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.

Click here to watch chanting fans

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.


 

Video 

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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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