http://www.shiawase.co.uk 幸せ [しあわせ] (adj-na,n) happiness, good fortune, luck, blessing Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:52:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mixi now requires a Japanese mobile phone email in order to register a new account. I became aware of this reading Tofugu. It may just be an anti-spam or age checking measure but it effectively shuts out anyone not in Japan; including Japanese ex-pats who don't keep a Japanese mobile phone ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/05/19/mixi_isolationism/ 漢字学習ステップ８級 published by: 日本漢宇能力検定協会 Another book to prepare for the kanken test. This time it is an official book published by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. It is a textbook for Japanese people, completely in Japanese and requiring a vocabulary beyond that which the kanji might suggest. Maybe it's for ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/05/15/kanji-study-step-level-8/ Do you miss out small tsu? Forget when to lengthen a vowel? Use the wrong voicing? Help may be at hand from Purdue University. It is an old project (the last update was 2002) but they have available custom dictionaries for Japanese IME systems. I downloaded the extra dictionaries for ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/05/12/japanese-spellcheck/ Late News (again!) Tonight until the 10th of May Rouge28 Theatre is presenting a performance of Urashima Taro at Shunt Lounge in London. This is part of the celebrations of 150 years of relations between Japan and the UK, Japan-UK 150. (we'll forget about the original circumstances though.) There's a ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/05/07/urashima-taro-shunt/ LingQ is another site that is based around learning through flashcards. It takes a slightly different approach to WordChamp however. The underlying philospophy here is the natural acquisition of language through reading and listening. The idea is that you become receptive to a language before you can become active in ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/05/07/lingq/ Since MacOS X was first released the built-in support for Japanese has been excellent. Everything you need for Japanese is in the standard installation. It's there when you want it. It just works; no searching around for install disks. I recently installed Windows XP using Parallels on my Mac. Boy ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/04/30/macos-x-leopard/ There's always some Japanese films at this festival. This year it's running from the 30th of April until the 4th of May, and these films are showing: Dai Nipponjin Vexille and an Anime All Nighter (9 hours, 4 films, including Tekkonkinkreet and The Girl who Leapt Through Time) All films are showing ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/04/25/sci-fi-london-festival/ PolarC (aka BigHeadedMan, aka Chika-san) is dj at a club night in Life, Old Street on the 11 May. Interesting music is guaranteed. Chika-san had this to say in her flyer – 『Dear all Ogenki desuka? I would like to inform you of our club night "Orientalism" hosted by Howard William from Honest ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/04/25/orientalism/ An Internet flashcard web2.0 application. Flashcards are a good way to learn new vocabulary. However there is always the task of making the cards and deciding what cards to make. Computers make the process easier, and I'm a great fan of iFlash, but it would be nice to be able ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/04/23/wordchamp/ Just a headsup for anyone in the UK that on Radio 4 tonight there is a programme about Anime, Karaoke (badly mispronounced as karyoki as usual.), Sushi and all things Japanese. Children's Magazine Show Go 4 It is broadcasting a Japanese special at 7.15. UK listeners can also listen at ... http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2008/04/20/late-news-go-4-it-bbc-radio-4/