Japanese like baseball

Japanese like baseball so much that they normally stand up and chant throughout the whole game. Japanese fans are aggressively loud and enthusiastically involved. Some people think that the Japanese have enough attention span to watch the whole game from start to finish. Others are amazed at the endless energy devoted to the sport.

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By the way, Darvish Yu of the Texas Rangers, came with in one out of pitching the second perfect game in Rangers history. You might remember, Darvish is the Japanese baseball player the Rangers paid millions for in January 2012. On Tuesday night, April 2nd, The Rangers played Astros and Darvish threw 111 pitches at Minute Maid Park.

Gonzalez breaks up perfect game

Gonzalez breaks up p

The Language of Japan

When you start to learn the language, you are introduced to Hiragana words. Usually it starts with learning basic Hiragana syllables. Children often learn to write their names in Hiragana. When they are  about 12 years old, they learn to write their names in Kanji.

The Chinese language came to Japan through the writings on Buddhism. The language that comes from China is called Kanji.  Writing kanji characters in Japanese is similar to Chinese but pronounced differently

  Hiragana Symbols  

あ (a)	い (i)	う (u)	え (e)	お (o)
か (ka)	き (ki)	く (ku)	け (ke)	こ (ko)
さ (sa)	し (shi)	す (su)	せ (se)	そ (so)
た (ta)	ち (chi)	つ (tsu)	て (te)	と (to)
な (na)	に (ni)	ぬ (nu)	ね (ne)	の (no)
は (ha)	ひ (hi)	ふ (fu)	へ (he)	ほ (ho)
ま (ma)	み (mi)	む (mu)	め (me)	も (mo)
や (ya)		ゆ (yu)		よ (yo)
ら (ra)	り (ri)	る (ru)	れ (re)	ろ (ro)
わ (wa)				を (o)
ん (n)

To learn to say phrases in Japanese click here

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Japan Tsunami: Then and Now

I was in Houston when Japan had the tsunami. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake started a 23 foot tsunami in the northern part of the country.  It has been named "Great East Japan earthquake" because it was the worst crisis in 65 years. 15,839 died, 5,950 were injured, and 3,642 were never found.

The Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station failed causing a nuclear tragedy. This accident caused widespread health and environmental effects that are very serious.

With a tsunami, waves may be as fast as 450miles per hour. When they get close to the shore, they grow to a huge height before smashing into the coast. Tsunami means harbor wave in Japanese.


 

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Take off your shoes!

When you enter a Japanese home, you will notice all the shoes are in the entry way. Don't think you are in the middle of a closet. The Japanese take off their shoes right away. Japanese want to keep the floors clean. We can't imagine moving dirt all through the house. So when you enter, you might be offered slippers to wear.

 In traditional Japanese homes, there is a "genkan" which is a room like a porch with a doormat. 

In Japanese schools, when you come to school, you change to the indoor shoes.These are for boys and girls. If you go to recess, you change your shoes to the outdoor ones. 

In some Japanese restaurants, they sit on the floor and eat the food on low tables. Of course you will have already taken off your shoes. NO slippers provided. 

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Best place to ski

Get your ticket to Hokkaido now! Not only does it have fabulous powdery snow, but you can even afford the trip. The weather from the Sea of Japan creates fluffy, dry, sensational snow conditions. Compared to Europe and America, the lift tickets and accommodations are much less expensive. Visitors are warmly welcomed and the food is delicious. Japanese ski resorts always have enough snow because it is cold. Hokkaido is the north island in Japan and gets cold air from Siberia. It has a reputation for being deep not steep.

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Is Halloween Rude?

Yesterday was Halloween in America. Trick or treaters go house to house begging for candy. most people participated. In Japan, begging for anything is rude. There might be private parties in peoples homes, but going to neighbors or strangers is unthinkable. I never saw Japanese children dressing up even for school plays.

Now that I have experienced Halloween three times I know it's fun. Japanese people live in dense housing without front yards to run through. 

Since the Japanese think asking for anything from outside the family is rude, I doubt the Halloween ritual will be entering the country soon.

apartment in Japan

Darvish Yu, Pitcher for the Texas Rangers

The starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers is Yu Davirsh, from Japan. Darvish pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic for the Japanese national team. 

He was born August 16, 1986 in Habikino and is now 26 years old. He is tall, reaching 6ft 5inch. He bats right- handed and is paid $5.5 million. 

During a media conference, Darvish explained why he wore shirt with marijuana leaf on it: "Anything that's a t-shirt with English words on it, we just tend to wear it. We don't actually know what it means, until my father just told me what it was. Until then, I really didn't have any clue on that."

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/foul_territory/2012/01/yu-darvish-quotes-from-news-conference.html#storylink=cpy

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