Panda Movers
There`s a company around the corner of a block from me called "Hikkoshi SAKAI" (I don`t know what SAKAI means, but their logo is a panda, so I nicknamed the place "Panda Moving") I always walk by in the afternoon as they`re bringing trucks in and out, doing their daily business, and I`ve been known to raid their vending machine for warm milk tea. Anyways, the interesting thing, is every morning before work starts they all line up outside in a square formation with the boss in front, wearing bright yellow jumpsuits with the logo of a panda head on the front. They greet their boss, he reads out the daily plan, they then recite the company motto in unison, then they bow again and the working day begins. This isn`t unusual for a Japanese company, retail or corporate (I`ve never run across it in the US, it could exist though) To the point that it doesn`t normally strike me as odd, but the sheer ridiculousness of the poor men at Hikkoshi Sakai makes me sensitized to it.
Just had class on the 5th floor of J-building, and thanks to the rain yesterday all the smog was cleared from the air, and I could see across all of Nagoya and up to the mountains. It was very pretty. Of course I think I woke up hungry this morning, had no time for breakfast, and spent two of my three class periods of Japanese class daydreaming about food. Then I promptly snarfed down some curry at one of the cafeterias, and am now bravely fighting food coma. That fact that 75% of what I wish I could use this computer for isn`t working isn`t helping either. zzzZzzzZZZzz
Now it`s making funny noises. *clurnka-clurnka, sheeee--*
Someday my wrath at the Nanzan network will be unleashed and it won`t be a pretty sight. I`m having flashbacks to some of my old computers, when the mouse cursor disappeared, AIM wouldn`t work for about 2 months straight, html buttons wouldn`t depress, the nm keys and asdf keys were all linked to the point you couldn`t get one or the other but all at once. At least we`re not to the point of having to completely reload an OS, or having an explosion on our hands >.> wasn`t me... Though speaking of Banpei, I picked up two volumes of Ah! My Goddess manga at the used book store the other day (100 yen a volume) They`re a little tricky to read given that there`s no furigana to the kanji characters, but I persevered through them, very cute. At one point Banpei falls in love with a store mannequin, and Skuld ends up with the thing, and gives it a personality, the ability to walk, etc... only problem is that it sorta hates Banpei. I`m tempted to buy the next volume to find out if things ever resolve. But I`ve been somewhat following a variety of other comic books as well. (a few of which, Parfait Chic, X1999, Addicted to Curry, Peach Girl... and I`m absolutely wriggling until the next volume of Hana Yori Dango comes out, it should be any day now >( there are definitely bad things about having a giant used book store on the road to school.
I must admit that being here is a tad frustrating, given that my Japanese is improving slightly, but I think that my english is getting worse at a faster rate. Just the other day I referred to something as *conbinient* (as, in Japanese the convenience store is referred to as a "conbini") and I`ve started forgetting verbs and throwing them in at the end of the sentence in the wrong form, and just in general speaking some bastardized version of the two languages to the other exchange students. "He said the denji-renji jisho was nanasen en, but sakae ni itta toki, all I saw was ni-man en ijou ones." This sentence makes perfect sense to me.
Oooh, joke time-- told a lot of these in Japanese in Calligraphy class yesterday:
Q: What`s stupider than a brunette and a redhead who build a house underwater?
A. A blonde who tries to set fire to it.
Ugh, we got talking about skiing in class today and now I`m craving some snow with some use. Well- actually I started remembering trying to get off the lift, doing the step-and-flail, falling, knocking my knee against the snowboard binding and hobbling with a green-purple-yellow bruise. So I`m consumed with the desire to do better next time.
Wow, I apologize. I realize that I just wrote a lot of worthless junk. That`s what happens when I try and talk about something interesting, but am actually just helping people with random translations and not really paying any attention at all to my livejournal.
Just had class on the 5th floor of J-building, and thanks to the rain yesterday all the smog was cleared from the air, and I could see across all of Nagoya and up to the mountains. It was very pretty. Of course I think I woke up hungry this morning, had no time for breakfast, and spent two of my three class periods of Japanese class daydreaming about food. Then I promptly snarfed down some curry at one of the cafeterias, and am now bravely fighting food coma. That fact that 75% of what I wish I could use this computer for isn`t working isn`t helping either. zzzZzzzZZZzz
Now it`s making funny noises. *clurnka-clurnka, sheeee--*
Someday my wrath at the Nanzan network will be unleashed and it won`t be a pretty sight. I`m having flashbacks to some of my old computers, when the mouse cursor disappeared, AIM wouldn`t work for about 2 months straight, html buttons wouldn`t depress, the nm keys and asdf keys were all linked to the point you couldn`t get one or the other but all at once. At least we`re not to the point of having to completely reload an OS, or having an explosion on our hands >.> wasn`t me... Though speaking of Banpei, I picked up two volumes of Ah! My Goddess manga at the used book store the other day (100 yen a volume) They`re a little tricky to read given that there`s no furigana to the kanji characters, but I persevered through them, very cute. At one point Banpei falls in love with a store mannequin, and Skuld ends up with the thing, and gives it a personality, the ability to walk, etc... only problem is that it sorta hates Banpei. I`m tempted to buy the next volume to find out if things ever resolve. But I`ve been somewhat following a variety of other comic books as well. (a few of which, Parfait Chic, X1999, Addicted to Curry, Peach Girl... and I`m absolutely wriggling until the next volume of Hana Yori Dango comes out, it should be any day now >( there are definitely bad things about having a giant used book store on the road to school.
I must admit that being here is a tad frustrating, given that my Japanese is improving slightly, but I think that my english is getting worse at a faster rate. Just the other day I referred to something as *conbinient* (as, in Japanese the convenience store is referred to as a "conbini") and I`ve started forgetting verbs and throwing them in at the end of the sentence in the wrong form, and just in general speaking some bastardized version of the two languages to the other exchange students. "He said the denji-renji jisho was nanasen en, but sakae ni itta toki, all I saw was ni-man en ijou ones." This sentence makes perfect sense to me.
Oooh, joke time-- told a lot of these in Japanese in Calligraphy class yesterday:
Q: What`s stupider than a brunette and a redhead who build a house underwater?
A. A blonde who tries to set fire to it.
Ugh, we got talking about skiing in class today and now I`m craving some snow with some use. Well- actually I started remembering trying to get off the lift, doing the step-and-flail, falling, knocking my knee against the snowboard binding and hobbling with a green-purple-yellow bruise. So I`m consumed with the desire to do better next time.
Wow, I apologize. I realize that I just wrote a lot of worthless junk. That`s what happens when I try and talk about something interesting, but am actually just helping people with random translations and not really paying any attention at all to my livejournal.