De Oriente

I love Japan. I love the Japanese language. This isn`t much of a secret. But I also really, really hate the Japanese language.

Japanese is a heavily context-based language. You know what I do? Think along different lines from most people. In English this means either I sometimes say really off-the-wall strange things. In Japanese, sometimes this means I unwittingly insult people by saying polite things.

For example, during school cleaning time (the 15 minutes before lunch every day), the principal walks out of her office, which is a separate office/meeting room adjoined to the main teacher`s room. I am holding a broom, and pause absent-mindedly to let her pass me.

Principal: <Oh, shall I clean, too?>
Me: <Pardon me.>

OH NO YOU DIDN`T.

See, it doesn`t actually mean "pardon me" in that context. Insidiously, secretly, it means, "yes, please help." And from a low-ranked teacher to the principal, that`s not done. Oops. The principal is totally chill and cool and super-sweet, in a way, much like ice cream.

I am so excited for summer.

So it was okay, if I was facepalming for the next 10 minutes.

Let`s take a look for a minute in some other ways that 「すみません」 or "pardon me" can and can`t be used, inasmuchas I currently understand.

( Read more... )

It`s culturally important to bring your coworkers a souveiner when you go on a vacation or business trip. Most frequently in Japan these are small snacks. Like cake. And this is why I`m always sweating bullets on my first day back from a trip/vacation, especially if it is overseas where the cakes are particularly slippery. Give them the cake, and it`s a "pardon me." Drop the cake, and it`s an "I`m sorry." But what if I accidentally drop the cake onto a conveniently placed napkin on the person`s desk? すみません or ごめんなさい?? @_@

(A: ごめんなさい。)


Here is a quote from [Jay Starkey`s website (link)], some guy who went to IUC Yokohama. (Yeah, I was surfing blogs of people who did IUC Yokohama again. I should know in a few weeks!)

"People rarely speak their mind. Well, they do, just not so blatantly. "Delicous" could mean anything from "this is great" to "this is the worst I've ever tried." You have to get good at reading between the lines."

That pretty much sums it up. And that`s why that time that I made tacos for my conversation class, everyone "enjoyed" them despite that I used twice the amount of taco powder I should have. I am planning a culture lesson later on this semester where we will work on tactful ways to say someone`s cooking sucks in English.

Next time: Eight ways to say you without starting a fight.

This is my favorite one, but ( read on... )

The school year in Japan runs from April to March, ( Briefly on the School year, Hina Matsuri, and graduations... )

So, my camera has wandered off (hear: spent the weekend traveling Niigata and didn`t make it back into my schoolbag), so today I will not be not posting pictures because it feels inappropriate to be doing that at school. Today I will not be posting pictures because I have forgotten my camera.

Sorry, everyone.

This weekend`s plans were to (Saturday) make cookies at Flo`s house, then see the musical, and (Sunday) go into Niigata City for to try to do some last-minute winter shopping before the winter stuff is gone, then go to a music class.

( What follows is a boring run-down... )

The point of this post is to mention a photo-thing I did this month - for every day of February (I may have missed one or two) I took at least one photograph. Different things, different times of the day, some of them very strange. I think one might just be of the ground. I will try to post them up in the next few days so you all can see just what a strange place this is. Or just how strange a person I am.

It is snowing cats and dogs...

So, every time I do "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I end up walking out of class feeling a little disappointed. ( Read more... )

Foxes are tricksters and troublemakers in Japan. Apparently, this is why one says "moshi moshi" when answering the phone.

Read why on tofugu.com

I've gotten into kimono in the past few months. ( Last fall... )
Making kimono outfits is pretty fun. I'm awful at it, but dress-up is always pretty great. I should post pictures of my own outfits sometime.

"Man stops jumper" (top image is a print)

More serious than your regular sweater-related issue, this article is talking about an Echigo girl that is "soft like warm snow and thin like hemp cloth" (what?) who tried to run away with her lover.

In the way of all things poorly planned, it, well, goes poorly and the two lovers try to commit suicide. Not being hot enough I guess, the man doesn`t rank getting in the print, only the passerby who happened to stop them from suicide. Part of the article talks about that - how the man in the photo is restraining the woman from jumping, not accosting her.

But this is not the interesting part. Focus. More interesting than that is that she is not wearing her shoes. You probably know that it`s important to take off your shoes before going into a Japanese house. You may have heard that suicide is a common way of dealing with problems in Japan (sure, and getting fat is the common one in America). And third, you may or may not know that there is a cultural "thing" where you`re supposed to take off your shoes before you kill yourself.

No, really.

Well, why?


""Not wearing footwear" (or other clothing below the waist) is hakanai in Japanese. A word of similar pronunciation means "empty" or "hopeless". A pun is made by asking why people remove their footwear before killing themselves. The punch line is Hakanai jinsei da kara -- "Because life is hopeless." (WW)"
says the commentary.

"Showing footwear being removed, at a parapet or railing, or at the water's edge on a beach or embankment, is a common signal in film and tv that someone is about to die. ... A scene ending with such removal is every bit as predictive as one in which a couple closes a bedroom door on the camera or switch off a light."

Now, the question is chicken-or-egg. Did de-shoeing before death become popularized, or does it have a deeper cultural origin? How do people know to take off their shoes before they jump off a bridge? I`ll have to grab some classic lit (or pre-widespread-newspapers) and ask my conversation partner next time we talk if he knows the reason for it...if not, I would guess that it is a popularized symbol, rather than one with a particularly meaningful origin. Could Japan have secularized so much so fast that people forgot? I don`t think it would happen that quickly.

Interesting bit #2 -- The lady in the story was a Niigata geisha. Niigata has one of the bigger geisha areas in Japan. They are called 芸妓 (げいぎ, geigi) and are in Niigata City`s Furumachi. And me with a brand-new memory card! : D

Yes, we do this in pre-school in Niigata, too. (link)

One of my favorite things in my house is the ring of the doorbell. ( Read more... )

Kaito-kun

Months back, during National Sports Day in Octoberish, ( Read more about how Christmas came about )

Okay, I gotta get to the store to get bread for tomorrow, so the rest will have to wait. In the mean time, have pictures.

Tokyo and Shinks
Snow Monkeys!!! and some other stuff too, I guess
New Year's and Flaming Squid
Oma Zaki and Really Slippery Stairs

Back from Oma safely...Matt did most of the driving, which may have been a good thing. After 12 hours of sleeping, I'm feeling about coherent enough to tell the tale...I'll make sure to do it before bed. And there'll be pictures, too. Oh ho ho ho...

Or the beginning?

This is why my coworkers are jealous of me; this is what being 22 is.

( +9 )

( Gaijin, mostly (+3) )

( Three pictures )

Two photos...( Read more... )

I eat kyushoku (lunch) with the students. ( Read more... )

Last night I made curry and it was amazing. I think next time I won't put the instant coffee in unless I have a different brand - it just tasted like there was instant coffee in it instead of having the really rich, nice taste it had when Mori-okaasan (my first host mother) made it in Nagasaki - but the jam was a definite plus. Maybe I'll try adding some vanilla...

The brand I have is "Vermont Curry" which is...kind of confused. Yes, the curry itself is confused. It is genuine Japanese curry made from genuine Japanese apples in a hearty Vermontian style or something. I'm sure that 95% of Japanese people would not be able to find Vermont on a map.

Anyway. I put in potatoes, onions, bean sprouts, and carrots, and next time I'd like to put in a few apple pieces. It was served a'top of rice with a side salad and a cup of tea.
( Read more... )

Nope, he was busy. Oh well. I moped around the city today a little, partly because I'd been hopeful. I mean, new people! That I can communicate with! In English!! I get a little too excited about this kind of socialization, really... I ended up having a really good time though; I did a little bit of shopping, got some more JLPT books, studied a bunch while I had lunch/dinner/thing, and went around singing "The First Single" by The Format, which is ridiculously cheery-sounding. I snuck up on gaijin while singing it a few times...it's always funny to see that, "hey, wait, that's not Japanese!" realization. Everyone has really different reactions, too - some people are entertained, some people are really polite, some greet you cheerfully, and some are like, "why are you bothering me?" or, "how does both of us not being Japanese give you the right to engage me in conversation?" IT'S JUST TALKING AND BEING NICE. GAWHD.

Napoleon Dynamite references aside, ( Read more... )