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Aug. 5th, 2005 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanSadly, I have decided not to go to the dance party in The Oaks this evening, even though I'm being texted left and right and urged to attend by all my friends. It's been over two months, but seeing as I wouldn't get home until seven tomorrow morning, and that I'd be back eleven hours later for an all-you-can-drink extravaganza at the beer hall (the first time for many of our n00bs, and n00bs doing their first all-you-can-drink is something never to be missed), やめた方がいいかなぁ. Still a bummer though; this is the first party I've missed.
I've been mostly sitting at my desk all day. Thus far, I've read two volumes on Japanese linguistics, the first few chapters of The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji (have you seen this one,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sara_tanaquil?), and worked through the first few chapters of 日本語文法演習： 自動詞・他動詞、使役、受身ーボイスー(holy god, my geekdom is complete), which is quite possibly the worst Japanese language textbook I have yet to encounter. I recommend that no one buy it, ever.
At about two this afternoon a tanned, mafioso-ish Japanese man showed up and began making joking conversation with me. I was slightly addled by it all; it's so hot in the city hall that my brain shuts down, making it difficult to handle English let alone Japanese. Anyway, I played along as best I could while he christened the gakarichou my grandfather, told me about his trips to America, and asked if I wanted a watermelon (PS: WTF?). Then he trotted off.
Fifteen minutes later my erstwhile supervisor gets a call. "The watermelon's ready. Come pick it up."
Rather bemused by this turn of events, I allowed myself to be herded into a car and driven to a little in-garage farmer's market just like those in my backwater American home, if one doesn't look too hard at the tatami mats on the floor, that is. Anyway, the guy let me choose a watermelon (value: $30 USD), loaded me up with eggplant and green peppers (I managed to refuse the spring onions), and then plied me and el Supervisor with honeydew melon, which generally costs about $40 USD a melon before sending us on our merry way (PPS: WTF?). The whole thing took under fifteen minutes. I wonder if I could convince this dude and his family to try some Damn Good Guacamole.
el Supervisor asked if there was anywhere in town I wanted to visit. I couldn't think of anything, then realised that what he was really asking in an ever-so-Japanese way was, mind giving me an excuse not to go back to work just yet? So I had him drive me around to a cafe and a bookstore before we dropped the watermelon off at my house and headed back into work.
Apparently, I'm going to be on live television tonight. Now that it's been mentioned, I have vague memories of this being brought up during my welcomedrunkfest enkai. I hope I wasn't supposed to bring any AV materials or do an introduction to my hometown or anything, 'cause...yeah. I do remember the guy feeding me everything I was supposed to say about the 'Robe while almost tipping into the table thanks to all the shouchuu he'd been drinking. This is such a Japanese way of doing things I found it charming as opposed to offensive. At any rate, it was all stuff I'd been planning to say (the 'Robe is small but so far everyone's been really sweet to me and I'm glad to be here), so we're A-OK on that front.
Anyway, a TV spot a week. I'm on my way to becoming a bona fide mass media presence. Watch your backs, SMAPsters, here comes 味噌ジル!
That will be all.
I've been mostly sitting at my desk all day. Thus far, I've read two volumes on Japanese linguistics, the first few chapters of The Complete Guide to Everyday Kanji (have you seen this one,
sara_tanaquil?), and worked through the first few chapters of 日本語文法演習： 自動詞・他動詞、使役、受身ーボイスー(holy god, my geekdom is complete), which is quite possibly the worst Japanese language textbook I have yet to encounter. I recommend that no one buy it, ever. At about two this afternoon a tanned, mafioso-ish Japanese man showed up and began making joking conversation with me. I was slightly addled by it all; it's so hot in the city hall that my brain shuts down, making it difficult to handle English let alone Japanese. Anyway, I played along as best I could while he christened the gakarichou my grandfather, told me about his trips to America, and asked if I wanted a watermelon (PS: WTF?). Then he trotted off.
Fifteen minutes later my erstwhile supervisor gets a call. "The watermelon's ready. Come pick it up."
Rather bemused by this turn of events, I allowed myself to be herded into a car and driven to a little in-garage farmer's market just like those in my backwater American home, if one doesn't look too hard at the tatami mats on the floor, that is. Anyway, the guy let me choose a watermelon (value: $30 USD), loaded me up with eggplant and green peppers (I managed to refuse the spring onions), and then plied me and el Supervisor with honeydew melon, which generally costs about $40 USD a melon before sending us on our merry way (PPS: WTF?). The whole thing took under fifteen minutes. I wonder if I could convince this dude and his family to try some Damn Good Guacamole.
el Supervisor asked if there was anywhere in town I wanted to visit. I couldn't think of anything, then realised that what he was really asking in an ever-so-Japanese way was, mind giving me an excuse not to go back to work just yet? So I had him drive me around to a cafe and a bookstore before we dropped the watermelon off at my house and headed back into work.
Apparently, I'm going to be on live television tonight. Now that it's been mentioned, I have vague memories of this being brought up during my welcome
Anyway, a TV spot a week. I'm on my way to becoming a bona fide mass media presence. Watch your backs, SMAPsters, here comes 味噌ジル!
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2005-08-05 01:18 pm (UTC)You are becoming quite the vid-star!! Where are clips?? :-)
no subject
on 2005-08-05 02:08 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the Complete Guide to Kanji, and it looks cool -- only available from used amazon sellers though. Is it worth while? I am getting to the point of trying to learn as many of the phonetic elements as possible, so it might be helpful that way.
What earned the world's worst Japanese textbook its score? Because I've seen a few stinkers in my time. Though on average, I'd say there's a higher than usual proportion of better-than-average Japanese textbooks out there (compared to most languages I've learned), especially among ones produced in Japan.