I don’t know if you all remember that crazy post, from a long time ago, but I was thinking that I haven’t really showed you all the Kanji For Kai (or Sea in English). Here it is:

There are two parts to this character. The left side consists of the radical water [ ] and the right side consists of the character for mother []. As is common in most Japanese characters, the left side of this kanji defines the meaning (having to do with water) and the right side gives us the pronunciation: Kai or Umi.

We loved this name so much because it was easy to pronounce in both languages, and summed up a lot of the things we wanted in Kai’s name. It has a short pronunciation, is not all that common of a name (even in Japan) and connects Kai to Japan in more ways than simply being a Japanese name.

The Japanese sea (Ni-Hon Kai) looks like this:

This is the Japanese Sea (“Ni-Hon Kai”), but if you want to get crazy and break it down ol’ school style, it comes out something like this:

• “Ni” means Sun (but let’s do a play on words and make it “SON”).

• “Hon” means origin (so now we got, “The Son’s Origin”).

• Put “Ni” and “Hon” together and we get “Nihon”, which is the word for “Japan.”

Any Questions?

This is why you hear Japan called, “The land of the rising sun,” because that is what it’s name literally means.

How do you say Life in Japanese? It is easy, sei katsu | セイカツ | 生活 =

Life

Okay so here is the deal. This is the kanji for life: 生. It’s a very pretty character and something that obviously reappears a lot in the Japanese language. I am really committed to learning this language, but it takes a lot of effort and even a couple good wake up calls. I got to thinking, what is the best way to get a hold of this Japanese Monster, in a manner that is convenient and efficient (especially for busy Dads). I came up with the not so novel idea of starting a new blog. This site will basically serve as my own personal dictionary, which I can cater just to my liking.

I’ve learned that the best way to study sometimes, is to just teach it for yourself (I am practically the smartest person I know with respect to the customs of Americans’ eating habits, shoe permitted buildings, baseball teams, and idiosyncrasies of the spoken dialect. This is probably due to the fact that I live in Japan and no one here is American, but I digress.) So in any case, it is easy to see that Japanese is going to be with me For Life.

Now on to today’s lesson.

Readings:

• ON (1): SEI　（セイ）
• ON (2): SHō 　（ショウ）
• kun (1): i(kiru) 　生きる
• kun (2): i(keru)　生ける
• kun (3): nama 　生

Radical:

• N/A
• Residual part(s): N/A

Compounds:

• 生活 (セイカツ) -　life = seikatsu
• 先生 （センセイ） – teacher = sensei
• 学生 (がくせい） – student = gakusei
• 生ビール （ナマビール） – draft beer = nama bīru
• 生まれ変わる (ウマレカワル） – to be born again = umarekawaru

Example Sentence:

• 生活は面白。 = Seikai wa omoshiroi.
• Life is interesting.

I thought this was an appropriate way to start the Kanji off. This is the Kanji for life and is seen in many compounds.

Learn how to say more words in Japanese.

Dream to Learn

How do you say Busy in Japanese? Busy in Japanese is this: 忙しい (this being the kanji). This is read “isogashi,” or いそがしい for all you Japanese literate peeps.

Well the past couple of weeks have been way to busy, Aya and I have barely found the time to sit down and watch our Desperate Housewives episodes (gasp).

Kai is now officially a toddler and this is 90% of the reason why things have been so crazy. He is on the move 24/7 and at times I wonder how he did things so fast. As you will be able to see from the video, Kai is off to work to pay the bills (albeit with a briefcase full of poker chips), so you have to give him the Japanese nod…I mean bow. He is turning into a regular Japanese ninja, just like all of my teachers who somehow have the ability to disappear in the blink of an eye. Just ask any person who isn’t Japanese and they will tell you, teachers here sure know how to disappear fast. Just look at the way he vanishes on one side of the room, only to reappear in a different room.

Aya and Kai came to visit me at my school on our sports day. They got to meet the vice-principal of my school and some of the other teachers. I ran in the club sports relay race, with the teachers team, but we ended up coming in 3rd place behind the basketball and baseball teams. I was the Anchor, but couldn’t seem to catch up to the students in front of me. Maybe I should start working out again?

I am also going to post the recent pictures from the past week or two, just because you all have been so patient and not forgotten about cute little Kai. Aya got to hit up some more “Mom’s Meetings” in our local neighborhood, allowing her to meet some new Moms. She also has started going to an international Mom’s Meeting, where they have to use English for the whole time. I guess a lot of the mothers who attend are already pretty “pera, pera” (fluent), but Aya seems to love it because all the babies are half Japanese just like Kai-man. It really helps her because she doesn’t have to answer the barrage of questions about foreign culture, etc. etc.. But when she does go, she needs to introduce something about American culture (with respect to babies) to the rest of the group. We were thinking Paddy-Cake, cause who doesn’t love that song. Now if I could only get the words right…Baker’s Man? Does anyone know the correct wording to this tune?? Help will be much appreciated.

Speaking of getting fluent (no no, I am a lonnnng ways from that, but I did get a Nintendo DS recently to which I say, anyone who has this wonderful piece of gaming hardware, can play me in Mario Kart from across the world, right on their little DS. I bought the DS so I could study Japanese, and it already has improved my reading and writing from these past couple of days. I got a game which quizzes me on the Kanji and all the various readings, writings, stroke orders, etc. End Tangent). So yeah getting fluent is one more thing Kai has taken up as of late. I don’t really have a video or sound track of him talking yet, but when I get the time to compile some clips of his voice together I will post it. I think he might be right on the verge of understanding Dada and Mama, two things he says a lot. One thing he definitely does understand is NO! He has known that word for a while now, but it doesn’t mean he is going to listen all the time.

He also loves to play this game where he gets a toy, or a piece of food, and then offers it up to us. We always say “thank you,” and then he just laughs and does it again, and again. It is ridiculously cute, but the funny thing is now he thinks “thank you,” means “please give me that.” So when we say thank you now, he sometimes stops what he is doing and tries to hand us whatever he is holding.

Kai-chan is also getting very good at saying something to the extent of, “Diss.” If he is trying to say “This”, or if it’s, “DESU” (the Japanese “be”verb which is used all the time), the jury has yet to make a decision on that one. I personally think this sound will end up being DESU, which wouldn’t be all that surprising seeing as how he probably hears Japanese 80% of the time. In all honesty it would be better for him to learn Japanese first, cause he might not have the chance to learn it later on in life. I will just be really jealous if Aya is able to talk with him, while I have to sit on the sidelines and look things up in a dictionary.

I think that about wraps it up; I told you we were busy. I hope everyone is doing well, I feel like I haven’t been in touch with anyone for way to long. If you all are not to busy, drop me a message and let me know how things have been in your neck of the woods. We think about everyone often and would love to hear how life has been.

P.S. Say can you remember, dancing in September?

While I prepare the video of Kai crawling, I will tell you what I have been up to for the past 6 months: studying. That is right, all I do when I am at school, is study Kanji and Japanese grammar, which is a pain in the butt. Try talking backwards for a day, and you will feel me. As I have said before, Japanese is a very difficult language to learn, that is to say if you take the stand-point that you can learn by listening to everyone around you. This is good in theory, but never leads to fluency. The fact that the entire alphabet of sounds is completely foreign does not facilitate the understanding of everyday conversations.

This is where the Kanji come in. They on the other hand have been a godsend to me, and learning them has greatly improved my ability to understand the Japanese language. I think it has something to do with how I remember things, seeing as how I like to think of pictures rather than sounds/names/words/etc. when recalling information. I have been grinding through this book called Remembering the Kanji (RTK): Part I, and so far I have about 460 of the characters meanings and writings memorized. I can read proably 25% of them, but that is not the aim of the book and is reserved in entirety to the second volume of RTK. (The painful part about Kanji is the amount of information you have to digest in a single character. First you must learn how to write it, in the correct stroke order. Then you must learn its translation(s). After that you must study its readings, with a big ‘S.’ Each Kanji has an average of 3 readings, so you can see how the process can become time consuming.)

Anywhoooo I did some number crunching today and found out that if I want to learn all of the 2042 Kanji in the book by Dec 13th (the day before my winter vacation starts), I need to memorize about 66 characters every week or 13 Kanji a day. So that is the plan for me these days, with my current schedule I hope it can be done. All I can say is “Gambaru!” (I will try to fight hard and do my best). Don’t you love how an entire idea can be expressed in a single word in Japanese. I know I do.

Up next: Kai caught on Camera Crawling.