Japanese can be written in Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
The basic ones are learning Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji comes from Chinese characters and is somewhat deep and complicated. If you're Chinese, sure, it's easy for you to learn Kanji but for a Filipino like me which doesn't know any Chinese, it's a rough start.
Well, later on, I fell in love with Kanji.
Don't get me wrong. Even though I like Kanji, there are so many Kanji out there that I can't understand or read. The simple ones, sure, but as you dig deeper and deeper into the world of Kanji, you'll realized you are digging too deep already.
When I visited Kyoto for a day last Winter, my friends and I were just roaming around Gion and noticed an establishment that seems like out of place. I suggested we go and explore it and there, the Kanji Museum and Library that I have been looking for for years is in front of me. Luckily my friends were so convinced to go inside and check it out.
The museum is located at the end of the main road in Gion, just across the street from the Yasaka Shrine.
The clerk will warn you that there won't be a guarantee of an English translation so we had to understand everything in Japanese. It's alright, it's so hard to translate every Kanji into English so I completely understand.
Upon entering the museum, I mean after paying, you would see the display of the kanji of the last year. Last year's kanji is 金, read as kin which means gold or money.
The kanji points to the gold medals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, which proceeded this July after being postponed for a year and then held without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the fourth year that the kanji character for gold has been chosen. The previous years were 2000, 2012 and 2016.
source: The Japan Times
There were only a few people when we went there. At first, we watched a documentary though we didn't understand a thing, we were still amazed.
Kanji has evolved over time. That's for sure. The writings we know today have matured from the writings of the past.
After we paid the entrance fee, we were given a paper and each part of it, we needed to accomplish. It was a fun exercise you could do with friends. This fun exercise is about knowing the ancient kanji.
The first part of the paper was all about Oracle Bone Script Fortune Telling. After rubbing the yellow part, our fortune for today will be revealed. Mine's kanji is 美, from utsuko of utsukoshii (美しい) which means beauty.
My fortune says 美しい何かに出会えるよ which means I will be encountering something beautiful that day. Now that I recalled, I didn't remember any beautiful encounters that day except meeting my friends who lived in Osaka who were with me in the museum and maybe encountering Kiyomizu-dera, the temple I wanted to visit that day in Kyoto.
And yeah, there's another fortune something but sorry, I didn't understand what it meant even until today. 😂 If you know, please tell me.
Part 2 (テーブル2) means to stamp the 金 (kin) kanji. Remember the kanji of the year? If you stamp it, this will be the result - 5 characters. It has a long history dating back to 1957.
Of course, we used our names in katakana for Part 4 and 5. All of these can be done on the first floor. If you know your name in hiragana/katakana, you would be able to see this exercise as fun.
So in the first table we stumbled upon, we needed to write our name in Manyogana. Actually, before that, we needed to write our name but we didn't have pen and we didn't see any pen so the first column of our paper's a blank. That's where our names should be written.
Man'yōgana (万葉仮名, Japanese pronunciation: [maɰ̃joꜜːɡana] or [maɰ̃joːɡana]) is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically.
source: Wikipedia
We also wrote our names in 「もとの字」 which means the old writings of Hiragana and Katakana. Yes, we were still using the stamp. It's located in Part 4 of the paper.
The last exercise was to find out the kanji of the countries. I am not familiar with flags of the world so I hope I got everything right. 🤞
And so, we're done!
But that's not everything..
That's only one way to know the ancient writings. In the museum there were so many things there too, of course still related to the Japanese writing.
The pillar in the middle was covered with a lot of kanji so if it's so fun to stay there and just look for the characters that you know.
It seems like a good background for a photo so we took snaps of ourselves there.
What do you think? Are you able to recognize some characters? If you know, let me know in the comments and maybe I'll tip you a pizza.
In the upper floor, you'll find a library and tons of interactive games related to kanji. They are mostly designed for kids but we do looked like one. 😅
The library had a lot of books, not only about learning kanji but storybooks too. If we had more time, we would be staying there for a long time. The library's mostly for students though, not for adults like us. There were kids there and they were staring at us for being in the library. 😂 Maybe they're looking at some kind of rare species
And of course, the interactive games! It was so fun because we're still kids in terms of our kanji level. There's a booth to make your own kanji. Here's mine.
I call my very Kanji creation as Amabyouken which means strong rain, inspired by the kanji characters of cat, dog and rain. Can you understand me now? It's from the famous idiom it's raining cats and dogs.
I hope our kanji creation will be accepted as official kanji. 😅
Have you noticed that all the characters have 魚 in them? They are all types of fish and yes, 魚 read as sakana means fish. I don't memorize them all though.
I love sushi but I suck at this game. I don't know the kanji of the fishes! I don't know even fish names! 😂
We needed to match the ancient kanji and the body parts. Well, we did a not so terrible job at it. 😂
There were many fun things to do there. I think you could also take the Kanji Kentei or the Japan Kanji Aptitude Test there. I remembered my previous coworker took the exam in Kyoto so I believe it's in this place. Maybe in the future, I'll take the exam too just for fun.
My favorite area was seeing the Kanji Of The Year exhibit. In the museum, they already displayed the kanji of the year on the first floor but for the previous years, it's here too!
Did you know that they started doing the Kanji Of The Year from 1995? I actually believed that it started way older. To know the full list (because I don't have a photo of everything), you can check this out in Wikipedia. It also contains the events of that year, which prompt the kanji for that year.
According to what I understood, the Kanji Of The Year will be written by the head priest of Kiyomizu-dera. I found a short footage when the head priest wrote last year's Kanji.
I actually want to learn calligraphy so I can write kanji with style but to do that, I should learn a lot of kanji first. 😅
We were there in the museum for almost 2 hours and we still couldn't get enough of the place. It was really enjoyable, even as a foreigner in Japan, still trying to learn more Kanji.
If you have time, I suggest you visit them the next time you come to Kyoto! Of course, it's fun to be with friends who have the same Kanji level as you, or at least a friend who knows Kanji. It may be not fun if you don't know Kanji and you visit the place.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね!
All photos are taken using my phone and my friend's phone (with permission) unless stated otherwise.
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It's really complicated to learn a new language. I think it would be better if I learned this when I was younger. They say when you're young, it's easy to learn languages that when you mature, you'll still be able to remember them. Luckily, we don't need to learn Manyogana because that would add more complications.
That's what I like about Japan, aside from many things like food, they are so rich in culture that one would never get tired of enjoying and studying about it.
I've been trying to bring these 2 cute buddies who were with me on this adventure to Hive. Hopefully I could bring them soon 😅
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My students from Japan mentioned this before because they know I'm into museums and I'm struggling to learn Kanji. It's actually one of the places I really want to visit there. Perhaps I'd enjoy visiting this place if I'm still in the process of learning. Ang fun siguro kahit nagsstruggle hahaha
Such a nice experience, Witty!
It's really fun C! We were indeed struggling but that added to the fun! 😂
We're the only adults there enjoying 😅
When you come here, C, I want to go with you to this museum!
Learning Kanji is quite hard and Japan requires non japanses workers to learn it.
I did tried applying before, I think.that was way back 2013.
There is an agency here that will help.you learn the language and skills neede. Training will be for six months. All expenses after will be deducted from your salary for 5yrs (minimum contract).
Sadly, I passed the initial screening but failed in medical.
That ended my dreams😂😂.
So maybe I will be visiting Japan if i had more money😆 but no more learning of Kanji😅
It's a weird deal considering the agency will deduct your salary for 5years? Am I getting it right?
Kanji is hard but fun at times. I like connections so seeing them being used together with other characters, forming new words and new meanings are so much fun for me.
Hehe, usually contract is five years right? So if total amount is P100,000 payable sya sa buong contract mo...not to be deducted agad agad
AAahhh okay, makes sense now. It's not that bad of a deal naman pala.
The hardest part of learning nihongo is kanji,
I remember my sensei saying "YOU'LL LOVE KANJI BECAUSE YOU DRAW" (calligraphy thing) Oh yes ~ i love the strokes.. But can't memorize it .. I cri ~ hahaha i sucked at it..
Anyways, i Love those big frames calligraphy area 😍
That's my favorite part too! I just love calligraphy so much! I agree, I think being an artist you're more closer to learning calligraphy and kanji in the process than me. 😅
It's fun, you should get back at learning it!!
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Hello witty
The inside view of the meusiam is cool but I don't understand the language at all. And you mentioned Hiragana, katakana and kanji must be language.
The language in the video section is out of my head😂😂.In India we have 7 official languages in, I am so dumb that I just know only three of them.
Whenever I look at Chinese language ,it always seems drawing of something😂😂😂. I wish I could learn those languages.
India with 7 languages is a lot! 🥲🤯
My brain could not take a lot of that hahaha
In Japan, hiragana, katakana and kanji are not really the language. They make up the Japanese language. They are the alphabets. 😁 Sorry for confusing you.
Indeed it looks like a drawing, right? Calligraphy is the better way to call it. It’s one of the things I want to do in the future.
Okay superb!
Hahah Hiragana , katakana kanji are alphabets ..lol yeah calligraphy cen bee good to learn quickly.
You know we have a sate called ' 'Karnataka' similiar pronunciation of katakana and a national park called 'kangiranga' similiar to the pronunciation of kanji and hiragana...lol
Hahahahaha That’s so interesting to know 😂 Maybe it was inspired from that?!
!PIZZA
Sorry there was a miss information.
We have now 8th schedule and there are 22 languages spoken accross the country...
It must be pathetic for an alien to know it😂😂.
But we have unity in diversity.Accross the country we have a common language too and majority speak it. It's "HINDI". You may heard about Bollywood and it's language is Hindi.
Tooo much information ... Sorry for that🤓🤓
Wait, that’s more than what you said earlier!? It must be crazy when people from different regions meet in one place but as you say, there’s Hindi so it’s fine. As long as there’s one universal language you all can understand, communication is fine.
OMG! 😅 And I was not mistaken, it was only the beginning...
Oh yeah, that's a cool photo! You are all beauties!
Nooooo. 😅 This is the first time I've heard that expression. Where can I read about it? Really, I don't understand it. 😂
But you know, it was still interesting for me to read! Way to go! Looking forward to more of your walks in strange places! 💪🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
!ALIVE
!CTP
!PIZZA
I should tell my friends about this comment 😍
Really?! I thought that idiom is kinda famous all over the world if you know English. Or maybe it's not used often? I am not so sure anymore! 😅
Thank you for the appreciation @stdd! I'm really glad you took interest in the long and somewhat complicated post about the Japanese language 😅
!PIZZA
🙌💛❤️🧡💙🙌
!PIZZA
Hanla ang cute ng museum! Ako yung kakarampot na nihonggo at kanji na alam ko nawashed away na ata after ko magresign dun sa first job ko ahahhahahaha
Hahaha! Natawa ako sa "washed away", parang may baha 😂
I think when you start to encounter the language again, there would be familiar things that will make you recall what you have studied before.
Japanese company ba ung first job mo?
Yiiis po ... Haha...sana nga maalala ko pa sila
Ang hirap nyan madam.. Maalam.kna tlga? Galing..
Hahaha! Not so much! How about you? Magaling ka na mag chinese dahil dyan noh?
No 🤣.. I don't understand a single thing lol.
But I know some Cantonese..these two are different..
Ohhh nice! Cantonese ba dyan?
I myself is getting dizzy with all these characters ahaha! Wow, hangover before the trip I love it haha! Witty, you are so pretty po 🥺
Don't be dizzy @jijisaurart uwu
I stayed in Osaka and when I arrived, I met with my friends and from afternoon to dawn, I was drinking with them. We went to many bars and restaurants so yeah, I was so drunk 😂
We were supposed to meet at 7am for our trip to Kyoto with these 2 ladies but we met around 9 or 10 instead because of the stupid hangover 😂
hangover lang yern
its so japaNICE!
Hahaha NICE ONE