Most popular first names in 2007!!

In section 2, we talked about the most popular names in Japan. According to the website below, the most popular first name for boys was "大翔" in 2007. Its readings are "ひろと," "はると," etc. The most popular girl's name was "葵." The most popular readings of "葵" were "ゆい" and "ゆな." I have no idea why you can read "葵" "ゆい" or "ゆな".... It is getting more difficult to read people's name in kanji!

http://www.meijiyasuda.co.jp/profile/etc/ranking/best100/

FYI, the most popular last name in Japan is "佐藤（さとう）," and "鈴木（すずき）" "高橋（たかはし）" "田中（たなか）" are respectively the second, the third and the forth. "浜田（はまだ）" is the 119th.

http://park14.wakwak.com/~myj/lanking/zenkoku1.html

ソーランぶし

In Japanese elementary, junior high and senior high schools, we have a big athletic festival（うんどうかい）. It seems like ソーランぶし(the Japanese dance performed at I-Fair) is often performed at many Japanese schools as an athletic performance of athletic festival, which I didn't know. Each school seems to rearrange the dance so that their dance performance can be unique.

Here is one example at a Japanese elementary school.


This one is probably at a junior high school.



I danced おはらぶし when I was a junior high school student. おはらぶし is a special dance in my hometown, かごしま. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video at Youtube, which implies that おはらぶし is not as popular as ソーランぶし.

こんしゅうの土曜日はInternational Fairですね！Japan Clubは「ソーランぶし」をおどりますよ。「ソーランぶし」はほっかいどうのダンスです。I think Tim-san and Tristan-san are going to perform. Is that right? Is anyone else going to dance "ソーランぶし"?

I-Fairに行きましょう！

パチンコ！

We talked a little about パチンコ(most popular gambling in Japan) last term. Here is a video about it from youtube!

Also, here is an explanation about パチンコ from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

nanyoungwonさん！

nanyoungwonさん will make comments on your entries. She took J200 last year with me, and she is now a TA in J102!! どうぞよろしく！

No need to translate!

You can write in English when you can't say what you want to convey in Japanese. There is no need to translate your entry in Japanese into English! Of course, you can translate if you want to do so.

さいしょのブログ (First Blog)

さむいですね。みなさん、かぜをひかないようにきをつけてくださいね。(Please don't catch a cold!)

For the first entry, why don't you introduce yourself in Japanese (and English)? We've already introduced ourselves in class, but you can add something new on your blog.

Please make sure to blog every week before weekend. Also, read your classmate's blog and make comments. You can read anyone's blog, even someone in the other section. Your classmates' blogs are shown on the right.