Shamisen Rock + Harp

We did a little YouTube surfing to find you the finest in traditional Japanese musical instruments. We looked at koto, shakuhachi, and biwa. We settled on three shamisen videos. Please listen and enjoy.

First, Black Dog by Led Zeppelin

Then Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix

Finally, a Bob Dylan tune: All Along the Watchtower.

Traditional Japanese Woodblock Printing

An interview in English with a British woodblock printer who studied Japanese woodblock printing in Japan. Listen, enjoy, and I hope you can understand most everything. (It is not a complete interview but a good start.)



From Tyne and Wear Archives and Museum

The Learn Chinese Post

Standard Mandarin, a website that sells software to help you learn Chinese, has a page called

How To Pronounce Chinese: Common Phrases

If you go to this site: Click Here you can see Chinese, the pinying writing, and when you click on the appropriate button, how to pronounce the phrase. Phrases that must be common in Chinese include:

• Your shoelaces are untied. (你的鞋带松了 - nǐde xiédài sōng le)
• Will you marry me? (嫁给我吧，好吗 - jiàgěi wǒ ba, hǎo ma?)
• McDonald's (麦当劳 - màidàngláo)

Naturally, there a a bunch of other phrases that you use everyday like eat, come here, I'm learning Chinese. If you're interested in Chinese or starting to study it at Hokuriku University, check out the site and see what you can learn at: Standard Mandarin

And a beginning Chinese lesson in English:

Hope these two sites were useful in your Chinese studies. And you can learn more Chinese, listen to Chinese songs (and Japanese songs plus learn vocabulary in all three languages - including English) by going to Hokudai/Cast. (Also on iTunes.)

Chinese Song

Just a simple song in Chinese for your listening pleasure.

Three Videos from 北陸大学. Enjoy.

First, check out dancing and music from last year's Hokuriku University school festival on YouTube.

Then, a short movie showing bits and pieces of Hokuriku University:

Finally, another flick showing part of a Japanese speech contest at Hokuriku University. Yes, fun, eh? A speech contest with drums and singing. Great. Please Enjoy.

Anime in Japanese, English, and Chinese.

Storm Riders - Chinese anime with Chinese subtitles for your viewing pleasure.


One Piece intro with English for your viewing and listening pleasure.


One Piece intro with Japanese and furigana for your Japanese learning pleasure. Enjoy.

Quick Trip to Hokuriku Daigaku

A quick trip from Kanazawa Station to Hokuriku University. Enjoy.



Through town, past the famous Omicho Market and into the Minami-cho area. Then up toward the famous Kenrokuen, into Kodatsuno, and then out into the countryside to Hokuriku University. Twenty minutes in about 3:46. Enjoy.

Music by the Kanders and can be found at GarageBand Users Club (Japan)

Learning Chinese Verbs

We found a YouTube video for you that teaches Chinese. The paid-website is Ask Benny but we're just going to watch his video about verbs: I, want, buy, like, coffee, and tea. Pretty efficient and easy to follow. In English and Chinese, of course, two of Hokudai/Cast's three languages. Enjoy.

___________________________
Take me to Hokudai/Cast

English and Japanese video

A simple music video with shots of Hokuriku University and music by Seattle Standard Cafe (more videos and music here; drummer is a HU graduate). Music is in Japanese; the words are in Japanese and English. Enjoy.

Electric Dolphins at Hokuriku University

Hokuriku University at night with electric dolphins!



Snow at Hokuriku University.



Enjoy!

Cell Phone Eiga

Made on a 携帯. From CNN's Mobile Phone Movie Competiton. What do you do with your iPhone?



Pretty exciting stuff if you're into making movies, watching movies, or playing with all the functions on your cell phone.

For Tomorrow? Yes!

What does for tomorrow mean? It means, rather than do something today, we can do it tomorrow. If you have a homework assignment, rather than do it now, you can put it off for tomorrow. In English we have a very convenient word for putting something off for tomorrow. That word is Procrastinate.

When you decide to do your homework on Sunday night instead of Friday afternoon, you are procrastinating. Procrastinating is something lots of people do everyday. Then we get really busy Sunday night and have to work really hard to finish.

The word procrastinate comes from our friends the Latin speakers. pro is Latin for for. It can be seen in the words promote, propose, proponent, pro-peace. The word cras seems to come from Latin (some etymologists are not so sure that it does) and it means.... tomorrow. The '~tinate' of crastinate is Latin grammar at work.

So remember, if you want to promote your vocabulary, study today, don't put it off
for tomorrow.

Two Japanese Indies Bands.

The Plastic Soul Band (featured on our Summer Full of Music podcast):



Jesushairdo doing an acoustic live performance:

Roadside Kill

A quick video about Roadside Kill (they sing the live recording of You Can Get Down, Too on Hokudai/Cast). Quick, where are they from? Who plays what instrument?


Did you get the answers? Try this one for Chi Weapon (they sing Kanji on Hokudai/Cast)


And a quick link to their MySpace page: Chi Weapon. Where are they from?

Indies JPop Rock Video from GBUC.net

Hokudai/Cast gets some of its music from garage band users club. Here is a video from a GBUC music night. It features our current singer, Gun, along with other singers we have featured in the past such as jesushairdo and k.c. saito. Please watch and enjoy.

A Shamisen Musical Break and TJL

Today's Japanese Lesson.

Traditionally, shamisen players don't look at their hands.

In Japanese, this would be:

伝統的に、三味線奏者は 演奏するときに 自分の手を見ません。

The furigana would be:

でんとうてきに、しゃみせんそうしゃは　えんそうするときに　じぶんのてをみません。

And the transliteration (romaji) is:

dento tekini shamisen sosha ha enso suru tokini jibun no te o mimasen.

The words are:

Traditionally (伝統的に); shamisen players (三味線奏者); don't look at their hands (自分の手を見ません); look (見ません) - and in Japanese the phrase 'when playing' is added - when playing (演奏するときに); when (ときに).

You can watch a shamisen player in the video below. Notice, if you will, that he never looks at his left hand as he plays. 伝統的に、三味線奏者は演奏するときに自分の手を見ません。Mr. Morinaga, while he is dressed non-traditionally in t-shirt, jeans, and cool glasses, nevertheless continues the no-look shamisen tradition. Enjoy.

Motoki Morinaga - Tsugaru shamisen from ale/pepino on Vimeo.

(Finally, and secretly, what is this > Video? You may have seen it before.)

Vampires

One of the latest vampires in the movies was the handsome and charismatic Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire (also starring Brad Pitt). He is in a long line of vampires (the story of vampires seems immortal, doesn't it?) that began with John Polidori's The Vampire but became very famous with Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Stoker's Dracula was made into a movie waaaay back in 1922, about 25 years after the book was published. From Nosferatu to Interview with a Vampire, Dracula has become more and more handsome and less and less ugly. Who will be the next Dracula? It will have to be someone more handsome than Tom Cruise. Do you have any suggestions?

Click here to watch Nosferatu. It's a silent movie with music. Nosferatu is only onscreen about 10 minutes. The whole movie is about 90 minutes long.

How Was Your Vacation?

Many businessmen in Japan have an interesting vacation whenever they get a few days off in a row. Golden Week (from April 29 to May 6th or so) is an opportune time for the businessmen to rush out of Osaka or Tokyo and return to Kanazawa for some Hard Work. Many businessmen's parents still own and operate small farms, usually growing rice but also a variety of other foods such as apples, pears, cucumbers, and potatoes.

But the older people can't run it completely by themselves. They need help at least during planting season and harvest season. Fortunately for them, planting season comes about the same time as Golden Week. Convenient! Businessmen rush home (with their families, wives and older children are allowed to participate) and help plant whatever crops need to be planted.

Harvest season coincides nicely with another vacation called Obon (mid or late August, depending on where you live.)

Finally, some businessmen don't return just twice a year but every day. They work in a company during the day and after work, return to their parents farms and help out with whatever needs to be done. They have two full time jobs. It's no wonder that on Saturday night they want to relax in a bar with their friends and a few schooners of beer.

Below is a video of a typical rice planting. The 'traditional' method - planting by hand - seems to be done primarily by women. The machine is handled by the men.

A New Episode of Hokudai/Cast

Hokudai/Cast 109: What is Golden Week?

Listen, if you wish, to Hokudai/Cast 109: What is Golden Week? below or go to our website at Hokudai/Cast. In this episode we talk about Golden Week and life for a senior student who is looking for a job. Finding a job this year is difficult because the world economy - upon which Japan depends so much - is not in good shape.

In next week's Hokudai/Cast she will talk about her life in England. She also talks briefly about going to Paris and dance clubs. She went on 海外自習 a year or so ago and enjoyed the experience.

What is Golden Week?

Golden Week in Japan (there's one in China, too) consists of four holidays pushed up close together. The first one is Showa - you know him perhaps as Hirohito - Emperor's birthday and then followed closely by Constitution Memorial Day, Green Day (not the band), and Children's Day. There used to be a Boys' Day and a Girls' Day but only the Boys' Day was a national holiday. Sometime in the 80s, the two were combined into Children's Day (May 5th, which was traditionally Boys' Day.)

• April 29 Emperor's Birthday (天皇誕生日 ,Tennō tanjōbi)
  
  
• May 3 Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日 ,Kenpō kinenbi)
  
  
• May 4 Greenery Day (みどりの日 ,Midori no hi)
  
  
• May 5 Children's Day (子供の日 kodomo no hi)
  
  Since all the holidays are smashed up together, it is a great time for companies to close up shop and let all their employees take a vacation. The most popular destination seems to be grandmom's house. People return to their hometown or their parents' homes. The highways have massive traffic jams (measured not in time but in length; some are 35 kilometers long) and the trains are packed solid with travelers.
  
  About 10% of the population of Japan leaves the country, usually for places in Asia like Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It is a great time to stay home and enjoy being with friends and family.
  
  This year, because of the economy being so depressed, companies are allowing employees almost two weeks of vacation. This is the longest continuous paid vacation most employees have ever gotten.