Smorgasbord

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As an apology for not posting on Friday (and to ensure that the Chronotrigger post truly was 号外), I’ll give you a double dose today starting with a smorgasboard (read: extremely bloggy) entry.

– I was down in Tokyo this weekend, carting down another load of crap from Fukushima. The preferred method of transportation between Tokyo and Aizu is, of course, the Sakura Bus. They started off as a small private company running buses between Naka-dori (中通) cities and Tokyo, but expanded to Aizu. Three years ago they had a one bus a day from Wakamatsu to Tokyo and one return. The bus left Wakamatsu at 7am and arrived at Tokyo station between 11 and 11:30, generally on the early side. Now they run at least three buses every day, and more on the weekends/Fridays. Last night I rode the newly introduced bus with three-seat rows. Very comfortable.

– I now have a TV-capable cell phone. I switched from docomo to au. When you join a new plan, you can get a slightly older model phone for 1 yen. Still, it’s a lot newer than my three year old phone, and the pricing plans are just about the same. I’m not sure why you wouldn’t switch to a new phone every two years, unless you were extremely satisfied with your phone. Additionally, au is giving 10,000 yen cash back gifts to all people who have an existing number switched to an au plan. I think this campaign lasts until the end of the summer.

– The place I’m living is about a 20-minute walk from Ooi Station (damn inability to find long vowel marking!) – 大井駅. I walked over there yesterday afternoon and was browsing Ito Yokado. I got to the top floor and was surprised to find a Café du Monde! The single most famous café in New Orleans, now accessible by foot! Apparently it’s been there over ten years. I knew there was one in Kyoto Station, but the lady said they also have one in Ikebukuro as well as a few other Kanto locations. Highly recommended.

– My new roommates are hilarious. I have four Japanese roommates and a Korean roommate. The Korean was studying Japanese when I got back from Ito Yokado, and one of my Japanese roommates asked what he was studying. He started talking about what patterns he was studying, including the pattern 「〜というと、」Another Japanese chimed in, 「夏というと、ビアガーデン」He then added, “We should make a pact. Whenever the temperature goes over 30 degrees, let’s go to a beer garden.” “Huuuuh,” said a third Japanese roommate, “It gets pretty hot all the time.” “Yeah,” the guy said, “It’d be like, aww, it’s over 30 again. I guess it’s beer garden time.”

– I’d like to direct your attention to the links on the right for a moment. If you’re not already reading Japan Navigator, you really should start. Ad Blankestijn, man of incredibly cool Scandinavian (? or Dutch?) name, has been blogging prolific about Japan, and, judging from the lack of comments (just like yours truly), it appears he needs either more readers or a more vocal readership. I will endeavor to comment on his interesting entries. Recent good reads include a review of Donald Richie’s The Inland Sea, a very nice entry about cup sake, and a look at Japanese ghosts and why the Japanese tell ghost stories during the summer. (Strangely enough, the Eiji Wentz movie-version of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro was on TV Saturday night.)

 – One of my new favorite spaces in Tokyo is just inside the Underground Central Exit of Tokyo, which is apparently called Tokyo Station City GranSta. I’m not sure exactly when it was finished, but it’s filled with gourmet bento stores, extremely high quality delis (Dean and Deluca, Burdigala Express, Bagel and Bagel), a nice liquor store, and a nice cupcake store (Fairycake Fair). If you’re looking for a lunch to eat on the train to the airport or on a shinkansen or bus ride and have cash to burn (it’s pricey), definitely check this area out. It’s in the basement under Yaesu Central Exit.    

– Speaking of booze, the best place to access quality booze close to Tokyo Station is in the basement of Daimaru. It’s just on the north side of Yaesu Central Exit. Ride the escalator down and you’ll find a remarkable variety of local Japanese beers including Yona Yona, Karuizawa, Oedo, what must be the full line of Hitachino Nest, and a host of imports. Drink, drink, and be merry, I say!

Cool Compound – 青春

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This compound literally means “blue/green spring," close enough to its actually meaning – “youth.” It’s used all over the place, notably in 青春１８切符 – the Youth 18 Ticket, a special Japanese train ticket that gives you five days of unlimited rides on local trains. While the title of the ticket includes both “youth” and “18,” anyone can use the ticket. It’s only available during school holidays – summer (July 20 to September 10), winter (December 10 – January 20), and spring (March 1 – April 10) vacations.

The five days can be used non-consecutively, but you have to ride local trains – i.e. trains that don’t require a 特急券 (とっきゅうけん, express fee), so some 快速 are included. The best part of the ticket is that it costs a mere 11,000 yen, or just over 2000 yen per day! To be used effectively, though, it does require that you ride for hours on end, but, hey, get some beers and a bento and enjoy the ride.

Some of the special trains that are somewhat-limited-express are the overnight trains. I’ve only ever taken the Moonlight Kyushu that runs between Hakata and Shin-Osaka, but there are several others. The Moonlight Nagara has a stop that departs after midnight, which means you only need to use one of your five days (if you are on the train when it crosses over midnight, you’ll have to stamp twice…unless you’re lucky – video requires facebook membership).

Summer vacation doesn’t start for a while, but it’s critical that you reserve your spot on these overnight trains a month in advance (the reservation only costs an extra 500 yen…make sure to tell them you’re using the Youth 18 Ticket). They sell seats on these trains starting a month before departure, and they are extremely popular (especially the dates around the start and end of the New Years’ holidays); people line up to buy tickets at 5am on the day one month before they leave.

For more information, please consult the following sites:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Seishun_18_Ticket
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2362.html

Keep Your Eyes Open

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I was at elementary school on Monday. There’s one sixth grade student who doesn’t go to class. He sits in the office making papercraft all day. They’ve actually given him his own desk. I take over the desk on Mondays. This past Monday this is what it looked like:

 

One of the teacher’s has put out a lot of stuff for him. In the middle, next to the pens and slightly behind the laptop, you can see times tables sitting there in the hopes that he will absorb them. I looked closer at the chart next to the Pooh mug:

 

It’s a science chart. It may or may not be helping him, but it sure helped me. I knew 根（ね） and 葉（は）, but hadn’t learned, or maybe couldn’t remember, 茎（くき）. It just goes to show what you can learn from keeping your eyes open.

Cool Compound – 購入

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I remember seeing 購入（こうにゅう） in an email at some point during my third year of study and being significantly confused. At that point I didn’t have enough experience to realize that 購入 was simply 買う in a more complicated disguise – think "purchase" instead of "buy."

Friday Puzzle – You Little Pun(k)

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On Monday, a little second grader marched into the teacher’s office, announcing, “I’m Tatsuyoshi from second grade and I’m here to see Chika-sensei. May I come in.” After a few moments it was clear he was just bored, and two teachers had the following conversation:

「本当に用ないでしょう」
「ようなし」

which prompted a round of laughter. Your goal is to explain why it’s funny.

The prize if you win? One can of 100% barley malt beer – e.g. Ebisu, Suntory Malts, Asahi Premium.

Please do not post your answer in the comments. Send it to me via email or facebook. My email address is るぱんさんせい (romanized) at-mark gmail dot com.

Friday Puzzle – This Picture is an Image, Clearly Answer

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I had a record number of entries (6!) for this weeks puzzle! Lots of interesting ideas. I’ll go through them.

Robyn suggested “Serving suggestion,” which he said was from Australia. I like the efficiency (it was the shortest answer), but it sounds more like a recommended amount of food (e.g. one cup, two doughnuts, 27 Miller Lites) than a warning about possible misrepresentation.

Brian suggested “Enlarged to show texture,” which is so awesome and sensuous (mmm…texture) and sounds very familiar to me, but the “enlarged” part takes more license than I would like.

Kiyoe offered the excellent “This is an artistic representation of the product,” which may have been the sole winner had she submitted it as “Artistic Representation, but…

The winner for serious answers goes to Aleisha, Kiyoe and Randall, who all suggested slight variations on the traditional, “Actual product may vary.” I’m feeling generous, so instead of random selection, I’ll give a beer to everyone. This phrase is, if you think about it hard enough, just as strange as 「写真は、イメージです」 Seriously, how much will this product actually vary? And in what way will it vary? I hope not too much.

I was disappointed with everyone’s attempts at humor. Thomas’ “Your Mileage May Vary” came closest, so he gets a can of 発泡酒 (or Miller Lite, whichever he prefers).

I leave you with a bunch of “proz” discussing this term. (Strangely enough, another Morales raised the question!) If you ask me, they’re all just a bunch of toolz. You guys did much better.

More Warning Signs

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I spent the last couple of months apartment hunting in Tokyo. At first I hoped to get my own apartment, but after realizing that would require an initial payment of $3000 plus to an agency, I started to look for a roomshare.

Fortunately, there are some nice websites out there. I replied to several ads and even put up one of my own. I ended up exchanging a lot of emails with Japanese people, and the thing that surprised me was that in nearly all cases, they began mails with 「last nameです」 or 「first nameです」, so 「田中です」 or 「洋平です」 This continued no matter how many emails we exchanged, which I thought was weird at first. Of course I knew who the person was. Did they really think I had forgotten?

I eventually started thinking of it in terms of airbag phrases; it’s just a polite way to begin a Japanese email, a warning sign of sorts, one that’s used on the phone as well. Does it require a translation or easily identifiable English equivalent? Hell no. Get used to it.

Cool Onomatopoeia – じめじめ

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Well, you can mark it. Rainy season has just begun in Nishiaizu. It started raining yesterday at around 7 or 8 at night. Up until early last week, it was still a little chilly at night, and the air was crisp, but on Friday it finally got humid – it felt like someone put a lid over this whole area.

One of my favorite parts about being a JET is listening to the Japanese teachers talk to the students in Japanese. I’ve picked up a lot of useful phrases over the last few years. I used 「反応なし」 quite a bit my first year and finally understood how to create simple imperative sentences like 「声を出すんだ」 my second year.

On Friday I heard the teacher use the phrase じめじめ after I said it was really humid during the introductions. Pretty easy to understand from the context. I went to double check it in alc before writing this post, but nothing came up, so I googled it.

じめじめ is an example of Japanese onomatopoeia/mimetic words. Often two syllables are repeated. Knowing a decent number of these will really expand your vocabulary. The meaning for each different is often very specific, which also makes them very efficient.

Usage varies, but there are several distinct patterns:

– X（と）したY　　じめじめした梅雨
– Xです　　　　　  じめじめです
– XとZ　　　　　　にっこりと笑う
– Xする                　　ぶらぶらする

I found this example of the じめじめ usage, and this excellent grammatical explanation of onomatopoeia – in Japanese 擬音語（ぎおんご） and 擬態語（ぎたいご）.