Last week a student was telling me about a new cat cafe in Kawasaki. If you haven't heard of them, they are one of those uniquely Japanese innovations, I think. Basically, it's a cafe full of cats that the patrons can play with/pat/look at. ^_^ I wanted to go there, because I miss cats...
Tonight Pete and I were looking for somewhere to have dinner when we came across a dude in a cat costume, advertising that very cafe. The friendly cat showed us where to go. I'm happy! ^_^
I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a big room with small tables on the sides, but the kind of atmosphere where you can wander freely around; you're not restricted to your table. It was late so there were only a few other people there. There were big, elaborate scratching posts and bowls and boxes and ramps for the cats to climb around on or sleep in, as well as lots of toys on strings for pouncing.
You leave your shoes outside and wash your hands before you go in. The cafe is mostly full of overgrown kittens, around 4 months old, I think. They mostly had very, very soft fur. There were a few Birmans, too; my favourite cat; but also Norwegian forest cats, tabbies, Burmese and Persians.
They're obviously used to each other and having a lot of people around, because they didn't seem too stressed like you might expect from such an unnatural environment. I'd been slightly worried that I would go in feeling really sorry for the cats, but they seemed like they had a pretty good life. The cafe was playing classical music, which set an atmosphere of calmness; nobody was harassing the cats, but playing with them gently or just watching them.
So it was nice to get a cat fix; there were at least thirty in all (but cats could wander off into a back room if they wanted to be alone). ^_^ Pete had his camera but he doesn't have Internet now; some day I might get them and post some here.
=^. . ^=
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Riding the floor
There is an earthquake happening as I am writing this.
I was lying here with my feet on the fan, and I felt this vibration; I thought my fan was about to malfunction badly. But the whole floor was rocking back and forth.
We had an earthquake on Saturday as well, while we were at work. At first I didn't realise anything was happening, but a student said. Then I stood up so I could 'surf' the earthquake as the whole floor moved.
How cool is that?
I was lying here with my feet on the fan, and I felt this vibration; I thought my fan was about to malfunction badly. But the whole floor was rocking back and forth.
We had an earthquake on Saturday as well, while we were at work. At first I didn't realise anything was happening, but a student said. Then I stood up so I could 'surf' the earthquake as the whole floor moved.
How cool is that?
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Random posts
Am in a writing mood and have thus written a lot...
Clumsy
I really must learn the Japanese word for 'clumsy'. I've never been particularly coordinated, but I may be getting worse. While teaching, I drop my pen and/or papers at least once per class. I've dropped my iPod on the cement ground, lost my DS stylus in my hurry to leave a train, and spilled green tea all over the DS itself.
This morning I almost fell down the stairs. In the last fifteen minutes, I've contrived to up-end a bowl of pineapple onto the carpet, dropped a bunch of gyoza (which I was transferring the vast distance of 3 inches) onto a freshly laundered pot holder, and almost knocked a plate off the shelf.
One mitigating factor, I suppose, is the severe untidiness of my apartment. It's no wonder I keep knocking things over and dropping them when there is stuff piled in every nook and on every surface around me...
(A few minutes after writing the above, I knocked over an entire glass of water with my foot. There's really nothing to do but laugh...)
Air conditioning
I took my inscrutable remote control in to work. To my relief, my manager immediately found out how to set it to 'cold' (something I was sadly unable to accomplish), and I have learned that my air conditioner is quite effective.
Somewhat less relieving is that the discovery that every time I turn the air conditioner on, all these little chunks of black stuff periodically fly out of it and settle on the carpet, or futon. I have tried cleaning out the grate, and have turned it on and off many times, but there seems to be no end to the amount of crud coming out.
Another undesirable discovery is that of the water that leaks out of the air conditioner. The drips land approximately where I place my head while sleeping, so my current band-aid solution (bucket on the carpet) is not going to be very feasible come late summer, when I need to leave the air con on all night...
MTMs
Although I have an ATM card which theoretically allows me to withdraw from ATMs for free, it's darn near impossible to do so.
Tell me this: why do ATMs charge an 'after hours' fee? So, if I queue up behind a long line of people in the afternoon, I can withdraw money for free. But if I come by at, say, 9:30, or on a Sunday, I have to pay extra.
Now, forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I wasn't aware it cost extra, or required extra manpower, to process my ATM transaction outside of bank hours. If we look at the name ATM, it does mean Automatic Teller Machine. Surely the point of them is their convenience; you can access them any time, rather than needing to go to a bank during bank hours.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe in Japan, when the machine says 'confirming card', there is actually some harried bank clerk at a computer somewhere, looking up your number and details on the other end, and manually confirming every transaction.
Jouzu da ne...
They say Japanese people typically express great admiration when foreigners show the most basic knowledge of anything Japanese. Now, for example, I don't really use any Japanese words in the classroom (apart from the occasional food, which can be nigh impossible to translate effectively), but once, after class, I was talking about learning Japanese, and I said 'konbanwa' ('good evening') in an example of something.
The student gasped and said 'wooooh, Nihongo ga jouzu!! You speak Japanese very well!!'
Now, I have had many people say this to me, but usually I've had to produce at least a full sentence, or several phrases, in order to 'earn' it. That said, I've been told my Japanese is very skillful after saying such complex and astonishing sentences as:
'It's good, isn't it!'
'Yes, please. This one.'
'I am studying Japanese.'
'Thank you very much.'
'The doors are closing, please take care.'
If I say anything at all in Japanese, it never goes unremarked-upon, but is always praised. I know the praise is therefore completely meaningless, but it still makes me feel heartened. Getting a 'waaa, Nihongo ga sugoi jouzu!' is much more encouraging than getting a blank, uncomprehending look. So I think the encouragement of random people is a good motivation for me in learning Japanese.
But just try to imagine, if you will, an equivalent situation in Australia. I find it very difficult indeed to visualise an Australian - any Australian - getting excited over a Japanese person's ability to say 'hello'.
Clumsy
I really must learn the Japanese word for 'clumsy'. I've never been particularly coordinated, but I may be getting worse. While teaching, I drop my pen and/or papers at least once per class. I've dropped my iPod on the cement ground, lost my DS stylus in my hurry to leave a train, and spilled green tea all over the DS itself.
This morning I almost fell down the stairs. In the last fifteen minutes, I've contrived to up-end a bowl of pineapple onto the carpet, dropped a bunch of gyoza (which I was transferring the vast distance of 3 inches) onto a freshly laundered pot holder, and almost knocked a plate off the shelf.
One mitigating factor, I suppose, is the severe untidiness of my apartment. It's no wonder I keep knocking things over and dropping them when there is stuff piled in every nook and on every surface around me...
(A few minutes after writing the above, I knocked over an entire glass of water with my foot. There's really nothing to do but laugh...)
Air conditioning
I took my inscrutable remote control in to work. To my relief, my manager immediately found out how to set it to 'cold' (something I was sadly unable to accomplish), and I have learned that my air conditioner is quite effective.
Somewhat less relieving is that the discovery that every time I turn the air conditioner on, all these little chunks of black stuff periodically fly out of it and settle on the carpet, or futon. I have tried cleaning out the grate, and have turned it on and off many times, but there seems to be no end to the amount of crud coming out.
Another undesirable discovery is that of the water that leaks out of the air conditioner. The drips land approximately where I place my head while sleeping, so my current band-aid solution (bucket on the carpet) is not going to be very feasible come late summer, when I need to leave the air con on all night...
MTMs
Although I have an ATM card which theoretically allows me to withdraw from ATMs for free, it's darn near impossible to do so.
Tell me this: why do ATMs charge an 'after hours' fee? So, if I queue up behind a long line of people in the afternoon, I can withdraw money for free. But if I come by at, say, 9:30, or on a Sunday, I have to pay extra.
Now, forgive me if I'm mistaken, but I wasn't aware it cost extra, or required extra manpower, to process my ATM transaction outside of bank hours. If we look at the name ATM, it does mean Automatic Teller Machine. Surely the point of them is their convenience; you can access them any time, rather than needing to go to a bank during bank hours.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe in Japan, when the machine says 'confirming card', there is actually some harried bank clerk at a computer somewhere, looking up your number and details on the other end, and manually confirming every transaction.
Jouzu da ne...
They say Japanese people typically express great admiration when foreigners show the most basic knowledge of anything Japanese. Now, for example, I don't really use any Japanese words in the classroom (apart from the occasional food, which can be nigh impossible to translate effectively), but once, after class, I was talking about learning Japanese, and I said 'konbanwa' ('good evening') in an example of something.
The student gasped and said 'wooooh, Nihongo ga jouzu!! You speak Japanese very well!!'
Now, I have had many people say this to me, but usually I've had to produce at least a full sentence, or several phrases, in order to 'earn' it. That said, I've been told my Japanese is very skillful after saying such complex and astonishing sentences as:
'It's good, isn't it!'
'Yes, please. This one.'
'I am studying Japanese.'
'Thank you very much.'
'The doors are closing, please take care.'
If I say anything at all in Japanese, it never goes unremarked-upon, but is always praised. I know the praise is therefore completely meaningless, but it still makes me feel heartened. Getting a 'waaa, Nihongo ga sugoi jouzu!' is much more encouraging than getting a blank, uncomprehending look. So I think the encouragement of random people is a good motivation for me in learning Japanese.
But just try to imagine, if you will, an equivalent situation in Australia. I find it very difficult indeed to visualise an Australian - any Australian - getting excited over a Japanese person's ability to say 'hello'.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Festival
Summer is festival time in Japan. I went to my first festival since New Year's, and it was much more festive, probably because it wasn't 7 degrees. Hahah...
Pete, Yumi and I went to Hiratsuka, where the biggest Tanabata festival in the Kanto area is held.
Tanabata, the star festival, is based on a folktale. You may've heard it; it exists in various cultures, about Orihime (the daughter of the Sky King) and Hikoboshi, a star. These two lovers were separated by a river (the Milky Way), and only allowed to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7).
So Tanabata is celebrated on July 7. People celebrate by writing their wishes on strips of paper or cloth, and attaching them to bamboo trees.
They also decorate the trees. This is popular with children. The childcare centre next door had put up a makeshift Tanabata tree, with decorations. A bit like Christmas trees, I guess; my local train station also boasted a bunch of Tanabata trees put up by the local school and strewn with decorations made from instant ramen packets, egg packets and other recycled containers.
The festival in Hiratsuka was buzzing. There was Bon Odori dancing, accompanied by the Tanabata Matsuri song. The parade lasted about 25 minutes, so we heard the song looped about 50 times...
All the streets around Hiratsuka station were lined with stalls. I finally got to see some of these traditional festival stalls.
This last one is a goldfish catching game. You have to catch a goldfish using a very thin paper net. The paper, of course, dissolves in the water, and will break under the full weight of a goldfish, but if you are very fast and have deft hands, you can scoop the goldfish into your bowl before the net breaks. The lady in the photo couldn't get one, but her friend caught three.
We spent most of the festival going from stall to stall, buying things. Because there were three of us, we were able to share a LOT of food without getting full. I mean a lot. We bought:
-okonomiyaki (vegetable pancake)
-a skewer with pieces of steak
-takoyaki (octopus balls)
-karage (fried chicken)
-more chicken
-fried potatoes
-kebab
-pineapple
-smoked ayu (fish)
-grilled sweet corn
-toffee apple
-shaved ice
Pete ate the ayu. I had a bite out of the side; it was very... well, fish-y. Thing is, it was a whole fish on a skewer. Pete declared it was delicious, until he got to the very middle part, where the fish's internal organs were. The look of horror on his face was classic. 'This is just horrible,' he kept saying, and we had to get some strawberry-flavoured shaved ice fast so he could get the taste of 'fish stomach acid or something' out of his mouth. Hah...
Anyway, it was good fun. ^_^
(By the way, I added pictures to my post about the soccer (three posts down).)
Pete, Yumi and I went to Hiratsuka, where the biggest Tanabata festival in the Kanto area is held.
Tanabata, the star festival, is based on a folktale. You may've heard it; it exists in various cultures, about Orihime (the daughter of the Sky King) and Hikoboshi, a star. These two lovers were separated by a river (the Milky Way), and only allowed to meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7).
So Tanabata is celebrated on July 7. People celebrate by writing their wishes on strips of paper or cloth, and attaching them to bamboo trees.
They also decorate the trees. This is popular with children. The childcare centre next door had put up a makeshift Tanabata tree, with decorations. A bit like Christmas trees, I guess; my local train station also boasted a bunch of Tanabata trees put up by the local school and strewn with decorations made from instant ramen packets, egg packets and other recycled containers.
The festival in Hiratsuka was buzzing. There was Bon Odori dancing, accompanied by the Tanabata Matsuri song. The parade lasted about 25 minutes, so we heard the song looped about 50 times...
All the streets around Hiratsuka station were lined with stalls. I finally got to see some of these traditional festival stalls.
This last one is a goldfish catching game. You have to catch a goldfish using a very thin paper net. The paper, of course, dissolves in the water, and will break under the full weight of a goldfish, but if you are very fast and have deft hands, you can scoop the goldfish into your bowl before the net breaks. The lady in the photo couldn't get one, but her friend caught three.
We spent most of the festival going from stall to stall, buying things. Because there were three of us, we were able to share a LOT of food without getting full. I mean a lot. We bought:
-okonomiyaki (vegetable pancake)
-a skewer with pieces of steak
-takoyaki (octopus balls)
-karage (fried chicken)
-more chicken
-fried potatoes
-kebab
-pineapple
-smoked ayu (fish)
-grilled sweet corn
-toffee apple
-shaved ice
Pete ate the ayu. I had a bite out of the side; it was very... well, fish-y. Thing is, it was a whole fish on a skewer. Pete declared it was delicious, until he got to the very middle part, where the fish's internal organs were. The look of horror on his face was classic. 'This is just horrible,' he kept saying, and we had to get some strawberry-flavoured shaved ice fast so he could get the taste of 'fish stomach acid or something' out of his mouth. Hah...
Anyway, it was good fun. ^_^
(By the way, I added pictures to my post about the soccer (three posts down).)
Gifts
A few of my students have given me small gifts lately. It's nice. One lady brought me back chocolate from New Zealand; another a bag of dango (traditional Japanese sweets) from Hakone. The mother of one of my child students gives me something virtually every week; packages of cocoa, a box of Australian chocolates, random sweets.
The best and most unexpected gift was a Japanese fan which one of my students had hand-painted herself, with lovely cherry blossoms. I've been wanting a fan to carry about with me in summer, but I don't think I'll relegate this one to everyday use; I'll keep it safe and put it on display.
Yesterday a student gave me a bag of shiso (a Japanese herb with a similar texture to mint). It was organic shiso from her own garden, and very good quality. There was a lot of it so I divvied it up between me, Yumi (our head teacher), Aya (our assistant manager) and Tomo (a student - the one who used to dress like a cowboy).
I wasn't sure what to do it so I put a bunch of it on a pizza and ate it for tea tonight. Oh, SO good... ^_^ I'm gonna try it in miso soup tomorrow for breakfast, I think. Ii na! ^_^
The best and most unexpected gift was a Japanese fan which one of my students had hand-painted herself, with lovely cherry blossoms. I've been wanting a fan to carry about with me in summer, but I don't think I'll relegate this one to everyday use; I'll keep it safe and put it on display.
Yesterday a student gave me a bag of shiso (a Japanese herb with a similar texture to mint). It was organic shiso from her own garden, and very good quality. There was a lot of it so I divvied it up between me, Yumi (our head teacher), Aya (our assistant manager) and Tomo (a student - the one who used to dress like a cowboy).
I wasn't sure what to do it so I put a bunch of it on a pizza and ate it for tea tonight. Oh, SO good... ^_^ I'm gonna try it in miso soup tomorrow for breakfast, I think. Ii na! ^_^
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Nice weather
This weather is great (although indoors is really humid, there's a greenhouse effect). GREAT ^_^
It's averaging about 27 degrees during the day now.
There honestly has been less rain since the rainy season started...
By the way, my Japanese is improving quite a bit, to the point where I've actually started speaking in it sometimes... ^^;
It's averaging about 27 degrees during the day now.
There honestly has been less rain since the rainy season started...
By the way, my Japanese is improving quite a bit, to the point where I've actually started speaking in it sometimes... ^^;
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Oh-oh-oh-oh, Frontale! Frontale, oh-oh-oh!
Today I went to a soccer game with Pete and five other people. Kawasaki Frontale (front-ah-lay) was playing the Yokohama Marinos. Since I started work, I chose Frontale as 'my' team (probably because it was the only team I knew of, haha).
To me, it was funny that we were clearly at a 'home game' - the stadium was near Musashi-kosugi (which I always think of as the heart of suburban Kawasaki) and the blue Frontale decorations were everywhere - yet the opposing team was Yokohama. I mean, I live in Yokohama. There's no reason why half that stadium shouldn't be full of Yokohama supporters, yet they only had a corner to themselves.
You can get from the main Kawasaki train station to Yokohama in nine minutes. Nine minutes! I'm used to Australia, where all teams have to fly to compete in away games, and thus the vast majority of any crowd is a home crowd, for logical reasons.
Anyway, the game was cool. Katta! We won! Kawasaki and Yokohama scored one goal apiece in the first half, and then Kawasaki got another goal a few minutes before the end of the game, amid much excitement. The games here are a bit more mannerly than in Australia - no louts jumping up and shouting drunken abuse at the referees, etc. Nobody was booing or shouting, just applauding and waving scarves when something interesting happened.
One of the Japanese guys with us explained that nobody jeers at players for making a mistake, but cheer to encourage them. It's a nice change of atmosphere. You also don't see many people eating noodles with chopsticks during an AFL game back in Australia. Haha...
And the cheer squads were the coolest things I've ever seen! There was a whole section where everyone was wearing Frontale shirts, and every few seconds they'd launch into various cheers, with drums for accompaniment. Oh-oh-oh-oh, Frontale! Front-a-le! Oh-oh-oh-oh! Let's go, Frontale! Let's go, Frontale! (etc etc). It had to be seen to be believed.
Frontale cheer squads ^_^
The two big sports here are soccer and baseball. I've been encouraged to watch a sumo match some time. I want to...
To me, it was funny that we were clearly at a 'home game' - the stadium was near Musashi-kosugi (which I always think of as the heart of suburban Kawasaki) and the blue Frontale decorations were everywhere - yet the opposing team was Yokohama. I mean, I live in Yokohama. There's no reason why half that stadium shouldn't be full of Yokohama supporters, yet they only had a corner to themselves.
You can get from the main Kawasaki train station to Yokohama in nine minutes. Nine minutes! I'm used to Australia, where all teams have to fly to compete in away games, and thus the vast majority of any crowd is a home crowd, for logical reasons.
Anyway, the game was cool. Katta! We won! Kawasaki and Yokohama scored one goal apiece in the first half, and then Kawasaki got another goal a few minutes before the end of the game, amid much excitement. The games here are a bit more mannerly than in Australia - no louts jumping up and shouting drunken abuse at the referees, etc. Nobody was booing or shouting, just applauding and waving scarves when something interesting happened.
One of the Japanese guys with us explained that nobody jeers at players for making a mistake, but cheer to encourage them. It's a nice change of atmosphere. You also don't see many people eating noodles with chopsticks during an AFL game back in Australia. Haha...
And the cheer squads were the coolest things I've ever seen! There was a whole section where everyone was wearing Frontale shirts, and every few seconds they'd launch into various cheers, with drums for accompaniment. Oh-oh-oh-oh, Frontale! Front-a-le! Oh-oh-oh-oh! Let's go, Frontale! Let's go, Frontale! (etc etc). It had to be seen to be believed.
Frontale cheer squads ^_^
The two big sports here are soccer and baseball. I've been encouraged to watch a sumo match some time. I want to...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Nomikai (drinking parties)
'The student who gestures like an Italian' left this week, leaving a box of millefeuille chocolates. (And those things are difficult to pronounce in French, let alone the Japanese version of the French word...) He is going to live overseas. I wish him well. We had a small farewell drinks party for him after work today. Slightly to my surprise, he sang 'The Neverending Story' and 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'. (And no, we weren't at karaoke.)
I tried many times to get him to say correctly 'girls just wanna have fun', but we never did get there. He did tell Pete several times the he loved him, haha. And this was without his usual huge number of beers, too. :)
Actually I've been going out after work a bit lately, apart from when I was sick, of course. (I'm pretty well better now.)
I haven't really mentioned Pete, my new co-worker (Jim left a couple of weeks ago now), he's from Canada. But we've had a couple of welcome/farewell bashes in their honour, plus I've been hanging out a bit with Pete and his friends from training etc. So it's been nice. I am spending a lot of money...
This weekend I'm supposed to be going to the soccer and to a festival. I've never seen a soccer game in my life, so I'm really looking forward to it. Kawasaki is playing Yokohama, which should be a conflict of interests for me (I work in Kawasaki, live in Yokohama), but I've always 'supported' Kawasaki. (I say 'supported' in the same way I always 'supported' the Crows in Australia - just picking whoever is supported by those around me. :))
I want to buy a Kawasaki Frontale t-shirt or something (Frontale is the name of the soccer team), but a whole lot of the department stores in our area are undergoing some kind of mass renovation, so the sports store is closed... I wonder what it will look like around here when it's unveiled?
Oh, and I was saying how our office used to always be overheated in winter? Well... I thought in summer it would be overcooled. But today it was 28.5 degrees in our office. Why?!
I tried many times to get him to say correctly 'girls just wanna have fun', but we never did get there. He did tell Pete several times the he loved him, haha. And this was without his usual huge number of beers, too. :)
Actually I've been going out after work a bit lately, apart from when I was sick, of course. (I'm pretty well better now.)
I haven't really mentioned Pete, my new co-worker (Jim left a couple of weeks ago now), he's from Canada. But we've had a couple of welcome/farewell bashes in their honour, plus I've been hanging out a bit with Pete and his friends from training etc. So it's been nice. I am spending a lot of money...
This weekend I'm supposed to be going to the soccer and to a festival. I've never seen a soccer game in my life, so I'm really looking forward to it. Kawasaki is playing Yokohama, which should be a conflict of interests for me (I work in Kawasaki, live in Yokohama), but I've always 'supported' Kawasaki. (I say 'supported' in the same way I always 'supported' the Crows in Australia - just picking whoever is supported by those around me. :))
I want to buy a Kawasaki Frontale t-shirt or something (Frontale is the name of the soccer team), but a whole lot of the department stores in our area are undergoing some kind of mass renovation, so the sports store is closed... I wonder what it will look like around here when it's unveiled?
Oh, and I was saying how our office used to always be overheated in winter? Well... I thought in summer it would be overcooled. But today it was 28.5 degrees in our office. Why?!
Working hard or hardly working
You gotta feel a bit sorry for students when they apply a known 'rule' and it doesn't work.
sad -> sadly
strong -> strongly
But then: 'I'm so tired today. I was hardly working all day.'
sad -> sadly
strong -> strongly
But then: 'I'm so tired today. I was hardly working all day.'
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