the four winds

One of the Japanese kanji symbols I always see, especially on the subway, are the four directions. In kanji, here they are:

北 - きた - kita - north
南 -　みなみ - minami - south
東 -　ひがし - higashi - east
西 -　にし - nishi - west

In kanji, you can often find pictures in the radicals (components of the compounded symbol) to help you remember. I really like these four, because they're rich in imagery. 北 looks like two people back to back to keep warm in the cold (north can be a cold place!). 南 looks like it has the yen symbol inside (¥) - maybe the south is rich?東 has the kanji for tree (木) and the one for sun (日) because the sun rises in the east. This is also the kanji in Tokyo (東京) which means "east capital". 西 looks like it has the kanji for the number "four" in it 四 - why? I'm not sure, any ideas?

me gustas tu

This song has been in my head all day:



Me gustas Japón, me gustas tu. (that's Japan in Spanish!)

Today is Carrie and Ross's last day here in Yokohama College of Commerce, it's a beautiful cloudless sunny blue blue day, but man - a sad one. I've been carrying my camera around and filming at random moments, within the next few days I'll throw some of them up here so you guys can see what it's like to walk around my school. Two more weeks of makeup classes for me (for students who failed the term) and then -- back to Boston !!! :) I'm getting excited.

Today's Japanese word - いろいろ　-　iro-iro - means varieties. The word is two repeating syllables, and individually いろ (iro) means color. "Color-color" brings to mind a whole bunch of colorful things - a variety. Apparently Japanese has a lot of these double repeating syllable words, anyone know any more?