Category Archives: puzzle

Cool Phrase – いいぞ (Update)

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I’ve got another article on the Japan Times Bilingual Page. Longtime readers will recognize the topic, as well as the little girl who hates bugs, from the contest I ran back in April 2008.

So, yes, いい is often used to say “no, thank you” and imply that something is not fine and not good, but it does also get used in the standard definition of good, fine, great. One way to differentiate between the meanings is applying a particle to the end. よ will grant permission to someone else, ね will express your pleasure with something and/or seek confirmation, よね seeks to confirm okay-ness, and ぞ is a useful way to cheer someone on.

When I was on JET, we coached the speech contest kids, and I have vivid memories of one of the Japanese English teachers saying いいぞ、いいぞ in a slightly gruff voice when the kids did a particularly good job. It was kind of like “attaboy, attaboy” or “now you’re cookin’ with gas” – that type of thing. Definitely a nice little phrase to keep in your wallet for the right situation.

Quick TOP SECRET breakdown of possible English tone equivalents (as usual, getting used to it is far superior to translation):

いいよ – “Sure, go ahead”
いいね – “That’s nice!” “That sounds good!”
いいよね – “Not a problem, right?”
いいぞ – “That’s the stuff!”

Update:

Dammit, I missed a bunch of particles, as noted in the comments by Leonardo. They are:

いいな – “Lucky! (a la Napoleon Dynamite)” “That’s nice!”
いいわ – “Sure thing.”
いいわよ – “Sure thing, hot stuff.”
いいけど – “I guess…”
いいけどね – “T’were it only true…”

Monday Puzzle – Presidents – Answer – Updated

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As many readers correctly answered, no U.S. President has ever visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I read an interesting article on how President Ford was advised by an aide to make a visit to Hiroshima and give a speech on peace and healing; it’s clear that the Cold War mindset prevailed. It’s stunning to me that no president has made the visit yet. No matter what your politics are, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are incredible cities and deserve the respect and closure of a presidential visit. I choose to blame Ford for passing the buck and setting a precedent of putting the whole thing off. When a president finally does visit, it’s going to raise an awful stink, especially given the right wing reaction to a simple (awkwardly executed) bow.

(On a side note, Che Guevara famously stole away from his Osaka hotel in the middle of the night so that he could see Hiroshima.)

A couple of readers also noted (update) INCORRECTLY (update) that no presidents have visited Okinawa, and one guessed (correctly I think) that they haven’t visited Taiwan.

The winner this week by random number draw is George. Congrats. Claim your beer when you will.

The puzzle is going on break for the rest of the year. Feel free to send in any puzzle suggestions. If I use your idea, I’ll cite you and link your page.

UPDATE:
In the comments, Durf corrects the mistake I made. I have no excuse for Clinton; I searched through the State Department lists but somehow failed to notice that the G8 Summit was held in Okinawa. Ike was news to me. Apparently he had planned a visit to Japan that was cancelled, but still made a one day visit to Okinawa 1960. He doesn’t go down as the first president to visit Japan because the US hadn’t yet returned the island to Japan. Here’s a link to the speech he gave upon arrival, and an interesting policy statement he made with Prime Minister Kishi three years earlier.

A Call for Puzzles

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As you may or may not be able to tell, my puzzle engine is starting to run on fumes again, so I thought I’d make a call (plea!) for puzzle submissions. If you have a cool piece of trivia, wordplay, or something else that would make a good puzzle, please send it my way. If I use it, I’ll link your site and give you a shout out. And what the hell, a beer, too. You still have to track me down and arrange it!

よろしく！

Monday Puzzle – Presidents

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President Obama was in Japan recently for a visit on his tour of Asia. The only effect on me was that I got a chance to see the Japanese police’s samurai-lookin’ body armor. Pretty sweet getup.

As for other presidential visitors, Ulysses S. Grant visited after his term was up. Taft came while he was Secretary of War. JFK visited as a congressman. The first president to visit Japan while in office was Gerald Ford. Every president after Ford has also made the trip. There’s a cool list of all the official visits on the State Department website.

Here is the puzzle this week: Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama have all been to Japan, but where have none of them been? Perhaps kind of vague. I have a specific Japan-related response in mind.

The prize if you win? One can of 100% barley malt beer – e.g. Ebisu, Suntory Malts, Asahi Premium. (New rule: you must physically track me down and demand your beer to redeem it.)

Please do not post your answer in the comments. Send it to me via email or facebook. My email address is るぱんさんせい (romanized) at-mark gmail dot com.

Monday Puzzle – Identify This – Answer

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As many of you were able to correctly guess, this:

block1

Is an extreme close-up of this:

tenjiblock1

The official name is 視覚障害者誘導用ブロック (しかくしょうがいしゃゆうどうようぶろっく). They are also known as 点字ブロック (てんじぶろっく, literally “Braille Blocks”), but Wikipedia notes that they do not actually use Braille as the name suggests.

They do, however, have meaning. This website does a great job of illustrating how the blocks with grooved lines (in Japanese, 誘導ブロック or 線状ブロック) mean walk forward but the dotted blocks (警告ブロック or 点状ブロック) signify a stop or a turn – somewhere that requires caution like a train platform or a big street.

It’s always amazes me how ubiquitous these are. They have been installed just about everywhere in Japan in an attempt to create the most バリアフリー country ever. Oh, and if you were wondering, バリアフリー ≠ “barrier-free” (or at least I don’t think it should in translation unless you are talking specifically about Japanese efforts to promote accessibility). バリアフリー ＝ “handicapped accessible” or whatever the appropriate PC term is in English.

Julian, Doug, Jerry, Thomas, and William all get Google Wave invites, and Thomas gets the beer. Nice work, guys! It should take a few days for the invites to go through, but I’ve put your names in. Julian also let me know that the term 点字タイル is used by the Nankai Railway. Very cool – I like the alliteration, and “tile” is probably more accurate than “block.”

Thief-wise

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A reminder that you still have a week to answer last week’s puzzle. In addition to a beer to the winner, I’ll give out Google Wave invites to all correct answers.

Also, Doug let me know that there is another way to refer to clockwise for the puzzle from two weeks ago – 泥棒回り (どろぼうまわり). Literally, “thief-wise.” Yahoo Dictionary says this is the nomenclature for taking turns in a game when seated in a circle. It goes from left to right, or clockwise, because when wearing Japanese clothes, a thief would have to reach into someone’s kimono from the right moving toward the left. There’s a great little passage about 右前 in the 和服 Wikipedia article. Not too difficult – good reading practice with lots of new words.

Monday Puzzle – Identify This

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The puzzle this week is to identify what is in this picture:

block1

Anyone who has lived in or visited Japan should recognize this, so the real challenge this week is to give me the official Japanese name and one additional name (two different names total). Earn your beer with a little research.

The prize if you win? One can of 100% barley malt beer – e.g. Ebisu, Suntory Malts, Asahi Premium. (New rule: you must physically track me down and demand your beer to redeem it.)

Please do not post your answer in the comments. Send it to me via email or facebook. My email address is るぱんさんせい (romanized) at-mark gmail dot com.

Monday Puzzle – What the clock are you talking about?! – Answer

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A simple answer to a simple puzzle – you can say clockwise with 外回り and counterclockwise with 内回り when you’re referring to a loop train line. This works because like cars, trains always go on the left side of the “road” in Japan. Yamanote Line stations often have these signs:

clock1 clock2

clock3 clock4

And I’ve been told that the 大阪環状線 also uses this terminology.

A couple of right answers this week, and the winner by coin flip is Karla. Congrats. Claim your beer when you will!

Monday Puzzle – What the clock are you talking about?!

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Simple puzzle today. The Japanese for clockwise and counterclockwise is 時計回り and 反時計回り. What is another way to express these ideas without using the characters 右, 左, 西, or 東?

We’ll see how this one turns out. If it’s too easy or too difficult I’ll give another mini-puzzle next Monday or provide a hint of some sort.

The prize if you win? One can of 100% barley malt beer – e.g. Ebisu, Suntory Malts, Asahi Premium. (New rule: you must physically track me down and demand your beer to redeem it.)

Please do not post your answer in the comments. Send it to me via email or facebook. My email address is るぱんさんせい (romanized) at-mark gmail dot com.

Monday Puzzle – Can you handle it? – Answer

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There are two bathrooms in my apartment – one off the main living room, and the other connected to the sink area in front of the shower. My roommates hardly ever use it, so it always sits in the back of our apartment unloved (except by my hairy ass). There is a funny little sign right above the handle:

modoshite1

modoshite2

So the correct answer was in the bathroom. Several people came up with the right location for the sign, but the winner this week is Akaki. He was the only one who came up with the correct derivation of the phrase – I misread a て as the question mark and the Japanese period as the question mark’s little dot. Nice work! I owe you a beer, Akaki!