Japanese « LongCountdown.com

Japanese Samurai Versus Medieval Knight

November 4th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Would a Japanese samurai defeat a Medieval European knight? That’s a question John Clements attempts to answer in his essay titled ”The Medieval European Knight vs.
The Feudal Japanese Samurai?“
In this “amusing historical diversion”, Clements uses over 7,000 words to explain the key elements of an encounter between the two warriors. While I recommend you read the essay, here’s my 300-word summary [...]

Posted in Japan | 3 Comments »

Japan and the 13,000 Somethings

November 3rd, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Quite often, you start searching the web for one thing, but end up with something far more interesting. That happened to me today when I randomly came across a number of Japan related stories based on the number 13,000. Here’s a summary with links to their sources.
World’s tallest building: The 13,000 ft, X-Seed 4000
This huge structure was proposed for Tokyo, [...]

Posted in Japan | 3 Comments »

Japanese Versus European Feet

November 2nd, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I remember looking through a Japanese ballroom dancing magazine during one of my lessons and seeing an interesting comparison of foreign and Japanese feet. Whether the article discussed how the different foot shapes affected shoe size or posture I can’t remember, but I found the examples used for this foot comparison quite fascinating. Here’s my attempt to recreate that long-lost [...]

Posted in Japan | 7 Comments »

Study Kanji Like Tokyo Josh

October 31st, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I studied my backside off when I first came to Japan. I passed level 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in my first year, level 3 the next, and then level 2 the year after that. Unfortunately, the jump from level 2 to level 1 is so great that I didn’t even try going [...]

Posted in Japan | 1 Comment »

Japanese Beauties - Shaku Yumiko, Inoue Waka and Ayase Haruka

October 28th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I don’t watch a lot of Japanese TV, but every night when I get home from work, I sit down to eat dinner and watch whatever Japanese drama is on. This is a pattern I’ve followed for three years now, so I’m getting better at recognizing some of the actors and actresses that appear, reappear, and [...]

Posted in Japan | 6 Comments »

Our 2-Way Japanese Fridge Door

October 19th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Some of you know that all I need a fridge for is beer, cheese and chocolate. At least, that was until I married Mami and we moved into together. It wasn’t long before her mum bought us a new fridge for our wedding present, and Mami filled it up with everything I should eat.
As well as [...]

Posted in Technology | 5 Comments »

Rikuto Eats His Own Hands!

October 16th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Next week, our son Rikuto will be three months old. I previously posted the video Is That My Hand? in which he realized that the hands flapping about his head were actually his own, and he could contol them! Now that he can control them, he does what every baby does - he tries to eat them. [...]

Posted in Family | 4 Comments »

Me British, baby Japanese?

February 8th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

With Mami four months pregnant, we have been thinking about which nationality our child should be. It’s really not a hard decision to choose Japanese as Peanut’s nationality since he or she will be born and raised in Japan and take Mami’s family name.
However, I’ve just been reading about birth registration on the British Embassy’s [...]

Posted in Family | 18 Comments »

Computer Translation

September 23rd, 2006 by Nick Ramsay

One of my students wanted to write an English translation of an interview she found in a magazine, and not an easy one at that. Her final translation came to seven pages, and she asked me to check it. “Sure, no problem, let me have a look” I agreed.
Although this student’s English level is pretty high, [...]

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »