1 Vocabolary (1st words)

These words are not in alphabetical form:


Hurt　痛み　(pronounced as i-ta-mi)
Even　さえ　(pronounced as sa-e)
Forgive　許して　(pronounced as yu-ru-shi-te)
Innocence　無垢　(pronounced as mu-ku)
Live　生きる　(pronounced i-ki-ru)
Back　背中　(pronounced as se-na-ka)
Hot　辛い　(pronounced as tsu-ra-i)


Some of the words are need to be translated. Visit this site if you want to translate an English word, sentence, paragraphs in to Japanese and other language。

Music of Japan: lesson 5

The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles both traditional and modern. The word for music in Japanese is 音楽 (ongaku), combining the kanji 音 ("on" sound) with the kanji 楽 ("gaku" fun, comfort).


Local music often appears at karaoke venues, which is on lease from the record labels. Traditional Japanese music has no specific beat, and is calm. In 1873, a British traveler claimed that Japanese music, "exasperate[s] beyond all endurance the European breast."


TRADITIONAL AND FOLK SONG


The oldest forms of traditional Japanese music are shōmyō (声明 or you could use 聲明), Buddhist chanting, and gagaku (雅楽), orchestral court music, both of which date to the Nara and Heian periods.


Gagaku is a type of classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court since the Heian period. Kagurauta (神楽歌), Azumaasobi(東遊) and Yamatouta (大和歌) are relatively indigenous repertories. Tōgaku (唐楽) and komagaku originated from the Chinese Tang dynasty via the Korean peninsula.  In addition, gagaku is divided into kangen (管弦) (instrumental music) and bugaku (舞楽) (dance accompanied by gagaku).

Japanese love expressions: lesson 4

LOVE
in Japanese

If you are wanting to express your love in Japanese, you've come to right place.

You may have heard the word for love, ai, isn't used as much as its counterpart in English. This is probably true. Here is "I love you," but remember to only use it when you really mean it.

愛しています。
ai shite imasu.
I love you.

Instead of the above, you are more likely to hear:

あなたが好きです。
anata ga suki desu.
I like you.

Use this even when in English many people may use the "love" word.

Sometimes you have to coax it out of your love-hopeful. Try this:

私のことが好きですか？
watashi no koto ga suki desu ka? 
Do you like me?

Japan facts: Origin of Jōmon and Yayoi

00100

Currently, the most well-regarded theory is that present-day Japanese are descendants of both the indigenous Jōmon people and the immigrant Yayoi people. The origins of the Jōmon and Yayoi peoples have often been a subject of dispute, but it is now generally accepted that the Jōmon people were similar to the modern Ainu of northern Japan; the path of their migration may have been from the southwest of China to Mongolia to today's southeastern Russia and then to northeastern Japan, and they probably have lived in Japan since the time of the last glacial age. They brought with them the origins of Japanese culture and religion. Han Chinese and ethnic Korean groups are thought to be the origin of the Yayoi group which entered Japan from the southwest, bringing a more advanced civilization than the native Jōmon people.However, a clear consensus has not been reached.

      Japan at the height 

      of the last glaciation 

    about 20,000 years ago

Japanese katakana: lesson 2

Japanese Katakana

Origin

The katakana syllabary was derived from abbreviated Chinese characters used by Buddhist monks to indicate the correct pronunciations of Chinese texts in the 9th century. At first there were many different symbols to represent one syllable of spoken Japanese, but over the years the system was streamlined. By the 14th century, there was a more or less one-to-one correspondence between spoken and written syllables.

The word katakana "part (of kanji) syllabic script". The "part" refers to the fact that katakana characters represent parts of kanji.

Characteristics and usage of katakana

The katakana syllabary consists of 48 syllables and was originally considered "men's writing". Since the 20th century, katakana have been used mainly to write non-Chinese loan words, onomatopoeic words, foreign names, in telegrams and for emphasis (the equivalent of bold, italic or upper case text in English). Before the 20th century all foreign loanwords were written with kanji.

Katakana are also used to write Ainu, a language spoken on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Katakana and the kanji from which they developed

In each column the rōmaji appears on the left, the katakana symbols in the middle and the kanji from which the symbols were derived on the right.