It¡¯s April and I have enrolled in a Japanese language class. My goal? To memorize 30 kanji a day. As an old idiom goes, though, ¿Ú¤Ç¤Ï´óÚæ¤Î³Ç¤â½¨¤Ä (kuchi de wa ?saka no shiro mo tatsu). That literally means ¡°even castles in Osaka can be built by mouth¡± but was traditionally used to convey the idea of something being ¡°easier said than done.¡±
Perhaps settling for another goal would be a better decision. In that case, I might actually try visiting ´óÚæ³Ç (?²õ²¹°ì²¹-Âá¨, Osaka Castle) and the other two ³Ç (shiro, castles) ¡ª ŠªÂ·³Ç (±á¾±³¾±ðÂá¾±-Âá¨, Himeji Castle) and Ãû¹ÅÎÝ³Ç (±·²¹²µ´Ç²â²¹-Âá¨, Nagoya Castle) ¡ª that make up Japan¡¯s ÈýÃû³Ç (²õ²¹²Ô³¾±ð¾±Âá¨, top three castles).
You see, while I was waiting for Japan to open its borders to foreign students again, I satiated my desire to be in the country by doing a bit of reading on Japanese ³Ç, pronounced ¡°shiro¡± when standing alone and ¡°Âᨡ± when tacked on to the end of a name.
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