I have about 3,000 files that contain at least 1 kanji or kana character. I need to use them with software that refuses to load any file with non ASCII characters. There is no alternative to this software and tech support's answer is "sorry, we'll put this on the wish list".

It would be terribly useful to retain some of the meaning of the original names of the files, but renaming them by hand would take more time than I have. As an absolutely last resort I'll just bulk rename them with arbitrary numbers, but only as a last resort. I don't need English translation (though that would be okay) but something like romaji readings of the Japanese.

Any ideas, cleverness or scripting tricks?

Windows preferred but Mac answers welcome. Need not be free.

Need translation help before I make udon soup.

puffin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:12:12 -0800

Help me read the directions on this Japanese soup stock packet. I also took a picture of the box that the packets came in which has various other ml amounts.

I took a trip to the local Asian grocery store today and one of the staff helped me pick out this soup stock base...but of course I forgot to check for English directions on the package before I came home.

All I need to know is water:packet ratio. I can read "250 ml" and "300ml" on the packets but that is less water than I would expect to use given the size of the packets. Also, I have no idea what all the other (larger) numbers on the box are referring to.

Notcot for Japan?

roygbv — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:26:44 -0800

I am in search of the paper flowers used in Lost in Translation. Also, what are your favorite rad Japanese culture-watch resources, shopping websites, etc?

Please help me sort my vocabulary list in Excel!

Vorteks — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:34:08 -0800

Complicated Excel formula question involving text-search and Japanese characters. Can you help? I have two spreadsheets.

Spreadsheet A contains a list of Japanese vocabulary words I need to learn for the JLPT this year. Spreadsheet B contains a list of Japanese characters in one column along with the characters "Heisig number" (an ordinal number indicating where that character appears in the book "Remembering The Kanji" by James Heisig).

I want to add a column to Spreadsheet A that will contain the highest Heisig number among the characters that make up the vocabulary word. The purpose of this is to sort the words in Spreadsheet A so that I can memorize only the words that can be written using the Kanji I've learned so far.

Confused? Here's an example: Spreadsheet A, cell 57A contains the word "朝寝坊". Using Spreadsheet B to looking up the 3 characters in that word, I find the Heisig number for 朝 is 52, 寝 is 1150, and 坊 is 492. 1150 is the highest of those 3 numbers, so I'd like Spreadsheet A, cell 57B to read "1150". Is there a way to set up a formula to do this? I've never pushed Excel this far before.

Thank you in advance, Hive Mind!

The Missing Youtube Video

j1950 — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:13:45 -0800

YouTube video got deleted...can you help me find it? Several weeks ago, I asked a question about a skit from the Japanese TV show "Black Mayonnaise" that I was in. Now, the video has been deleted from YouTube before I had a chance to save it/disseminate it properly.

This is the original link. Can you help me find the video again...my Japanese isn't good enough to search.

Thanks!

Microsoft Vista Business in Japanese/Chinese

schnee — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:48:46 -0800

Where can I buy the Japanese version and a Chinese version of Microsoft Vista Business online for use in the United States? Media and license. I've done a quick Google search and keep comping up with bootleg copies instead of legitimate copies. My normal vendors do have the Japanese version, but I need both.

I don't need the foreign language pack add-on that you can download from the Microsoft website. I need the full OS in the language.

Another plant identification question.

kiripin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:00:40 -0800

Can you identify this shrub? I saw it last January in the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park. It was somewhere between 4-6 feet tall, as far as I can recall. The multicolored berries(?) were growing in groups of three, and leaves were emerging from some of the larger ones.

I've done a lot of googling, but to no avail.

私と voulez-vous coucher?

n y my — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:21:06 -0800

no more Sukiyaki: after-work in-japanese karaoke battle song needed! what's your suggestion? looking for a japanese song for karaoke, and i really don't know any. what are your favorites? in general, i'm especially a fan of songs with themes along the lines of "what are we waiting for" "we should hook up" and "i really really want you" and "i really really want you (and have no idea how to tell you)," but am open-minded.

details:
*must be pretty easily found: available on youtube or something for practice, available on a typical (japanese) karaoke place box, lyrics online
*middling speed: too fast and i can't read, too slow and it's boring
*middling range: mariah carey i'm not
*dirty is ok, even recommended for fun-value.
*i can read japanese. i'm just musically unawares.

What is this Japanese Language Learning Magazine?

Meagan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:18:41 -0800

Help me remember the name of this Japanese language learning magazine/CD combo. A long time ago I received a magazine from a friend in Japan. This magazine contained various short lessons about the Japanese language. I'm pretty sure it was a Japanese publication, although it contained the lessons in English, Japanese, and Korean as well. It came with an audio CD that was used in conjunction with the lessons. The publication was very well done, professional, and of high value. I remember the magazine subscription being very expensive. Any idea what magazine this is?

I'm thinking of a song...

edjusted — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:59:49 -0800

Hopefully this won't be too obscure... There was a pretty popular Japanese rock band that had a song which was basically a rocked out heavy metal version of Dies Irae from Verdi's requiem. I think the CD is from the early 90's or so. What's the name of the band? (and no, it's not from the Battle Royale soundtrack. That was a purely orchestral version)

Free Traditional Japanese Music

ollsen — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:57:20 -0800

Can you point me to traditional Japanese music on the web? Looking for free downloads. I am planning a cheesy indoor sushi picnic as a surprise for my girlfriend.
There will be kitschy stuff like a paper umbrellas and stuff, we'll be sitting on the floor, there will be loads of take-away sushi.
Now the multimedia part: I've downloaded a bunch of cliché photos from the interwebs (temples, Fujiyamas, Tokio at night - the works) that I will project as a slideshow at the living room wall.
What's missing is the soundtrack:
I am looking for traditional Japanese music on the meditative side (flutes, harps, instruments that I don't even know etc.) - no heavy drumming.
I've already spent some money on the decoration and I thought that at least I could get the music for free.
Google-fu failed me. Any free licence Japanes music out there for me to download?
Thanks!

I want to taste the perfect fish cake again...

Melismata — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:47:35 -0800

Looking for good Japanese-style fish cake recipe. Thanks to this question, I now have a major craving for the fish cake appetizer from Minato's Japanese restaurant in Baltimore, from 15 years ago when I went there frequently. Unfortunately, they've moved since then, I think, and could be completely different now for all I know, and it's also much more difficult to get to Baltimore. It was a very mild fish, sliced, with a marinade sauce or something that was heaven on earth. I don't know what kind of fish it was. If anyone knows of 1) a good homemade recipe or 2) a restaurant in the Boston area that serves something similar, or 3) the recipe itself, I would be most grateful and could stop drooling. Thank you.

Point me to the Japanese equivalent of NPR

puffin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:25:21 -0800

Online feed of an NPR-like Japanese radio station? I live in a single room in a quiet dorm. Often the silence is overwhelming, so I turn on the TV, or listen to NPR or C-SPAN radio online. This gets distracting when I have to read or do homework.

Ideally I would like to have something that sounds similar to the soothing tones of NPR (content doesn't matter, as long as there is no music or ads with musical jingles), but in a language that I can't understand at all. I don't know any Japanese but I have always liked the way it sounds. My Googling efforts (in English) have come up Japanese with stations that play music and ads in addition to talk/news. Any suggestions?

My feet are fit

GoingToShopping — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:23:05 -0800

What are some totally awesome free online ESL resources that focus specifically on how to produce the correct sounds in English words for people whose native languages don't contain them? I'm an ESL teacher in Japan, and every once in a while I get a student who, due to no particular dearth of intelligence on their part, just can't for the life of them form the proper i sound, as seen in words such as: him, it, medicine, live, fit, etc.
They can recognize the sound, just not reproduce it, and generally the suggestions I give them that help others are ultimately futile. At one point I had stumbled across a website with an interactive interface that showed animated mouth and throat diagrams for all the myriad sounds in our wonderful language, but I'm completely unable to figure out where that page escaped to. All the resources I can find are simply databases of words that a user can click on to listen to, which is utterly useless when one's native language doesn't have the sound in the first place.

Oh my organic days

naju — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:13:01 -0800

What's the name/artist of the blissful reggae/surf/pop song in Funky Forest: The First Contact? This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. And now I'm obsessed with this particular song. It's a song from Takefumi's dream sequence, which features 8 yellow-suited dancers. I think it's sung in Chinese. It's featured in the second half of this trailer (0:56 on). Please :)

Bohannon, bohannon, bohannon

HE Amb. T. S. L. DuVal — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:30:33 -0800

MusicFilter: In the long version of the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" (available on the 12") there is a female voice saying something in what I believe is Japanese. Can anyone translate that for me? Thanks. Here's a link to a YouTube video of the song with the Japanese part at 3:00 and, naturally, a dancing cat. I've already looked for the answer on the Tom Tom Club Forum that hydrophonic suggested once upon a time.

Japanese song Ten Years?

Bun — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:15:39 -0800

Can you identify this Japanese song? Any ideas as to this song I heard on Japanese radio the other day?

It was lively rock, performed by a typical guitar/drums/bass type band, and sung by a male. I don't recall any outstanding instrumentation. I have no particular reason to think it was very recent, but it didn't sound more than 20 or so years old, either. The most prominent and repeated words in the chorus (and maybe, therefore, the title of the song?) were 十年/jyu　nen/ten years.

I know that this is a shooting at a needle in a haystack in the dark, but if anyone can help me it's the Hive. Thanks in advance.

What Dazai Osamu works are translated in these books?

No-sword — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:18:42 -0800

Can anyone tell me what works of Dazai Osamu's are translated in (1) Phyllis I. Lyons's "The Saga of Dazai Osamu: A Critical Study with Translations"; and (2) James O'Brien's "Dazai Osamu: Selected Stories and Sketches"? Original Japanese titles would be ideal, but I'd be 99% as delighted with the English titles that Lyons and O'Brien gave the works.

More generally, if you know of a good way to find this sort of information online (e.g. a really great library catalogue available to anyone over the Internet) I'd love to hear it.

Help me find 1980s Japanese airbrush art...aka who did the boxart for Hudson's Adventure Island

apetpsychic — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:29:19 -0800

When I was a kid (mid-1980s, early-90s) I was obsessed with these compendiums of Japanese illustration they had where I took art lessons. Most of the art was airbrushed; a lot of hyper-realistic work in the vein of Hajime Sorayama, which I don't mind, but some of it was this cartoony airbrush style I love. In particular there was this cartoon dog who wore a suit which I'd like to find again. I'm not sure what the advertisement was for, but it features a cartoon dog wearing a suit in various situations with a weird cast of characters. On a rollercoaster, etc. i know that is vague, but does anyone know what this is? The style is pretty similar to the boxart for Hudson's Adventure Island. Does anyone know who did the art for that game? Any artists I should check out based on that style?

Adorable American Seeks To Learn Japanese in 24 Hours

ZackTM — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:24:19 -0800

Fun "Learn Japanese" Audiobook/Podcast that will make me a popular American at the karaoke bar? Okay I'm flying to Japan tomorrow morning and I need something to listen to on the plane. I want to have some 'Learn Japanese' audiobook that will give me some basic understanding of conversational Japanese so I can at least TRY to speak a little bit when I'm there. Obviously it's basically impossible to learn even the most basic comprehension of an entirely new language in 24 hours but I figured why not give it a shot?

What book should I get? (Podcasts count, anything free is a plus, I will probably buy it off Audible.com)

Priorities:
1. Make me look like I'm at least trying to speak a foreign language

2. Fun to use when I meet new young people out there who will help me improve my conversational skills (I'm a single male 25 year old, and I like to constantly meet new people)

3. Not so boring that I can't stand to listen to it for more than an hour on the flight

Help me find some Japanese stuff.

santojulieta — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:09:38 -0800

Where can I buy Japanese products (specifically Japanese DS games) in Chicago? I stumbled upon Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights a few years ago and thought it was fantastic. We stopped by today and it seems like all the electronics booths are gone.

Anyone know where I could buy Japanese DS games in Chicago (bricks and mortar, please)? If you know of other interesting Japanese shops, I'd love to know about those as well.

Un-Fizzy Lifting Drink!

Adelwolf — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:17:54 -0800

Just had the most divine chilled drink made with cinnamon and ginger - how do I make it?! My roommate and I just came from an incredible night of sushi binging at the local Korean/Japanese eatery nearby. Miso and Kimchi, Sapporo and Soju, sushi and sashimi. Spent a fortune, but SO worth it!

After I had signed the check, our waitress Yoo brought us a pair of bowls of this chilled drink. It was cinnamon and ginger and I don't know what else - but I'd LOVE to know!

Could anyone point me in the direction for a recipe to this incredible concoction?