Category Archives: metaphor

Chu or チュー mimics Chukan kanri shoku

All the middle management (Chukan Kanri Shoku or 中間管理職 in Japanese) of corporations in Japan are now invited in the new year by Yomiuri Land theme park to inaugurate the year of RAT, whose sound is mimic by “Chu” or チュー. But you need to bring your business card or meishi to identify you are …

December 31, 2007 – 2:26 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in happynewyear, meishi, metaphor | Comments (0)

sukima (or 隙間 or すきま or interjoist) switch

As I twitted the other day, my daughter inspired me with Japanese pops duo, Sukima Switch (wikipedia in English and more in depth in Japanese). While they are so original, according to its JP wikipedia, the duo care particularly about lyrics. Interestingly, it is named after “sukima in Japanese” see google image ” or interjoist …

September 2, 2007 – 10:26 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in guarana, metaphor, sukima+switch | Comments (1)

face recognition

Thanks Vista for pointing me at this interesting stuff. Share This

March 10, 2007 – 2:37 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in kenji mori, metaphor | Comments (4)

Shiitake means a lot..

I didn’t know Shiitake しいたけ is established as an English word and has a lot of metaphorical meanings especially telling a lie, per Guy Kawasaki. Share This

May 26, 2006 – 9:13 am | By Kenji Mori | Posted in Guy+Kawasaki, metaphor | Comments (0)

The bottom page

It might not be Yahoo alone, but most of us have long been accustomed to organizing information in a hierarchical manner, breaking the whole into pieces or parts by directory, so that we are comfortable calling the starting page “the top page.” It is time to think in the opposite. Why not call it “the …

May 23, 2006 – 6:31 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in google, jeff+jarvis, metaphor, social media, tag, user interface, yahoo | Comments (5)

YouTube contents are image-centric

Japan’s online research company NetRatings reports (via CNET Japan) that YouTube penetration in Japan is 5.2% which is almost close to that of US at 5.4% and that usage frequencies of 3.2 times and average viewing time of 32 min are both higher than those of the US. If these statistics are correct (unbiased, I …

April 29, 2006 – 9:13 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in Japan, SNS, Tokyo, YouTube, consumer technology, google video, metaphor, mixi, ミクシィ | Comments (6)

百聞は一見にしかず

わからない英単語があるとき、もちろん、alc.co.jp　（英⇔和）で一発でわかるのでいいのです。が、しかし、英語⇒日本語に置き換えた時点で、理解が止まる。というか、わかるんだけど、いちいち、和⇔英の置き換え作業がその都度発生するのでダメなんです。 も ちろん、”りんご”⇔”apple”とか”くるま”⇔carという、基本的な置き換えは、じつは、”apple”とか”car”とかがそのまま脳に染み込 んで て、理解しているので、置き換えなしでOKなのです。 が、すべての単語を和⇔英で管理することに限界がある。とくに、英語にするときに、なかなか引っ張り出せないんです、脳から。１テンポ遅れる。それ が命取り。和⇒英という思考回路 を経由してると、瞬間的に頭の中が真っ白になってとっさに出てこない。だから、面倒でも和⇔英はしないことにしてます。なるべく。 最近、重宝してるのが、answersツールバー（↓写真）です。 普段は画面の端っこに隠れていますが、押すといつでも飛びだしてきます。ただし、answers(英英辞典）でもわかりにくい場合がある、 そのときはgoogle image (or yahoo image)がいいなぁ。百聞は一見にしかず。以下の英単語は、最近、google imageで検索したものです。なんだか、わかりますか？ [answers.com] A spasm of the diaphragm resulting in a rapid, involuntary inhalation that is stopped by the sudden closure of the glottis and accompanied by a sharp, distinctive sound. => Google Image [answers.com] The carrying of pollen grains (the …

February 17, 2006 – 7:17 pm | By Kenji Mori | Posted in Japan, consumer technology, metaphor | Comments (1)