August 28, 2008: Elevator in Taiwan

[ZenGum]

What can I tell you about rhyme in Japanese culture?

Pause


SFA, I'm afraid.

Well, a bit. Japanese is not tonal (well it is a tiny bit but not like Chinese or Thai) and the vowel sounds are constant, so rhyme is easy to achieve, but I never encountered much use of it that I recognised. But I really can not speak or understand Japanese.

However, the SHAPES of the characters are significant. The character for eight looks a bit like

/ \

which is for some reason much liked - getting bigger, growing, prospering. Thus eight is a lucky number. The Nagoya soccer team is called the Grampus Eight which confused the hell out of me for a while, since there are 11 players. And the Chinese were delighted to start their Olympics on 08/08/08.