Things I've Purchased: Dressing Table

This will be the first in a series of posts about any remotely unusual items I have purchased here in Japan. 

So, as I mentioned previously, we have to put a little effort into the heating and cooling of our house.  But no matter what we might do, our bathrooms are always the least comfortable rooms, temperature-wise.  So, I don't really want to spend a lot of time in there primping.  When I do have to look decent I tend to take over our computer desk and leave makeup and bobby pins all over the place.  For some reason, this really bothers Chad.

Fortunately, I had just the solution to his problem....I had recently seen a remarkable array of cute little dressing tables in a furniture store called Nitori.  Nitori is kind of a really small-scale Ikea-ish chain store.  I wish I had a photo of all the tiny dressing tables (maybe sixteen different ones) or that I could find them on their website but no such luck.

While purchasing one I discovered that the store didn't keep them in stock, but instead would deliver it (for free) to my house on a day I named.  Accomplishing all this in Japanese was a trick, but I managed. 



The actual process of having it delivered, on the other hand, was excruciatingly difficult.  I know how to say "please come in", "put it here please" and "thank you very much".  I thought that would be all I needed.  Instead, two guys showed up and started jibbering at me and handing me forms to read.  My neighbor wouldn't answer her door, and Chad (who has bilingual co-workers all around him) wouldn't answer his phone.  So the poor delivery man and I conducted almost the entire conversation on our cell phone translation programs.  Turns out, he had to inspect the walls in my house and point out every little dent and ding to me before he could bring the table in.  I had to watch him bring it in very carefully.  Then I had to inspect the table very carefully.  Then we had to go back through the house and review all the dents and dings and agree that they were the same ones as before. 

All while pecking on our cell phones and holding them up to one another.  Sigh.  I feel like I am making progress on speaking Japanese and reading Japanese but understanding a native speaker who is speaking natural Japanese at their normal speed is extremely challenging.

But I have a really cute dressing table now. ;)

Fun with Adjectives & Idioms

I love learning Japanese idioms.  And I am good at remembering the words for various adjectives.  So when they are combined it makes for a fun class.

To indicate that someone can't keep a secret you say they have a "light mouth". 

To indicate that someone can keep a secret or doesn't talk much, you say they have a "heavy mouth".

To indicate that someone is lazy you say they have "heavy hips".

And to indicate that a woman is, <ahem> ...."easy", you say she has "light hips".

Huh?

I know there are a lot of photos on the Internet of crazy English signs in foreign countries.....well, here's one more.  I will say that most of the English signs here aren't too bad.  Sometimes the grammer is a little off but you can get the gist of it....

....with the exception of the sign below that is at the drive-through of a local McDonalds.   I have theory that instruction is needed because there just aren't that many drive-throughs here....but I'm not sure this instruction helps much.  I hope it's better in Japanese.

Also, I've been a little slack about blogging the last few days (I've had an unusual number of social engagements!) but we have an exciting adventure planned for this weekend so check back next week for lots of photos!

I think #4 indicates that a lot of people show coupons
from their cellphone?  Is that a thing now?

Bookstore Blues

I torture myself occasionally by going to the bookstore in the mall.  It's torture because there are only two shelves of English books and, while the selection is pretty good, I've read half of them.  I'm saving the rest for an emergency (the ones that aren't dead boring, that is).

Everything else is still virtually impossible for me to read....for now.  (I recently started making my own flash cards of Japanese characters....it's very first grade.)  I content myself with wandering around trying to decipher what each section is.  The situation isn't that dire though, I can order books from iBooks and Nook to read on my iPad and I do so often enough to keep my sanity.  I also brought all my favorites along with me and I can re-read most of those at least once or twice a year.

I haven't even found the library yet.  I know there is one in Ota but so far no one had been able to give me sufficient directions.  Probably for the best.....a building full of free books I can't read might do me in.

the English section

this, I have determined, is the travel section

sigh

I could probably barely make it through The Very
Hungry Caterpillar or Rainbow Fish

I've scouted the kids section a lot because I know that
is where I'll have to start

Harry Potter

Fun with Japanese

A little while ago I posted about our Japanese lessons.  That was just a (slightly boring) introduction so I could attempt to explain some of the more entertaining bits of Japanese I've learned.   Here are my current most favorite examples:

There is a lot of onomatopoeia in Japanese. The other day I learned the verb "to microwave".  It's "chinmasu" [cheen-mas].  "Masu" is just the standard ending to every Japanese verb so for the purposes of this example you can ignore it.  It's the "chin" that's important.  Where did it come from?  Well, what sound does the microwave make when it's done?   Or rather what's the Japanese interpretation?  You got it.....  "CHEEN!"  

Our teacher taught us a slang way to say "I'm hungry".  You say "peko peko desu" [peck-o peck-o des].  You know the pump dispensers that ketchup is in at Fuddrucker's and Wendy's?  Think about the sound one of those makes when you pump it and it's empty.  Japanese people interpret the empty dispenser sound as "peck-o peck-o" (say it out loud, it's pretty accurate).  As in, I'm still hungry, because this food dispenser is empty. (I think this may be regional slang.) 

And my favorite.....I learned a few different words for "husband" before we came.  But since our current Japanese teacher thinks it's hilarious to teach us to argue with one another in Japanese she taught me a new one, "teishu" [tay-shoe] which is what you call your husband when you're mad at him.  There is even a particular saying in which you use this version which is roughly....."Teishu wa genki de rusugai."  It technically translates as "My husband is healthy, but away."  I think a more accurate translation would be "I'm not mad enough to wish him dead, but it's a good thing the jerk isn't around right now.".  ;D

Gettin' Schooled

So we have both been taking Japanese lessons twice a week for about nine months now, six months of which were in the States. In the States we learned to speak Japanese using the English (aka Roman, aka Romaji) alphabet, which is basically cheating only good for pronunciation.

Real Japanese has three alphabets.  To illustrate, I swiped a handy chart off of a popular encyclopedia site (which incidentally gives a pretty good, super-basic summary of Japanese).  The first three columns are the three Japanese alphabets, the fourth is the English alphabet version. 


When we began our lessons here we were unceremoniously switched to reading the real deal.  Good news is, we both now know the two easier, phonetic alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana). While real written Japanese incorporates all three of the alphabets together, we have found that just our Hiragana and Katakana knowledge really comes in handy.  For example, we have used it to tell shampoo from conditioner and chocolate ice cream from vanilla.  It really helps that a lot of Japanese words (particularly the more modern or "imported" words) are surprisingly similar to the English word.  Notice "tabako" in the chart above.  Can you guess what "shanpuu", "kondishona", "chokoreto" and "banira" are? ;)

from our textbook....believe it or not, we can whip
through that chickenscratch pretty quickly