Of course, it would be nice to know if this person likes eggs, otherwise the gift will be a huge failure. But anyone who likes Hello Kitty will think it’s a funny item and it would definitely make an original conversation starter.

If you prefer to eat your eggs fried and with some chips on the side, then it may be a better idea to get the metal fork in the shape of Hello Kitty instead.

Now, if you combine all of the above with a waffle maker in the shape of Hello Kitty, you can say that you’ve arranged a complete breakfast set to prepare your breakfast in style and one that will keep you going all day at 100%!

It’s curious to see the hype that exists around Hello Kitty and how it is still growing strong after so many years. No wonder that this cat has become one of the leaders of the kawaii fashion.

The sport ‘pulling the pole’ ぼう たおし (Boutaoshi) is a very clear example of this. It is a sport that was originally performed by cadets of the Japanese military academy, but has spread over the years to schools where the public can come and see the game, albeit perhaps being a less aggressive version. I say perhaps, because every video is different…

From what I understand, each team is formed by a group of 75 people who defend the pole and another group of 75 people that attack the pole of the opponents.

Once the game starts, it seems there are no rules other than:

-       - no weapons are allowed

-      - using your own strength with all force, by kicking, punching, stomping, kneeing… you name it.

As far as the goal of the sport: the teams have to try and pull the pole of the opponent in a 45-degree angle, after which they are declared the winner.

Interestingly, a move has been made involving some young people participating in this particular game, so if you want to buy it, you can get it on amazon.

The video below shows pretty well what the game entails, you can even see some referees although it’s not very clear what function they have.

Now that we are learning Japanese by translating the story of Issunboushi in our classes, I found a video that brings these two characters together.

We will continue with Issunboushi’s story, but this time in anime starring Mario. This way you can see the story in a more entertaining way, even if it costs a little more to understand it because it’s in Japanese, but well, you just can’t have it all.

Of course, you will see some of the typical characters of the Mario games, like Princess Peach and Bowser.

The video is divided into two parts; so here is the continuation and end of this little Japanese tale.

If you want to learn more about the story of Issunboushi, you can read the translation that we have done so far in hiragana.

Soon we will see a new kind of Mario Issunboushi and we will see what happens once they reach the capital.

Issunboushi had just left his house and was heading upriver in a bowl of rice to find some more adventures…

みやこい　ついた　いっすんぼうしは　はじめに　だいじんの　やしきに　いきました。 

Miyako ni tsuita issunboushi wa hajime ni daijin no yashiki ni ikimashita.

As always, we will translate the words one by one.

Miyako = capital

ni = particle

tsuita = arrived

wa = particle

hajime = to begin

daijin = master

no = particle

yashiki = mansion

ni = particle

ikamashita = past tense of the verb iku

The translation of this sentence would be:

Issunboushi reached the capital and started going to the house of the master.

The phrase is translated as close as possible to the Japanese meaning of the sentence. You could say that ‘he directed himself to the house of the master’, but that would be a very literal translation.

Well, next week we will translate another piece of Issunboushi’s story. But as this is a fairly complicated piece, I had to ask for help because I found it extremely difficult. I’m not sure how to form sentences yet, so I hope too soon resolve my doubts.

Until next time!

Keep in mind that what you need to do is putting the verb in negative. This changes the normal shape of the verb and can be formed in various ways.

-eru/-iru

With -eru/-iru verbs, the ending is replaced by -nai.

oki-ru                        oki-nai           (to lift)

tabe-ru           tabe-nai         (to eat)

-u

The negative formation of -u verbs is done by changing the vowel –u to –a, and by adding –nai at the end.

tor-u               tor-anai         (to take, to steal)

hanas-u          hanas-anai    (to talk)

If the verb ends in –tsu, then it is replaced by –ta and subsequently –nai is added at the end.

ma-tsu           ma-tanai        (to wait)

Finally, verbs ending in –u.  Here, the vowel is replaced with –wa, as we can see in the verb au

a-u                  a-wa-nai        (to know, to find)

Considering the above, we can use the verbs in various forms and finally form some negative expressions, as we have not studied them until now.

This might seem like something out of an RPG, in which they point out the gateway to a magical place, but it is actually something that can be found in many coastal areas throughout Japan.

In fact, these stone pillars are an obvious example of how the Japan suffered from tsunamis and earthquakes and show that we must listen to our ancestors, no matter how much technology we have or how many dams we build for these tsunamis.

When a tsunami reaches the shore, it is almost impossible to stop. So many years ago, or even centuries ago, the Japanese placed warning signs around the country to prevent disaster from happening again.

Fortunately, the people from a village called Aneyoshi, respected the warning written on the stone pillar and built their houses at a higher altitude. This saved them from losing their homes and saved them from being in a situation similar to many Japanese after the last tsunami.

Such tones were built by the Japanese ancestors to warn their descendants and are a familiar sight throughout Japan, in some places these warnings have been respected and in others they are ignored. Also, in some places, the force of the tsunami exceeded the limits set by these stones and because of that, many of them have disappeared over time.

In other places, the stones are used as memorials in order to understand how people must remain alert as any earthquake could be followed by a tsunami causing huge waves.

In Japan, they have invented a candy that may be the answer you’ve been waiting for!

This candy is supposed to increase your breasts by more than one size. You only need to eat two a day. Each piece of candy has no less than 67 calories and lots of trans fats, but they are special fats and go directly to your chest, and thus making your dreams come true.

Of course, this would not be possible if the candy did not contain 50 milligrams of “breast augmenting herbs”.

Personally, I do not believe a word of what I wrote above, although I do believe that the candy contains 67 calories. The only thing that really makes me curious is to find out what this candy would taste like…

Outside of Japan, not many people will probably know the word “kawaii”, but among the youth in Japan it is very popular. Also, if you are somewhat familiar with the world of manga, anime or just interested in the Japanese culture, it is very likely that you have heard of it.

The three ambassadors that were chosen for this job are Aoki Misako, Kimura Yu and Fujioka Shizuka, who each represent a completely different style.

Aoki Misako’s style represents a “lolita”.

Yuu Kimura represents the typical style of a young woman in Harayuku (famous neighbourhood in Tokyo).

Shizuka Fujioka represents the notorious Japanese schoolgirl style.

These special ambassadors were active from March 2009 to March 2010. After their presentation to the public, that was held in Bangkok, they went to several countries.

One of the places that the ambassadors visited was the Hall of Manga in Barcelona, where fans had the opportunity to take pictures with them. Visitors were also able to enjoy a fashion show where each style was represented.

Although their ambassador work will not be continued, the girls have travelled over the world thanks to this “side gig” that led them to countries as diverse as Russia, Brazil, Korea and Spain.

For now, it seems that the experience will not be repeated any time soon, because although they have announced their tour all over the Internet, they unfortunately failed to arouse a high interest outside the circle of Japanese culture fans.

All that is left to do now is build the rest of the body so we can see a true Star Wars scene on display with those robots. Perhaps, in an x number of years, we’ll even have a contest between robots as shown the video below.

For people who are not very interested in action scenes, they’d perhaps be happier to have a robot that tells a story on Star Wars with its own special sound effects. I’m sure that there will be a robot in the future that takes children to bed and tells them the story of Issunboushi.