Two points to today's post -- wordy Japanese and simple slideshows.

Japanese is a really wordy language. To say the same thing takes 20 to 30% more syllables than English. So take "Dendou Dantai Renraku Kyougikai." That mouthful is the name of an association of parachurch organizations that BJapan belongs to (PBA, too, for that matter). Even for Japanese that is a mouthful, so it's abbreviated by picking up single syllables from the words, Den Dan Kyo, to make up the new word, Dendankyo, as the shortened name of the organization. There are tons of these abbreviated words in use. (Yes, tons -- words have weight, doncha know.) They've even gone back into English. Singing along with pre-recorded music is called karaoke, right? The Kara is Japanese and means empty. (Same kara as in karate -- fighting empty handed.) The 'oke' is English -- first part of the word "Orchestra," (Oche in Japan where R is unpronounceable).

I would not be surprised if Japanese has more abbreviations in common use than any other language. Makes it hard on us foreigners who have a hard enough time keeping track of real words, let alone the slew of made up abbreviated ones!

Point two is a bunch of simple slideshows. The Dendankyo wanted to put out a PR DVD highlighting their member parachurch organizations. So BJapan volunteered to make little PR spots for each of them, and compile it into a DVD.

That has been a job I've been working on in spare moments here and there over the past three months. Just turned in the DVD for duplication today. We put up a page where the groups could check their videos before going to press. Again, it's all in Japanese, but you can take a look too.

Here's the link: www.bjapan.jp/dendankyo.

The first video that comes up is BJapan's. Click the other links on the page to see other samples. You'll need a recent version of Quicktime installed on your computer in order to view them.