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Japanese yardbird

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.06.08

In English, the (outdated?) term "yard bird" means a prisoner. In Japanese, it means chicken, sort of.

"Niwatori" is chicken. "Niwa" means yard and "tori" means bird. But where it all falls down is that the kanji used don't bear out the association. Instead of "庭鳥", meaning "yard" and "bird", they've gone and deployed a unique kanji, "鶏". Another gotcha.

Three good things that happened today:

1. looks like we've got our first press interview coming together

2. got some good advice on tightening up our presentation as online vendors

3. the investigation continues into the realm of government assistance for start-ups

rand()m quote

Selfish leaders increase risk by placing themselves first. It's a fundamental mistake to assume that what is good for us personally is mutually exclusive to what is good for everyone. That kind of zero-sum game is for cowards, and in the end, we all pay the price for this type of latent, toxic leadership.

—Col. Eric G. Kail