Rather out of the blue, I got a nice phone-call from Mei, one of my friends from back in Birmingham who graduated and is now studying at Waseda University up in Tokyo (Or something like that). Anyway, we were speaking in Japanese, and I realised I was finding it pretty hard to speak in "Standard" Japanese, bits of Kansai-ben kept slipping in, which isn't really a problem when speaking to native Japanese people, but non-Kansai (Ie, Kyoto, Kobe, Osaka) foreigners tend to find it more difficult. Aside from being mildly annoying the the above conversation, I'm rather taken aback with the realisation that I may be stuck with effectively the Japanese equivalent of a Liverpool accent... while this may be amusing, I have a feeling it may come back to bite me someday in the future...
Still, at least I won't sound like 99.9% of other foreign Japanese speakers :-)
So, Sean arrives on Saturday afternoon! Looking forward to it, think it will be interesting for both of us; he gets to see Japan, I get to find out about all the odd stuff which I'm now pretty used to now.
A quick, tourist friendly Japanese phrasebook for you all (potentially with a slight Kansai-accent):
Hello: こんにちは Konn-nee chi wa
Nice to meet you: おっぱいを見せて Op-pai o me-se-te
Nice weather don't you think?: ちんぽがないんだよ Chin-po ga nai-nn da yo
Thank you very much for this: てめえ、きもいやん te-mei, ki-moi yan
If you have any Japanese friends try these out, I'm sure they'll be very impressed.
On a more mundane note, I've been sorting out my modules for next term, with the rather annoying obligation to take science courses this time around. At least I'm allowed to keep physics to a minimum :-). I was flicking through the Earth and Planetary Science course list and came across the truly bizarre "Teachers advice" section of 2nd year Rocky Stone Studies(That's what the course title reads as! Its 岩石学 if anybody thinks they can translate better), which reads as "煮ても焼いても食えない[etc]", or in English, "Even though these rocks have been cooked and grilled, don't eat them." Words to live by I guess...
Oh, and I have to credit Lilly (and Facebook newsfeed) for bringing this to my attention, but check this group out. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if any of the photos were staged. Trust me...
http://www.facebook.com/yumchaaa?v=feed&story_fbid=110035052354189#!/group.php?gid=25380231345&ref=ts
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