Aid for Japan

I'm sure everyone is following the situation in Japan... When I first heard it, I was glancing through headlines, and even though it was a strong quake I thought back on my experience at the Disaster Prevention center and figured if any country could be prepared for a quake that strong, it was Japan. When I woke up in the morning I was stunned. As the days passed I emailed friends and heard back from most of them; my host family is still quiet, but they live in Nagoya, so I'm fairly certain they are OK - I'm just hoping that they do not have any relatives or loved ones who are missing or hurt. It's a terrible, devastating disaster, but I'm so happy to see the support that Japan is receiving from people all over the world. It's amazing that I can be thousands of miles away and still make an immediate impact on the effort with a donation! You can help too, by making donations through places like:

American Red Cross
NY Japan Society - your state may have a donation drive open as well, so check if you'd like to get involved through a local institution!
Second Harvest -  if you are currently in Japan, consider donating very much needed supplies/food.

As I said, you can get in touch with your state's Japanese embassy for information to see if they are doing any local drives, fundraisers, etc. NY's Japanese embassy has posted information about the Japanese Red Cross Society, which will put your donation directly toward "the affected population of the earthquake and tsunami". Please see the site for all the details.

A lot of people worry that their money may not go to where it should. These worries are valid - there are 最低なpeople in even these times - so if you are one of those people who want to make sure you aren't hoodwinked out of donating to the victims of the disaster in Japan, check out this site. The American Red Cross (link above) is definitely one that can be trusted.

Keep informed with NHK's live broadcast.

Japan Women's Rugby: Nagoya Ladies 日本代表！

I heard from my friend はまさん that several of the Nagoya Ladies are once again elected as National players! I found a list with a readout of the 2010年日本代表候補選手 on it. Look at all those Nagoya Ladies!

あぁぁ、I'm so excited to get back to some Sledgehammer Rugby at school!

Vocabulary of the Week: Earthquake 地震・じしん

夕べ地震があったと聞いたんだけど、ぐうぐうと眠っていてぜんぜん気がつかなかった。

I heard there was an earthquake last night, but I was snoring away and didn't notice it at all. 

In Japanese, 地震・じしん　is earthquake. The level of its strength by the Japanese scale is called 震度・しんど。　1 is the weakest, 7 is the largest. By the Japanese scale, I think the earthquake in Chile was categorized as a six.

This actually happened to me a few days after I came to live with my host family. My host father asked if I'd been woken up by the earthquake. No. I hadn't. This is not surprising, as even the fire alarm outside my bedroom apparently is not strong enough to wake me. I suppose I prefer dreamland. At the time I was a bit sad that I didn't get to experience the 'excitement' of my first earthquake, but after Chile I wonder if it isn't foolish to want to experience one.

Kejime wo tsukeru

Read in Japanese

Asashouryuu, the top sumou wrestler, has been in the news a lot lately. The other day as I was watching the television, the phrase that kept coming up in conjunction with his name was kejime wo tsukeru (けじめをつける). I asked my host father what kejime was and really put him on the spot. It seems like a very hard word to explain.

The thing about Asashouryuu is this: as a yokodzuna 横綱 (a position you have to be elected to with regards to your 'winningness', power/skill, grace, etc), he has the job of maintaining an image for the public. He sustains not only his own image, but the people's image of sumou, a sport which is quite popular (and exciting to watch, if you haven't). He has to maintain dignity. But it seem his image has slowly been tarnished by various incidents, the latest of which is his assault on a private individual, so he's getting pressure to resign. Of course, being forced from your position doesn't leave a good impression, so Asashouryuu has decided to kejime wo tsukeru, and retire from sumou, saying ｢けじめをつけるのは僕しかいない」. I understand the phrase as “take responsibility for one's actions,” but I'm not sure of its nuances.

けじめをつける

英語で読む 

この文章はcherryblossompetalsさん、ｔｓｙさん、Eigoloveさん、shuichiさん、J200さん、meguさん、Tinaさん、Masamuneさんのおかげでもっといい文章になりました！添削はこちらへ。

横綱の朝青龍は、最近ニュース番組などによく出てきます。この間テレビを見ていると、朝青龍と言う名前と一緒に、「けじめをつける」という表現をよく聞きました。ホストファーザーにけじめって何と聞いたら、ちょっと説明にくい言葉のようでした。

朝青龍は、横綱として一般の人達に対していいイメージじを保たなければならないんです。横綱として、自分のイメージだけではなく、とても人気がある相撲のイメージも保たなければならないんですね。威厳を保たなければならないんです。でも最近の一般人への暴行も含め、色々なことがあって、その威厳が失墜から朝青龍にはやめるように圧力がかけられているそうです。でも、やめさせられることはイメージが良くないから、｢けじめをつけるのは僕しかいない」と言って、朝青龍は自分の意思で引退することにしたそうです。


ニュアンスがよくわからないけど、英語の「take　responsibility　for　one's　actions」という表現に似ているでしょう。

＊日本語を 勉強している方は、Lang-8の日記に行くと、とても勉強になる「けじめ」の説明を読めます。とても役に立つと思いますから、どうぞご覧下さい！リンクはページのトップです。