Heavy...

I'm studying the adjectives from the JLPT 4 list that I'm not solid on yet. One of them is 重い (omoi) which means "heavy." It's kind of similar to 遅い (osoi) which means "slow" and 面白い (omoshiroi) which means "interesting." There are a lot of adjectives in this list like short, weak, thin, light, etc., and almost all of them end in "~い", which makes them easily confused.

In order to study for the JLPT 3, I've started going through and making sure I understand everything on JLPT 4 (which is included - the lower the number, the higher the level). I found a list of the vocabulary for the test online and I used TextWrangler to strip out the HTML and replace table cell tags with pipes | so I could then import the whole thing into Excel as a spreadsheet. Basically, I created a very simple database. Within Excel, it's pretty easy to sort by column (I have hiragana, kanji, English, part of speech, and number in the list).

I added a column and then spent about an hour or 2 going through and marking all the words I already know from the list. Out of the 728 words on the list, I feel confident about 500 of them, so now I'm going through the remaining 228 words. I made flashcards for about 35 of them today, and I'll continue like this through the rest of the month. I hope to have all the vocab and kanji for JLPT 4 down, cold, by the end of July.

I added 4 more columns to my list of words I don't know. These columns are examples using the word in Japanese and the corresponding English in the next column. I included 2 examples (for the total 4 columns) for each of the words I was struggling to memorize. This has been really helpful for grammar and context, but also just for memorization.

Which brings me back to "heavy." I found a great way to say "He's lazy" in Japanese. Usually, I'd just say "彼は怠け者です。" - He is a lazy person. But this is much more interesting:

彼の尻が重い。

"His ass is heavy."

Sometimes I really love Japanese.

Science Spelled Backwards is C-U-I-S-I-N-E

Japanese lesson for the day:

理科 is "science" and is pronounced "ri ka"
理 means "reason"
科 means "materials" (or "rate" or "fee")

Reverse the kanji, and you get 料理 - "ryou ri"

"cuisine" or "cooking"

I Have a Crush on Mari Arai

About a month ago I read After Dark by Haruki Murakami

The book sped by pretty quickly and kept my interest well enough. The interspliced chapters involving the TV in a sleeping girl's room, unplugged, but mysteriously on, with a figure in a chair on the screen, masked with a strange filmy substance across his face, watching the girl through the screen, are reminiscent of elements of Lost Highway or Mulholland Dr.

The translation captures SO much about Japan, but I wonder if that's because I've been here. I think so, in many ways. Murakami uses just enough to evoke certain images, and though the book is set in Tokyo, I know the same sorts of places in Osaka and it all comes together in my head very clearly. The setting for this book is very similar to the neighborhood in Osaka where I DJ once a month.

In the end, it's kind of sentimental. That's not unusual with Murakami, who seems to be a sort of nostalgia junkie and has this sense of sappiness that is overwhelmingly Japanese. Some things seem created for the sole purpose of producing the sense of 懐かしい - natsukashii, a sense of melodramatic nostalgia and reminiscence, and Murakami taps into that often in his books.

I read many reviews that really panned this book and trashed it. Since I've only read one of his novels (his first, Hear the Song of the Wind / Listen to the Wind Sing, not available in the USA) and some short stories (from Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, I didn't walk in with any expectations - which seems to be a big part of what turned off many readers, especially fans of Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The plot is pretty thin, for sure. It's an interesting exercise in changing perspective, and it's really a set of intertwine analogies about the modern urban Japanese condition.

I liked it. But I didn't love it. I did, however, come to really like the main character, Mari Arai.

Japanese Working Poor

I want to watch this film soon:



Sadly, can't watch the whole thing streaming from the site, ironically, because I'm IN JAPAN.

Seafood

Tonight's dinner:

あさり - asari, manila clams
sweat onions and garlic in olive oil
add asari and just enough Yellowtail Chardonnay to cover
steam for 5-10 minutes (tops)

鮭甘口 - shake amakuchi, sweet salmon
cut carrots, crush or chop garlic
add several slices of butter
add salmon, wrap all in a foil packet
broil/bake on high
30-90 minutes (depends on the fish and the thickness and amount of carrots)

カニ蒲 - kani kama, imitation crab meat
Ritz crackers, sliced tomato, cream cheese
flake-style fake crab
nice appetizer

白ワイン - shiro wain, white wine
a glass or three of the Yellowtail Chardonnay

If I'd been thinking far enough ahead, I might have added some わかめ - wakame, soft green seaweed to the appetizers

That Postmodernist Condition

Quote of the Day:

"Now the world has changed. Nobody is sure who is good or who is evil. The whole world is becoming borderless and unstable. The manga world's ambiguity has become realistic."

1up

This is IT!

Birthday Pottery

My birthday was about a month ago. I turned 37 years old. Sevens always make numbers look bigger, or more significant, or something. I dunno. Anyway, I don't really feel much different, though.

Chiho took the day off work and we went to Nara City. She surprised me by taking me to a pottery shop, where the owner taught us to make clay coil pots and cups. We talked with him for awhile, and then he took our picture and put it on his blog. Really fun and cool!

Afterward, we went to MosBurger for dinner, and then we went to see Eagle Eye. Not very good, but the violence looked very realistic. Eh.

I also picked up a "sound drop keychain" with the 1UP sound from Super Mario Bros. - It has since become my possession most coveted by my friends. It's the green one in the picture:

映画を作ります

It's the beginning of second term, summer break is over ("break" - ha! for who?) and we're preparing for the 文化祭 (bunkasai) or culture festival. Tomorrow, the students perform skits and music in the gym and sell food they've made. I have tickets for Thai yakisoba, croquette, a frankfurter, tamasen (fried egg on a shrimp cracker with okonomiyaki sauce and mayonaise), and various drinks. On Friday, we'll all head over to Arakashi Hall at the city offices and there will be a talent show with singing, dancing, etc.

So I'm f-ing busy this week (Japanese lesson for today: "クソ忙しい" - kuso isogashii = "f-ing busy") because somehow I ended up 1) juggling at the bunkasai, 2) singing an enka song at the bunkasai, and 3) editing a film I helped shoot and act in for the 3rd year class 4 students. GUH.

So the biggest problem I've encountered thus far - importing layer styles from Photoshop into Final Cut Pro. Thank you, Internet, for helping me solve that problem.

Here's the song I'm singing:


I'm just doing through the first chorus (thank god). I'll be dressed (arguably) like Jero (aka Jerome White, Jr.), the first black American enka singer to take Japan by storm. (@_@)

Tentai Kansoku - Bump of Chicken

Yes. God, what a song.



Lyrics assembled from various sources and some slight translation work on my own.
Thanks to the following:
Anime Lyrics dot Com
Lyric Wiki
Megchan

天体観測 (Star Gazing)

2 o'clock in the morning at the railroad crossing, telescope on my shoulders
The radio tied to my waist said it wouldn't rain

After two minutes, you came with way too many things
Shall we begin watching the night sky and searching for falling stars?

To avoid being swallowed by the darkness,
I earnestly considered holding your trembling hand that night.

Searching for things we can't see, we looked into the telescope
A number of new voices were born which sliced through the darkness
Tomorrow was calling for us, but we never gave it a proper response
We chased the comet named "the present" together

Before I realized it, I began searching for something
Something like the meaning of happiness, or a place to store sadness

From the day I'm born until the moment I die I'll be searching for it
But for now, lets go watch the night sky and search for falling stars

I still remember all the things we found that day,
and I still remember the pain of not holding your trembling hand

Hoping to know the things we didn't know, we peered into the telescope
Hoping to illuminate the darkness with the faint, twinkling lights
And I still remember the pain we discovered through this
Alone, I still chase the comet named "the present" even now

And as we grow up, the number of things I want to tell you also increase
My unaddressed letters have built up into a pile that's so large it looks like it would crumble

I'm doing well. And my worries are few.
But there's one that I still remember even now.

While the rain the reports didn't predict showered on us, you looked like you were about to cry
That day when I didn't take your quivering hand

Searching for things I can see, a telescope on my shoulders again
I run back through the silence and darkness
And I still hold the pain at bay
Alone, I still chase the comet named "the present" even now

Let's meet again one more time, a telescope on my shoulders
At 2 am at the railroad crossing like before
Shall we start watching the stars? Even if you don't arrive 2 minutes later
We'll chase the comet called "The Present" together