Nice Japanese

So I'm walking down the hall today, and some guy talkin' on a cell phone says "Hallo" to me. I say "Hi."

Then he says "Nihongo ga jouzu" (<-- You speak excellent Japanese).

HUH!?!

The only take on this I've go is that he thought I said "hai" which is "yes" in Japanese, but which would not be an appropriate answer to "Hallo" and certainly is no indication of one's ability to speak Japanese.

A Trip With Beaver

Here's a typical weekend daytrip in Japan.

Get up at 8am back some stuff for a day trip and hit the road. You want to drive about 30km to a nearby putter golf course, but you don't want it to take 2 hours to get there, so you hope on the expressway (and say goodbye to $8.)

When you finally find the place (after driving through farm fields, and busy downtown steets) you find out that it's a run-down junky course that is no longer operational, and settle for one hour of rental badminton instead. Indoors, in with minimal ventilation in 30 degree weather.

After the badminton you hit the road again and find a nice flower park. Free admission is always a plus. Because you happen to be the only a) foreigner b) under 50 year old, in the garden, the army of geriatric volunteers bombards you with questions like "where are you from?" "how tall are you ?" and "will you pose for us for our town newspaper?" (Actually the words used were "hold this umbrella and stand over there!" See related shot.

Escaping the lovely garden and its eager volunteers, you find yourself and Japan's most famous tile manufacturer factory/museum/art gallery. Some pretty nice stuff in there, but what capped it off was the permanent toilet exhibit! Yes two whole floors dedicated to the history of toilets in Japan! There were minature models of outhouses, and a dock were you go out over a river and do your thing. There was even a sign saying "The emporer sat on THIS toliet." When we thought we had finally escaped the insanity of that building, we found ourselves outside in a "toilet park!" I kid you NOT! There had to be like 10 or 12 individual outhouse/toilet/urinal buildings in a 25 meter radius with fountains and flowing water to boot. I know one thing for sure, INAX (take a look at the next toilet you use to see if it's made by them) take the toilet business very seriously.

To finish the day you off you can have a nice relaxing 3 hour drive through congested city streets on your way home, because you decided to save on expressway tolls.

Hope you enjoyed your trip!

(PS for those if you who were wondering about the title, take a look for our pet beaver in the picture.)

Green Thumb Competition Update II

Well you remember that flourshing wonderland garden update from a month or so ago... The heat has come! Yes it seems to have scorched 3 of my 5 flowers! Very sad, but at least I've still got some colour. Team Itsuki's flowers are sporting a "dead brown" or "last life green" spectrum.

Some believe that it wasn't the heat, it simply wasn't the flowers' season anymore. Believe what you must. I think in the case of the G-team flowers, it was a survival of the fittest style battle. The one SUPER dominant alpha-flower in the middle just took over the root systems of the weaker and it was game over.

The tomatoes are looking good though! Check this close up out! That's gonna be some tasty stuff when it finally gets red for me. Well, that's all for this update.

... And Other Yucky Habits

Is it wrong for me to find it strange that so many people in Japan clip their nails in public? It might only be a school thing, or a teacher thing at that, but on so many occasions I have heard a sharp clicking sound, only to look up around the teachers room and find someone focused in on a manacure of sorts. I’m not just talking about ladies. Actually it’s more often men who seem to do this.

Feel free tell me I am crazy. I feel that way sometimes.

Teaching Something?

At this morning’s meeting at school:

Teacher A stands up (as they do when anyone talks, this includes students answering questions in class)

“Yesterday we received a phone call from one of the residents living in this area. They reported that junior high school students had been playing in the park. Baseball and tennis I believe. They said that park is also used by elementary school students and asked us if we the teachers could pass that message along.”

Silence. Teacher A continues...

“So if everyone could make sure to pass along to their students this message, and maybe something to the effect that students should think more carefully about how they are spending their time (ie. They should be studying not playing after school.)”

It's a different world over here.
I’ll leave you the comments to you.