KOWA Apartments

29/01/2019

https://livekyoto.com/yamayaki-or-grass-burning-festival-nara/

Nara is famous for being the former capital of Japan and for its park where thousands of deers wander freely and get close to tourist hoping to get some treats. …

22/01/2019

https://livekyoto.com/what-to-do-when-visiting-a-shrine-in-japan/

Kyoto is known as the the city of a thousand temples, and with its over 2000 religious places, this label suits perfectly. In Japan the two main worships are Shinto …

21/12/2018

https://livekyoto.com/my-first-momiji-experience-part-ii/

That’s the second part of the article. Now we’re already at the mid of December, and we have to say goodbye to momiji season. After a week of unusual mild …

10/12/2018

Kanji of the Week
Today's kanji is 終, end
Kun yomi: お, "o"
On yomi: シュウ, shuu
Radical 糸
Strokes: 11
Word compounds:
終わり おわり, "owari", end
終電 しゅうでん, "shuuden", the last train
有終 ゆうしゅう, "yuushuu", perfection

08/12/2018

関西弁で話そう。
Today's expression is めっちゃ, "meccha".
It may be the most popular, and for sure the most used along with "ほんまに".
It is a syononymous of とても, "totemo", meaning "very".
If you walk the streets of Osaka or Kyoto you'll hear for sure"めっちゃ可愛いこれ" "meccha kawaii kore", meaning "That's so cute".
This expression is used also outside Kinki region

04/12/2018

https://livekyoto.com/december-means-jlpt/

December has finally come, everyone is feverish ‘cause Christmas and New Year’s eve are approaching and from now on even people who hate this period of the year have to …

28/11/2018

関西弁で話そう!
Today’s expression is かまへん “kamahen”. It’s the Kansai-ben version of かまわない “kamawanai”, meaning “no worries”, “no problem”, “doesn’t matter”.
Example sentence: ごめん，ちょっと遅れるそう”gomen, chotto okurerusou” “Sorry, I'll probably be late”. かまへん “kamahen”, “don't worry”.

27/11/2018

https://livekyoto.com/ikebana-exhibition/

“Ka to ka” is the name of the exhibition of Ikebana that was held at Daimaru Museum Kyoto, on the 6th floor of the Kyoto Daimaru Department Store, in Shijo-dori. …

27/11/2018

Today’s onomatopoeia is: ぼーっと
It means “dazed eyes”, “blankly”,“being stupefied”, “abstractedly”, “dreamily”. Basically being out of it and staring into the space.
なんか頭がぼーっとしている。”I’m really out of it today”. It means that you can't focus, you just wanna lay in your bed doing nothing.

26/11/2018

Koi at Daigoji temple
Koi is the Japanese word for “carp”, however outside Japan the term is used to refer to brocaded carps (in Japanese “Nishikigoi”). Common carps were imported from China in XIX century and they were used in paddy fields so that they could eat the insects that damaged the plantations. In the villages located in the mountains of Northern Japan farmers began to breed these animals into ponds to eat them during the cold season.

It was during the 1820s, especially in the city of Ojiya (Niigata Prefecture), that farmers realized that some carps had begun to change their colours. From that moment on carps started to be breed for decorative purposes and new hybridations were experimented.

Koi is considered to be a representation of Japan’s national identity. Koi fish stand for a symbol of love and and friendship since the word “koi” is the homophone of the word meaning “love, “affection”. Besides that there’s a Chinese legend (carps were importad from China), climing that “a carp has leaped through the dragon’s gate”. According to this legend in Yunan there’s waterfall called “The Dragon’s gate”. Once a carp could climb up to it swimming upstream and transformed itself into an immortal dragon. That’s why carps are associated with the virtue of perseverance, that’s to say the ability of enduring any difficulties to reach your goals. Moreover, carps do not move at the moment they’re about to be killed, so their behaviour can be compared to the samurai’s.

Since courage and perseverance are considered good qualities in young men, paper carps decorations (“Koinobori”) are used during the so-called “Kodomo no hi”, that is to say the ceremony that takes place every year on May 5th that celebrates boys.

26/11/2018

Today’s kanji is 冬, winter. Winter is coming here in Kyoto!
Kun yomi: ふゆ，”fuyu”
On yomi:トウ
Radical: 冫にすい, ice
Strokes: 5
Word compounds:
冬眠 ，とうみん，”toomin”. Winter hibernation
冬至，とうじ，”tooji”. Winter solstice
冬物， ふゆもの，”fuyumono”. Winter clothes
冬隣，ふゆどなり， “fuyudonari”. Late winter that make it seems like winter is coming