Japanese Language Trivia of the Day:

Hey guys. I'm a little too drunk and naked for a full yo-ji post today, but I appreciate what Brett's trying to do in terms of resuscitating the cite, so... I guess I can manage something.

What? You're not happy about my intoxication? Or my nudity? WHAT? WHY? 裸になって何が悪い？

That's right, I'm talking about 草薙剛's infamous bout of public drunkenness a few weeks ago. Or like a month ago. Man, it has been a while since we posted. Anyway, one of the things that was most amusing to me about the whole SMAP star fiasco was the level of media attention it garnered, despite being ten times tamer than your average company 飲み会. If I had 20￥ for every time some Japanese person I knew got naked and rowdy while drunk, I'd have like 60￥.

But at least the media was willing to acknowledge the fact that the only reason it was a big deal was because 草薙 was famous. And that's how I learned today's bit of trivia, which is as simple as it is amusing:

有名税
ゆうめいぜい
yuumeizei

Famous tax; (or more poetically) the price of fame.

If a salaryman had been stumbling around naked in the middle of the night, hollering for "Shingo," the police would've let him sleep it off, and sent him home. That would've been it. But the scandal, the loss of endorsements, the media frenzy that befell poor Kusanagi-san... hey, that's 有名税.

Also, as far as my answers to some of questions that have been posted in the comments:

Yes we know Lang-8 and love it. We've used it as a sounding board for some of our example sentences, mentioned it once or twice in posts, and we even have a Daily Yo-ji group on Lang-8 that's inching ever closer to 200 members strong!

I do want to take 1級 but I've set my sights on Summer 2010 for a few reasons. One is the same as Brett's: I'm extremely busy. But also, we just took 2級 last December, and even though we passed, it wasn't by much. Given the fact that there's a pretty big comprehension/kanji leap between 1 and 2, and the fact that the pass/fail percentage rises from 60 to 70%, I think I need a full year of study to be prepped. And since I haven't really STARTED studying... Summer 2009.

And thanks for the encouragement. We haven't given up our Japanese studies, or our interest in yo-jis. You can count on increased posting during down-times... like summer vacation.