Ray’s Japan Diary No. 13 “Bicycle”
In this issue of Ray’s Diary, Ray discusses the fact that there are numerous bicycle riders in Japan, a sharp contrast to Korea, where it’s usually college students who own and ride bikes around.
In Japan, however, it seems everyone rides, men, women, children, highschool kids, grandmas, businessmen, I mean everyone. It’s not an uncommon sight to see a housewife with a kid in the back, pedaling while holding an umbrella in the rain.
I posit that in Korea, it’s not as prevalent, since it’s so cheap to get around, and there are buses aplenty, as well as low cab fares and subway fares.
In the final pane of this comic, Ray and his younger brother are using archaic Japanese, easily identified with the use of “gozaru” (a form of “desu”), and terms such as Sessha[拙者]せっしゃ, meaning I or me used humbly, and Wagahai[我輩]わがはい, which is another archaic “I”, but with perhaps a hint of arrogance.
Thanks once again to Ray for great comic.
August 5th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Hey what is the original language of these cartoons? Is the original language korean?
August 7th, 2007 at 12:21 am
well, it’s both Japanese and Korean. The author first writes in Japanese, and it’s translated in Korean underneath.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
that’s great, I’m trying to learn Korean now, so this is a great resource! Keep it up!