Quirks

So one thing I noticed after a couple of weeks of being in Japan is that the Japanese tend to have an unusual fascination with blood type.  It started with my cell phone profile where under "Birth Date" there was a "Blood Type."  Then I began to see little cell phone charms with blood types on them.

At first, I was extremely impressed.  I thought, "Hey, the Japanese are pretty diligent about their blood type. If you ever get into an accident, your blood type could be found anywhere on your person -- cell phone, key chains, etc."  However after a quick google search, I was slightly disappointed to find that blood types are just another horoscope in that there are people who believe blood type can determine personalities and compatibility.

For more information into this interesting cultural quirk, the BBC just wrote a pretty good article on it.

Silly Mnemonics

So on the way over to Akihabara today, Matt decided to teach me the days of the week in Japanese.  He first tried with a song... which I then managed to demonstrate how impossible I am to work with when it comes to pure verbal instruction.  We went over the song at least six or seven times, but I could neither memorize the words to the song nor show any comprehension as to what the meaning behind those words were.  But later on the train, he suggested that I create a mnemonic.  His advice was to just create any image that I would then associate to the word, but for me in my mind's infinite complexity, I needed to find a way to not only connect the sound of the Japanese word but also the kanji.  So here's the end result (sound associations are in blue and kanji is in red):

Getsuyoubi (月曜日) - Gettysburg fought on a Monday during a full moon
Kayoubi (火曜日) - King Kai, a fiery guy, works out on Tuesday
Suiyoubi (水曜日) - Sue swims on a watery Wednesday
Mokuyoubi (木曜日) - I plant plants in Mokuleia on Thursday
Kinyoubi (金曜日) - My kin gets paid on Friday
Doyoubi (土曜日) - The dirty doe eats dirt on Saturday
Nichiyoubi (日曜日) - Nietzsche hates sunny Sundays