Mifune Matsuri

A set on Mifune Matsuri 02 (Photo credit: aurelio.asiain)

Mifune Matsuri #58 (Photo credit: Christian Kaden)

Guiding a boat during a festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mifune Matsuri is a festival held in annually in May to celebrate Kiyohara Yorinari, who was a 12th century Confucian scholar. Mifune Matsuri means 'Festival of the Three Boats'.  Every year during this festival his soul is taken for a walk! His spirit is lead into a portable shrine known as a 'mikoshi' and then lead to a temporary shine on the bank of the Oi river.

A beautiful ritual is then held to transfer Kiyohara Yorinari's soul into a boat known as 'gozabune'. Everyone is dressed in ancient attire and then they head along the Togetsukyo Bridge to board the boats. Their costumes are usually very eye catching and even little children will be dressed up in kimonos for the event.

 Kiyohara Yorinari's boat is taken to the middle of the Oi river where it is parked for two or three hours. The other ships carrying artists and the like then pay their respects by approaching the boat and dancing or reading poetry or some other form of entertainment. Every boat has a niche role, a boat will be carrying musicians who play music, while dancers are on a separate boat and so on.

After all this excitement Kiyohara's soul is transfered to another temporary resting place to recover from the festival before the trip home.

Related articles

• My first festival, Mifune Matsuri
• Shingu Mifune Matsuri (Day 2)
• Festivals in Japan (日本の祭り)

Motivational Fun: Abe Chan

Common Myna found in Karachi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2012 a video of a Japanese speaking pet Common Hill Myna bird was uploaded onto YouTube.

Myna birds are part of the starling family and the Common Hill Myna is pretty well known for it's ability to copy human speech.

Abe Chan has a surprising grasp of the Japanese language and is able to carry out small conversations with it owner.
Here is a YouTube clip of Abe Chan trying to answer the phone for the family.






In English this is what they are saying:

Abe-Chan: Urm Hello, this is the Ono family. What’s wrong?

Owner: Abe-chan, you’re a little too early. Once the phone’s picked up, then properly say 'hello'.

Abe-Chan: Okay, understood.


If you would like to see more Abe-Chan Youtube clips here is a link to their Youtube account: https://www.youtube.com/user/newSuperAbechan

Here are a few Myna Related Facts!

• In India it is referred to as 'Farmers Friend' because it eats all kinds of crop destroying insects.
• Common Indian Mynas were brought to Melbourne in 1862.
• Mynas cause a number of problems since they are noisy and smell when they gather in large numbers. They are also very competitive and fearless and have been known to attack people.

I think if this little Myna can learn this much Japanese then you can too! You're no bird brain! stay motivated!

Some Myna related articles for you

• Learn Japanese from this bird, for free!
• This is What a Bird Speaking Japanese Sounds Like
• The ubiquitous Javan Myna
• Creating an oasis for the tiny winged visitors
• Pushy myna birds a major nest pest
• Zimbabwe: Exotic Myna Bird A Troublesome Invasive Species
• Exotic Myna bird causes problems
• squabbling mynas (again)
• myna at the window sill
• mynas squabbling over food

Greetings with Pictures: Test!

Lets review our greetings with some pictures. Test yourself to see if you know what the greetings are.

Different greetings are used at different times of day.

Morning

Afternoon

Evening

Night

How did you do? Did you know what they meant? Could you pronounce the Japanese words and read the hiragana? If that's a yes then you have mastered the basic greetings that we learn way back in Lesson 1. If you couldn't then maybe you should look again at Lesson 1 and possibly revise your Hiragana

Related articles

• Lessons in Simplicity - Apple Inc.
• Lesson 2; basic Hiragana pronunciation
• Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji
• I've learned hiragana
• Learn Kanji the Easy Way: A Step-By-Step Guide
• B Dakuten
• Lesson 1: Hiragana and Katakana

Hiragana Basics

So we already learnt a little about Hiragana in lesson 1 but now we should learn a little more about some of the rules.

First of all you need to know about dakutens. these little dashes completely transform the sound

K->G S->Z T->D H->B

for instance this is ka and ga. as you can see the only difference is the dakuten. 

mora KA hiragana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Japanese Hiragana kyokashotai GA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are also  handakutens which are used to turn a H->P for instance ha to pa  は -> ぱ

The next rule you should learn is about 'Digraphs' this is where a small Y sound (ya, yo, yu) transforms a hiragana into a new sound.

The transformation occurs for

き し ち に ひ み り

for instance き (ki) becomes きゃ (kya)

It should also be known if a small tsu sound つ it will double the first letter of the next hiragana.

That's all you need to know for now!

Related articles

• B Dakuten
• Nihongo Lessons : INTRODUCTION + Hiragana
• The Kana: Katakana
• Japanese Apps for Chrome Users: Quizzes
• The first step. Learning hiragana

Golden Week continued

Golden Carp (Photo credit: chooyutshing)

Carp streamers (Photo credit: hexion)

Today is May 3rd or in Japan 憲法記念日 Kenpō Kinenbi. This is Constitution Memorial Day and is apart of Golden Week. It is a day where people celebrate the Constitution of Japan and think about democracy.

Since in Japan if two holidays have a day between them that day also becomes a holiday so on the 4th there is also a holiday since the 5th is こどもの日 Kodomo no Hi which is Children's day (also known as boy's day).
This holiday is also celebrated in  China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Korea.

black carp (Photo credit: hexion)

This Celebration takes place right at the start of the summer. The day has become dedicated to the appreciation of children and mothers.

JaPan kaNto (Photo credit: ~Alia~)

Traditionally families would raise one carp shaped flag for everyone of their children. This comes from an old Chinese legend of a carp swimming upstream and becoming a dragon.

Traditionally Mochi is eaten as a sweet treat on this day.

Related articles

• Golden Week Makes Me Happy!
• National › Holidaymakers gear up for Golden Week holidays
• A Children's Day In Japan?
• Celebrate: Golden Week 2014
• Golden Week in Japan - Amazing Time to Travel
• Golden Week 2013 - IBC Japan's Golden Service