One observation I’ve made about the Japanese people is that they often don’t pay close attention to their own language, and in the course of writing these slice-of-life posts I often ask linguistic questions of J-List’s Japanese staff that completely stump them. Japan will soon be entering one of my least favorite times of the year, its month-long rainy season, when it will rain most every day and generally be dreary. This rainy season is called tsuyu in Japanese, written with kanji for ume (Japanese plum) and rain, but when I ask a Japanese person where this unique kanji name comes from they will often shrug and say they never thought about it much. Or when I observe that the ben kanji in bento （弁当）is the same as the one in Osaka-ben （大阪弁）, they’ll say something like, “You’re right! I never realized that!” The ben character means “speech,” but the word bento comes from a 12-century Chinese word meaning “convenient” which got corrupted over time. Incidentally the to （当）character in bento is atari, meaning “to hit” (either to hit against something such as a car with another car, or to “hit a bullseye” and get the correct answer), which is where Atari got its name and the idea for its corporate logo. Of course, we English speakers don’t always think so deeply about our language, either, and Japanese are frequently disappointed that the average person on the street can’t explain grammar related to gerunds, infinitives and prepositions to them.
Rainy season is my least favorite time in Japan. Though I like this picture plenty.
