WereFox of the Oriental

Werefox or Kitsune

Magic: Kitsune abilities, foxmagic, and foxtails.

Kitsune were known for many abilities. The list of things kitsune were capable of seemed to change from story to story, but for the most part, many things were common enough to warrant being listed as 'kitsune powers'. These powers are called 'fox magic'.

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Weretigers or Werecats in Asian Mythlogy

In the cultures of the West, Werewolves and Vampires are very much popular.
However in the East, where Asians lived in, it is instead more about Weretigers.

While werewolves were thought to be the predators of vampire by nature but however, most of the time these predators are in the control of their prey, the Vampires in most stories.

So , Werewolves are by nature predators of Vampires and in turn the are the prey to their predators , the Weretigers whom are mostly Asian, their distant cousin!

We have all heard of the werewolf. The werewolf has a distant cousin, so to speak. Not as well known outside of Asia, is a mythical creature called a weretiger, also more recently known as a werecat. Before the late 19th century they were all known as weretigers. They are not to be mistaken for the spirit tiger which is a familiar under the control of a supernatural being or a “nat”. The familiar is used to do the bidding of the nat.

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Chinese Ghost at Fault for August Stocks ?

Is the “Ghost Month” to blame for the recent rollercoaster ride in stock markets around the world? During the first two weeks of August, stock markets worldwide had a freefall, went back up again, slid again, then back up once more.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), for example: plummeted 4.31% on August 4 after credit rating agency S&P downgraded the United States declined 5.5% more on August 8 bounced back 3.98% on August 9 fell another 4.6% on August 10 but rose 3.9% on August 11 And it’s probably just starting.

U.S. stocks were not the only ones in a whirlwind these first weeks of August. As seen in the chart below, stock exchanges in the UK, Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines all went through a crazy round of market volatility.

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Woman, 63, 'becomes PREGNANT in the mouth' with baby squid after eating calamari

A 63-year-old woman became 'pregnant' with 12 baby squid after eating calamari, according to a claim in a bio-tech report.

The real-life 'octo-mum', from South Korea, was eating a portion of cooked whole squid when she felt a sharp pain in her mouth.

The bizarre claim has been made in a scientific paper from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Maryland.

The lady told doctors that she could feel something in her mouth which they described as 'bug-like organisms'.

When examined, the doctors found 'baby cephalopods' attached to her mouth. These are small pods, covered in a cement-like material to make them stick.

Inside the pods is an 'ejaculatory apparatus' and sperm - with the apparatus expelling the sperm quite forcefully.

After the victim of the 'attack' was hospitalised, doctors removed the baby cephalopods from her gums, tongue and cheek. It was only then that the pods were formally identified as 'squid spermatophores.'

The Center's paper says: 'She did not swallow the portion, but spat it out immediately. She complained of a pricking and foreign-body sensation in the oral cavity.

'Twelve small, white spindle-shaped, bug-like organisms stuck in the mucous membrane of the tongue, cheek, and gingiva [gums] were completely removed, along with the affected mucosa.

'On the basis of their morphology and the presence of the sperm bag, the foreign bodies were identified as squid spermatophores.'

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UFO sighting near Korean Demilitarized Zone

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UFO Caught From Airplane - Seoul, South Korea

April 07, 2012

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The Red Mask Girl

Source: Seoul List Mag

This happened to a friend of a friend. I swear to God it’s true. One night, he was riding on a subway in Seoul…or maybe it was Busan, I don’t exactly remember, but anyway, it was late, he was alone, and there weren’t many other people on the train. A woman got on, and took the seat next to him. He said she wore her hair long, down to the middle of her back, and it shone in the lights of the train. Her figure was good, and he couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful eyes. But she wore a red surgical mask. They rode for a few stops, he’d catch her looking at him, she’d catch him looking at her. Finally he smiled at her. He couldn’t tell, because of the red mask, but her eyes looked like she was smiling back. His stop was coming up, so it was now or never—he had to say something if he was going to.

But she spoke instead: “Am I pretty?”

What a stupid question! Of course she was pretty! So he said: “Yes.”

The girl reached up behind her head, her slender, white fingers untying the mask. She let it fall to her lap.

“How about now?” she asked.

The girl’s mouth was slit open from ear to ear. You could see her teeth, her gums, she looked like she was grinning! She started to scream at him, but, lucky boy, the subway stopped, the doors opened, and he ran, never looking back.

No, wait, that’s not how the story goes. The real story is that the girl had plastic surgery, but something went terribly wrong; she went insane, and now she wanders the streets, asking men whether they think she’s pretty. If they answer no, she holds them down, pulls out a surgical scalpel, and cuts their mouth to match hers. If they answer yes? Then she screams at them that they’re a liar, and uses her scalpel to cut their throats! Or…maybe that’s not it either? Maybe she cuts you based on your blood type? If you’re a type A, it’s just a little cut. Only a centimeter or so. Type B is a little longer, maybe two or three centimeters. But, oh man, type AB or O? She’ll cut all the way to your ears.

This story is an urban legend. It is called The Red Mask Girl, the Ripped Mouth or Slit Mouth Woman, or the Kuchisake-onna. Like any urban legend, there are a hundred variations, different twists that evolve in different regions. It seems to always be a woman, hiding her mouth with a surgical mask. Nothing odd there, we see it all the time on the streets of Korea. Sometimes she targets children, sometimes men. Sometimes she uses a scalpel, sometimes scissors. But she always asks some variation of “am I pretty?” or “am I beautiful?” Some stories say there is no right answer, some say that if you tell her she looks average or so-so she will let you go. As to how she became disfigured? It could have been plastic surgery gone wrong, perhaps it was a car crash. Or maybe she’s so crazy that she did this to herself, hoping for a more beautiful smile.

This legend originated in Japan, as far back as the Edo period. Legend has it that a jealous man accused his beautiful, vain wife of adultery, and slit her smile with his sword. “Who will think you are beautiful now?” he asked, assured of her faithfulness from then on.

The story resurfaced with a vengeance in 1970’s Japan. It is said—this is, remember, an urban legend, so any information can be passed along with a clear conscience—that in the late 70’s, a woman who attacked and killed children was hit by a car while chasing a child, and as a result, her face was split into a macabre grin. It is theorized that this real woman’s death was the catalyst for the story’s resurfacing and spreading.

Around 2004, the legend hopped to Korea, which added the detail of the red surgical mask. It seems to be more prevalent here these days than Japan, but these stories come in waves.

The facial deformity that the Red Mask Woman has is commonly called a Glasgow Grin, because the practice is said to have originated there (clearly not true, as they were doing it in the Edo period of Japan). In the much publicized murder of Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) in America in 1947, her mouth was slit in a Glasgow Grin. Victor Hugo, in 1869 France, wrote The Man Who Laughs, a novel about a man whose mouth had been cut in a similar fashion. More recently, and perhaps most famously, Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight sported this mutilation. Clearly the idea, one of being hurt so much you’ll never frown again, rings true in cultures world-wide. The juxtaposition of pain and the image of a smile, of a smile made out of scars is a jarring one.

The moral of the story? If you’re riding the subway in Seoul and the pretty lady with the red masks asks if you think she’s pretty? Just run. There are no right answers to that question. Happy Halloween.

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South Korean and Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth

Russian and South Korean scientists signed a deal on Tuesday on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.

The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, and controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation.

Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked. But his work in creating Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts.

Stem cell scientists are now setting their sights on the extinct woolly mammoth, after global warming thawed Siberia's permafrost and uncovered remains of the animal.

Sooam said it would launch research this year if the Russian university can ship the remains. The Beijing Genomics Institute will also take part in the project.

The South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university, which has already been involved in joint research with Japanese scientists to bring a mammoth back to life.

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North Korean despot threatens to shoot down 100ft ‘Christmas tree’

By Richard Shears

Atheist North Korea has threatened to shoot out the lights of a giant Christmas tree-shaped tower that South Korea plans to illuminate near the tense border.

The Communist North warned its southern enemy of ‘unexpected consequences’ if it went ahead to turn on the lights, saying Seoul would bear the ‘entire responsibilities’.

South Korea plans to illuminate about 100,000 lights on the 100ft-tall steel tower in the shape of a Christmas tree at the top of Aegibong Hill, located some two miles from the border with North Korea.

Officials in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, say that switching on the Christmas lights is an act of propaganda because they will be visible with the naked eye from the major northern border city of Kaesong.
It is thought that North Korea is concerned the lights will be regarded as a sign of the affluence of the South and will weaken the regime’s ideological control of its hungry people.

The North Korean website Uriminjokkiri has denounced the Christmas lights plan, saying it is aimed at provoking the North and stepping up anti-North Korea psychological warfare.

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Pen Fairy in the Movies

Sourced by Team Member :  Gong Tao Siao

笔仙 / 분신사바 / Bunshinsaba

 What is Pen Fairy ?

 

 In case you have no idea of what Pen Spirit or Pen Fairy is all about, it is basically one of the many Chinese methods of summoning the spirit to seek for answers of our own worldly affairs. These spirits can know of the past, present and even predict the future.

 Examples of such would be cases of students who seek answers from these spirits concerning their exams, Youngsters asking on matters of the heart, greedy people asking lottery numbers etc.. For the good or bad, for the better or worst it really all depends. There are many factors that can affect it in the process and conclusion. Things can be such as questions that you are asking, if you are sincere and respectful enough towards the spirit as well as if you are following the procedure correctly and many others more. This game takes at least 2 participants to play it. The participants are face each other and placing one of their hands in the front each all holding on gently to the same pen in the middle.

 Call upon the pen fairy 3 times and concentrate hard in believe and faith of that the fairy will descent and close your eyes. DO NOT OPEN YOUR EYES !

 It can take up to 15 minutes for the summoned spirit to finally descent. The moment your pen starts to move by itself it means that the spirit has arrived. Once the spirit has arrived, you can start asking questions and let the spirit give you the answer as it will write for you.

 Bare in mind that your questions are to be as simple and easy as possible. Do not ask anything complicated. When you are done, politely invite the spirit to leave. However, it is inadvisable to play this game. You are dabbling with unknown spirits and you have to answer for the consequences yourself in any events that things go wrong.

 The Movie

   

This movie, 笔仙 / 분신사바 / Bunshinsaba is horror movie in the year of 2004. It is a 92minutes movie in Korean language.

 Synopsis

   

The story is about Yoo-Jin, a transfer student from Seoul who, with her two other friends, are constantly being bullied by a few classmates. One night, Yoo-Jin and her friends decide to place a curse on their enemies by creating a Ouija board and start to write the names of the female bullies. Using the Bunshinsaba curse, Yoo-Jin warns the others not to open their eyes until the spell is finished. The calling takes effect, and Yoo-jin, somewhat curious, opens her eyes. To her shock and horror, she sees an image of a pale-like dead girl with long hair beside her. However, that does not stop there.

The next morning when Yoo-jin came into the classroom,she discovers that one of the bullies's corpse on the desk with a burned face. Meanwhile, the school employs a volunteer teacher named Eun Ju Lee, simply known as Ms. Lee, as an art teacher. She starts to call the roll in her class and stumbles on seat number 29 as she mentions the name Kim In-Sook. The students are terrified when they hear the name, and rush out of the classroom as they see her talking to Kim In-Sook.

The only one left is Yoo-Jin, who tells Eun Ju that Kim In-Sook doesn't exist. Eun Ju takes another look at the seat and realizes that there's no name at seat number 29. Suddenly, Yoo-Jin sees a figure on Eun Ju's back. Investigations soon rise as other three bullies die in the same manner. Finally, Yoo-Jin realizes that the spirit Kim In-Sook is possessing her. She killed all of those bullies, even though she doesn't remember doing it. Eun Ju also senses a terrible force surrounding Yoo-Jin as she also starts to feel an unearthly presence within her. Mr. Han, Yoo-Jin's class adviser, decides to help Yoo-Jin by consulting his friend on what causes her to act strangely.

Through hypnotism, they are able to see the past and find out that the spirit possessing Yoo-Jin is that of Kim In-Sook, and have a vision how she was killed. Things get worse when Eun Ju becomes possessed by Kim In-Sook's mother, Chun Hee, who was in fact a reincarnation. Chun Hee and Kim In-Sook were brutally killed by the villagers and before dying, placed a curse that for generations to come, whoever left the village would die.

With Chun Hee finally taking possession of Eun Ju's body, she exacts punishment on the people who wronged them, slaying the school's principal but sparing Mr. Han's life.

 Not long after, Eun Ju gives birth to a girl and within that girl's body is the spirit of Kim In-Sook.

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Korean Rock-Art "Bunyips"

While I was doing research towards the recent postings at the Frontiers of Zoology and more specifically into the Early Neolithic of East Asia, I came across this curious scene depictyed on a rock face in Korea. The scene depicts some whales apparantly beached or hauled ashore and being flensed. Among them are several depictions of longnecked creatures similar to some of the Long-Necked "Bunyips" depicted in Australian Rock Art, and some of these depictions resemble supposedly-extinct Plesiosaurs.

In this section to the upper left of the original are several creatures which look to be perhaps very large turtles. In sea turtles however the foreflippers are very large and the rear ones small: in these the flippers all look to be the same length. Moreover the one in the rear of their line, the fourth one in the cluster and overlapping the figure in lighter green, is facing down the other direction with a longer neck and a more distinctive head. It seema like a perspective shot with the forequarters well defined and the rear end indistinct: there is a faint indiucations of rear flippers but not the tail (which would be hidden by the body if this were a natural view). Because that one looks more distinctly like a Plesiosaur, I am willing to say that the others in that cluster are likewise.

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UFO fleet crosses Seoul, South Korea and makes headlines

A large scale UFO event has taken place in Seoul, South Korea



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Koreans Claims on Invention of Chinese Written Language

Quate from the newsgroup soc.culture.china .I think this is the longest discussion thread I have ever seen, there is roughly 400
replies until today.

The so-called Chinese character was probably invented and
developed by Korean, although the populous Chinese also have used it as
their basic writing systems. I believe the number of population of any
ethnic group should not be a factor that obscures the origin. I explain some
evidences.

1. The original pictographs called 'gab-gol' (bone and shell) or 'bok-sa' in
Korean were certainly invented during the Yin dynasty (or Shang state, BC
1600~BC 1046), although it is uncertain who was the inventor. There is no
dispute regarding this matter between Korean and Chinese historians. There
are ample recent evidences that the dominant people of the Yin dynasty was
Korean, which some Chinese historians also acknowledge.

2. Among countries that adopted Chinese character, only Koreans use exactly
one syllable for one character. Chinese or Japanese used one or more
syllables for one character. A good example is the sounds denoting the
numbers. Only Koreans use just one syllable for one number. So, it is very
easy for Koreans to say any complex numbers quickly.

For another example, the sound for 'white' in Chinese character in 'baek'
(one syllable) in Korean but 'bai' (two syllable) in Chinese. Regarding the
character denoting 'head', it is 'doo' in Korean but 'tou' in Chinese. On
the other hand, it is the same for the character denoting 'mountain' -
'shan' in both Korean and Chinese.

Why have Koreans used only one syllable for one character, but Chinese one
or more syllables? It certainly shows that Chinese pronunciation system is a
variant from Korean counterpart.

3. Some basic pictographs reflect Korean life-style and customs.

For example, the character denoting 'house' (ga in Korean) contains a
character denoting a pig (hog) in the lower part. In the house, people live,
not a pig live. Why did they adopt a pig to denote a house? Only Koreans
raised pigs within their house.

Another example is the character denoting 'sun'. The character contains a
dot within a rectangle. Why did they contain the dot, seemingly
unnecessarily? The dot denotes a golden crow. Only Koreans had the legend
linking the sun to the golden crow.

Additional example is the character denoting 'surname' (ssi in Korean). In
Chinese, the character denotes only 'surname' while it denotes both
'surname' and 'seed' in Korean. 'Ssi' is a most common word in Korean and
compares the pedigree with the tree (i.e., the seed is a common symbol for
the original ancestor whose trace has been handed down by his surname).

4. Korean history book describes the origin of written systems, which is
inscribed in dolmens in Korea.

A Korean history book called Chun-bu-gyung records the origin of both
current Chinese character and Korean alphabet (hangul). Chinese character is
a kind of pictograph + ideograph, while hangul is the most advanced of
phonogram + ideogram in the world. Bone and shell inscriptions were a
pictograph, while hexagrams of I-ching invented by Fu Xi (Bokhwi in Korean)
are a kind of ideogram. The original character for both Chinese character
and hangul was 'Nok-doo-mun' (the most ancient writing system), according to
the Chun-bu-gyung. Currently, only Koreans still play a game called 'Yout',
which is believed to be very similar to the 'Nok-doo-mun'. The principles of
Yout game are essentially the same as I-Ching. Moreover, in Korea and
Manchuria, currently there are many ancient rocks (dolmen) in which various
kinds of primitive writings are inscribed (see some pictures at
http://myhome.shinbiro.com/~kbyon/culture/rokdo.htm)

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Koreans Claims Legendary Chinese Warlord Cao Cao as Korean

As you may have heard, the tomb of legendary Eastern Han Dynasty warlord Cao Cao (155-220 AD) was recently claimed to have been discovered. It was said that he had 72 fake tombs to hide his true tomb and there is still some controversy that this tomb is really Cao Cao’s tomb.

As expected! Cao Cao ultimately becomes Korean si mi da
Following the discovery of Cao Cao’s tomb, enthusiasm over exploring the mysteries of Cao Cao’s tomb instantly rose up on the internet. With everyone discussing the discovery of the tomb to the grave robbers to the items and concubines buried with Cao Cao, and from these items exorbitant value to investigating the DNA of the remains, it can be said that the enthusiasm has become increasingly higher. Yesterday, a discussion forum shockingly reported some controversial news that people cannot help but be indignant. Let us take a look…

News from the 《大韩民报》 ["Da Han Min Bao"], Korea’s Ewha Womans University professor Zheng, while refuting that Cao Cao’s tomb is in Anyang [Henan] and following a discovery from Professor Zheng’s decades of research on Chinese and Korean history, said that the famously fierce Cao Cao from the late period of the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually Korean

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Did Japanese Originated From Koreans ?

During the Ice Ages, land bridges connected Japan's main islands to one another and to the mainland, allowing mammals ― including humans ― to arrive on foot. Archeologists have proposed four conflicting theories. Most popular in Japan is the view that the Japanese gradually evolved from ancient Ice Age people who occupied Japan long before 20,000 B.C. Also widespread in Japan is a theory that the Japanese descended from horse-riding Asian nomads who passed through Korea to conquer Japan in the fourth century, but who were themselves ― emphatically ― not Koreans. A theory favored by many Western archeologists and Koreans, and unpopular in some circles in Japan, is that the Japanese are descendants of immigrants from Korea who arrived with rice-paddy agriculture around 400 B.C. Finally, the fourth theory holds that the peoples named in the other three theories could have mixed to form the modern Japanese.

Why do they care so much? Unlike most other non-European countries, Japan preserved its independence and culture while emerging from isolation to create an industrialized society in the late nineteenth century. It was a remarkable achievement. Now the Japanese people are understandably concerned about maintaining their traditions in the face of massive Western cultural influences. They want to believe that their distinctive language and culture required uniquely complex developmental processes. To acknowledge a relationship of the Japanese language to any other language seems to constitute a surrender of cultural identity.

What makes it especially difficult to discuss Japanese archeology dispassionately is that Japanese interpretations of the past affect present behavior. Who among East Asian peoples brought culture to whom? Who has historical claims to whose land? These are not just academic questions. For instance, there is much archeological evidence that people and material objects passed between Japan and Korea in the period A.D. 300 to 700. Japanese interpret this to mean that Japan conquered Korea and brought Korean slaves and artisans to Japan; Koreans believe instead that Korea conquered Japan and that the founders of the Japanese imperial family were Korean.

Thus, when Japan sent troops to Korea and annexed it in 1910, Japanese military leaders celebrated the annexation as “the restoration of the legitimate arrangement of antiquity.” For the next 35 years, Japanese occupation forces tried to eradicate Korean culture and to replace the Korean language with Japanese in schools. The effort was a consequence of a centuries-old attitude of disdain. “Nose tombs” in Japan still contain 20,000 noses severed from Koreans and brought home as trophies of a sixteenth-century Japanese invasion. Not surprisingly, many Koreans loathe the Japanese, and their loathing is returned with contempt.

What really was “the legitimate arrangement of antiquity”? Today, Japan and Korea are both economic powerhouses, facing each other across the Korea Strait and viewing each other through colored lenses of false myths and past atrocities. It bodes ill for the future of East Asia if these two great peoples cannot find common ground. To do so, they will need a correct understanding of who the Japanese people really are.

Since languages change over time, the more similar two languages are, the more recently they must have diverged. By counting common words and features, linguists can estimate how long ago languages diverged, and such estimates suggest that Japanese and Korean parted company at least 4,000 years ago. As for the Ainu language, its origins are thoroughly in doubt; it may not have any special relationship to Japanese. After genes and language, a third type of evidence about Japanese origins comes from ancient portraits. The earliest preserved likenesses of Japan's inhabitants are statues called haniwa, erected outside tombs around 1,500 years ago. Those statues unmistakably depict East Asians. They do not resemble the heavily bearded Ainu. If the Japanese did replace the Ainu in Japan south of Hokkaido, that replacement must have occurred before A.D. 500.

Our earliest written information about Japan comes from Chinese chronicles, because China developed literacy long before Korea or Japan. In early Chinese accounts of various peoples referred to as “Eastern Barbarians", Japan is described under the name Wa, whose inhabitants were said to be divided into more than a hundred quarreling states. Only a few Korean or Japanese inscriptions before A.D. 700 have been preserved, but extensive chronicles were written in 712 and 720 in Japan and later in Korea. Those reveal massive transmission of culture to Japan from Korea itself, and from China via Korea. The chronicles are also full of accounts of Koreans in Japan and of Japanese in Korea ｡X interpreted by Japanese or Korean historians, respectively, as evidence of Japanese conquest of Korea or the reverse.

To understand the answer to this paradox, we have to remember that until 400 B.C., the Korea Strait separated not rich farmers from poor hunter-gatherers, but poor farmers from rich hunter-gatherers. China itself and Jomon Japan were probably not in direct contact. Instead Japan's trade contacts, such as they were, involved Korea. But rice had been domesticated in warm southern China and spread only slowly northward to much cooler Korea, because it took a long time to develop cold-resistant strains of rice. Early rice agriculture in Korea used dry-field methods rather than irrigated paddies and was not particularly productive. Hence early Korean agriculture could not compete with Jomon hunting and gathering. Jomon people themselves would have seen no advantage in adopting Korean agriculture, insofar as they were aware of its existence, and poor Korean farmers had no advantages that would let them force their way into Japan. As we shall see, the advantages finally reversed suddenly and dramatically.

More than 10,000 years after the invention of pottery and the subsequent Jomon population explosion, a second decisive event in Japanese history triggered a second population explosion. Around 400 B.C., a new lifestyle arrived from South Korea. This second transition poses in acute form our question about who the Japanese are. Does the transition mark the replacement of Jomon people with immigrants from Korea, ancestral to the modern Japanese? Or did Japan's original Jomon inhabitants continue to occupy Japan while learning valuable new tricks?

Which of the three theories is correct for Japan? The only direct way to answer this question is to compare Jomon and Yayoi skeletons and genes with those of modern Japanese and Ainu. Measurements have now been made of many skeletons. In addition, within the last three years molecular geneticists have begun to extract DNA from ancient human skeletons and compare the genes of Japan's ancient and modern populations. Jomon and Yayoi skeletons, researchers find, are on the average readily distinguishable. Jomon people tended to be shorter, with relatively longer forearms and lower legs, more wide-set eyes, shorter and wider faces, and much more pronounced facial topography, with strikingly raised browridges, noses, and nose bridges. Yayoi people averaged an inch or two taller, with close-set eyes, high and narrow faces, and flat browridges and noses. Some skeletons of the Yayoi period were still Jomon-like in appearance, but that is to be expected by almost any theory of the Jomon-Yayoi transition. By the time of the kofun period, all Japanese skeletons except those of the Ainu form a homogeneous group, resembling modern Japanese and Koreans.

In all these respects, Jomon skulls differ from those of modern Japanese and are most similar to those of modern Ainu, while Yayoi skulls most resemble those of modern Japanese. Similarly, geneticists attempting to calculate the relative contributions of Korean-like Yayoi genes and Ainu-like Jomon genes to the modern Japanese gene pool have concluded that the Yayoi contribution was generally dominant. Thus, immigrants from Korea really did make a big contribution to the modern Japanese, though we cannot yet say whether that was because of massive immigration or else modest immigration amplified by a high rate of population increase. Genetic studies of the past three years have also at last resolved the controversy about the origins of the Ainu: they are the descendants of Japan's ancient Jomon inhabitants, mixed with Korean genes of Yayoi colonists and of the modern Japanese.

Given the overwhelming advantage that rice agriculture gave Korean farmers, one has to wonder why the farmers achieved victory over Jomon hunters so suddenly, after making little headway in Japan for thousands of years. What finally tipped the balance and triggered the Yayoi transition was probably a combination of four developments: the farmers began raising rice in irrigated fields instead of in less productive dry fields; they developed rice strains that would grow well in a cool climate; their population expanded in Korea, putting pressure on Koreans to emigrate; and they invented iron tools that allowed them to mass-produce the wooden shovels, hoes, and other tools needed for rice-paddy agriculture. That iron and intensive farming reached Japan simultaneously is unlikely to have been a coincidence.

History gives the Japanese and the Koreans ample grounds for mutual distrust and contempt, so any conclusion confirming their close relationship is likely to be unpopular among both peoples. Like Arabs and Jews, Koreans and Japanese are joined by blood yet locked in traditional enmity. But enmity is mutually destructive, in East Asia as in the Middle East. As reluctant as Japanese and Koreans are to admit it, they are like twin brothers who shared their formative years. The political future of East Asia depends in large part on their success in rediscovering those ancient bonds between them.

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Japanese Language Origins

As with all other languages, the Japanese language can be understood formally as a set of lingusitic characteristics or subjectively as a way of experiencing and ordering the world. However, unlike other languages, Japanese is unique to both linguists and to the people speaking the language. The Japanese by and large believe their language to be a highly unique language—some believe it to be unlike any other language in existence. Western linguists believe that Japanese is a language clearly related to other, Northern Asian languages, but there is a fair amount of disagreement among them. Suffice it to say that Japanese is the only human language where we can't quite decide where it came from or what other languages it's related to.

From the point of view of the Japanese, the experience of this language is based on two, widely held beliefs about the language. First, the Japanese believe that the language is somehow highly unique—almost a language unto itself. Second, the Japanese believe that their language is extremely difficult for non-Japanese to read or understand. In fact, the Japanese have a name for non-Japanese who can speak and understand the language: hen gaijin , or "crazy foreigners." So the "experience" of Japanese as a language is an exclusive experience, a sense that one is participating in a language that no others can share or penetrate.

From a Western perspective, Japanese is not an overly difficult language to learn (Chinese and Old Irish are considerably more difficult) nor is it a unique language. There, however, the agreement ends. For it's uncertain exactly what language family Japanese comes from. There are three main theories about the origin of the Japanese language among both Western and Japanese linguists:
1. Japanese is an Altaic language related to Korean, Mongolian, and Turkish.
2. Japanese is an Austronesian language related to Papuan, Malayan and other Pacific languages.
3. Japanese is a Souteast Asian language related to Vietnamese, Tibetan, Burmese or, in one school of thought, the Tamil languages of southern India and Ceylon.
Almost all linguists believe that Japanese

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Did Japanese Language originated From Korea ?

Researchers studying the various dialects of Japanese have concluded that all are descended from a founding language taken to the Japanese islands about 2,200 years ago. The finding sheds new light on the origin of the Japanese people, suggesting that their language is descended from that of the rice-growing farmers who arrived in Japan from the Korean Peninsula, and not from the hunter-gatherers who first inhabited the islands some 30,000 years ago

様々な研究学者の研究結果によって、日本語の様々な方言が二千二百年程前に日本諸島に渡った言語が源という結果でした。その革命思想によれば、日本人の由来は３万年前に日本諸島に渡った狩猟採集民ではなく、朝鮮半島から渡ったという判断です。

다양한 연구 학자들의 연구 결과를 통해, 일본어의 다양한 방언이 2 천 2 백 년 전의 일본 제도에 건너온 언어가 근원이라는 결과였습니다. 그 혁명 사상에 의하면, 일본인의 유래는 3 만 년 전에 일본 제도에 건너온 수렵채집민(狩猟採集民)이 아니라 조선반도에서 건너온다는 판단입니다.

In the case of Japan, archaeologists have found evidence for two waves of migrants, a hunter-gatherer people who created the Jomon culture and wet rice farmers who left remains known as the Yayoi culture.

日本の場合、初代目来日する狩猟採集民が縄文時代を始め、次は弥生時代を始めた水稲農家でした。

일본의 경우 첫번째 일본 방문하는 수렵 채집 민이 죠몽 시대를 시작하고 다음은 야요이 시대를 시작했다 벼 농가였습니다.

Several languages seem to have been spoken on the Korean Peninsula at this time, and that of the Yayoi people is unknown. The work of two researchers at the University of Tokyo, Sean Lee and Toshikazu Hasegawa, now suggests that the origin of Japonic — the language family that includes Japanese and Ryukyuan, spoken in the Ryukyu island chain south of Japan — coincides with the arrival of the Yayoi.

その時代と同時に、朝鮮半島に様々な言語が話され、弥生時代の日常言語は不明。東京大学での研究によれば、標準日本語と琉球語を含めた日本語族が、弥生時代の到来と一致していると考えている。

그 시대 때 조선반도에 다양한 언어를 사용하고 야요이 시대의 일상 언어는 불명. 도쿄 대학의 연구에 의하면, 표준 일본어와 류큐 어를 포함한 일본어 족이 야요이 시대의 도래와 일치하고 있다고 생각하고있다.

The finding, if confirmed, indicates that the Yayoi people took Japonic to Japan, but leaves unresolved the question of where in Asia the Yayoi culture or Japonic language originated before arriving in the Korean Peninsula.

その研究結果の正確さを証明できれば、弥生人が朝鮮半島から日本諸島に日本語族をもたらしたとも判断できる。

그 연구 결과의 정확성을 입증할 수있는 경우 야요이 인이 조선반도에서 일본 제도에게 일본어 족을 제공했다고 판단할 수있다.

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Angry Birds: Magpies Recognize a Face, and Attack

A researcher in South Korea going about his job collecting data on local magpie populations made a stunning discovery: The birds recognized his face, and began to dive-bomb him out of their nests, like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

"I remember when a magpie came down from a nest tree scolding at me," study researcher Won Young Lee, a student at Seoul National University, said in a statement. "I was with a second researcher at that time, and I tried to fool the magpie by giving my cap to the other person. But this did not work! When I moved away the bird followed me rather than the fellow observer wearing my cap."

At the time of the attack Lee was taking inventory of the birds around the university campus — counting the number of birds and eggs in each nest. He had already visited some of the nests to install cameras for a separate project, and he noticed that only the birds from nests he had previously visited were aggressive specifically toward him.

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The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan Found?

It was the year 1281 and over 70,000 men and 4,400 ships were launched to conquer Japan. But the largest armada the world had ever seen ... vanished without a trace.

700 years later, one man believes he has found the lost fleet. Kenzo Hayashida is Japan's leading marine archaeologist and he has spent the last 15 years devoted to the search for the lost fleet of Kublai Khan. Salvaging clues from the seabed he fits the pieces of the puzzle together, hoping to solve the riddle of the lost armada.

Kenzo's task will not be easy, for 700 years the fate of the fleet has remained one of Japan's most enduring mysteries.

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Kublai Khan's Lost Fleet video 2

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