3 things I learnt from recent airing J-dramas

Ok, finally a J-drama related post :P. Watching Japanese Drama is been my hobby for several years since Densha Otoko. I like to watch is because I can learn Japanese language as well as getting know Japan better. For this Spring season J-drama, I learnt three things and would like to share here.

Japanese birth rate is among the world lowest

I know this after watching the first episode of CHANGE starring Takuya Kimura. Actually after doing some research on the net, I only know that this problem was long existed. Podcast (episode 22 I think) from Japancast.net had covered this, and so do BBC. According to Wikipedia, Japanese birth rate is actually ranked at the bottom of the world birth rate chart. There is just 8.3 births per 1000 people. And according to World Factbook, Japan’s death rate is even higher than birth rate. So this is really a serious issue because their population is declining and the population of young generation will decrease too.

KY - Kuki Yomenai

This is the current trendy slang in Japan - KY (pronounce as KayWai). I get to know this when watching Aoi Yuu’s drama Osen. KY is abbreviation of Kuki Yomenai (空気よめない), literally means cannot read the air, and the real meaning is describing a person that unable to read a situation. Discover Japan! blog has pretty good explanation of this slang. So next time when your friend doesn’t read the situation, you can shout to him “KY!”

Koshien (甲子園) - The god place for high school baseball tournament

I’m not really into baseball stuff but I keep hearing this when watching the manga come drama ROOKIES. Koshien is the short description of Hanshin Koshien Stadium. It’s home court for Hanshin Tigers, and it also held two big high school baseball tournament annually - One is National High School Baseball Championship, played in August, and second is National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in March, which is a smaller, invitational tournament. Both tournaments are generally known simply as Kōshien. The highschool baseball players look Koshien as a dream stadium to play. I don’t have many idea on this but from the drama and some research, Koshien is a symbolism of the Japanese high school baseball.

Basically this is it! And sorry for lacking in posting in J-drama related stuff, because I think you can get many of the info at d-addicts, Jdorama forum or Tokyograph. But in the future if I found something interesting, I will still make a post of it.

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