One of the useful aspects of the Japanese language is the fact that sometimes, less is more. That is, often adjectives on their own can be used to convey a whole sentences worth of meaning. If you want to comment on how cold you are, or how cold the weather is you can just say "samuii" which means "cold". Similarly, when it's hot you can just say "hot" (atsuii). The upshot of this means that there are some words you can learn which means you can then contribute to any conversations in Japanese, with great effect. Below are a couple you can bandy about which - if employed with enough head nodding - should convince any Japanese person that you have the faintest idea what they're on about (hmm...I hope Anna doesn't read this)
1) Uso - false
If you suspect someone is telling porky pies, then "uso" is the word for you. You can say it with scorn for a "bollocks is it" type effect, or in a shocked voice for a "I don't believe it!" scenario. For the latter, preferred pronunciation is to fire it out of the mouth as quickly as possible so it sounds more a violent cough than a word. For the former, you can drag it out for maximum aggravation thanks to the handy "oh" phoneme at the end. A similar word is "honto" - true; this a bit milder though (like saying "oh really") and therefore is exponentially less fun.
2) Yappari - as I thought, just as I expected
What better way to withering deride someone's failure that you fully anticipated before hand than to simply utter a single word of contempt? Use after anyone says anything and you can pretty much guarantee impotent futile rage. Imagine someone saying "but of course you did" after you mention an error and you're pretty much there. I say and hear this word probably more than any other on this list
3) Sugoi - cool, excellent, high quality
If you watch anyJapanese TV, this is the word you'll come away with. Whereas English speakers might choose several different superlatives to describe something (e.g. "wow Chris that blog entry was amazing, stupendous, fantastical!"), Japanese people tend to say the same word over and over again, getting more and more excited each time. So when anything cool is demonstated on TV, anyone witnessing it is bound to express "sugoi! sugoi! su-goi!" If they're girls, best cover your ears - it can occasionally reach dog-bothering frequencies.
4) Daijobu - everything ok (?)
This is such an incredibly useful word that it probably deserves it's own blog entry It's the Japanese equivalent of "ok" or "it's ok" so you can use it for EVERYTHING. Someone falls over in front of you? Ask them "daijobu?". Someone offers you a flyer in the street? Shake your head and say "daijobu". What to know if you allowed to wear your shoes in a building? Point at your feet and say "daijobu?". Just accidentally backhanded your child in a lesson whilst flailing to the Hello Song? Well, actually don't ask them "daijobu" because then every other student will go apeshit crazy bonkers when they realise you can speak Japanese and you'll end up having to call in the staff to give them some tranquilisers. Probably a good idea to ask their fuming mother though, or the paramedics once they've cleared up the worst of the mess.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
New year in Tokyo (part 2)
For new years eve itself, we decided to go to Shibuya as it's always crowded at the best of times, plus it's famous for it's massive TV screens which we assumed would have something countdowny on them. On the way there, we met up with two of Kari's friends and another teachers - Sorrell - who had an entire rugby team of Aussies with him. The logistics of manoeuvring all those antipodeans seemed insurmountable though, so we trotted off by ourselves to get some food and booze.
Around half past 11, crowds were starting to build at the Shibuya crosswalk, and we started to think it might be a good idea to have some alcohol to throw about once midnight hit. On a mission, me and Kari dashed off to find a kombini - it was all very 24, with the timer counting down and us yelling instructions at each other about which direction a store might be in. What was less Jack Bauer though was when Kari suddenly started tugging at her shirt and screaming "I've lost my support!". Turns out strapless bras don't hold out too good on beer runs. My shoelaces came undone too and were flapping about threateningly, so we both must have looked like we had some kind of musculo-skeletal disorder when we lopsidedly shambled into the store.
With minutes (about 15) to spare, we arrived back at the rendezvous which was now rammed with people (mostly annoying white folks) and pointed ourselves at the screens in anticipation of the countdown which we were sure would appear. Ten to.......five to......still nothing.......at about 11:58 by my watch, it became apparent that NOTHING was going to happen, and that we'd have not even a whiff of when 2008 officially started. With 20 seconds to go, a coach advertising a new Japanese band surreally went by with a digital display on the side counting down, but it drove off into the distance leaving us and the rest of the crowd counting down at our own pace until everyone just shouted happy new year and went mental. Meanwhile Team ECC looked bewildered at each other and asked "was that it?!"
Not to be stymied by this awesome anticlimax, we made our way to the Shibuya branch of our favourite karaoke parlour, stopping on the way to stock up on drink (again). Two hours of belting out the hits later (including the newest addition to the repertoire, a song entirely in Japanese) we went back to Kari's plush hotel room in Shinjuku with twin beds, unwilling as we were to go back to our hostel and the loud South-African girl contained within. Long story short, I ended up sleeping next to Thom, but we kept all our clothes on and it was above the covers so it's only a little bit gay - about as much as much as using the word "chilly" to describe cold weather by my count.
On our final day, we found out that the Emperor was doing an extremely rare personal appearance at the Imperial Palace, and that was well as seeing him, you'd get to see a little bit more the area than you normal can (which by all accounts is one tiny corner of the vast buidling). So we wandered along, and after a couple of pat-downs by the security guards (mine was female - score) we stood outside the viewing area, me clutching my Japanese flag that I was handed. Thom and I had a brief discussion about exactly what you should do when the Emperor comes out - do you cheer, or just look on in hushed awe? Any indecision we had was then laid to rest by the shout of "banzai!!" from several ardent royalists when he appeared. There was also some serious flag waving. As well as the Emperor, there was his wife, and I think his son and daughter. He did a little speech, but the only thing I caught was "everyone" and "happy new year". Then they all did a little bit of waving and went back inside.
And that was Tokyo! I was going to try and write a bit more, but it's already far too far in January to be writing a new year post, so I'm going to stop!
Around half past 11, crowds were starting to build at the Shibuya crosswalk, and we started to think it might be a good idea to have some alcohol to throw about once midnight hit. On a mission, me and Kari dashed off to find a kombini - it was all very 24, with the timer counting down and us yelling instructions at each other about which direction a store might be in. What was less Jack Bauer though was when Kari suddenly started tugging at her shirt and screaming "I've lost my support!". Turns out strapless bras don't hold out too good on beer runs. My shoelaces came undone too and were flapping about threateningly, so we both must have looked like we had some kind of musculo-skeletal disorder when we lopsidedly shambled into the store.
With minutes (about 15) to spare, we arrived back at the rendezvous which was now rammed with people (mostly annoying white folks) and pointed ourselves at the screens in anticipation of the countdown which we were sure would appear. Ten to.......five to......still nothing.......at about 11:58 by my watch, it became apparent that NOTHING was going to happen, and that we'd have not even a whiff of when 2008 officially started. With 20 seconds to go, a coach advertising a new Japanese band surreally went by with a digital display on the side counting down, but it drove off into the distance leaving us and the rest of the crowd counting down at our own pace until everyone just shouted happy new year and went mental. Meanwhile Team ECC looked bewildered at each other and asked "was that it?!"
Not to be stymied by this awesome anticlimax, we made our way to the Shibuya branch of our favourite karaoke parlour, stopping on the way to stock up on drink (again). Two hours of belting out the hits later (including the newest addition to the repertoire, a song entirely in Japanese) we went back to Kari's plush hotel room in Shinjuku with twin beds, unwilling as we were to go back to our hostel and the loud South-African girl contained within. Long story short, I ended up sleeping next to Thom, but we kept all our clothes on and it was above the covers so it's only a little bit gay - about as much as much as using the word "chilly" to describe cold weather by my count.
On our final day, we found out that the Emperor was doing an extremely rare personal appearance at the Imperial Palace, and that was well as seeing him, you'd get to see a little bit more the area than you normal can (which by all accounts is one tiny corner of the vast buidling). So we wandered along, and after a couple of pat-downs by the security guards (mine was female - score) we stood outside the viewing area, me clutching my Japanese flag that I was handed. Thom and I had a brief discussion about exactly what you should do when the Emperor comes out - do you cheer, or just look on in hushed awe? Any indecision we had was then laid to rest by the shout of "banzai!!" from several ardent royalists when he appeared. There was also some serious flag waving. As well as the Emperor, there was his wife, and I think his son and daughter. He did a little speech, but the only thing I caught was "everyone" and "happy new year". Then they all did a little bit of waving and went back inside.
And that was Tokyo! I was going to try and write a bit more, but it's already far too far in January to be writing a new year post, so I'm going to stop!
Monday, 7 January 2008
New year in Tokyo (part 1)
For new years 2007, me, Thom, and Kari (ECC teachers all) decided to vamoose to Tokyo for some fun and frolics. We didn't really have any particular plan, other than that we would have a bit of a wander around, and then try and do something moderately spectacular for the big countdown moment.
To get there, me and Thom took the night bus from Nagoya which takes about 6 hours (boo) but is kitted out like the first class cabins of planes, with reclining seats, and blankets and little slippers to wear (yay). We got to Tokyo about 6am and met up with Kari, then needed somewhere to go to refresh ourselves and get ready for the day. After some self-justification (the argument goes like this: we work in Japan, speak Japanese [kinda] and know Japanese people so we've accrued enough collateral to completely cop out and go to a franchised American coffee chain when we want. This kind of thinking holds a lot of water at 6am) we decided to go to Starbucks which wasn't even open so we had to wander around for a bit. It was quite fun to see all the wackily dresses Tokyo-ites coming back from their night out when we'd just got there. Eventually Starbucks opened and we could get some sweet sweet caffeine.
Our hostel was in Asakusa which has a very nice temple and a big red lantern which I keep forgetting the name off. Pause for Google......it's the Kaminarimon.
Then we went for a quick stop in Shibuya to see the famous Hachiko statue (I'd seen it before - tchah, get yesterday Thom and Kari) and the also famous crosswalk which has about a billion people wander across it a day (well, not a billion, but it is a ludicrously high number).
After that, it was off to Meiji shrine which is in Harajuku - devastatingly, there were NO cosplay people there! Suck! The temple was nice, but then it started to rain and we took the wrong exit out (something we seemed to repeat a lot) so it took us AGES to get back the station. We did manage to make the rain stop though by buying some umbrellas - cue instant nice weather. The store we bought them from also had this charmingly enthusiastic towel on offer.
Our big exciting event was going up to the bar in the Park Hyatt which is featured in Lost in Translation - initially there were some nerves about getting in as Kari had been turned away before for wearing flip flops. Accordingly, she dressed up for the return visit and looked all nice and pretty - by contrast me and Thom just wore out normal togs and looked rrrather casual. We tried to look confident when we got up to the 52nd floor, although our savoir faire was shaken slightly by the very opulent and swanky surroundings. Turns out we needn't have worried though - we got shown straight to a table no probs. The drinks were a little pricey, but it was so cool to be in the Bill Murray bar, we didn't care.
The next day, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower which is like the Eiffel tower, but with all the French elegance sucked out of it. It is bright orange and white - I quite like the colour scheme, but it's not exactly pretty. In fact...isn't that the same colours as Thunderbird 3?
The cool thing about the observatory is that it has sections of glass flooring which you can stand on and freak yourself out. I say cool, I mean a wee bit nerve wracking. The glass flooring does at least have a lattice of steel underneath it so it's easier to convince yourself that it won't suddenly give way and leave you to plummet 150 metres to the earth.
The cheeky thing is, only once you get in do they tell you that you have to queue up and pay again to get to the super high observation deck! It's another 600yen, and the place was rammed with people so we didn't really feel like doing that. The views from the normal deck were nice anyway.
(There's a few more photos to go, but it's late so I'll finish them off tomorrow)
To get there, me and Thom took the night bus from Nagoya which takes about 6 hours (boo) but is kitted out like the first class cabins of planes, with reclining seats, and blankets and little slippers to wear (yay). We got to Tokyo about 6am and met up with Kari, then needed somewhere to go to refresh ourselves and get ready for the day. After some self-justification (the argument goes like this: we work in Japan, speak Japanese [kinda] and know Japanese people so we've accrued enough collateral to completely cop out and go to a franchised American coffee chain when we want. This kind of thinking holds a lot of water at 6am) we decided to go to Starbucks which wasn't even open so we had to wander around for a bit. It was quite fun to see all the wackily dresses Tokyo-ites coming back from their night out when we'd just got there. Eventually Starbucks opened and we could get some sweet sweet caffeine.
Our hostel was in Asakusa which has a very nice temple and a big red lantern which I keep forgetting the name off. Pause for Google......it's the Kaminarimon.
Then we went for a quick stop in Shibuya to see the famous Hachiko statue (I'd seen it before - tchah, get yesterday Thom and Kari) and the also famous crosswalk which has about a billion people wander across it a day (well, not a billion, but it is a ludicrously high number).
After that, it was off to Meiji shrine which is in Harajuku - devastatingly, there were NO cosplay people there! Suck! The temple was nice, but then it started to rain and we took the wrong exit out (something we seemed to repeat a lot) so it took us AGES to get back the station. We did manage to make the rain stop though by buying some umbrellas - cue instant nice weather. The store we bought them from also had this charmingly enthusiastic towel on offer.
Our big exciting event was going up to the bar in the Park Hyatt which is featured in Lost in Translation - initially there were some nerves about getting in as Kari had been turned away before for wearing flip flops. Accordingly, she dressed up for the return visit and looked all nice and pretty - by contrast me and Thom just wore out normal togs and looked rrrather casual. We tried to look confident when we got up to the 52nd floor, although our savoir faire was shaken slightly by the very opulent and swanky surroundings. Turns out we needn't have worried though - we got shown straight to a table no probs. The drinks were a little pricey, but it was so cool to be in the Bill Murray bar, we didn't care.
The next day, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower which is like the Eiffel tower, but with all the French elegance sucked out of it. It is bright orange and white - I quite like the colour scheme, but it's not exactly pretty. In fact...isn't that the same colours as Thunderbird 3?
The cool thing about the observatory is that it has sections of glass flooring which you can stand on and freak yourself out. I say cool, I mean a wee bit nerve wracking. The glass flooring does at least have a lattice of steel underneath it so it's easier to convince yourself that it won't suddenly give way and leave you to plummet 150 metres to the earth.
The cheeky thing is, only once you get in do they tell you that you have to queue up and pay again to get to the super high observation deck! It's another 600yen, and the place was rammed with people so we didn't really feel like doing that. The views from the normal deck were nice anyway.
(There's a few more photos to go, but it's late so I'll finish them off tomorrow)
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Christmas tomfoolery Chez Morgan and Kernich
On Christmas Eve Eve, Thom and Sally had a small gathering of alcoholics at their house for the much vaunted Power Hour - i.e. a shot of beer every minute for an hour, beginning and ending with a shot tequila. Music maestro Kari Panaccione even created a special CD for this momentous event, with one minute slices of 60 karaoke classics to keep us going.
Actually, as it turned out, it was pretty easy as we only used 20ml shots. But still, it was pretty satisfying to have done it. Maybe it lulled us into a false sense of security about our alchohol consumption abilities though, because then we all proceeded to get completely wasted
My memory of the night is a little dim, but I remember having an awesome time playing on the Wii, Thom biting me and then passing out, and Anna being "poorly" in the bathroom for the last hour or so of the night. I also vaguely remember us doing a "speak nothing but Japanese for 3 minutes" challenge to help the native Japanese speakers who were there - this consisted of us awkwardly saying "um.....do you want to drink this? No, I don't want to drink that. I want to eat those" in broken Japanese until the timer finally went off.
Actually, as it turned out, it was pretty easy as we only used 20ml shots. But still, it was pretty satisfying to have done it. Maybe it lulled us into a false sense of security about our alchohol consumption abilities though, because then we all proceeded to get completely wasted
My memory of the night is a little dim, but I remember having an awesome time playing on the Wii, Thom biting me and then passing out, and Anna being "poorly" in the bathroom for the last hour or so of the night. I also vaguely remember us doing a "speak nothing but Japanese for 3 minutes" challenge to help the native Japanese speakers who were there - this consisted of us awkwardly saying "um.....do you want to drink this? No, I don't want to drink that. I want to eat those" in broken Japanese until the timer finally went off.
Masumi's leaving do..
My last day of work before the Christmas holidays was also the last day of work EVER for one of the staff at that school, Masumi who is in charge of all the kids stuff (and has been a massive help to me since I've been working there, as well as being very friendly and all that). So after work there was a little party to bid her farewell.
There is some serious efficiency when it comes to these parties - we all set off to the supermarket and everyone quickly dashed round getting all the ingredients we needed for food. And we're not talking party snacks here - we're talking proper dishes, mainly nabe which is like a casserole and some oden which is....also like casserole, but with some different stuff. As I couldn't read any of the packets or readily identify any of the food, I was in charge of looking after one of my students who came along with his Mum. He's only 2, so we had a great time wandering round the supermarket, occasionally stopping to poke stuff and stare at the delicious sweeties on theconfectionary aisle. Then whenever he sat down he would pat the seat next to him and say "Chris....sit" - very sweet. I watched him like a hawk the whole time , but unfortunately I let my guard down for one second when we were getting the groceries out of the car in the rain, and he fell into a gutter about 40cms deep and got soaked up to his waist. Whoops! He was fine though.
There is some serious efficiency when it comes to these parties - we all set off to the supermarket and everyone quickly dashed round getting all the ingredients we needed for food. And we're not talking party snacks here - we're talking proper dishes, mainly nabe which is like a casserole and some oden which is....also like casserole, but with some different stuff. As I couldn't read any of the packets or readily identify any of the food, I was in charge of looking after one of my students who came along with his Mum. He's only 2, so we had a great time wandering round the supermarket, occasionally stopping to poke stuff and stare at the delicious sweeties on theconfectionary aisle. Then whenever he sat down he would pat the seat next to him and say "Chris....sit" - very sweet. I watched him like a hawk the whole time , but unfortunately I let my guard down for one second when we were getting the groceries out of the car in the rain, and he fell into a gutter about 40cms deep and got soaked up to his waist. Whoops! He was fine though.
Thursday, 13 December 2007
Merry Clistmas*
Christmas is fast approaching the land of the rising sun, and Nagoya is definitely entering into the spirit of it. Well kind of - because Japan isn't a Christian country, the religious aspect of Christmas is totally absent in from all the assembled regalia in shops and such. So all the pretty lights are stars and Santa Claus (never Father Christmas) is flippin' everywhere, but there's no angels, or any mention of mangers and whatnot. Now, I'm not a religious man, but it does feel a little sterile to not have just a little tiny baby Jesus somewhere in decorations - in fact, I walked past what I thought was a nativity scene the other day; as I got closer, it turned out to be Santa Claus dancing round a Christmas tree. But then that's all Christmas is in Japan so it's not a bad thing - even though it does partially represent the commercialised hinterland always alluded to by tabloid rags like the Daily Mail back in England. Everything's very pretty, and feeling very festive - come on some snow!
Along with the pretty decorations, Christmas also brings with it a more sinister component - Muzak. In England, virtually every shop - Clinton's Cards probably being the worst offender - has some whiny facsimile of a Christmas carol playing in the background over the festive season. By and large though, they're fairly inoffensive. Contrast that with Japan, where recently I have been subjected to some ear-bumming travesties or music. Today in the supermarket, there was some kind of dance remix of Jingle Bells which included several "orchestra HITS!" which you used to get on old Yamaha keyboards. After that, there was Oh Come All Yea Faithful, but as a full on rock guitar solo, at high speed. It seems that in most shops, if it's not rock guitar, it's a wrong guitar.
By far the strangest was in the library though - I ran in just before closing time and the "ending theme" was playing which is actually Auld Lang Syne. Most places in Japan play this to let people know they're closing, although usually they don't realise it's a new year's song in England. Anyway, either this was some alternative arrangement or someone had put the CD in a microwave, because it contained the strangest ululations I've ever heard - it was like the sound effects you might hear before you black out. If possible, I'm going to try and record it sometime, because something like that should really be shared with the world.
*Yes, yes, cheap I know.
Along with the pretty decorations, Christmas also brings with it a more sinister component - Muzak. In England, virtually every shop - Clinton's Cards probably being the worst offender - has some whiny facsimile of a Christmas carol playing in the background over the festive season. By and large though, they're fairly inoffensive. Contrast that with Japan, where recently I have been subjected to some ear-bumming travesties or music. Today in the supermarket, there was some kind of dance remix of Jingle Bells which included several "orchestra HITS!" which you used to get on old Yamaha keyboards. After that, there was Oh Come All Yea Faithful, but as a full on rock guitar solo, at high speed. It seems that in most shops, if it's not rock guitar, it's a wrong guitar.
By far the strangest was in the library though - I ran in just before closing time and the "ending theme" was playing which is actually Auld Lang Syne. Most places in Japan play this to let people know they're closing, although usually they don't realise it's a new year's song in England. Anyway, either this was some alternative arrangement or someone had put the CD in a microwave, because it contained the strangest ululations I've ever heard - it was like the sound effects you might hear before you black out. If possible, I'm going to try and record it sometime, because something like that should really be shared with the world.
*Yes, yes, cheap I know.
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