Eve Kushner's Blog
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Jun.14.2013
Twice recently I have felt confused about Japanese. Well, I should probably inflate that number by an order of 10 or 100, just to account for all the puzzlement I experience in an average week. But I can remember only two episodes of note. Both had to do with height.
For my forthcoming essay on 杉...
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Jun.07.2013
After many months in which I've had nothing to say whenever I saw friends (because it's hard to chat about kanji, which is pretty much all I think about), things have shifted. Everything happens at once. Stasis tilts into periods of high energy and change. All is aswirl.
Photo Credit: ...
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May.31.2013
I always say that every Joy o' Kanji essay is about one character, but that's a lie. After all, kanji are as strongly attracted to one another as people are after downing several drinks on a hot summer night. Kanji bond with other kanji more often than not, so looking closely at one character also...
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May.24.2013
They say a little knowlege is a dangerous thing, and after several near-death experiences, I've begun to agree. Not to worry; I didn't come anywhere close to dying. However, I saw some kanji that put me on edge.
In the first instance, I went to a file-sharing site to download a large recording...
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May.17.2013
Let's start with a quiz. What do you think the following term could mean?
頭を刈る (あたまをかる) head + to cut
a. to cut off someone's headb. to cut the head off a fishc. to cut one's haird. to excel; be a cut above the rest; stand heads and tails above others
I'll give you a...
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May.17.2013
Let's start with a quiz. What do you think the following term could mean?
頭を刈る (あたまをかる) head + to cut
a. to cut off someone's headb. to cut the head off a fishc. to cut one's haird. to excel; be a cut above the rest; stand heads and tails above others
I'll give you a...
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May.10.2013
Last week I fell woefully behind. I can attribute it to various things, such as my husband's birthday (and the birthday shopping beforehand), plus extra visits to the park to go running after two caloric birthday celebrations. But the truth is that I can't entirely understand where the time...
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May.03.2013
People constantly have weather on their minds. When I scroll down my Facebook news feed, I see that topic more than perhaps any other.
As far as I can tell, that's what my dogs spend much of their day thinking about, too: "It's cold. Where's the sun? Ah, there it is! Hurray! Life is good! Oh, no....
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Apr.26.2013
Welcome back! Hope you've been doing well. I had a lovely vacation, and I feel fully energized and ready to take on JOK all over again.
I'm revitalized partly because my husband and I spent three days celebrating our anniversary, taking our dogs hither and thither so that they could romp on the...
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Apr.11.2013
A Japanese man asked me for the best English translation of 納棺師 (のうかんし), which some dictionaries define as "encoffiner." That answer is far from satisfying, and it certainly isn't clear to most of us. The term 納棺師 refers to someone who prepares a corpse for cremation, as depicted in the film 「...
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Apr.05.2013
Lately I've had to confront the same fear again and again. With essay 1280 on 魂 (soul, spirit) and then essay 1651 on 塔 (tower; pagoda; monument), I've needed to write quite a bit about Buddhism. What a complicated religion! Even Japanese people seem confused by some of the...
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Mar.29.2013
I recently mentioned that a Japanese man had supplied me with chicken-related information. He has since sent me a two-page essay that he wrote in Japanese and self-published for fun. In a moment, I'll share part of the essay with you, particularly the segment that changed me for the...
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Mar.22.2013
I've had nothing but health problems over the past five weeks. First, an itchy rash on the legs—a bad reaction to food, I'm told. Then the flu and a cold, which left behind a raspy cough as a souvenir that I'm still enjoying. Eyestrain caused headaches and, strangely enough, created a blue line...
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Mar.15.2013
I've struck up a correspondence with a Japanese man who likes colorful expressions as much as I do. He happened to tell me that his wife often lobs the following criticism at him:
三歩歩いたら忘れるんだ！You forget everything in three steps!
三歩 (さんぽ: 3 steps); 歩く (あるく: to walk);忘れる (わすれる: to forget)
I love...
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Mar.08.2013
Last week at the farmers' market, I asked for six eggs. The woman stared at me as if nothing were sinking in, but because she remained silent, I couldn't really clarify. She then disappeared into the vendor's van for awhile, and the next thing I knew, a man told me I owed $30.
I said, "Thirty?! It...
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About Eve
Eve Kushner is a writer in Berkeley, California. In February 2009, Stone Bridge Press published her second book, Crazy for Kanji: A Student's Guide to the Wonderful World of Japanese Characters. Eve's first book, Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women's...
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Causes Eve Kushner Supports
The Milo Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Doctors Without Borders, PCI, FINCA