Fire BAD, Humidity BAD, Joke Maybe Not So Bad?
At Matsuyama JHS on Tuesday, I helped Mrs. Taniyama, the "youmuin," get seeds out of some VERY hot peppers. A youmuin is someone who does things like gardening, cleaning, making sure the teachers have tea, etc. She wanted to plant these seeds. At one point, I felt an itch in my eye, and forgetting that maybe some residue from the seeds would still be on my fingers, gently rubbed my eye. People suggested that I wash my face with water, and while I know that milk or bread is supposed to be good when you eat something too spicy, I wasn't about to splash milk or rub bread on my face. Needless to say, the water on my face made my eyes swell, and my nose became a cavern of disaster.
About 5.5 hours later, I found out the the cold baths that are in most Japanese bathouses seem to work wonders on an overly-spicy face :)
I know that I've said it gets pretty humid here, and here's an example: I brought some metal coathangers from America, and just last week, I found out that most of them have a significant amount of rust on them! I never thought I'd say this, but does anyone know a good way to get rust out of clothing? I guess I can just bleach the white shirt, but the other one is green.
As part of the ceremony welcoming new students at Tanoura JHS, the student council gives a welcome speech in English. The English teacher at Tanoura suggested that, if we ALTs weren't busy during the spring vacation, we could come and help with pronunciation. After we helped with that, we stayed and talked with a few of the students for a few hours. During the course of that conversation, Kurumi, the student body president, came up with nicknames for we three ALTs based on what we said/did.
Keith: He spent some time talking with Fumiya (one of the boys) about anime and video games of which the rest of us had no clue, so he was dubbed, "otaku".
Nathanial: The fact that he's afraid of bugs and spiders came up several times in the conversation, so his nickname became, "女の子" (little girl). Don't worry, much like anyone who lives here, he's becoming used to large spiders crawling throughout his house at night.
Me: I was dubbed "oyaji," and the reason isn't found anywhere in that Wikipedia article. I had a bottle of water with me, and whenever I took a swig from it, I would let out a loud and overly long "AHHHHHHHHH". Kurumi said that it reminded her of an oyaji. Still, I hear that oyaji only do that when they're drinking an alcoholic beverage.
Anyway, one other thing that oyaji are famous for is oyaji gags. My penpal Emi sent me a really good example of an "oyaji gag" a few years ago. It goes, "アルミ缶の上にあるみかん," and I had to think about it for a good 24 hours to figure out what was funny.
Last week, while studying Japanese, I created my very own joke! It's not as clever as the ones in the wiki, but take a look:
この部屋でハットはご法度だ。 (Maybe I should change the first part to, "建物の中で")
Maybe it doesn't even qualify as an "oyaji gag," but then again in reality I'm no oyaji!
About 5.5 hours later, I found out the the cold baths that are in most Japanese bathouses seem to work wonders on an overly-spicy face :)
I know that I've said it gets pretty humid here, and here's an example: I brought some metal coathangers from America, and just last week, I found out that most of them have a significant amount of rust on them! I never thought I'd say this, but does anyone know a good way to get rust out of clothing? I guess I can just bleach the white shirt, but the other one is green.
As part of the ceremony welcoming new students at Tanoura JHS, the student council gives a welcome speech in English. The English teacher at Tanoura suggested that, if we ALTs weren't busy during the spring vacation, we could come and help with pronunciation. After we helped with that, we stayed and talked with a few of the students for a few hours. During the course of that conversation, Kurumi, the student body president, came up with nicknames for we three ALTs based on what we said/did.
Keith: He spent some time talking with Fumiya (one of the boys) about anime and video games of which the rest of us had no clue, so he was dubbed, "otaku".
Nathanial: The fact that he's afraid of bugs and spiders came up several times in the conversation, so his nickname became, "女の子" (little girl). Don't worry, much like anyone who lives here, he's becoming used to large spiders crawling throughout his house at night.
Me: I was dubbed "oyaji," and the reason isn't found anywhere in that Wikipedia article. I had a bottle of water with me, and whenever I took a swig from it, I would let out a loud and overly long "AHHHHHHHHH". Kurumi said that it reminded her of an oyaji. Still, I hear that oyaji only do that when they're drinking an alcoholic beverage.
Anyway, one other thing that oyaji are famous for is oyaji gags. My penpal Emi sent me a really good example of an "oyaji gag" a few years ago. It goes, "アルミ缶の上にあるみかん," and I had to think about it for a good 24 hours to figure out what was funny.
Last week, while studying Japanese, I created my very own joke! It's not as clever as the ones in the wiki, but take a look:
この部屋でハットはご法度だ。 (Maybe I should change the first part to, "建物の中で")
Maybe it doesn't even qualify as an "oyaji gag," but then again in reality I'm no oyaji!