(the) Road to the Deep East

Kotooshu, a Bulgarian sumo wrestler who won the championship last Saturday, started his official blog titled 'ちゃんこ鍋とヨーグルトって意外と合うんです(Chanko-nabe to yogurt tte igaito aundesu)' in Japanse.

http://kotooshu.aspota.jp/

This title can be trasnlated 'Chanko-nabe matches yogurt unexpectedly.' Chanko-nabe is a traditional dish cooked at Sumo gyms. It's a kind of soup like bouillabaisse , and sumo wrestlers eat it everyday. Needless to say, Yogurt is a daily and traditional dish in Bulgaria. I don't think it's good idea to eat them together, but in this title, this Ozeki from Bulgaria may imply that he could assimilate in Japanese culture easily and it was not as hard as many people imagine.

This blog is now becoming popular among Japanese. But that's might not be in the exact same way he had expected. Although its title is written in kanji and hiragana, he posts the entry in all hiragana, and many Japanese think it's 'kawaii.'(cute)

Imagine how he posted the entry. The man over 200cm and 150kg types these hiragana words with biggest palm in front of the smallest palm top. After two-hour struggle, he posted a picture, just saying 'たい２ひき', or 'おさけ'. Certainly, this gap is kawaii.

As many people starts blogging, it looks he spent all his passion on the first day and hadn't posted any since May 26th, but if he can keep it , it's sure he can become a famous blogger in Japanese blogsphere like Nakagawa Shokotan.

It's an interesting phenomenon. In ancient days, in Heian Period, when the capital of Japan was Kyoto, hiragana was the letter mainly used women, hence Japanese men thought the handwriting in hiragana from women is lovely. Now Japanese women became cleverer and read books more than average men, so the traditional usage of hiragana was lost. But when it was used by a foreign wrestler, the function of hiragana reappeared in this 21st century.

Anyway, now, here is a hint of how to become a lovely gaijin in Japan. 'Hiragana makes you lovely.'

Even when you are very good at Japanese and know tons of kanji or Japanese old saying, the usage of your perfect Japanese knowledge will just make you 'sugoi'(great) person, but not friendly person.

When you are working in Japan as an executive of Japanese company, give orders to your men in hiragana. It's sure the too much preaching in Japanese just irritate your subordinates, but simple words in hiragana make them understand that you are thinking about them. For example, when you want to order your man to revise the document he made, just say, 'だめ。やりなおし。(rejected. Revise it.)'.

Of course, it depends on the situation and your personality, but I think this strategy is effective, especially, when you are as fat as sumo wrestler. So, when you feel you are isolated by closed Japanese society, e-mail them in hiragana.

When an ancient woman fell in love with a man 1000 years ago, she sent a letter in hiragana even if she could read and write kanji perfectly. So, this approach is not guilty, but based on Japanese tradition more than modern Japanese's stupid short phone mails.