First, a public service announcement: everything in stock at University of Hawai‘i Press's online store is 40% off for December 2 only. (Hawai‘i Standard Time, natch.) Angela Yiu-edited book of freaky Japanese modernist fiction, 1911-1932? 40% off! W. Puck Brecher-penned meditation on eccentricity and madness in early modern Japan? 40% off! Newish Heisig book? 40% off! Intriguing-sounding new book on Ainu issues, scheduled for release in "November 2013"? Forty per-- uh, I mean, not available yet. Stupid island time. (If it goes on sale later in the day, someone send me an e-mail.)

Second, apologies for the poor photo, but at an Odakyu train station the other day I noticed this example of the Japanese mimetic principle that [+voiced] entails [+galoot]:

ガタンゴトンを、カタンコトンに。
[Making] gatan-goton [into] katan-koton.

Gatan-goton is the standard Japanese onomatopoeia for a train in motion. Katan-koton implies a quieter, less overbearing version of the same sound. "From clatter to patter," maybe.