It's almost time...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshades/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Well gang, in a few hours the beNippon team will be starting our Christmas+New Year's holiday. The team is hard at work making sure everyone gets their Black Rock Shooter figures as soon as the post office can deliver them.

We will be at your service again starting January 4th, so you can put your otoshidama to good use. As the beNippon blog had its first birthday this month, I'd like to thank all the readers for putting up with my silliness, and I hope some of you have found some entertaining or redeeming qualities by keeping us in your RSS reader. Please do leave comments if there's anything you're interested in reading about.

In the meanwhile, enjoy a glass of egg nogg for me. Cheers!

Taisho??

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mackro/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

According to recent news from Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance, the baby name rankings for 2009 are in. For boys, the most popular name in 2009 was "大翔" while for girls it was "陽菜". Normally, the names would not be much of an issue, however with the kanji being used, most adults cannot read them.

Let's take a closer look at these names, first up: 大翔. This name starts with 大 (oo, dai) meaning big. The second kanji is 翔 (shou, kakeru, tobu) meaning to soar or fly. Together these kanji can be read as 2009's most popular name for boys: Haruto. From this kanji compound, the meaning can be conveyed as, "one who soars high in the heavens." (大空高く翔るような活躍). For girls,  陽菜 comes from the kanji: 陽 (you, hi) meaning sunshine, and 菜 (sai, na) meaning vegetable greens or leaves. Together they are transformed into Yuna, meaning "one who grows cheerful and carefree." (明るくのびのびとした成長).

With the world economy in shambles, new parents want to bestow names that convey happiness and a bright future. At the same time, I feel they want to make their children unique by using kanji readings that are not normal, which possibly shows the rebelious side of today's generation.

If you've studied Japanese for a while, you've probably created a Japanese name for yourself. Maybe it was a real name or produced using ateji, using the kanji sounds to create meaning for your name. What kanji did you choose?

Otoshidama Deflation?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iandeth/ / CC BY 2.0

While Christmas is becoming more popular in Japan, it's not usually customary for family members to exchange gifts. Don't worry though, Japanese kids are not left out of the holiday gift spirit in the least. Enter the otoshidama. During the New Year's celebrations parents, relatives, and friends stuff cold hard cash into small envelopes and present them to the children, usually upwards of 20-years of age. For some lucky ones, the tradition continues into adulthood.

With the recent economic climate, you'd expect that the amount of this year's monetary gifts would be reduced. Surprisingly, according to a recent online survey by SBI Net Bank, this is not the case. Let's check out the headline as published on Yahoo! Japan (12/14/2009):

お年玉はデフレ知らず？「減らない」9割、平均総額1万８０００円

Otoshidama wa defure shirazu? "Heranai" 9-wari, heikin sougaku 1 man 8000 en.

Here's a little bit of vocabulary:

• お年玉 (おとしだま, otoshidama) - monitary gifts given during New Year's
• デフレ (defure) - (economic) deflation
• 知らず (shirazu) - not being affected
  
• 減る (へる, heru) - to decrease
• 割 (わり, wari) - a percentage based on 10, 9割 = 90%
• 平均総額 (へいきん・そうがく, heikin sougaku) - average total amount

Basically this headline can be directly translated as, "Otoshidama knows no deflation? 90% "no decrease," average total amount 18,000 yen." If we expand this headline, it would be more like: "Next year's otoshidama (gifts) will not be affected by deflation. 90% surveyed stated, 'no decrease in amount,' with the average total gift amount being 18,000 yen."

The article goes on to describe SBI's survey in more detail. Some of the more interesting figures are that while 69% stated no decrease in the amount that will be given, 21% stated that the otoshidama amount they will give will increase. 63% of those people cited a rise in age of the recipients as the reason for the increase. On average, those surveyed give otoshidama to 3.66 children and shell out a total of 17,999 yen.

Giving otoshidama is one of the great New Year's traditions in Japan, and while everything from jeans to bento lunches are experiencing major price deflation, it's nice to know that for at least some lucky kids, their otoshidama will not suffer in this depressed economy.

beNippon on YouTube.

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? We know that when you're shopping on the internets, you don't get the touchy-feely-ness of the brick-and-mortar stores. We've attempted to give our customers more product information than just photos via YouTube. You can view and subscribe to our channel here.

This is one of my favorite vids at the moment.

You can also view our videos on the product pages.

Ghibli for Yomiuri Shimbun

I've been seeing this commerical on TV quite often recently. Only yesterday, did I realize it was created by Studio Ghibli. They really are branching out into lots of different ventures: commericals, movies, tv, video games...

This commercial is for publishing giant Yomiuri Shimbun, which supposedly has the largest circulation in the world, and is the owner of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, among other things.

What do you think? It's not quite the Ghibli I'm used to, but I'm sure they have a variety of young directors nowadays.

New Arrival: Excellent Model Portrait of Pirates (P.O.P) Bartholomew Kuma

Title: Bartholomew Kuma
Maker: Mega House
Approx Box Size (cm): 34 x 22 x 44 (1540g)

Just in is the large and in charge, Bartholomew Kuma from Mega House's Excellent Model Portrait of Pirates series. All you One Piece fans will have to clear some shelf space for him, for realz!

 

 

We'll have some left over after the initial ruckus, so order your's from beNippon before they're all gone.