issue 18

iJapanese Newsletter

15th June 2015

iLanguage Exchange
Meeting
Everyone is welcome as
every person can help
one another to improvetheir language skills.

Saturday 18th July
5:30pm - 7 :30pm
Entry: $5 Includes drinks & snacks

DATE :
Saturday 27th June
TIME :
6:30pm - 8:30pm
PLACE :
Horse Bazaar[397 Little Lonsdale St]

COST :
RSVP & PAYMENT :Saturday 22nd June

School lunch in Japan - Kyuushoku
Kyuushoku means school lunch in Japan. Japanese school system, Kyushoku is
predominantly compulsory throughout primary school and until year 9. Students
and teachers eat Kyuushoku together which usually consists of a bread roll or rice,a bottle of milk and a main meal (meat or fish) with soup.
At lunch time, students who are in
charge of serving lunch wear aprons,
face masks and hair caps, and carry
the pots of food from the kitchen to
their classroom (kyuushoku tooban).
Once ready to serve lunch, class lines
up to receive their food. Kyuushoku
tooban people will deliver lunch, one
serves the main food while anotherladies out the soup, etc.
This system is not only efficient but also
can be a good way to foster students’sense of responsibility and team work.
After everyone has received theirfood, they put their hands together
and say ‘Itadakimasu’ (thank you forthe meal) and start eating together.
Divided into small groups thehomeroom teacher goes around toeach group every day and eats withthem.
After eating, students clap their hands
together and say‘gochisosamadeshita’ (thanks for the
food/we have finished). Teachers thenmake sure they have eaten all theirfood with no leftovers. Then they allneatly put back all their food trays,
wipe down the tables and head off tothe play ground to enjoy the rest of
their lunch time.
They are given a copy of the menu atthe beginning of the each month. They
can sometime get ‘special menu’ suchas a small cake when seasonal festival
or on occasions, children’s day or at
Christmas time.
Parents pay approx 5,000 yen, ($55) fora month of school lunches - that's
about $3 a meal. That is very
reasonable considering they canreceive a bottle of milk and a hot
meal. Parents then don’t need toworry about
lunch for theirchildren.
Usually, school
lunchesincorporate local produce andproducts, and every meal follows a set
nutritional standard. At some schools,
while eating students listen over the PAsystem about their lunch and which
vegetables came from whose garden
so that they can learn about how they
can get food and appreciate foodfrom local people.
The kyushoku program is not only
providing meal to children every day
but also an integral part of school’s
educational activities: it is designed as
an important function in understandingnatural health, eating habits, learning
table manners, developing a sense ofservice and good-fellowship, andenhancing to understand the aspectsof Japanese culinary culture.

By NorikoiJapanese Newsletter issue 17

Page 2 of 4Student from iJapaneseRaphael Haddad san
2 years ago I went to a bar in Tokyo with my brother. It
was a great night! And was a highlight of my previoustrip. I had decided to visit the same bar 2 years later!
Most of the same people were there! I was greeted withAUSTRALIA! It was nice that I was remembered! But whatreally made the night was how I managed to speak
mostly in Japanese this time. Everybody was quite
shocked when I just started speaking Japanese. The
constant praises of ‘Jyouzu’ (‘great’) and ‘ehhhhhh’ wasmost encouraging.
iJapanese skills rewards you with looks of admiration.

My Japanese family for the Hanami
Hello Everyone
During April I was lucky enough to travel throughout
Japan. This also coincided with the famed cherry
blossom season! It was my second time travellingthrough this beautiful and intriguing country. But unlike
last time I was armed with basic conversationalJapanese! This was going to prove to be a very usefulskill!

Be it Subways, JR trains or Shinkansens travelling in Japanis easy! However if by chance I didn’t know whatplatform to take or I had confusion I could always rely on
asking in Japanese.
iJapanese skills gets you going in the right direction.

Hanami!

It all started at Osaka International Airport.

One day I visited Himeji Jo Castle. And apart fromviewing its obvious beauty and the surrounding cheery
blossoms which were in full bloom (Mankai). I was invited
to do Hanami! Sitting on mats underneath cherryblossoms while snacking on picnic food and drink.
Enjoying the company of Kansai people!

"Sumimasen, Pen o karitemoiidesuka"?
(Excuse me, can I use a pen?)

NINSHINOMIYA, Airbnb

Boom!
My first words on Japanese soil! I hit Mr Ojiisan (old man)up with some classic Genki Book 1. I had executed aclear and understandable Japanese sentence right off
the bat. Unfortunately the gentleman didn’t have a pen
but I was directed to an area where I could fill out myImmigration card. But that was ok, more importantly I
wanted to get my Japanese off and running straight
away! I didn’t want to shy away from speaking thenative language. Best just to get stuck in!
I often found myself having conversations with Japanesepeople on trains. On one occasion I spoke to a nicelady on a train trip to Nara. She was delightful and I had
a long chat mostly in Japanese! She told me about thearea and how the building on the 10 Yen coin was in thearea. I was also given Sakura flavoured Turkish delight totry!!!
iJapanese skills get you sweets from Obaasan (oldlady).

In my first week, I based myself in Koshien, Ninshinomiya.
It’s an area in between Osaka and Kobe in the Hyogo
prefecture. I used Airbnb for most of myaccommodation alongside Hostels. I totally recommend
it as you have the opportunity of staying with Japanesepeople! My host couldn’t speak English that well.
However that was great because I had the opportunity
to use Japanese even more so in the home setting!
Saying things like ‘ittekimasu’(I’m leaving) and‘tadaima’(I’m home) enhanced the Japaneseexperience. Also watching a film with my host about
Romans played by Japanese actors and actresses while
sitting on a traditional tatami mat does the trick too.
Simply witnessing daily life in the community was specialfor me. Walking past the local school, stopping by to mylocal convenience store (Family mart, Lawsons ect) thenheading to one of two trains stops located near me waspart of my daily routine. After a week I was very familiar
with the Hanshin line. Koshien is known for it’s oldBaseball stadium. So it was only natural to adopt theHanshin Tigers Baseball team. Tigers IKEEE (Go Tigers)!

www.iJapanese.com.au

MY FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT JAPAN● Hanging out with my yakuza friends…. just kidding.
Seriously my Japanese friends were great. I hope I
can see them again sometime in the near future.
Make as many friends as possible at the language
exchanges!!
iJapanese gets you buddies.
● Seeing iJapanese teachers! - Seeing Ayano sensei
and Kisai sensei was quite nostalgic. I had great
evening with them in Osaka and Tokyo. Kisai san
took me to a batting centre where I had heaps offun, you should try it! I had ramen and chilled outwith Ayano san and Megumi san!

Page 3 of 4

● Ghana and Calpis - 100Yen chocolate became astaple in my daily diet. Nothing like a bit ofGhana after a long day. I miss it terribly.
● Contemporary art - I managed to visit Teshimaisland, Scai the bathhouse, Kanazawa's 21
century art museum, Kobe museum. The art
available in Japan is a must see.
● Animate, Tower records and Mandarake - you
wouldn’t believe the amount of anime andmanga I bought from these stores.
● Castles and super cool samurai armour.
● Suica card!

● Conbini! Lawsons, Family Mart, 7-11 I love them all.
● Japanese advertisements - I often found myself
taking photos and videos of posters and TV
advertisements. Just like two years ago it still had
me fascinated, interested and cracking up.
● Shinkansens - I can’t get enough of the Shinkansen,
the smooth ultra fast train was always a highlight. It
had everything from bathrooms, smoking rooms,
over head luggage space and a lady that pushed
a trolley packed with snacks.

Naruto Exhibition,Mori Art Tower

Ken Watanabe performs
the Rasengan for Suzuki

Thoughts...
● It was great testing my skills in Japan and was a satisfying experience. But there's still a very long way to go!
● Bumping your head is inevitable. No matter how vigilant, if you're tall it will happen at least once.

Noriko’s thought
When I was a child, I thought Kyushoku was just one of normal every day routines such as
studying and playing with classmates. I remember I looked forward to my favourite mealand didn’t enjoy being a kyuushoku tooban. During my generation, we had to finish ourplate no matter how much you didn’t like the food. Luckily there wasn’t much food I
disliked. If you struggled to finish the food, you missed out on your remaining lunch time.
Unfortunate classmates who didn’t like to drink milk, they always stayed longer in theclassroom to finish it. (Schools these days don't force children to finish their food anymore.)
There are also restaurants which provide kyushoku menu so Japanese adults can feel
nostalgic towards their childhood.

www.iJapanese.com.auPage 4 of 4

Yoru Toru Choru Choruru
I introduced myself last time so I will introduce myhometown this time.
My hometown is 山口(Yamaguchi). Yama 山 means“Mountain”, Guchi 口 means “Mouth” so Yamaguchi 山
口 is “ Mountain entrance” and my city is 岩国(Iwakuni).
Iwa 岩means “Rock”, 国 Kuni means “Country”. I used tolive at “ The Rock country in the Mountain entrance”.
Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? I’m sure you can imagine
how my home town countryside looks just by reading
the name.

That means the Yamaguchi dialect shows different
meanings for different situations. “YORU” is for the
progress aspect and “TORU” and “CHORU” are for theperfect aspect.
Eg: 今、昼ご飯を食べよる。Ima hirugohan o tabeyoru.
I’m eating lunch now.
もう昼ご飯を食べちょる。Moo hirugohan o tabechoru.
I’ve already eaten lunch.

Even though it’s country side, we have our own mascot
character “CHORURU”. It is also “Yuru-Kyara (If you don’tknow Yuru-Kyara means go to iJapanese website andread newsletter 12).

I will introduce one more famous word from theYamaguchi dialect. That is “BUCHI”. Can you guess whatthat means? For example, “Nihonogo wa BUCHIomoshiroi!”, “Melbourne wa BUCHI samui!”. Yes, as you
think “BUCHI” means “TOTEMO” (very) in commonJapanese.

CHORURU’s hair represents 山 and his/her face is 口. If
you could read 山口 from seeing CHORURU you arealready Japanese!
The name of “CHORURU” is made from the Yamaguchi
dialect “CHORU”. “CHORU” is, in common Japanese,“TEIRU” the aspect which is the progress aspect and theperfect aspect. We will learn this grammar in chapter 7
so if you would like to know more about it please look atpage 170 and 171 in Genki textbook.

Japanese has a lot of dialects. Even common Japaneseis from the Tokyo dialect too. And people say Hokkaido
dialect and Okinawa dialect is asdifferent as English is from German.
When you talk to Japanese people
please ask where they are from anddiscover another Japanese!

As you see “TEIRU” has different meanings but has one
way to say. On the other hand the Yamaguchi dialecthas ”YORU”, “TORU” and “CHORU” as “TEIRU.”

By Mihono

Do Ninja’s still exist?
The mysterious nature of a ninja has long captured the imaginations of many.
Ninjas figure prominently in folklore and legend, and as a result it is often
difficult to separate historical fact from myth. Legend has it that ninjas abilities
include invisibility, walking on water, and able to control the elements ofnatural. Despite theses legendary skills, ninja’s (meaning one of darkness, ordeception) were essentially assassins who would infiltrate governments forespionage. Put simply, they were spies operating the same as modern spy dotoday.
Ninjas have predominant been apart of Japanese popular culture, appearing
in many forms of entertainment media, yet the question still remains, do Ninja’s
still exist in today’s modern times?

By Phillip

iJapanese Language & Culture School
Suite 3 Mezzanine Level, 257 Collins Street
0401 886 629
Info@ijapanese.com.au