Month: November 2021

Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast Episode 5 [Listen to Your Inner Voice 自分の心の声でやんなさいよ。]

On By Kanariya EishiIn Digital Rakugo, Japanese Culture, Japanese History, Japanese Language, PodcastLeave a comment

In this episode of the Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast, I will talk about a quote by Yanagiya Kosanji X (十代目 柳家小三治) who just passed away last month on 7 October 2021. He was one of the three rakugo performers to have ever been awarded the status of the Living National Treasure of Japan (人間国宝).

I was inspired to talk about the wisdom of this legendary performer after listening to an interview between him and Hayashiya Shozo IX (九代目 林家正蔵). As my diction of the Japanese quote was horrible (I’ve been away from Japan too long!), here is the actual quote:

上手くなろうと思わないことですよ。もっと下手でいいの。普通の声でやんなさい。自分の心の声でやんなさいよ。Don’t try to improve. It’s OK to be ordinary. Use your own voice. Listen to your inner voice, and let it out.

As you can see, this episode was recorded 11 days after his departure, and I found it interesting to listen to the recording now as my English translation reflected my interpretation of his message back then.

If I’m to translate it again today, I would probably say “listen to your inner voice, and let your heart speak”. I guess I understand what he meant better now.

This episode has some extra rambling and turned out like Japanese Theatre 101, but hey it’s me, my brain is pretty chaotic inside!

Thank you again, Curtis, for reminding and encouraging me to record another episode!

I am always looking for topics for the podcast, so please do comment below if you have anything you want me to talk about.

Finally, if you know where the high-fiving idea came from, please let me know also!

You can also listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

See you in the next episode!

Is This a Miracle? Superstitious Japanese!

On By Kanariya EishiIn Educational, Japanese Culture, Random, Trivia6 Comments

We Japanese are superstitious people.

Regardless of our everyday high tech life, many of us still follow our traditional ways and beliefs, which I guess is one of the reasons why many people are still drawn to my country of birth.

One of the superstitions that we have is that it is good luck when a tea stem stands up in your green tea.

Deep down, we know that it is not scientifically sound to assume that a piece of stem would affect our future, but many do get overly excited whenever this phenomenon occurs to us.

If you live in Japan long enough, you will eventually hear the following phrase:

見てみて！茶柱が立ってる！（みてみて！ちゃばしらがたってる！）

“Look, look! A tea stem is standing up! (literally means “a pillar of tea is standing up”)

With this in mind, I just witnessed a miracle.

I like to burn incense when I work to get into the zone, and, lo and behold, the following sight interrupted my work!

I screamed with joy.

うおっ！線香立ってる！（せんこうたってる！）

OMG, incense is standing up!

This, my wise readers, is a phrase that you will probably never hear or use for the rest of your life.

This is not a well-timed picture. It kept standing up like this for good few minutes!

A miraculous day is waiting for me and hopefully for you, too!