japan trip 2007 2 Comments

T-minus 28 days and counting

We bought luggage at TJ Maxx this past weekend: two large 29″ Dockers suitcases for about $60 apiece. We’re still contemplating whether to purchase a new carry-on or two, or just use our backpacks and shoulder bags as carry-on.

Since I expedited my passport, it arrived a couple of weeks ago. Aaron’s still waiting for his to show up, even though he applied for his much sooner than I did mine. As soon as his passport arrives, we’ll reserve our Ghibli Museum vouchers, since we need passport info to get those.

Due to an incredible stroke of luck, we managed to book a room at the Ryokan Asakusa Shigetsu during the Sanja Festival. The Shigetsu is practically across the street from the Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine… well, OK, maybe a couple streets and a park away. At any rate, we’ll be in Asakusa, in the thick of things, during the Sanja Matsuri. Could be crazy. Will definitely be a new and fun experience.

I’ve completed the Pimsleur Japanese Short Course, all eight lessons, and am going to continue with Japanese I tomorrow. (From what I understand, the Short Course is basically the first eight lessons of Japanese I, so I’m starting with Lesson 8 tomorrow.) Vocab from JPod101 is starting to dovetail with Pimsleur, which tends to make my Pimsleur lessons feel less difficult… or less meaningful. When I already know all the new vocab except the word “lunch,” I tend to feel a little jipped, I guess.

I have the feeling I’m still going to either have to consult Aaron’s phrasebook or look up some words online before our departure. After I’m done here, I may take a few minutes to look up “water,” “menu,” and other daily vocabulary I might need. Honestly, though, I’m fully expecting not to need my meager Japanese skillz in Tokyo. I expect that the person at the front desk of the Tokyo Prince Hotel is going to greet us in English, rather than saying, “Tokyo Purinsu Hoteru e youkoso irashaimase!” So, I’m probably not going to have to remember about nimei being the honorific term for “two people,” or roppaku being the word for “six nights.” It might be polite of me to give it a shot, though, and I’m still not convinced that we won’t need my fantastic *scoff-scoff* Japanese skillz somewhere along the line.

I’m afraid I might try to get too fancy if I try to speak too much Japanese, as I’m basically doing the language version of learning to play piano from that crazy infomercial guy. I don’t know all the underlying grammar and structure; I’m learning phrases on the fly and picking up some structure along the way. The particles are still eluding me a bit, and there are words with similar meanings that confuse me. I’m afraid that if I try to put together new sentences with words I know, I’m going to fuck the grammar all up and end up sounding like… well, like a foreigner, I suppose. Go figure.

[Hmm. I’m a big word nerd. I just cleared up some of my confusion by reading the Wikipedia article on Japanese particles that I just linked to. Just tell me that “o” indicates a direct object, and it clears things right up. Wikipedia makes everything clearer…]

OK, off of the Japanese language rant.

At any rate, things are starting to come together. We’ll start being a little more methodical about planning the things we definitely don’t want to miss, and listing things in the same vicinity that we could squeeze in around the biggies. Like, Nakano Broadway is a must. The Ghibli Museum is a must. The Ramen Museum… OK, that’s really high up on the list. The Parasitological Museum is a free oddity that would be fun to check out, but is not necessarily a must-do. 😉

What’s the Japanese word for OMGEXCITED!!!111 ?

ruminations 2 Comments

Pushing My Own Buttons

I wish I knew how to motivate myself. As per usual, I have several different things I’d like to get done, but I’m not motivated enough to actually do them. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of sleep or a lack of exercise or what, but I’m just not feeling it tonight. Don’t want to work on any of my three web projects, or my laundry-list of household chores/projects, or write any one of a dozen possible blog essays in my head, or even exercise. Don’t even really want to play video games. Don’t want to do a damn thing.

This can’t be normal. Really.

food 2 Comments

Booze As Part Of A Balanced Diet

A couple weeks ago, I discovered this great site that has nutritional information for all kinds of alcoholic (and nonalcoholic) beverages. The website is drinksmixer.com, and it’s not just a good “nutritional” resource, but it also has the ever-helpful Cabinet feature. Tell it what you’ve got, both booze and “normal” beverages, and it tells you what you can make, either with only what you have or with one or two more ingredients.

I have come to an unfortunate conclusion, though. I dislike Applejack. It wasn’t very expensive, but I do wish I’d managed to sample it somewhere before procuring an entire bottle. After this, I’m not sure I’d be a fan of any kind of brandy, if apple brandy isn’t floating my boat. It’s just too damn strong; the first sip always takes my breath away. Yeah, maybe I’m a lightweight. I’m OK with that.

On the same night I bought my bottle of Applejack, though, I tried the Classic Irish Whiskey Flight at Claddagh Irish Pub. My original plan had been to sample some scotch, but the Irish whiskeys had more detailed descriptions in the drink menu, being that Claddagh is an Irish-style pub and all. So, I got three small shots of Irish whiskey, and I must say that the Jameson was my favorite of the three. The waiter made comment that a woman who likes Irish whiskey is a good catch, which amused both Aaron and myself.

I’m really not much of a drinker, and whenever I get to thinking about alcohol too much, it makes me feel like I’m some kind of lush. Which I know I’m not. Still, it’s weird to be thinking about what kind of alcohol I’d like to try, in the same way I’d think about different ethnic foods I’d like to try; especially knowing that I only really drink once every six months or so, and very rarely with the goal of “getting drunk.”

Yes, I have half a shot of the Applejack sitting here on my desk. And, yes, I’m going to finish it. Will I have anything else tonight? Probably not.

otaku

Hitting The Wall of Nihongo

It’s not that my brain is full. I’m still doing OK with picking up the grammar and vocabulary in the Pimsleur lessons, and the JPod101 Survival Phrases. Thing is, I’m not sure if they’ll be helpful, and if I’d be better served to spend all my Nihongo brainpower on the katakana studies that Erin suggested. Although that would be harder to study during my lunchtime walk.

Between what I learned from Josh in Japan (mainly just left/right and numbers) and my two other audio sources of Nihongo goodness, I can introduce myself, ask directions, ask if you understand English, be humble about my own knowledge of Japanese, ask you to repeat yourself slowly, be generally polite, make sure I get on and off the train at the right place, ask if you’d like something to eat or drink, ask how to say something in English, ask what something says in Japanese, and a few other parlor tricks. Most of the really useful stuff has come from the JPod101 Survival Phrases, though.

I’ve read that the Pimsleur lessons don’t give an accurate representation of native language speed or rhythm — which is daunting, but expected. I think I can get a better idea of the flow with a half-hour Pimsleur lesson than a 15-minute JPod101 lesson, though. I guess I’m just wondering if I should even keep bothering. I know I’m going to sound pretty idiotic saying stuff like… oh, I don’t know… OK, for example, I don’t think I’ll ever have occasion to say, “Ee, eigo ga yoku wakarimasu. Watashi wa amerikajin desu.” (“Yes, I understand English well. I am an American.” Well, hello, Captain Obvious! Was my god-awful accent the first giveaway?) I also don’t think I’ll ever have occasion to actually ask someone if they’d like to eat or drink something, and especially not at either my place or their place. (“Watashi no tokoro de?”)

I’ve read online that there’s an upcoming lesson that teaches how to count yen. I need some help with remembering numbers without counting on my fingers, so I’ll stick with it at least until that one. Listening and repeating also helps my recall of the previous lessons. I don’t think I’ll get need to use very much Japanese in Tokyo, but I’d like to at least sound like I’m trying my best when and if I do use it.

(The people at my work think I sound Japanese. I don’t think they’ve ever even watched anime.)