Well hello again. It’s that time of year once more, and Caught*Red-handed (through a genuine dislike for the 25th day of December) is completely bypassing the subject and moving directly onto New Year! And with that, as advertised tirelessly on Twitter over the past month or so, Caught*Red-handed launches the first of (hopefully many) New Year Giveaways!

Caught*Red-handed was launched in April of last year, and since then has gone from strength to strength to strength. The following that has been built up behind the site has been something that I never expected, and particularly blew me away when I looked at the latest RedBox download figures and realised that over 9500 individual copies of my recorded episodes have now been downloaded. To say that only four episodes have been recorded via RedBox thus far, that’s a staggering average of 2375 downloads per episode, which for a one-man jblog is something that I’m pretty darn proud of, even if I do say so myself!

Over the past eight months you’ve laughed at my katakana trials and tribulations, followed me along my delve into Japanese aesthetics, celebrated the introduction of a number of Guest_bloggers to the C*R-h stage, and shared in my less than average subjects such as deaf people in Japan, the rise of the Happiness Realisation Party, and the dip into Hayao Miyazaki’s backstory, to mention but a few. You even showered me with support as I stumbled (quite literally) through JLPT2 just a couple of weeks back. The pat on the back most definitely goes to you guys.

And so, to celebrate this wondrous milestone, I wondered what I could do. Well, dear readers (and of course listeners), I have pondered long and hard. I was going to go all hi-tech on you and provide you with iTunes vouchers for the Japan iTunes Store, but it would appear the wonderful Jonas over at Yonasu pipped me to the post on that count. I thought about linking into Japanese somehow and giving away some free language lessons, but the logistics of getting something like that to some of you more remote readers and listeners (I have two people that now listen to RedBox from Zimbabwe, would you believe!) was just proving too much like a disaster. And so, I took a trawl through my posts, and decided that undeniably, variety is the spice of life. And so there are two prizes, dependant on what you think you’d like the most; I know, I know, there are no bounds to my generosity…

Seven posts ago, I wrote a review on the fantastic Shogun by James Clavell. For those of you who had already read it, the post rekindled warm memories of an enjoyable, fantastic read. For those yet to feel the might of Clavell’s storytelling prowess, the desire to pick up a copy was so great that I had images of frenzied japanophiles clawing at the Caught*Red-handed front door in an attempt to burgle my beloved copy. And so prize one ladies and gents, is a copy of this most fabulous novel.

Recently there have been quite a number of posts within the j-o’sphere focussing on the massive amount of top notch, high quality online tools that are available for learning Japanese. Everything from iPhone apps to websites have been bandied around, and a great number of them I use myself. In the age old tradition of trying to be different however, Caught*Red-handed has decided to remain analogue for prize number two and is prepared to give away a copy of the highly coveted and absolutely sensational Kondansha’s Kanji Learner’s Dictionary. This is an invaluable tool, which much like my copy of Shogun, has been replaced more times than I care to remember and covers off the 1945 imperative kanji that you will need in everyday Japanese life, as well as a whole host of other kanji titbits that will get you well on your way to kanji comprehension whether you’re a beginner or the most advanced linguist.

These are two fantastic prizes, and two that I am more than happy to giveaway. And, much like the options in the prizes, there are also options in how you can win them:

Step 1 | Follow
This part is simple. All you have to do is either subscribe to my feed via email subscription, or follow me via Twitter. Or, if you really want to keep up-to-date with Caught*Red-handed, then feel free to get in on both acts!

Step 2 | Question 1
I would like to know either: the name of John Blackthorne’s illicit lover in Shogun, or: what is the most frequently used kanji in Japanese? If you look hard enough, then neither of these answers is very far away…

Step 3 | Question 2
This step is a little less specific and needs a little bit of thought before you dive straight in. I want to know either: what is your most favourite thing about Japan or: what is your least favourite thing about Japan? For this section, the more inventive and interesting your response, the better chance you have of winning one of the prizes, so try to come up with something original rather than the bog standard responses…

Step 4 | Choose
Just let me know which prize you would prefer. ‘Nuf said.

Step 5 | Entry
Entering the competition couldn’t be simpler: simply email your answers to Steps 1 – 4 (ensuring that you include the email address with which you subscribed to my feed and/or Twitter username) and I will review all entries after the closing date. Prizes can be shipped to any part of the world, so there is absolutely no restriction on entering no matter where you live. You may enter as many times as you like and with as many different answers and/or combination of answers to each of the sections; the only stipulation that I do have is that you must be following me by one of the methods in Step 1 up until at least the time that the winners are announced, shortly after New Year.

Sooooo, what are you waiting for? Get involved!

Psst: If you haven’t already, make sure you update your RSS feed details for C*R-h as the address has recently changed. Oh, and if you haven’t dipped into RedBox yet, then simply subscribe via iTunes here, or download the episodes from directly within each RedBox enabled episode.

And with that I wish you all a very Happy Big C and a Merry New Year, or is that the other way round? Catch ya!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 11:52 — 5.7MB)