People living in Obama-city call "Obama san, Ganbatte!"

Mr. Obama is popular here in Japan, because there is a city near the Sea of Japan, named "Obama."

Apparently, Japanese people have nothing to do with the American presidential election, but people living in Obama-city seem to be having a sense of closeness to Mr. Obama for the name, and just are just enjoying themselves for fun.

Anyway, Japanese often like to use this phrase, "Ganbare" or "Ganbatte" when they cheer someone. Ganbare can be translated into several ways depending on the context you are talking about; go for it, work hard, stick to it, hang in, hang tough, etc.

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What is your Zodiac sign in Astrology?

What is your Zodiac sign in Astrology? The Kanji character you see on the T-shirt is one of the Zodiac signs in Astrology.

Japanese Symbols - Which type of Japanese symbol should you use for your name?

Japanese symbols mainly consist of three forms; Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. First, children at school start learning how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana characters which of these two forms are considered to be part of the basic knowledge of the Japanese writing system, and relatively easy to memorize in terms of not only their shapes but also the limited numbers of each character, with compared to those of Kanji characteres. In Japan, people's names can be written in all of these three types of Japanese symbols. In everyday life, people in Japan need to write their names in either or all of these Japanese symbols depeding on what is required for a particular situation. It is also noted that names of people from foreign countries are usually written in Katakana symbols but some of them prefer to use their names translated in Japanese Kanji symbols.

Fishing prohibited

I used to go fishing in a pond with my friends and stayed there until sunset, whether I managed to catch fish or ended up catching none at the end of the day. It was a little adventure for a school kid. That's also how kids can learn something important in their life from nature. But now, things have changed. In most of the ponds in the neiborhood, fishing is prohibited. With those kids themselves not knowing how to fish, how will they able to teach their kids the importance of nature and life. What a pity.

How many Kanji symbols are used in Japan?

According to one of the most frequently used Kanji dictionary, it estimates to be roughly 50,000 Kanji characters. However, it is not necessary for even Japanese people to memorize all the Kanji characteres in the dictionary to lead a normal life. If you know approximately 2,000-3,000 Kanji characters, it is most likely that you can enjoy reading newspapers or magazines written in Japanese, though the knowledge of both Katakana and Hiragana is also required to fully understand what's written in them.

Japanese Shop Signs

There are too many peculiar shop signs here in Japan. This must be one of them. It says, "Hospital for Clothes." Can you guess what they do?