Comments on: The Washington Post Discovers Japan’s Billy Blanks Obsession

By: David

David — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:24:51 +0000

Man, today, I saw a ton of fat Japanese. And don’t even get me started on the obese guy who went into the bath the other day at my local super-sento without even attempting to splash himself off. きもい！

By: shazzb0t

shazzb0t — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:18:57 +0000

I can’t believe he is 52 years old.. wow.

By: the overthinker

the overthinker — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:01:37 +0000

“through” you? Damn. I mean “throw” you. Serve me right for posting in a hurry….

By: CS

CS — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:43:40 +0000

I think Japanese women just really like being bossed around by a big black man.

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:21:17 +0000

Now that you mention it, I think the book did have a Mt. Huzi in it. I wish I had stolen a copy of the book so I could have scanned that page and posted about it….

By: the overthinker

the overthinker — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:16:09 +0000

That’s the silly “official” Japanese romanization, used only in a few occasions but generally when they shouldn’t (I’ve seen shougakkei texts with the romanizations at the end, all in that form). Since not even government agencies use it much in any consistent form, I have no idea why it sticks around. It usually finds expression in cases like this, from mangled and half-remembered romanization lessons or bad keyboarding. It make Mt Fuji into Mt Huzi, btw, not Huji. ふじ is ha-hi-hu-he-ho then sa-si[sic]-su-se-so with the dakuon to make it za-zi etc. And that can really through you.

Read somewhere recently that the F sound is apparently what the H-characters sounded like: a book about Japan from the 16th C called it “Nifon”, and it would explain the f sound in Fuji etc.

By: tracks

tracks — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 06:26:30 +0000

interesting. i’m glued to this sight.

By: James

James — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:56:43 +0000

I got that image from a sales page for his Boot Camp DVD’s. Since “syo” and “sho” produce the same しょ　when typing on a keyboard, whoever made it probably was just going with the way they type rather than standards of romanization used by foreigners.

When I used to teach English at a Japanese elementary school, I read over a textbook their teachers used to teach children romanization of Japanese. It contained lots of confusing words such as “Issyoni” and “Huji” instead of Fuji. They also wrote out　づ “du” and つ　as “tu.” It might hurt them when they have to learn English, but it works fine when teaching them how to type on keyboards…

By: tracks

tracks — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:47:21 +0000

is yo knee? can i get a spell check on isshoni in the hood?