Went to a restaurant in Asakusa today called 駒形どぜう, transliterable as Komagata dozeu. "Komagata" is the name of their neighborhood, and what they serve is dojou. So, you see, learning historical kana usage can be beneficial in the real world too. Just think how embarrassed you'd be if you were all "Do-ze-oo? That doesn't sound so tasty!" and your date was like "It's pronounced dojou, and they're delicious, delicious loaches!" Because they are, people. Served in sturdy iron and ceramic dishes on a giant slab of wood, in a room carpeted with a rush mat, just like God intended.

For those who are interested in that kind of thing: Penny Arcade are, at the time of writing, all set to make more than $7,500 for charity by selling one pencil drawing and one signed print... and there are still five days left on the auction. I have a feeling, too, that this year's Child's Play is going to be even more successful than last year's, which was in turn more successful than the previous year's. It never ceases to amaze me how good those guys are at organising their relatively-well-off, free-cash-having readership into a lean, mean, others-helping machine. Also, how good they are, period.

Finally, here is your waka of the day, in a dubiously pseudo-archaic rhyming translation just for kicks:

桜花散りかひくもれ老いらくの来むと言ふなる道まがふがに
sakurabana / tirikahi kumore / oiraku no / komu to ihu naru / michi magahu gani
"Fall, sakura, fall, hither and thither, and cloud the sky,
Hide from Age the road, so that he never can come nigh."
(By billionaire playboy Ariwara no Narihira)

This poem is of particular interest to me because although there are plenty of classical waka that include an idea like "even the [insert animal or plant here] are [insert emotion here], just like me", I don't know many that anthropomorphise a complete abstraction this strongly. Anyone want to contribute another?