Random updates

Today I taught a class on 'telling jokes'. This class could really be subtitled 'ruining jokes', or 'explaining why a joke is supposed to be funny'.

It's a truism is that if you have to explain a joke, it probably isn't funny.

To me, the funniest 'joke' of the lesson - which had me, for some reason, laughing hysterically (to the bewilderment of my students), was in the answers to the listening section.

Some previous teacher had written the correct answers to the questions in my book - 'true', 'false', etc. The final question was: "listen to the joke one more time. Do you think it's funny?" According to my textbook, the correct answer is 'NO'.

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It's often observed by bloggers that during your stay in Japan, you will be a) complimented on your ability to use chopsticks (as though it weren't something that could be learned in a couple of days), and b) informed that Japan is unique because it has four seasons (as though this weren't a quality shared by every non-tropical country in the world).

Score! In the last couple of weeks, I was complimented on chopstick use *twice*. Sadly, one of these came from someone who *knows* I have been in Japan for about a year and a half. If I could not use chopsticks by now you'd have to conclude I had some kind of debilitating condition, the kind you'd be taking medication for.

Also, last weekend, a student asked me how many seasons we have in Australia. I said four, and she asked me if they were similar to Japan's. Well, the winters are a bit less cold, and the summers have more variation in temperature, I said. She told me emphatically that Japan has four seasons.

I appreciated learning this. Thank you.

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I'm going to Hiroshima this weekend. I bought some train tickets today. I'll stay on Miyajima. Several people have told me that Miyajima is considered one of the 'Three Most Beautiful Views In Japan', but to my amusement, nobody could remember the other two.

I went to the discount ticket counter in Azalea and asked them if their shinkansen tickets were cheaper than at the station; they said yes. So I requested tickets from Shin-Yokohama to Hiroshima. She said they wouldn't be available until tonight or tomorrow. So I said I'd be back after 9 o'clock. I came back and got the tickets; there was no time printed; when I asked, she explained that I had to go to the station to confirm a time.

So I went to the station, entered my tickets in the machine, and unintentionally bought two one-way tickets to Hiroshima, rather than one to Hiroshima and one return to Shin-Yokohama. So then I had to go to the counter, explain the situation to the man, and tell him what I wanted to change the ticket to.

The only reason this is of note is because all these exchanges took place solely in Japanese. Yay! ^_^