年賀状

This year's nengajou (new year's postcard). Pretty lame, but I was way too busy this year to make it with stamps as I usually do and it just so happened that Hideaki got me a photo printer form Christmas so I caved in and printed them (just like 90% of people here do). The one in the picture was the practice run, so those two lines at the top aren't in the good ones.

We only had a few hours to do it so we used a free image we found online-- not the coolest design but the best we could find. To make it just a little more personal I wrote "Happy New Year" by hand and added a sticker or two, and the blank space is for a short individual message (in Japan the back of the postcard is for addresses only, so all correspondence must be done on the front.

And wouldn't you know it, after all that work they were mailed late. Between getting home from ski camp and leaving for Osaka I only had 8 hours to unpack, re-pack and sleep, so not surprisingly I forgot to pack the half-finished postcards (we usually finish writing the addresses in Osaka). Nengajou are best finished and mailed before New Year's Eve so they can arrive on the first day of the year, or at least within the first three days. Ours will be a week late, a major breach of etiquette-- I hope we are forgiven.

2008 is nezumi doshi, or the Year of the Mouse. "Nezumi" actually means both mouse and rat in Japanese (which I can't quite fathom as to me they are two completely different creatures) so I'm not sure what the official English translation is. Somehow in Japan "nezumi doshi" is usually translated as "Year of the Mouse" and most references to "Year of the Rat" seem to be Chinese in origin. So although both countries use the same zodiac there are slight differences between the two countries (for example, last year was the Year of the Pig in China but the Year of the Boar in Japan). Can anyone help clear this up?

Anyway, I'd like to wish all of you a Happy New Year!

Comments

[Hayley]

That card is crazy kawaii. I'm sure no-one will mind its tardiness.
I am a mouse/rat (I prefer mouse), so I'm looking forwards to seeing what this year holds for me.

[Melissa Maples]

I think the card is cute! Is there anything you're not good at making?

[Jen]

Happy New Year!

[Poeh]

Happy belated New Year!!
Your card looks really beautiful. Your handwriting looks like a font!

About the different translations of the horoscope in China and Japan, I think it's because of the multle meaning of 1 Kanji character and the compound words. Sometimes animals who have one kanji, can also have 2 kanji characters (the compound words), but they both have the same meaning. For example:
龜 kwai (turtle), but you can also say: 烏龜 wu kwai and that also means turtle. That might be the confusing bit. Either word you pick to define a turtle is correct. It's like saying in english, turle, turtoise or terrapin, but they all mean the same.

From what I know, about the Chinese zodiac, the animals are written with just 1 kanji character. So the translations of animals like: 雞, 豬 and 鼠 , changes when the kanji turns into a compound word. (I speak cantonese = chinese dialect, so I have used cantonese romaji here).
雞 kai (chicken)-> 雄雞 hung kai = Rooster
豬 chu (pig) -> 公豬 kung kai = Boar
鼠 shu (rat) -> (老)鼠 lou shu = Mouse

Well, about the chicken and the pig translation, it seems like the translators had to choose between the female or male animal and had eventually picked one of them.
I noticed that even the Dutch Translation of the chinese horoscope is off too, so that's why I think, it is just a matter of how you translate the word. It's not wrong, but it's just the way you read one kanji.

About mouse and rat, in Chinese, 鼠 and 老鼠 either means the same. I grew up saying 老鼠 (when referring to a mouse or rat). I guess it's because they look a little bit the same, even though they are totally different.

Even though Japanese Kanji and the chinese characters look the same and do often share the same meaning. I guess, they had a different interpretation when looking at a kanji character, like pig or boar, they both had the kanji 豬 in it.

I am sorry if this had made you even more confused. English isn't my mother tongue, so my explanation might be weird.

[Poeh]

uhm the post above, is mine, not Jen's. I don't know, how that could had happened.

[Poeh]

ahh, I was reading the names wrong, my mistake! sorry about triple posting here =).

[Janet]

oooh I love that card! Very nice!

[Amy]

Thanks for the New Year's wishes! Hayley, I hope you have a great Mouse Year!

Poeh, thanks for the detailed explanation. It seems that in Japanese, some of the zodiac animals have different characters than their natural counterparts (and both of those may be different from the original Chinese characters). The usual kanji for nezumi (rat or mouse) is 鼠 while for the zodiac it's 子.

Another example: chicken is normally 鶏 and for the zodian it's 酉, both of which are different from the original Chinese.

Confusing stuff..