Nisei Week Report (Also, Scroll Down To Read About Some New Features)

We're now on the last day of Nisei Week (as of Sunday). I hope it was fun for anyone in the LA area. If you haven't been there yet but have time tonight, you can see the spectacle of the Nebuta. It's a giant, glowing float of a traditional looking Japanese battle scene, traditional to the Aomori (青森) region of Japan (In the Northernmost part of Honshu, also where Samisen come from). Unfortunately, I personally will be missing the Nebuta this year due to a family reunion. However, last Sunday, as with every year for the past 5 years or so, I participated in a different Japanese parade tradition, the Mikoshi (神輿).

Mikoshi are portable Shinto shrines carried on two boards by a large group of people in parades. Before the parade, a Shinto priest traditionally blesses the mikoshi, infusing it with kami or spirits from a shrine. Oftentimes, they are fertility spirits meant to ensure a good harvest. Since true Shinto Shrines aren't found in California (or anywhere in the contiguous United States outside of one in Washington), a priest from a new religion based on Shinto, Konko, fills in for the role. When the mikoshi enters the parade, it is moved around and shaken to make noise while the carriers rhythmically shout out to the kami. One recurring theme in Shinto is that spirits respond positively to noise, such as clapping in a shrine.

There are many, many variants on the Japanese portable shrine or temple, with at least as many regional variants as there are dialects. At least three times while carrying the mikoshi, someone from the audience got up close to take a picture and singled out me (among the very few non-Japanese carrying it) to ask what exactly it is. I gave a facial expression that said "I'm carrying something made out of gold. I'll get back to you on that." So, I hope my explanation here is good. If you haven't seen a mikoshi before, it is something to behold. It truly looks like a shrine in miniature.

*New Features*

We have a very useful new feature for premium users - you can now add your own "stories". That means if there's a website, e-mail, short story, you name it, that you want to study, you can simply copy and paste and study away. This is particularly useful if you have a Japanese penpal. People tend to know many words but only use a small percentage in their day to day conversations, so you'll find after studying the first few e-mails from your friend, you pretty quickly are able to read them without consulting your dictionary. It's like magic!

If you are in a Japanese class or for any other reason, there are certain vocabulary words or kanji you must know, you can also use this feature to manually create vocabulary lists and use our site to study them. Simply copy in or type in the words you want each on their own line (or separated by a space, it doesn't matter) and import. Pretty neat.

We also have an upcoming feature that I'm sure many of you have been needing - English translation. Within the next few weeks, we will add an English translation to all the stories, including any you add using the feature we just mentioned. Now, when you're confident you have understood the story (you learned the vocabulary and read through), you can check yourself by looking at the story in English.

-Thomas