I’m a fan of the haiku. They are fun to write, and pretty much anything can be made to sound deep if you can be succinct and drop it in less than 17 syllables. This is a haiku I thought up a long time ago. I still like it enough to post it here for you, kind reader.
うるさい蚊
私を刺すな
かゆいから
And if your computer didn’t want to show you the nice Japanese above, here it is romanized.
urusai ka
watashi wo sasuna
kayui kara
OK, so it’s not Basho, but at least it could have taken place somewhere near a pond…
Since my family and I returned to the United States, we’ve found ourselves listening to more and more Japanese music. Although I left the majority of my CD collection in Japan, we still have my iTunes library and the wonders of YouTube to help us get our fix of Japanese pop culture.
One song my kids often request is “Miitsuketa” by Tortoise Matsumoto. (Many of you may know him as the front man for the band Ulfuls… younger people may know him only from his appearances in TV commercials in Japan. I will seek to remedy that with later blog posts about Ulfuls.)
While my children and I were watching excerpts of some Japanese tv shows on YouTube, we came across the full version of Miitsuketa with Japanese subtitles.
I think this is a great song for Japanese learners, parents that want to expose their children to music in other languages, and of course fans of the NHK educational show “Miitsuketa” for which this song is the closing theme. The words and rhythm are easy to pick up, and despite having a nice rock and roll sound, the lyrics are just right for children or people learning Japanese.
The song is about that beautiful feeling of discovery, wonder, and imagination that we see in our children and struggle not to lose as we grow older.
The first video below is the official full version. The second video is a shorter version performed by the “chair characters” from the show on NHK.