(Click to enlarge)
(After a long submarine tunnel a huge parking area extends a long bridge crossing the half of Tokyo Bay...)THE CULTURAL BASICS OF JAPAN
I know there are many Japanese speaking fluently on money in English, working in Tokyo, New York, and London in addition to Shanghai and Singapore.
But, 999 out of 1000 Japanese citizens well educated and disciplined, if not in school, do not speak and write well in English.
I mean that they can only express less than one percent of their wisdom and knowledge in English if they try, since Japan is a separate world where only the Japanese language is daily used by 120 million people, even from kinder gardens to higher education institutes with rare exceptions.
Of course, French is a kind of luxury since it is students mostly from the middle class that would try to study the French literature or art in universities in Japan.
SECTION I: RACES
(Click to enlarge)(http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B4%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89 )
From various studies, including those based on DNAs, it is now known that there are some types of people in the Japanese race who are very unique even among the globally unique Japanese people.
They seem to have specific unique traits any other races share from a perspective of genes. They are even very different from those now living on the Asian Continent, including the Korean Peninsula, and the Pacific islands.
Nonetheless, even Japanese people cannot see physical difference between those inherent and unique Japanese and other "ordinary" Japanese, a mix of various origins in Asia.
(It seems that almost 60% of the contemporary Japanese share many traits with either typical Koreans or typical Chinese, though not in terms of language.)
Anyway, it is still a mystery what language the greatest grand-ancestors of the Japanese people who were living on the Japanese Islands, at least 35,000 years ago, were using.
SECTION II: LANGUAGES
Everybody knows American English is an extension of British English.
British English is part of the Germanic language group.
The Germanic language group is a subset of the Indo-Aryan language system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages
In East and Central Asia or the world of the Mongoloid race, there seem to be four original language groups according to the regions: North, Central, and South East-Asia and the Pacific Area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_families_and_languages
For example, the Chinese and the Tibetan belong to one group, namely Central East-Asia, in my term.
The Japanese language is unique in that it is based on both the North and South East-Asian language systems.
Accordingly, the Japanese language has the grammar akin to that of the Korean and Siberian languages; but it has many basic words remotely associated with those of South East-Asian languages or even the Pacific languages.
Nonetheless, Japanese 2000 to 1500 years ago adopted letters and many abstract words and concepts from ancient China so as to use the Kanji letters, roughly speaking a classic style of contemporary Chinese letters.
Yet, the inherent basic Japanese words are the core of the Japanese spiritual culture, since those basic words might reflect the heart and mind of the greatest grand-ancestors of the Japanese people who were living on the Japanese Islands at least 35,000 years ago.
SECTION III: BASIC JAPANESE WORDS
To study the pure and original Japanese language, you must do away with Kanji characters or the ideogram system imported from China.
You have to simply use Hiragana letters which are Japanese phonograms derived from Kanji letters.
http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/item/book/view_b.zhtml?pdid=40286163
(1) Happiness (Koufuku, Shiawase, or Saiwai)
There are three ways to mean happiness in Japanese: Koufuku, Shiawase or Saiwai.
The pure and original word is, however, “Sai-Wai.”
“Sai” is originally “Saki” which means to blossom.
“Wai” is originally “Hahi” which means a state of continuation, like in a case of “Keha(h)i” meaning a sign of continued existence of something.
Therefore, "happiness" was originally expressed as a state of flowers continuing to fully blossom by ancient Japanese people.
Even today, “Saiwai” is used and regarded by the Japanese as a decent and classic way of expressing happiness.
(2) East (Higashi)
In Japanese, the right is “Migi”; the south is “Minami”; and Migi is regarded as meaning Minami, too.
In Japanese, the left is “Hidari”; the north is “Kita”; and Hidari is regarded as meaning Kita, too, while even in English the east is also expressed with “orient,” since the east is the direction a man should stand, be oriented to, and be directed to.
Yet, “Higashi” meaning the east is originally “Hi-Mukashi”; “Hi” is the sun and “Mukashi” is to face.
( http://gogen-allguide.com/hi/higashi.html )
(3) God (Kami)
There are so many theories as to why the Japanese people have called a God or the God “Kami” since the ancient times.
The northern tribe of the Japanese Island, the Ainu people, calls God “Kamui” which also means a bear.
The Korean people call a bear “Komu” which also meant a God in ancient times.
Even in English, a “bear” also means a God, originally.
Celtic people also like bears, since “Arthur” of King Arthur means a bear.
In ancient China, it was said that a son of Holy Prince “U” changed itself to a yellow bear.
In Japanese, a bear is called “Kuma,” too, since there are bears on the Japanese Islands since far before the human history began.
So, it is natural to think that ancient Japanese people found extraordinary strength in a bear which looked like coming directly from a God, like so many tribes in North European-Asian Continent.
Bears live in deep forests or mountains. People never often encounter a bear in Japan. But, when ancient Japanese happened to meet the tough animal in a mountain, the fear and shock must have been enormous, since their lives were at stake.
Anyway, though a bear is called “Kuma” in Japanese, a God or the God is called “Kami-sama,” since “sama” is a Japanese style of an honorable prefix, though put at the tail but not at the head.
In addition, Christ is “Kirisuto” and Jesus is “Iesu” in Japanese, respectively.
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Oh, that is all for today.
Cicadas and Japanese bell crickets have been singing as the rain stopped this morning around Tokyo.
Indeed, European races cannot enjoy the singing of insects, since their ancestors lived for too long in northern infertile woods and forests.
If you master the modern Japanese language but you cannot enjoy singing and chirping of insects as ordinary Japanese do in the summer, you are still an outsider of the Japanese Culture.
Yet, the Gospel is above the Japanese Culture like all the other cultures in the world.
If you are a follower of the Gospel, no Japanese will miss the difference, since it is tantamount to seeing the strength of a bear in the middle of the street far from deep mountains and forests.
(When the summer nears its end, I really feel chagrined every year, though the autumn is the best season in Japan.
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/jojoh/natsuwakinu.html )
Mar 8:29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.