宇治の川で

This picture(写真) was taken in Uji(宇治) about 20 minutes(分) south(南) of Kyoto(京都).

From the top(上) in red Kanji(赤い漢字):

遊 - This Kanji is used in the verb 遊び（あそび）'asobi' which means 'to play'.

泳 - This Kanji is used in the verb 泳ぐ（およぐ）'oyogu' which means 'to swim'.

禁 - This Kanji is used in the verb 禁じる（きんじる）'kinjiru' which means 'to forbid'. Anytime you see this Kanji the message in its simplest form is 'Don't Do It!!' And, as my friends pointed out, looks like an elephant, which it totally does, so it's easy to spot.

止 - This Kanji is used in the verb 止まる（とまる）'tomaru' which means 'to stop'. In Japan you see this '止マレ' on the roads where people are meant to stop instead of stop signs. In Japanese there are many ways to say 'stop' using this Kanji. An incredibly popular spoken form of 'stop' is 止めて（やめて）'yamete'. This is often said when you want someone to stop what they are doing, usually physical, probably because it hurts or it's annoying. Although, woman say this in a playful manner, at times, that can be confusing as to if they really mean for you to stop or not, so its good to be conscious of their tone and expression.

All these Kanji of course can be used in may different words, the examples given here are the most popular used forms.

So when we put them all together:

遊泳禁止（ゆうえいきんし）'yuueikinshi' means 'No Swimming Allowed!'

At the bottom (下) in the yellow (黄色) hiragana:

As all these words have Kanji they could of used, but I remember reading somewhere that the Japanese will often use important words in Kana so that children can read them.

ながれ（流れ）'nagare' means 'flow'.

はやい（早い）'hayai' means 'fast'.

およぐな（泳ぐな）'oyoguna' means 'do not swim'. Now, I'm not technically familiar with adding 'na' to the end of a verb to make it a negative, but it seems to be so. With any verb add 'な' and it will become a 'don't ___' verb. This is different from the 'ない' negative form.

Let's look:

泳がない - 'Didn't swim', in the 'nai' form with う verbs you conjugate the final syllable or Kana and add 'nai' to make it mean 'didn't __'. With a るverb you drop 'ru' and add 'nai' as in 食べない 'didn't eat'.　　

およぐな - 'Don't swim' keeps the plain form of the verb and adds 'na'. This is the same with う and る verbs, as with 食べるな 'don't eat'.

Hopefully this is a clear explanation. The real difficulty is listening for the differences, but I assume if your about to put something into your mouth and your hear, "食べるな!!" you should stop, a more accurate expression would be, "止め!!　食べるな." in this situation.

Back to the translation:

All together, ながれ　はやい　およぐな, means 'Fast current. Do Not Swim!' You can kind of see the water in the picture, but for relevance the water was flowing pretty strongly and would definitely send someone down river, not to mention being in there with those scary bug eyed fish!!

Anyway, that's it.

ありがとうございます。またね。

ジョシュア

Yui's Kanji Lesson

友だちは東京に旅行しました。Part 2

Somewhere in the vast Tokyo cityscape is this sign:


Photo by: Alex Kornya

At first glance a picture of a rabid bulldog can only mean 'Beware of Dog' but wait!! Let's read and find out what's really going on:

First in black(黒):

暴力団（ぼりょくだん）- These three Kanji make the noun 'bouryokudan' which means 'gangsters' referring to the notorious Yakuza in Japan.

の - 'no' is a possessive particle

追放（ついほう）- These two Kanji make the noun 'tsuihou' which means 'exile, banishment'. Adding the verb する(suru) 'to do' can also be added to this noun to make it a verb 'to exile'.

Translation: "The Yakuza's banishment"

Underneath(下) in red(赤):

恐れない（おそれない）- This word 'osorenai' can be used as a verb or adjective to mean 'don't be afraid' or fearless.

金を出さない（かねをださない）- In this sentence 金（かね）'kane' is 'money'. を 'wo' is the linking particle between a noun and the verb 出（だ）さない 'dasanai' which has many meanings with this one being 'don't pay'. So the meaning here is 'don't pay money'.

利用しない（りようしない）- The verb 'riyoushinai' means 'to utilize' or 'take advantage of' and since it's negative 'don't take advantage of'.

Translation: "Don't be afraid, don't pay money, don't be taken advantage of ." I added a little more meaning to 利用しない to make its meaning fit a little better with the message, which may or may not be correct. If so, then the top translation would be better as "The Yakuza's banished" either way "Don't worry, be happy!' ねぇぇ..

As always feel free to comment.

それでは、またこんどです。

友だちは東京に旅行しました。

For two weeks my friends from America were visiting Japan and they took some interesting photos that I want to share with all of you.


This first photo was taken on the a JR train in Tokyo by: Rob Ross

First let's look at the green letters on the right side(右):

チカン - This is Katakana that reads 'chikan' and means 'pervert'. Katakana words are typically borrowed words from foreign languages with a lot coming from English such as 'カメラ(kamera)' or 'camera', but I don't know where チカン comes from.

は - This is the Hiragana 'ha' except in a Japanese sentence when this Kana is used as the particle to mark the subject it's read as 'wa'.

犯罪(はんざい） - These two Kanji form the noun 'hanzai' which means 'illegal' or 'criminal'.

です - The particle 'だ(da)' in its plain form and 'です(desu)' in its polite form appears at the end of Japanese sentences which is typically compared to being the English equivalent of 'to be'. As a rule of thumb for any foreigner speaking Japanese "just say Desu!"

Translation: "Perversion is illegal."

Now, let's look at the red letters on the left(左）:

出来心（できごころ）- These three Kanji together form a noun 'dekigokoro' which means 'sudden impulse' or 'passing fancy'.

では - 'dewa' is a compound particle read as 'で' for 'by' or 'at' and 'は' to mark the subject.

すまされない - This is the verb 'すます' 'to finish or complete' in it's negative form 'sumasarenai' means 'to not finish or not be done'.

Translation: Literal translation would be "It is not done by sudden impulse!" If we write this sign for an English train it would probably say, "Don't do it on impulse!"

All together now: So 'チカン' means 'pervert' and what do perverts do? They 'molest'. When you think about the Japanese rush hour train with all those people crammed together you should understand that its easy for a man to get the impulse to reach out a grab a women. Then we can read the sign as "Molesting is illegal. Don't do it on impulse!" and understand the picture as 'when the women exits the train the man grabs her ass' or at least that's my interpretation of this.

If you think differently or have any insight on the situation of train molesting please feel free to leave comments.