School

Hey Everyone. From the beginning I made it clear, to those who inquired, that the running of this blog would not interfere with my school work. Fortunately up until now it has not, but projects are starting to be due and midterms are next week, so I believe that I could use a few days to gather my forces. I hope each and every you has a good week, and Barefoot in Nagoya will be back next Tuesday(GMT+9) and Monday (GMT-5) with exciting new posts like; Japan's Secret Trapdoor Obsession, Japanese Commercials(Just How Lethal Are They?), and Where is the best place to go deaf in Japan? There will be informational posts like the answer to what happens when a hundred bikes are lined up like dominoes and someone "accidentally" nudges one, and of course there will be more of the "Japanese Time!"s everyone keeps telling me they enjoy. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope you will come again next week. 

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Extra Large Japanese Time! Make Your Japanese Name!

Seeing as I will be gone for a little bit, I wanted to give everyone a little something to do. I've included below a guide for you to make your name out of Katakana, the alphabet used in Japanese for foreign words and names.

First: The tools you have to work with:

"Ah"   ア      "Ii"    イ      "Oo"   ウ      "Eh"    エ     "Oh"   オ

"Kah" カ       "Kii"  キ     "Koo" ク      "Keh"  ケ    "Koh" コ

"Gah" ガ       "Gii"  ギ     "Goo" ゴ      "Geh"  ゲ    "Goh" ゴ

"Sah"  サ      "Shi"  シ     "Soo"  ス     "Seh"  セ     "Soh"  ソ

"Zah"  ザ      "Jii"  ジ       "Zoo"  ズ     "Zeh"  ゼ     "Zoh"  ゾ

"Hah"  ハ      "Hii"   ヒ     "Hoo"  フ     "Heh" ヘ     "Hoh"  ホ

"Bah"  バ      "Bii"   バ     "Boo"  ブ     "Beh" ベ     "Boh"  ボ

"Pah"  パ      "Pii"   ピ      "Poo"  プ     "Peh" ペ      "Poh"  ポ

"Tah"   タ      "Chii" チ     "Tsu"   ツ     "Teh"  テ     "Toh"  ト

"Dah"   ダ     "Dii" ヂ      "Doo"   ヅ     "Deh"  デ    "Doh"  ド

"Rah"   ラ      "Rii"   リ     "Roo"   ル     "Reh"   レ   "Roh"  ロ

"Nah"  ナ      "Nii"  ニ     "Noo"  ヌ      "Neh"  ネ    "Noh"  ノ

"Mah"  マ      "Mii"  ミ     "Moo"  ム     "Meh"  メ    "Moh" モ

"Yah"  ヤ                        "Yoo"  ユ                        "Yoh"  ヨ

"Wah" ワ                                                               "Woh" ヲ

"Nnn"  ン

 Japanese is syllable language, so unlike English every consonant has a vowel after it. The only exception of this being that last symbol, nnn. This means that instead of "Daniel", my name in katakana is "dah" "nii" "eh" "ru" or ダニエル. It is for this reason that I have started to simply call myself Dan, as it is both easier, and the Kanji that are pronounced Dan(男 and 談) mean Man and Conversation. 

Here are some examples of family, friends, and people I know.

クリス - Chris

レベカ - Rebecca

キミ - Kimmy

ペテ - Pete

ボブ - Bob

Have fun figuring out your name!

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Best Wishes, 

Dan