Nothing much going on personally…Party on Sunday which should be cool. Working is a bit harder since we haven’t had a manager at my school for a few weeks, but it’s still easy as hell compared to any other job I’ve had in my life. If I didn’t have Japanese to study during my down time, I really would feel like I was a non-productive of society though.
On the coworker front…..I’ll see her at the party on Sunday and see what happens. But I refuse to have not being with her bring my attitude down anymore lol. I’ve said what I wanted to say, so now I’m done. I understand I’m still a bitch on this front.
I love Thursdays at work when the kid’s classes happen at my school. When I was sixteen, I worked at a Day Care for 4 years. I appreciated it then, but I appreciate it more now. There is something special about having kids idolize you that I truly miss. So when I have a few minutes in the lobby with kids to practice my Japanese speaking, or writing Kanji, I really enjoy it. There is no laugh more pure than a 3 or 4 year old laughing at your writing of your Kanji for “Flower”<—”hana.” There is no interest more pure than a 5 year old trying to figure out how to write your name in Hiragana. Yes it passes in 3 seconds, but for those moments there is nothing more in important in their world. Special Stuff.
Japanese of the Day… I really just use this space for problems I have with Japanese to help me remember it. If it helps anyone else, all the better! Soooo today…
The difference between casual and formal speech is massive in Japanese. For Example;
What did you buy?
Nan Katta? なんかった
Nani o kaimashita ka? なにをかいましたか
I saw a girl on the train text the top message. That is the EXTREME casual form. But I guess you should learn both or something. Dont complain to me, were in this boat together.
Music of the Day….Yui – “Goodbye Days” Lot of feeling in this song…most comes from the movie… but try to feel it anyways!
Today is no work till 7 but must be there by 1 day. It’s not a bad deal though. Plan my classes for the whole week, study Japanese, eat some curry, chill out.
Random Japanese observation… I’m not sure this is a countrywide phenomenon, but I have seen this happen on three different occassions. At our school, most times there is only two or three of us at a time in the school. So if the three of us need to go somewhere, we just leave. No locking up, No sign no nothing. I thought this was strange at the time, but I have so far seen three places of business to the same thing. No locking up, just leaving for a while. This would never happen in America. I felt nervous but since all the Japanese poeple don’t seem to care, I don’t think about it either.
Japanese of the Day…Little note writing help… When attempting to leave a note in Japanese.. the ending, like most structures in japanese, is backwards. For Example;
あなたは きれい です。ジエームスより anata wa kirei desu. Jeemusu yori.
You are beautiful. From, James
<—Not buying the line……Best Part of Kill Bill Hands Down
Music of the Day….eh… Video of the Day.. Posting that picture made me want to see that part again….from Kill Bill…Chiaki Kuriyama :”hehehehehhehehehheeh you call that begging?”
On the way to my Japanese lesson today, I was stuck in a very packed train. Next to me was a middle aged man with a water bottle. Upon closer inspection, it’s contents were more of a darker rumish color than water-like. He took a swig and the smell of rum filled the air. We caught eyes, I smirked and he offered the bottle to me. I declined, laughing. Alcoholism is International.
Japanese of the Day…Something that confused me…Episode 3 million
Mt. Fuji. Mr. Fuji. Very different correct? One is a mountain and one is a person. BUT in Japanese the suffix -san(山) is used for Mr.(san) AND mountain(yama). So in written form…
Mt. Fuji
富士山 （ふじさん）
Mr. Fuji
富士さん (ふじさん)
The difference lies in the written kanji alone…..such a mystery….
Music of the Day….Nami Tamaki -”Get Wild” Get Wild people.
While shopping at D.Q.’s, no not the ice cream, I was in the electronics section contemplating replacing my broken DS. Well the electronic’s section is right next to the porn section. I turned and my eyes were met by a 12 year old boy deeply engrossed in a magazine he shouldn’t be reading. I gave him a smirk, and he smiled back. Perversion is International. I’m not saying its a bad thing. Quoting my linqual correspondant, Dr. Noah Webster:
“Perverse (adj.) : Directed away from what is right or good….learn how to spell dick, you suck”
Society says porn is not right to look at at that age, but then why is that such an interesting topic at when your 12???
Japanese of the Day… I really don’t feel like doing a lot of research tonite so I’ll make it simple.
Counting in Hundreds
hyaku – 1oo – 百 – ひゃく
nihyaku – 200 – にひゃく
sanbyaku – 300 – さんびゃく
yonhyaku – 400 – よひゃく
gohyaku – 500 – ごひゃく
roppyaku - 600 – ろっぴゃく
nanahyaku – 700 – ななひゃく
happyaku – 800 – はっぴゃく
kyuuhyaku – 900 – きゅうひゃく
sen – 1000 – 千 – せん
Notice the annoying irregularities in bold.
Music of the day.. New Find.. High and Mighty Color – “Pride”
Rock It.
It was a very cool night last night. We went to an izakaya near my school. It was a pretty small place, so our party quickly became the loudest one in the whole place. But it was great to be the center of attention for 5 or 6 hours. It’s sort of weird that the only reason I am soo popular is because I’m a foreigner, but it still makes you feel good. Mini-Mini-Celebrity. The people were fighting over who could sit next to me. I didn’t pay for anything and my glass was never empty.
The funniest moment was DEFINITY when a 50 year old woman said I AM SLUTTY! It happened because someone we started talking about bad words in English and Japanese. One of my students called another person at the dinner “yorui” which means loose. So they asked me what that would be in English…I thought about it, and Slutty seemed to be the best translation. So quickly the whole table was saying slutty. So that lady asks me from across the table..”I am slutty… is that correct?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
Coolest moment was when the whole table proclaimed I was nicer and more fun than the previous teacher. My ego was glad to hear this.
Most of the people didn’t know eachother but somehow EVERYONE just started mingling well. I know alcohol is a great social lubricant, but I’ve never seen in America such a diverse age group interact so well. Even the shyest of person would ask questions to everyone and really attempt to be included instead of just sitting and waiting for people to talk to them.
Another point, housewives can drink! The two thrity something housewives easily drank double what I drank. They were a lot of fun too. Always doing all the crazy ideas I gave them like going to a random table and saying What’s up! The people would always look so confused and our whole table would lose it. Who knew the best joke would be asking someone whats up.
I was planning to proclaim to my crush coworker that I’m interested in her at sometime during the night. Like outside of work. When no other people are there. The night was going so well, I forgot that she had to catch last train. So on that front, it was a bust. But it’s not like I don’t see her everyday. So that quest is on hold….to be continued.
Japanese of the Day….Drunk and Slutty. Two great adjectives you need to know for those nights chasing the ladies.
Kanojo wa yurukute yopparai desu. She is slutty and drunk. ( Literally she is loose and drunk)
かのじょはゆるくてよっぱらいです。
I think thats right… I spend 30 minutes attempting to confirm that is the adjective from of drunk. So call that a 75% chances thats correct.
Music of the Day..On the way to the bar, I heard the sweetest sound… Iron Maiden ” Number of the Beast blasting from the music store. I threw up the horns, \m/ and the worker inside gave them back. Metal is International People. Rock the fuck out.
I played Uno with some children today in the lobby. It was a solid time. I’m past learning about the colors in Japanese, but its still nice to get a little review from 10 year olds. It’s sort of weird too they never get discouraged when you can’t answer a question becuase you don’t understand them. They would ask 5 questions in a row in Japanese, all of which I might catch just a few words, I would say Wakarimasen( I don’t understand) but they would still ask more questions. It was cool. No matter the country you are in, beating your elder is always an event to get pumped about so I let them win. Thier excitement was worth it.
Tomorrow is party day…about 20 students are coming out to an Izakaya with coworker and me. Should be a solid time. Since I of course like to create more drama than needed to events, I think I might inform coworker I’m interested in seeing her outside of work…like alone. But I won’t say it like that. A full report will follow tomorrow. The company rule is you are the last one to puke. I plan on 21 people puking then.
Random Fact… Back in the States I used to watch this show on AZN television called Yama Onna Kabe Onna… it was a pretty funny show. It is based on a Yama Onna (Mountain Woman) and Kabe Onna (Wall Woman). You figure out what the metaphor is based on. But I actually saw it here in Japan today. It was cool. Check out the theme song. The first 15 seconds are worth it I promise. I love one of the actors, Ito Misaki. I’ve only seen her in 2 things but she always dominates. And she does so with a kabe chest, so that’s even more impressive. Sweet
Japanese of the day…. Today I had a 4 sentence conversation in Japanese, which was cool. She said somethings I understood, somethings I didn’t but we had a solid convo. I asked a few simple questions…..
Anata no shigoto wa doko desu ka? Where do you work? (actual translation: your work, where is it?)あなたのしごとわどこですか
Kyo wa shimashita ka? What did you do today? きょうはしましたか？
kyuka wa itsu desu ka? When is your day off? きゅうかはいつですか
Errors are a free bonus.
Music of the Day…From the game Chrono Trigger “Wind Scene” Instrumental but its awesome people. Let’s just chill out….
Coldest day so far here definitly. It’s still the warmest weather I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. 5 degrees Celcius. I have no clue how cold that is since I’m from the land of Farenheit, but it’s pretty cold. After some further research that means 41 degrees F. A normal December or January day in the Maryland. But people here act like it’s The Day After Tomorrow.
<—”To convert Celsius to Farenheit multiply by 1.8 and add 32. Your a joke”
Also its funny when people explain in class that some city is ___ meters away. Even though I know how long a meter is, when someone says 300 meters I really have no clue how far that is. Maybe that will change with time but I’m still a Miles/gallons/farenheit/cups sort of guy.
Japanese of the Day
In Japanese, the way of speaking is soooo humble. For example instead of saying “I see Mt. Fuji”, in a formal situation you would actually say, “Mt. Fuji is visible.” So this is hard for Mr. English speaker here. Here’s another example. In Japanese it’s not polite to say ” Someone gave me something.” Instead you say, “I recieved ____ from Someone.” Small but difficult point.
Last year, I gave Mika a hat. Kyonen Mika ga watashi ni boshi o kuremashita. きょねんみかがわたしにぼしをくれました。
Last week, I recieved a kiss from Mika. Watashi wa Mika ni kisu o moraimashita. わたしわみかにキスをもらいました。
As always errors probably exist, but please correct me if you see any. Remember your source is a joke….
Music of the Day… No Music but Drunk Monkeys are funny.
Japanese stock market took a big hit today, as did most of the rest of the world. For those inquiring minds, here’s the link. But apparently is all stems from uncertainty in the US economy. So I asked one of salaryman’s thoughts on the subject. He admittedly didn’t know much about it, but said it was because of something in the U.S.. We later got to talkng about WWII somehow, or (The Pacific War in Japan) and about the bombs. Personally, my feelings on the bombs are mixed. The bombs did stop the war, but soo many innocent people died. But the war was stopped so I guess that was the point. My student who wasn’t born yet at the time said the first bomb made sense, but the second one doesn’t. Thats a fair point in my view. He also admitted that history text books get changed all the time in Japan, even though there is only one truth. I asked why this is, and he didn’t have a good answer.(his english is limited) He then turned the tables and asked about what America is doing in Iraq. I said I’m not really sure, but the goal is to set up democracy in Iraq. He said it takes soo long lol. I realized when I asked him I took his opinion to be all of Japan’s feelings in a sense, which is stupid. But when he asked me his question I realized I can’t just make some bullshit up since he probably is thinking the same thing. I was speaking for all of America, because I’m all the America he knows. Call me a Diplomat. haha.
Japanese of the Day. Three Buts! ga, demo, kedo. <–(learn something new everyday file: While creating this masterpiece of a blog I learned kedo is just the shortened from of keredomo. But all I hear in Japan is kedo, so forget I mentioned that.)
Three different uses, only two of which I fully understand. But of course I will give an example of each.
Mika took a test. But, she failed. -Mika wa testo o ukeshita. Demo, kanojo wa ochimashita. ミカはてすとをうけした。でもかのじょはおちました。Demo is used in situations when But starts a sentence in English.
Her face is pretty but it’s too skinny.- Kanojo no kao wa kirei desu kedo, yaseta-sugiru desu. かのじょのかおはきれいですけど、やせたすぎらです. Kedo is used to combine to sentences together that would use but.
Tommorrow Rachel will go but I wont. Ashita Racheu wa ikimasu ga, watashi wa ikimasen. あしたラチェゥはいきますがわたしはいきません。Yeah, I never get a straight answer when I ask about the difference between ga and kedo. It seems though in my meager studies that kedo comes after desu more and “Ga” comes after nouns or verbs more. But your source is a joke.
<—-your source AKA me.
Music of the Day… Yuna Ito – ” Truth” Solid J-pop Ballad. This is from nana2. Not as good as the first, but still good. Scenery is Sweet in the video. I attempted to translate the chorus. But the experiment failed miserably..Enjoy none the less lol.
So today my plan on handling the coworker situation was to act indifferent to the whole thing. Of course curiosity killed me, and after she asked me what I did on the weekend, I asked her as well. Well turns out she went out to eat with this dude who just so happens to be my psuedo-boss. Everybone in my body SCREAMED to ask more, but I didn’t. She quickly changed the subject. So basically I know nothing except what they did. I guess I don’t care, but the fact that writing this in a post means otherwise….bottom line…. I’m a joke.
After writing that riveting post above, i went to get a drink. I put the drink down, and realize I forgot my pen. I get up to get the pen, BAM drink on floor lol. I’m an idiot. This carpet(if you can call it that, it’s more like cardboard with fibers) had enough problems before I got here, and now I’m just adding to it lol.
Short post, but not much to mention today. Not everyday can be dynamite people.
Japanese of the Day…..
Verbs have an incredible amount of conjugations in Japanese. A full sentence can be one word. For example;
Tabetai! たべたい！
I want to eat! Cool huh?
Music of the Day… Avantasia – ” In Quest For”
You’re in quest for more to find the core
Your journey still ain’t over
Your quest is your purpose, go on
You’re in quest for more to find the core
It will be – never- over
Your quest is your purpose, go on …
I found this video while browsing some other Japanese blogs….
It’s long…so if you bailed early, or don’t want to click it, it’s basically about the increasing market in Japan for “Lolita” type porn sometimes involving 10-12 year olds. Yeah I’m sure we don’t agree this is a good idea for the girls involved, the companies involved, or the people that buy that sort of porn. But saying the Japanese are just creeping I think is an easy way answer. The attraction has to be based on some underlying social reason.
First my take….10-12 is to young to be idolizing over. Girls aren’t even developed yet. I have been accused of in the past, rightfully so, about thinking some younger high school girls(15-17) are hot.. but they at least are developed. Girls that young(10-12) don’t give me a sexual attraction. I think naturally our bodies are attracted to people that are sexually able (i.e. after puberty). Girls 10-12 definitly are not sexually able. But I want to point out, age is something our society has created, so the age is actually not important since it is not a tangible thing. Is a 17 year old that much different than a legal 18 year old? I dont think so. But anyways my quest is to attempt to forge a thoery on the subject. (result of a boring day off)
Is this girl attractive to you??(props to Dannychoo.com) My honest opinion without worrying about any fucking reprecussions or thinking about want anyone thinks, is yes. Any guess on the age?…………………………………14. Far under the legal age. Without knowing her actual age, I could easily guess that she is 17-19. I have been fooled by a few of my students on numerous occasions about guessing age. My personal rule: Get your guess age in your mind, subtract four years and you will be correct.
Same girl, any thoughts changed? (dannychoo.com props again) She is clearly developed more than her age would suggest, causing most guys to find her attractive. Her face does appear quite young, but her body (chest and hips) appear matured beyond her years.
So guys…and any girls that aren’t to pissed off at me by now… any thoughts? Her body is apparently already sexually able, so is it ok to enjoy her photos?…..tough question. Mental maturity is an X factor in this equation. It is very possible for a person’s body to mature much faster than their body, which is probably the case for these young models in Japan. BUT, should a man’s mind take into account a female’s mind’s maturity while deciding what is attractive? I think not. As a girlfriend, wife, even friend, that is an important point but while flipping through the pages of a magazine, guys admit it, our minds are not thinking that deeply at that moment.
Ok back to the original point, what in the Japanese society causes this phenomenon more than other cultures. My guess is that thinking of being with these much younger girls bring men back to their youths, and the fantasy of being at that age again. Who doesn’t wish they weren’t grown up and could go back to the carefree days of middle school and high school? Looking at girls that are still in that age, might be an attractive prospect in many cases.
Bottom line: the young girl’s need to be protected. In Japan the law states as long as they aren’t naked its cool. But with a mind that hasn’t matured yet, they might not understand what they are doing when they pose for these photos for men triple or quadruple their age. The parents also have to agree, so it is their fault as well. Or is it greed’s fault?? I think it is normal to think younger, matured women are attractive. Letting your daughter pose for these photos is not. Getting turned on by non- matured 10 year olds is not as well.
Thoughts? I understand I might of alienated some people with the post, but its part of Japan so it deserved a post. Let me know what you think!
Japanese of the Day.. Strange Writing- henna chojutsugyo -
This is a strange writing.
Kore wa henna bunshoo desu. これわへんあぶんしょうです。
Music of the Day - Pretty intellectual post… so let’s even things up with some crazy music. Norther – “Death Unlimited” Go nuts people!
<—Not buying the line……Best Part of Kill Bill Hands Down
