my hikago fangirl moment for the day

[insaneneko]

I was watching this Japanese word game program so creatively named Kotoba Geemu (Word Game) just now. They have a corner where they explore the origins of words. The word for that program was dame, which means "useless, no good, hopeless." Apparently the origin of this word is from go! So they had a segment where a reporter goes to the Nihon Ki-in. I was squeeing at that point already, being the psycho Hikago fangirl that I am and seeing the building I had become familiar with through the manga/anime. They showed what was probably the general public area and interviewed some old dudes playing go. Then the reporter met up with Umezawa Yukari! She was the advisor for Hikaru no Go, and so they flashed the cover of one of the manga volumes showing her credited. They even played a BGM track from the anime in the background! :D In any case, she explained in very simple terms the rules of go (you play on the intersections of the lines, etc) and what dame means in go. She did explain that there was value in dame during semeai, a mutual capturing contest. She paused, and said that she can't quite explain exactly in what way to someone who has just learned a little about go, and so bowed and said please use this opportunity to begin learning go. I had to laugh at that.

In any case, I was excited at seeing one of my favorite manga/anime mentioned in a general TV program. I was jumping up and down throughout the short segment. ^_^;

BTW, if you understand Japanese fairly well, this is an awesome show to watch. The way they play with words is so cool!