Feeling kind of emo so here I am . . .
I just went and bought a whole of lot vegies for reasonably cheap which goes a fair way to making me feel a little brighter. I have an idea that I should go out for a walk . . . Maybe go over to a Japanese garden that is apparently really nice, with my exchange student card it's supposedly free. I was also thinking that I should go and print out some of the photos I have taken recently - of Toukasan, etc. as yesterday, Karl showed me how you can go in to a shop and pick and choose which to print for only 19yen each. But then I know that in all likelihood today will be spent doing nothing much and listening to No Sleep Ad Hoc and not doing study that should be started. Even more than that, I'll probably submit to the urge to cooking some of what I just bought - Had a bit of a coup, as here I have only seen corn cobs for ridiculously high prices - at festivals they sell roasted for 500yen - Dude! That's about $6! But got two this morning at the Fresta Sunday morning vegie sale table for only 100yen each! Sweet!
Hung out with a Japanese friend yesterday . . it led to me feeling a bit hopeless because we talked in English a fair amount. Basically because she wanted to which isn't so good for me - and sometimes I would ask her questions in Japanese and she'd answer in English - have I chosen the wrong type of person to befriend ? From looking back at emails I sent her after I first met her, the majority of what I wrote was in English so I suppose that the lengthy decision-making process that we went through, via phone emails, which was all in Japanese was at least, productive . . . When I first met her the fact she spoke good English was a plus, but now it's a little inhibitive . . . In a way, I can't work out why why I'm respoding in this manner. In seems to be a sensible way to approach friendships, to find people who have similar interests, rather than just fuss about language, but I am here to learn the language . . . and when my friend left she said we must both practise Japanese and English, respectively very hard from now until next we meet so that we will be more able to talk to each other more readily . . . so she is encouraging me to speak Japanese . . . and if nothing else, it's all cultural exchange, ね？
And she did teach me a number of new words . . .
On our way back from Fresta to get groceries we saw the crescent moon which she said in Japanese is 三日月（みかつき-mikatsuki) the kanji mean third day moon. In my denki jisho (電気辞書-electronic dictionary) this is variously translated as new moon or crescent moon.
Full moon, she said, is mangetsu - 満月 (まんげつ). Man, she said, means round, and getsu or tsuki, the reading varies, depending on the context means moon or month - the lunar month connection.
The other day in music history class we studying Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which quite uncommonly, I have always liked (and wished I could play) and so I learned the Japanese for Moonlight - 月光 (げっこう) which you read gekkou (pretty much like the little lizard critter). Whilst in Parco yesterday, from one of the highest floors, we had a great view of the city, and though the morning had been damp, by that time in the late afternoon, the sun was glancing out through clouds over some of the skyscrapers . . . so I learnt the word for sunlight too - nikkou - 日光 (にっこう).
We went the Art gallery together and discussed the works - which is partly why I liked her because she is applying to study art in London or New York. She wants me to come and visit her house, which is near Miyajima - which is nice - she said we could go to the aquarium at Miyajima and that her Mum will teach me how to make sushi - as her Mum made chirashizushi for her to bring to the cooking night we had a while back and I ate most of it and then got to keep the rest for my lunch the next day. So that's more of what I want to do; meet random people and their families and learn to cook Japanese food - yay!
I think I should stop being quite so hard on myself for not using Japanese all of the time - I suppose I can't help but compare myself to others who are rather more advance than I, at present. So, last night, we made a variant form of Tacos for dinner, which what ingredient I could scrounge, and a tofeese cake which was sweeter than usual but still very good - I added currants this time . . yummo! Tacos were pretty good though rather unauthentic, but now I have lots of vegie leftovers for lunch today - speaking of which I'm feeling peckish despite having only eaten breakfast before I went shopping . .
Last night, after my friend had gone to catch her train home and I had spent a lot of time cleaning up and packing away leftovers I felt rather melancholic. I was hit hard by the absence of those about whom I care most. It is one of the fist times this has happened in a whole big hunk. Of course, I frequently has recourse to miss these people, but I generally have other people around to fill the hole quickly, so the attacks are much less extreme; are diluted. However, after the events of the day, which weren't bad, they were good, but were the kinds of things that I would usually do with friends and family, so it felt weird to have struggled through a day of such commonplace activities in such a foreign setting . . . it really brought home their absence . . .
I think I'm also missing Julie too - the readily available easy female contact, that of someone I feel really comfortable with . . .
On more quirky notes . . .
In Tower Records at Parco yesterday we were discussing music taste and I randomly galnced about to see the recent CD by New Buffalo - bloody hell Japan . . .
I have recently, through some of our Japanese class homework, found that 'to record' in Japan is, funnily enough, 録音 which is pronounced roku-on, which quite obviously, to me anyway, sounds like 'rock on' but with the crazy Japanised accent. Thus we have to keep talking about rokuon-teepu (rock on! tapes!) and yet, it's a country full of terribly infectuous J-pop.
I think there was something else I intended to say but hey, I've already gone a long way to fulfilling my own prophecy about how my day would eventuate, so I better not disappoint with the rest . . what shall I go cook now ?
Oh yeah, on Friday night Karl and I watched Hero(英雄 - kanji seems to be the same for both Japanese and Chinese, so that's another word for the vocab list)and it was good, Aliese.
Hung out with a Japanese friend yesterday . . it led to me feeling a bit hopeless because we talked in English a fair amount. Basically because she wanted to which isn't so good for me - and sometimes I would ask her questions in Japanese and she'd answer in English - have I chosen the wrong type of person to befriend ? From looking back at emails I sent her after I first met her, the majority of what I wrote was in English so I suppose that the lengthy decision-making process that we went through, via phone emails, which was all in Japanese was at least, productive . . . When I first met her the fact she spoke good English was a plus, but now it's a little inhibitive . . . In a way, I can't work out why why I'm respoding in this manner. In seems to be a sensible way to approach friendships, to find people who have similar interests, rather than just fuss about language, but I am here to learn the language . . . and when my friend left she said we must both practise Japanese and English, respectively very hard from now until next we meet so that we will be more able to talk to each other more readily . . . so she is encouraging me to speak Japanese . . . and if nothing else, it's all cultural exchange, ね？
And she did teach me a number of new words . . .
On our way back from Fresta to get groceries we saw the crescent moon which she said in Japanese is 三日月（みかつき-mikatsuki) the kanji mean third day moon. In my denki jisho (電気辞書-electronic dictionary) this is variously translated as new moon or crescent moon.
Full moon, she said, is mangetsu - 満月 (まんげつ). Man, she said, means round, and getsu or tsuki, the reading varies, depending on the context means moon or month - the lunar month connection.
The other day in music history class we studying Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which quite uncommonly, I have always liked (and wished I could play) and so I learned the Japanese for Moonlight - 月光 (げっこう) which you read gekkou (pretty much like the little lizard critter). Whilst in Parco yesterday, from one of the highest floors, we had a great view of the city, and though the morning had been damp, by that time in the late afternoon, the sun was glancing out through clouds over some of the skyscrapers . . . so I learnt the word for sunlight too - nikkou - 日光 (にっこう).
We went the Art gallery together and discussed the works - which is partly why I liked her because she is applying to study art in London or New York. She wants me to come and visit her house, which is near Miyajima - which is nice - she said we could go to the aquarium at Miyajima and that her Mum will teach me how to make sushi - as her Mum made chirashizushi for her to bring to the cooking night we had a while back and I ate most of it and then got to keep the rest for my lunch the next day. So that's more of what I want to do; meet random people and their families and learn to cook Japanese food - yay!
I think I should stop being quite so hard on myself for not using Japanese all of the time - I suppose I can't help but compare myself to others who are rather more advance than I, at present. So, last night, we made a variant form of Tacos for dinner, which what ingredient I could scrounge, and a tofeese cake which was sweeter than usual but still very good - I added currants this time . . yummo! Tacos were pretty good though rather unauthentic, but now I have lots of vegie leftovers for lunch today - speaking of which I'm feeling peckish despite having only eaten breakfast before I went shopping . .
Last night, after my friend had gone to catch her train home and I had spent a lot of time cleaning up and packing away leftovers I felt rather melancholic. I was hit hard by the absence of those about whom I care most. It is one of the fist times this has happened in a whole big hunk. Of course, I frequently has recourse to miss these people, but I generally have other people around to fill the hole quickly, so the attacks are much less extreme; are diluted. However, after the events of the day, which weren't bad, they were good, but were the kinds of things that I would usually do with friends and family, so it felt weird to have struggled through a day of such commonplace activities in such a foreign setting . . . it really brought home their absence . . .
I think I'm also missing Julie too - the readily available easy female contact, that of someone I feel really comfortable with . . .
On more quirky notes . . .
In Tower Records at Parco yesterday we were discussing music taste and I randomly galnced about to see the recent CD by New Buffalo - bloody hell Japan . . .
I have recently, through some of our Japanese class homework, found that 'to record' in Japan is, funnily enough, 録音 which is pronounced roku-on, which quite obviously, to me anyway, sounds like 'rock on' but with the crazy Japanised accent. Thus we have to keep talking about rokuon-teepu (rock on! tapes!) and yet, it's a country full of terribly infectuous J-pop.
I think there was something else I intended to say but hey, I've already gone a long way to fulfilling my own prophecy about how my day would eventuate, so I better not disappoint with the rest . . what shall I go cook now ?
Oh yeah, on Friday night Karl and I watched Hero(英雄 - kanji seems to be the same for both Japanese and Chinese, so that's another word for the vocab list)and it was good, Aliese.
posted by Eleanora Martinez at 5:45 AM
1 Comments:
oh lady, i hope that you're over your sadness. you were missed at the party last night.
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