Sunday Soundcheck 48

The third sound in the ‘B’ column is ‘bu‘, written in hiragana as ぶ and katakana as ブ, and sounding similar to boo, but much shorter.

Buubi (ブービー) is merely the English word ‘booby’; however, the vowels are both really dragged out. In English the booby prize is for last place, but for some unknown reason in Japanese it is second to last place.

Bujini (ぶじに・無事に) is an adverb meaning ’safely’ or ‘without hindrance’. I recently overstayed my visa in Japan; a danger of having a multiple year visa, which also expires in the midst of the busiest time of the year. Once I petitioned to not be expelled from the country and was granted a three year extension, I heard this term a few times. In actuality, the process for renewing was complicated by my failure, but since the government was well within their rights to refuse my request, we consider this ‘without hindrance’.

Rude as Usual

Events over the past couple weeks have thrown my schedule into a more frenzied state than normal, so I have found myself grabbing meals at strange times in locations I don’t normally eat. At one shop, they had a special advertisement in front of my face the whole time. My preference would have been to keep the window clear, allowing me to look out at the world; however, as a result, I kept getting bothered by the typo in the ad. The main text read: 樽ハイ

Rather than just letting it slide, I felt compelled to ask about the sign. Of course this is a rude approach, because their first assumption is, “The poor foreigner can’t read Japanese, so I’ll help him out.”; which lulls them into a false perception far from, “This jerk is getting ready to embarrass me.”

“ Oh, it says ‘chuuhai’ special”, came her helpful and slightly condescending response.

“Ah, this is a little embarrassing, but I think that first character is actually ‘taru’ (barrel) and ‘chuu’ is a little different.”, was the blow that fell from my tongue. “Perhaps, someone made a typo.”

Her response sounded like she was blowing me off because I couldn’t possibly be right. My experiences with young people not knowing their language well, are expanding. (’Young’ here includes people old enough to be restaurant managers; which is making me feel a little older.)

One thing that struck me as odd here is that normally kanji typos consist of similar characters with the same reading being accidentally chosen; however, barrel never has the reading of ‘chuu’, so I don’t know how it would have come up. The characters do have a lot of similarities, so once it came up, a lot of people might overlook it at first. Chuuhai should normally be written: 酎ハイ, since it is an abbreviation of shouchuu haibooru (焼酎ハイボール). Shouchuu is a Japanese alcohol and haibooru is a highball.

I’ll try to be more polite next time and let the pedantic stuff slide by.

Call Me Goldilocks

My primary reason for moving to Ise was to see more of my girlfriend. Because of her work schedule and my location, I had only been able to see her about once a week. After the move there have been a few good stretches, the best was when I saw her everyday for six straight days; however, things have been a little tough lately. Because of her work and some logistics she has been stretched a bit.

Since she is effectively on 24 x 7, she really looks forward to her mid-day nap. Recently, even that break has often vanished. This afternoon I managed to get home about 5:40pm. When I entered the genkan I stopped and stared at the shoes in front of me for several seconds. I thought it was very odd that she would leave shoes at the apartment, and if she did, she would certainly have put them away in the shoe closet.

Next I noticed her slippers were not sitting at the beginning of the floor. I quietly slipped my burdens off and slipped down the hall and into the kitchen. I noticed the slippers were sitting in front of the sleeping chamber and the frangrance of katorisenkou (蚊取り線香) was in the air. Sure enough, as I slid open the door, I noticed, “Somebody’s been sleeping in my bed, and they’re still there!” She was just waking up to get back to work, so it was excellent timing.

Seeing her beautiful face, hearing about her day, sharing about mine, and making plans for our time tomorrow was a rare treat. My hope is that our brief meeting refreshed her as well, I tried to be very encouraging and not break her ribs when I gave her a bear hug.

Beautiful Blue Blossom

Japan loves the hydrangea. It is the most common symbol for Tsuyu (梅雨), the rainy season in June. One friend has more varieties in her garden than I would have imagined could exist in the world. Here’s a snapshot from another friend’s garden. Taken right after the sunflower shots you saw earlier.

Can You Catch It?

Twas the question asked of me by the owners of Naniwa Noren (浪花のれん) under Hisai station (久居駅) as I casually finished my beer, paid my tab, and departed at 9:15pm for a 9:18 express. Boldly, I shot out a, “Certainly!”, with an easy smile.

After trotting up the escalator and glancing at the official clock, I slowed my stride, slipped my commuter pass into the wicket, and headed for the stairs down. Spotting an express train and noticing several people already clearing the top of the stairs, I picked up my pace only to see the train pull out at 9:16 – two minutes before schedule.

Anger mixed with a perplexed sensation, having never experienced an early departure in my thousands of rides. I resigned myself to catching the 9:21 local train for a slow ride south, but after 9:25 it had not appeared. I ran over things in my head, figured out the problem, and ran upstairs to riddle the station worker with volleys of questions to verify my suspicion.

Due to heavy rain and a lightning strike north of Yokkaichi (四日市) the trains were delayed. The train leaving at 9:16 was the 9:05 (which wouldn’t have gotten me home even if I boarded it) and the 9:18 arrived at 9:29 and took me home as normal.

Naniwa is a funny name. It is actually an ancient name for Osaka (大阪) and can be written four ways:

• 難波 – also read as Nanba, a busy shopping area in modern Osaka
• 浪速 – currently a district of modern Osaka
• 浪花
• 浪華 – also read ‘rouka’, a term for foam from breaking waves that looks like white flowers

Japanese place names, particularly historic ones, can be very difficult to read; but also carry so much of the past with them. The shop owners seemed nervous when I came in and one hesitantly asked me at a very deliberate pace if I could speak Japanese. I blurted out in Osaka dialect that I couldn’t understand Japanese at all, and they laughed heartily with relief. This is a trick I use to put people at ease; seeing that I will joke around and can use dialect sends a message quickly. Luckily, in this case, Osaka dialect was perfect for them. I love it when things come together. Looks like I have a new fun place to snack, drink, and joke around.

Feeding the Dragon

My future father-in-law’s main hobby is Japanese pottery. We enjoyed a little time together during Golden Week by spending eight hours feeding split wood into a kiln. Here are a couple photos of him and me crouching in front of the mouth.

The rock stairs on either side are valued at over a thousand dollars each. They are taken from old homes and gardens that are being torn down for modernization. It’s a shame that such beautiful items are now becoming trash to be hauled away. On the bright side, we work in one of the most luxurious kilns in Japan.

Here are a couple shots of the fire itself. Temperatures are around 1250 Celcius during the main phase of firing the kiln. Once one adjusts to the intensity of the heat, and the brightness of the flames, they can be hypnotized by the fire twisting and dancing around in the maelstrom.

I need to learn how to force the camera settings in extreme conditions if I hope to capture the fascinating shapes of the flames.

Serendipitous Sunflower

Odd how certain chances pop-up. We were returning from a photo shoot, so my camera was on hand. I was admiring the flowers, but didn’t think to grab the camera until I saw a giant bumblebee playing around. I think I can upload a couple of his images later. This was taken in a friend’s garden in Hisai.

Sunday Soundcheck 47

Next up is ‘bi’, written in hiragana as び and katakana as ビ, and sounding not to different from the name of the letter B. The two rules for entries here are: not commonly found in language books; and usable in common conversation. Sometimes we find good fits; sometimes we don’t.

Biijiiemu (ビージーエム) is simply BGM in Japanese sounds. Everyday I hear this term for background music; particularly when I want to play my color card game with the first graders.

Bien (びえん・鼻炎) is not good (regardless of what French speakers may believe) but we hear it a lot during the long allergy seasons: ‘nasal inflammation’.

Bonus hiragana word today: bikou (びこう・備考) means a note or remark.

Dining with the Shingle Weavers

Thursday night brought a few surprises, many delays, and a lot of fun. After work I met some ladies at a community center and made beeswax candles. My plan was to sprint from that meeting to the train station and return to Ise quickly; however, upon seeing my bike in the parking lot, several questions came up and a little time vanished. I got to the station just after the train I wanted.

Checking the schedule, it looked like enough time to duck into my favorite ramen shop for hiyashi chuuka (冷し中華) and maybe a beer. Two rough-looking but friendly gentlemen, who I met before, were there enjoying themselves immensely. When I met them the first time, they seemed especially touched that I treated them as I would anyone else; so, they started buying me drinks as soon as I sat down. We talked a lot and at some point the topic of prison came up. One of them has been in four times.

Anyhow, my first impression of them was that they were some kind of carpenters because they were missing several finger joints. After we had the prison conversation and they left, another patron helped me realize the truth. When a member of the Yakuza – Japanese mafia – fails their boss in some way, they have to cut a section off their little finger to prove their loyalty. So, not only are these guys Yakuza, they’ve probably screwed up a lot. I think they were touched by my openness because most normal people shy away from them.

When I finally caught a train back to Ise, I noticed a small shop near the station was open. I have passed by several times and wondered when they did business. I poked my head in to try their Guiness and discovered a few interesting folks. One of them is some sort of high-priest at the shrine. He was quite outgoing. Another is a helicopter mechanic for the Self Defense Force with aspirations to become a Major. One young lady happened to attend my university on a summer study program. The world is getting smaller. I think the priest may actually be a friend of a friend.

Brave Words

If I had a dime for everytime…

Japanese people often seem very repressed. Generally there is a feeling that foreigners live such wild, free, and enviable lives. Normally people just suffer silently while hoping to do something, but on a number of occasions I have encountered people willing to make bold suggestions. Every time I allow myself to get excited, regardless of the track record. Yes, the ideas rarely bear fruit.

Public schools seem particularly adept at this kind of gratification free gratification. “You should go swimming with the kids; they’d love it!”, is a phrase I’ve heard often, but is generally followed by back-pedaling when I start asking questions about which class, which day, what gear to bring, etc. Also, once I’m at a school and they know I don’t have my gear, they really toss the suggestions about. Today they even recommended I strip down to my undies and dive into the water. I was tempted to call their bluff, but don’t want to end up in the newspaper.

Other recommendations have been:

• go on the field trip
• go on the school overnight trip
• go to the campground
• participate in the ’suspicious character’ safety drill
• allow someone to travel to America with me

It is always a joy when I find staff that wants to make the recommendations and is willing to let me follow them through. Many times, the reason for not following through is a feeling that it would trouble me too much, which is why most people won’t even toss the ideas out there.

My mind drifted off while writing this because I realized how many fun times I’ve had when we run with the ideas:

• cooking class with 5th graders
• ancient card game with 300 junior high students
• free talking with 4th graders to see how much they would try to learn in a non-standard teaching environment
• planting rice
• reading books to the students during break time

Here’s hoping for more brave follow through on the brave words.