Title

Since new posts push old posts down (I believe this would be FILO), comments accompanying old posts get sort of lost in the shuffle and I can't be sure if people read the responses I leave to comments there, so just to clear up some Japanese, I'll make this post.

The title of my blog is Iwakan, in Chinese characters, 違和感, which translates roughly to "feeling out of place." For some pointless but fun (for me) analysis of the word, we break it down into its roots, which for Chinese-root words (漢語) conveniently means by character, since each character roughly represents a single concept, as well as a (possible multiple) reading. I've written the Chinese reading* in parenthesis, just so you can see how the following borrowed readings (音読み) change them a little.

違 - (wéi) i - This character is also read chiga-u, which even people who only know a little Japanese would recognize from Chigaimasu!, meaning wrong or different. My dictionary tells me that you could also use the character 異,　(yì) i, for the first character. This has a similar meaning of foreign or different, but is much less common. The only words I can think of that use it are 異人　ijin, meaning "foreigner" or "barbarian" and kotonaru, which isn't very common, but means "to differ."

和 - (hé) wa - This character is important in Japan because it is an old name for Japan, one that dates back to some ancient Chinese tome, but also because it means harmony, which is a central principle here. Social harmony is very important.

感 - (gân) kan - This one is simply feeling. It doesn't have a Japanese reading, at least not one that I've ever heard of being used, but interestingly enough, it is used as a suru-verb, meaning that you can attach the verb suru, to do to the end of it to make it into the verb "to feel," but it is so common that over time this has changed into the easier to say kanjiru, which then conjugates as one would expect a Japanese verb to do.

Now, the word in the URL (I don't remember what this part of a URL is called) is fukakai, written in Chinese characters as 不可解, meaning "incomprehensible." Again, let's break down this word.

不 - (bù) fu - Not. Of the famous "bu yao!"

可 - (kê) ka - Possible.

解 - (jiê)kai - Explain, understand, solve.

So, if you put it all together, you get "not possibly understood," or "incomprehensible."

I thought the names were fitting.

*making the upside-down circonflex is more hassle then it is worth, so you get stuck with thinking that the town I'm implying is up-down, when it's really more like down-up.