いつも通りのネットサーフィン（おググり）がてらに、「まったり冗長」っていうブログにてこの記事を。ブログ全体は文体も内容も個性的で面黒いから、是非ご覧あれ。

漢字ヲタでもある拙者に刺激を与えて呉れる内容ばかり。特にこれ：

『むしろＮ○Ｋが「洪水」をテロップで
「こう水」と表記したりしてる方がよっぽど問題かと。全然難しくねぇだろ。』

ドカーーーーーン！大同感！！

阿呆かっ、NHK？！（然様、俺は堂々と名前を申すゾ！）やっぱ阿呆だナァ。なんか、「昆虫」を「こん虫」、「寡夫」を「か夫」、「改竄」を「改ざん」、「哺乳類」を「ほ乳類」などと表記しやがて、「っざっけんなよ！」と申させる場面が多い。NHKって、イイ所（例を挙げれば：「サラリーマンNEO」）もあれば、とんでもなく阿呆らしい所も無きにしも非ず。まあ、NHKというより文部科学省かも知れんが。おっと、政府批判しちゃった。

「でも『改竄』が難しいよ！」とかホザく方もいらっしゃるでしょうが、拙者が存じるに、いわゆる「難しさ」は、使用を忌避する原因ではなく、寧ろその結果なんだ。使ったら人に覚えられる。使わないと死語（死字）になる。だからGHQみたいに日本国民を蔑まずドンドン漢字使えっつーの！ってか、ホンマに字が難しいと判断したら振り仮名でも振ったら、振り仮名？

それじゃ、短い内容でスイマシェン（ていうか、済むけど（笑））。また今度ね！

So…A lot of people come up to me and ask “Hey, Khatzumoto-sensei [yeah, they call me that, you know…], what manga are good for beginners? What manga should I read to get me started?”

And you know what? I tell them Doraemon because that just seems like the right answer, the 正解. I mean, it’s what you’re supposed to say to people; it’s famous, a “classic” even, and therefore, you know, l33t.

But, dude, Doraemon is boring. Bawring (bee tee dub, this spelling only holds water if you have the same accent as me…HA!). OK, “boring” is a little harsh. It’s just…not interesting to read? More effective for insomnia than sleeping pills? I read a bit once and it was cool in the sense that it was Japanese and I was reading it, but not in and of itself. I dunno. Maybe I am being harsh. Like, I enjoyed how it had everyday action verbs, that was nice and educational, but it didn’t make me want to part with my precious fiat currency for the privilege of casting my eyes on it.

Anyhoo, I didn’t come here to make libelous comments about Doraemon, which sucks by the way, along with Sazae-san; Japanese people know this but they’re just pretending to like it because if you don’t, your Japaneseness gets called into question. Kind of like how I used to pretend to like all classical music and War and Peace, because that’s what “smart people” seemed to like. But I digress. I came here to tell you something that I’ve already essentially said before, but which other people seemed to think was worth saying again. Other than the obvious, early-stage super-beginner material (stuff like All About Particles); there is no other stuff you “should” read. To quote my neighbor and gaijin-in-arms, Tkyosam:

“Don’t read according to your level, read according to your interest.”

I can hear the rebuttal: “but Khatzumoto, what if I’m interested in it but it’s too hard?” Well, if it feels that hard, then it’s not that interesting. By definition, then, even a “hard” book, if it matches your interest, will not seem hard at all. For example, I’ve read lots of science and engineering-type books in English, so Japanese books of that kind are easy and fun for me. I remember one time my Japanese-Korean friend (I’ve mentioned her before in comments, but, she was (is?) the cruelest corrector ever - I don’t think I have ever been slammed down more times in public by anyone else; and I am grateful for every time she did it - every time she talked super-fast and told me that if I didn’t understand then I’d better get on that; every time she said I sucked) said: “wow, a Japanese physics textbook? You must be smart.” But I told her “No, it’s not like they’re going to be presenting a new physics or anything. And the format is the same - explanation here, diagram there, a bit of equation action to make it all kosher - i’s so simpo! There’s no intelligence at work here, just habit.”

So, don’t worry about what your “level” is. Just worry about what you’re interested in and get into that. Anime or TV show you’ve seen before and liked? Get the manga. Like tennis? Get a tennis manga. Like cooking? Get a cooking manga. Like Stargate SG-1? Get…OK, there’s no manga for that one. And this goes beyond manga. What this article, indeed this site is about is this: whatever it is that moved you to want to learn a language in the first place, DO IT! That’s how you’ll learn…And we’re done. I think.

Oh, one other thing: I wasn’t sure whether or not this post was worth putting up. I feel right now that this site has reached a level of completion in terms of what (I think) you need to know is all up here and all that’s left is to go and do. Then again…that may just be a lack of imagination on my part? Unlike Dragon “291 Endless Episodes” Ball Z, or One “46 volumes and counting” Piece, it’s not like it directly costs people money if this blog gets a little long, but at the same time, it seems like conciseness is a good thing. Either way, let me know what you’d like to read about, and also whether or not this post was useful to you. Tank ye kindly.

You didn’t think one blog post could cover all your Japanese music needs, did you? Yeah, neither did I. So here I am, after a lot of diligent searching and listening, bringing you more info on Japanese music. Yay!

[Hip-Hop]

Wise
This gentleman appears to have debuted last year with great flow, positive lyrics and fun music videos (Rip Slyme and M-Flo are in the “audience” of the video for Shine Like a Star).

Steady & Co.
A collabo unit made up of KJ and BOTS of Dragon Ash (DA) — the former being head honcho and lead singer of DA, the latter the DJ of DA — Illmari from Rip Slyme and SHIGEO from SBK. They were active around 2001 and released a couple of albums. I only found out about them a few weeks ago, but they had some really cool songs, like 春夏秋冬 (which I looped for a like a week straight), Stay Gold (this song’s lazy mellowness reminds me of LFO’s Summer Girls…some people might not take that as a compliment but I do mean this as a good thing) and Time Erases Everything. As you’d expect from the illustrious Dragon Ash and Rip Slyme, the songs fuse hip-hop and guitar elements very well. SHIGEO rhymes in staccato, nasal style that’s both very distinctive and very catchy.

Flick
I’ve only ever heard one song of theirs, and I can’t find any of their albums, but the fantabulousness of one track, 時代特急/Epochal Special Express alone was enough to get them on my list.

[Unique]

東京事変/Tokyo Jihen/Tokyo Incident
椎名林檎/SHIINA Ringo
SHIINA Apple is the lead singer of Tokyo Jihen, she also sings alone sometimes, but I’ve gone and put them together. I don’t even know how to classify her music. But they use guitars, drums and Shiina’s powerful-in-a-Björk-way-rather-than-a-Whitney-Houston-way voice, and it sounds like jazz and rock’s lovechild.

[R&B]

Lisa
Beforehand, I criticized Lisa for leaving M-Flo. I was mean. I’m sorry, Lisa. For one thing, Lisa’s departure from M-Flo does appear to have impelled the remaining two to do great collaborative work with just about every major female R&B vocalist in Japan, and Lisa for her part has done a wonderful job out on her own. She even raps on some of her tracks: I hate slow music, and (contrary to what I had feared from looking at her album covers) lots of Lisa’s solo songs have not been stingy in the speed department. Rejoice!

宇多田ヒカル/Utada Hikaru
A little slow for me, but…to each their own.

[Rap/R&B/Reggae-Pop Mix]

Orange Range
Okinawa in the hizzouse! Watch the music videos (PVs) to get the most out of their songs. Typically, when I first hear and Orange Range song, I don’t like it that much (there’s just something “missing”), but after watching and enjoying the playful silliness of the PV, the song tends to grow on me as well.

ケツメイシ/Ketsuimeishi
I think these guys are one of the original hip-hop/reggae fusion acts (these are in abundance here) from Japan, and they appear to have been around so long that they’re on break right now. Never fear, they have tons of cool ablums (Chris Rock invented this word) recorded just for you to listen to.

mihimaru GT
Put a very friendly, happy, even kawaii, face on hip-hop, but without making the music suck. Props for that alone.

[Geek/Folk]

勝手に観光協会/Katte Ni Kankou Kyoukai/We Done Gone And Made a Tourist Association on a Whimsy and Quite Without Anyone’s Permission
These guys went around every single prefecture in Japan and composed a funny song about it. Earthy, raw and hilarious. One of the guys in the band is a regular on a late night TV show hosted by タモリ/Tamori, where they have a segment called 空耳コーナー/Soramimi Corner, wherein are showcased sections of famous foreign songs which have lyrics that are prone to being misheard as actual Japanese sentences. ROTFL. I wonder what Snow’s Informer (does anyone remember this but me?) sounds like as “Japanese”…

Wan Zafran, kanji hero and reader of this site (also reported to be unbelievably handsome) has completed a series of tutorials on the methods and tools he uses to learn the Japanese language (with more to come, son). Here’s a link to them.

http://www.wanzafran.com/2008/language-learning-japanese/
http://www.wanzafran.com/2008/language-learning-japanese-part-1/
http://www.wanzafran.com/2008/language-learning-japanese-part-2/

ええー。何だっけ・・・ご存知かと存じますが、拙者アニメが大好きで御座る。「カウボーイ＝ビーバップ」、「攻殻機動隊」、「フリクリ」、「サムライ＝チャンプルー」、アニヲタなら誰でも認める奴。んで、ネットサーフィンがてら、平和呆けっていうブログにて「アメリカで人気のアニメ」の記事を発見拝読。元はと言えば、2007年のアメリカンアニメアワード[グ]とかいう賞。記事自体が最終候補一覧を転載したモノにしか過ぎないけれど、コメントの方は爆笑を誘う。典型的な掲示板論争じゃが、その漫才っぽい掛け合いは先ず面黒い。以下、その内容を引用します。調子に乗って（一部の読者の参考の便を図って？）翻訳まで付けちゃった。4649ね！

• 「おねがいティーチャーはどうした 」/ What happened to Onegai Teacher?
• 「海外でのナルト人気は異常」/ How come Naruto is popular overseas (outside Japan)?
• 「 なんでプラネテスが入ってねーんだよ。アメ公はやっぱ見る目ないな ！」/ Why isn’t Planetess on the list?　Those Yanks have no taste!
• 「 日本で同じような投票をやったとしてもベスト5にプラネテスが入るとは思えない。 」/ Dude, if the same poll were conducted in Japan, your precious Planetess still wouldn’t be on the list.
• 「攻殻もないな」/ They left out GITS!!
• 「入ってもおかしくないのにね。」/ Yeah!
• 「暴力描写。メリケンは単純」/ Violence. Stupid, stupid, stupid, retarded, stupid gringos.
• 「米人はアニメのこと何にも分かっちゃいないな 。なんでゼロの使い魔が入ってないんだよ」/ Those gringos don’t know their anime, man. Why isn’t The Familiar of Zero on the list?
• 「 アメリカで日本アニメの賞を選出するとか、ちょっと違和感を感じるな。日本でメジャーリーグのMVPを選出するような感じ 」/ It strikes me as somewhat odd to have a Japanese anime award being given in the US. It’s kind of like giving a US major league baseball MVP award in Japan.
• 「日本でアメリカのアニメを選んでみるか」 / Well, try giving an award for American anime in Japan.
• 「サウスパークかパワパフくらいしか…… 」/ Yeah, all they have is South Park and Powerpuff Girls.
• 「シンプソンズがあるだろう」/ And Simpsons! That counts!
• 「 こんな妥当な選考に文句付けてる奴は、どんなアニメが入ってれば満足なんだよ 」/ What is wrong with you people!? It’s a good, reasonable list! Can nothing please you?!
• 「自分の好きなものしか認めないから」/ These clowns only want to hear about the anime they like, that’s why…

他にもっと沢山あるから、是非チェケラチョー。どうやらサイト自体が何らかクッダらない理由で閉鎖されちゃったけど（だからたったの一時的な騒動で閉鎖するなっつーの！）、幸い未だに記事が読める。

蛇足やけど、やっぱり「カウボーイ＝ビーバップ」みたいな良作が入ってないのを俺も問いたい！どう見ても可笑しいぞ！（笑）

ご無沙汰です。実は余り記事をアップしていないにはチャンとした理由が御座ったぞ。なんか、色々迷ってた。新しいブログ立ち上げようかナァーって。で、GoDaddyさんにて新ドメイン名登録をするかしないかその瞬間、池袋ウェストゲートパークのマコト君かのように「（ヤッパ）面倒臭ええ！」と悟った。新しいドメインを登録し、WordPressまでインストールして、ゼロからコンテンツを蓄えるなんて超メンドクセエ！別に従来のAJATT記事とは違う雰囲気のモノをアップしても悪くない（じゃん？）。だからこのママ継続したいかと思いますぅ。4649ね。

さて・・・

最近、広東語の習得（決して「勉強」じゃないぞ！）の一環として、陳冠希/エディソン＝チェンの音楽を聴いてんだけど・・・とにかく、奴は上手い。ラップも。ビートも。写真流出事件の所為で芸能界引退を発表した陳だが、やっぱり辞めなかった方がイイと俺は思う。歌手としても、俳優としても、続けて欲しい。ていうか、イケメン俳優が美人女優と「ああいう」（ヤバっ。韻踏んじゃった）関係を持つのがそんなにショックなの？たかが写真の所為でサァ・・・ってソモソモ悪いのはデータを盗んだパソコン修理店員だろうがよ！悔しい。

超ォォ浅はかな内容でスイマセンが、一応アタシの意見です。

以上等