Foot in mouth

You realise how important the correct tense is to the meaning of a sentence. There were a couple of times, for example, when a member of staff was asking me to do something, but I thought she was saying she'd already done it. Misunderstandings don't happen much, as our staff have pretty good English.

Our manager, for example, probably has good enough English to teach classes herself. There will be occasions when one of us has to ask for clarification though.
Her: Do we need any more of that coloured paper?
Me: No, we already have quite a bit of it.
Her: Okay. (pause) Does 'quite a bit' mean 'quite a lot'?
Me: ...Yes, it does... (thinking about it) ...English is strange, isn't it?

But communicating the wrong time is quite common among students. A lot of them don't understand 'how was your week?' (when asked in the latter half of the week) and respond with their plans for the weekend.

Then, the other day:

Me: So, what are you doing today?
Student: I got a haircut.
Me (thinking) Really? It looks kind of the same to me... I feel bad for not noticing... (aloud) You got a haircut? Oh yeah! It looks good!
Student: No no, I mean I'm getting a haircut after class.

Fortunately a nice student, so we could both laugh.

***

On a completely unrelated note, they've brought out azuki Kit Kats. Oh, the horror! I suppose it was only a matter of time.

For those fortunate enough not to know, azuki are sweet red beans. They have a consistency that is impossible to describe, but they are horrible, just horrible. Virtually all Japanese sweets have this vile concoction in them, and what's more, you'll frequently see them crop up in Western products (azuki icecream, Starbucks azuki frappuccinos, etc).

Needless to say, I left those ones on the shelf. Curiousity about trying new things can only go so far, after all. But I had a near-miss today. I was going to buy a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), and had even lifted it to put on my tray, when I thought the characters on the sign looked different than usual, so I smelled it.

It was an AZUKI CROISSANT!!! >_<

I went to Kamakura today; as usual found myself looking at food. Now, in Japan, fruit is sometimes given as a gift. So you can often buy perfect, well-presented little baskets of fruit as gifts. This fruit is overpriced - like $20 for a large, cute punnet of strawberries, for example - but I suppose it is a gift.

Today I saw something that took the cake. A 500g box of cherries. Each one flawless and fitted neatly into the box. How much for half a kilo of cherries?

14,800 yen.
In Australian dollars, $148.

!!!!!

You'd want to take out insurance on that!!

For that price, you'd want each cherry to give you an extra year of life...

Speaking of food, the other day I was at an izakaya again, and someone had ordered a tray of yakitori (skewered meats). I had a chicken one. (Jim said the fatty chicken skin one was his favourite. With all sincerity. There are times I can't believe that guy.) Then I was scanning the others for the one that looked the least like fat or offal.

Me: What kind of meat is that one?
Student: I think it's liver. (he asked another student in Japanese) Yes, liver.
Me: Okay.

And then I ate it.

This is the world I now live in. Where liver seems like a safer choice than any other option... ^_^