I haven't taken the time to research it as I don't care about it that much, but among some girls there is this trend of raising the pitch of their voice to obscene levels. I write about this now because there is this one woman who comes in to my schools sometimes and does some paperwork for a while before leaving. She is here today.
She's got to be in her mid to late 40s but she sounds like she's breathing some concoction of half oxygen half helium. It drives me up a wall listening to her try to be all cute and young sounding when she doesn't look the part at all. If the others teachers are bothered by it they sure don't show it.
One time I was in a convenience store and one of the clerks was a woman that did this. A customer dropped something and she made a sound, but I could hear her normal voice, which was much lower, in that sound. It has to be annoying to try and warp your voice all the time like that.
I've got to get a video of this woman sometime because it's so surreal.
栗鼠【りす】 (risu) (n) squirrel
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Ryoko Aota
So around the middle of March I met this girl through mixi which is basically the Japanese Facebook. We talked back and forth for a while online and through text messages and phone calls. I knew she liked me so we agreed to go out. I met her a few times and it was fun. But not even a month later her uncle died. During this time her family gathered up and kept asking her about when she was going to get married. Then she got sick and had to go to the hospital, where her parents again asked her about marriage.
30 is a big age for Japanese women. They are supposed to be married by then. Not sure why but that's just how it is, and she was a few months from 30. The questioning apparently got to her and she was embarrassed by the fact she couldn't tell her parents about me because we weren't going to get married since I will be leaving to the US in the future, so she ended the relationship. I actually knew she was going to do this eventually, but I didn't know it would be so soon. But that's ok, because now I still have time to find and develop something substantial.
I'm tired of being single...
独身【どくしん】 (dokushin) bachelorhood; single; unmarried
30 is a big age for Japanese women. They are supposed to be married by then. Not sure why but that's just how it is, and she was a few months from 30. The questioning apparently got to her and she was embarrassed by the fact she couldn't tell her parents about me because we weren't going to get married since I will be leaving to the US in the future, so she ended the relationship. I actually knew she was going to do this eventually, but I didn't know it would be so soon. But that's ok, because now I still have time to find and develop something substantial.
I'm tired of being single...
独身【どくしん】 (dokushin) bachelorhood; single; unmarried
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Japan America Differences Part 2
Continuing the list from a few posts ago, here are some more differences. As I get past the the biggies, I'll probably start finding and listing a lot more small and subtle differences.
21. Parents don't discipline kids.
22. People will leave their car running while they run in and do business somewhere for many minutes at a time.
23. Japan claims to have four seasons, but they really only have two. One is called "Natsu" which means "too damn hot," and the other is called "Fuyu" which means "too damn cold."
24. For the most part, Japanese assume that all foreigners cannot speak Japanese.
25. No such things as detentions, suspensions or expulsions in schools. In fact, the teachers are THRILLED if the bad students even come to school a lot of the time.
26. When people pour you beer, half of the cup is filled with foam.
27. In the bigger cities, they have a train system that is efficient (even if overly expensive)
28. Japanese people will say you are super awesome if you can use chopsticks or speak 2 words of Japanese (whether they actually think this or not is debatable).
29. The school system in general, by design, promotes closeness of the students and teachers.
30. No tipping anywhere! And you generally will get awesome service in restaurants.
31. Many toilet seats are high tech and will be warm in winters.
32. There are bars here where guys or girls can go to talk to really good looking people of the opposite sex. You can spend lots of money on alcohol and such, but it's just for talking. (Called kyabakura, snack, or host bars)
33. At restaurants they will give you an "oshibori" or a wet towel (sometimes really hot) to wash your hands off with before settling in to eat.
34. Japan, while years ahead in cell phones, for the most part doesn't know what Wi-Fi is yet.
35. Even at the lowest of jobs (fast food restaurants and such) you will find people who work HARD and take their job seriously... usually resulting in awesome service.
36. Eating raw fish and eggs here is normal.
37. You can't drink without eating something, whether it be edamame or peanuts or SOMETHING.
38. No guns allowed in Japan.
39. Ratio of hot to not hot girls in Japan easily eclipses America's ratio (my opinion obviously).
40. Going back to trains, they are ON TIME. If your train is set to arrive at 8:00, you will catch it if you get to the platform at 7:59. You'll have missed it if you arrive at 8:01. No joke.
四季【しき】 (shiki) four seasons
21. Parents don't discipline kids.
22. People will leave their car running while they run in and do business somewhere for many minutes at a time.
23. Japan claims to have four seasons, but they really only have two. One is called "Natsu" which means "too damn hot," and the other is called "Fuyu" which means "too damn cold."
24. For the most part, Japanese assume that all foreigners cannot speak Japanese.
25. No such things as detentions, suspensions or expulsions in schools. In fact, the teachers are THRILLED if the bad students even come to school a lot of the time.
26. When people pour you beer, half of the cup is filled with foam.
27. In the bigger cities, they have a train system that is efficient (even if overly expensive)
28. Japanese people will say you are super awesome if you can use chopsticks or speak 2 words of Japanese (whether they actually think this or not is debatable).
29. The school system in general, by design, promotes closeness of the students and teachers.
30. No tipping anywhere! And you generally will get awesome service in restaurants.
31. Many toilet seats are high tech and will be warm in winters.
32. There are bars here where guys or girls can go to talk to really good looking people of the opposite sex. You can spend lots of money on alcohol and such, but it's just for talking. (Called kyabakura, snack, or host bars)
33. At restaurants they will give you an "oshibori" or a wet towel (sometimes really hot) to wash your hands off with before settling in to eat.
34. Japan, while years ahead in cell phones, for the most part doesn't know what Wi-Fi is yet.
35. Even at the lowest of jobs (fast food restaurants and such) you will find people who work HARD and take their job seriously... usually resulting in awesome service.
36. Eating raw fish and eggs here is normal.
37. You can't drink without eating something, whether it be edamame or peanuts or SOMETHING.
38. No guns allowed in Japan.
39. Ratio of hot to not hot girls in Japan easily eclipses America's ratio (my opinion obviously).
40. Going back to trains, they are ON TIME. If your train is set to arrive at 8:00, you will catch it if you get to the platform at 7:59. You'll have missed it if you arrive at 8:01. No joke.
四季【しき】 (shiki) four seasons
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Hanami
Cherry trees are a big part of Japanese culture and if you've never seen them they are quite a site to behold.
But not for long. Depending on where you live in Japan (and of course elsewhere in the world) they can bloom anywhere from January until May, but it only takes about 1 week for the trees to come full bloom (満開【まんかい】) and about a week after that for the petals to start falling.
It is customary to take walks and have picnics in areas with the trees. This is a path near my home and most of the time the trees are bare and you can see an old granny walking along the path for exercise once in a while, but once the petals are in full bloom there are people walking along the paths and I saw a few people having picnics with their families. So nice...
The only thing that sucks about this whole ordeal is that it's all over in the span of around 2 weeks. Not all the trees bloom at once so when they do, you might only have a few days to appreciate the entire beauty of it all, provided there's no rain, then the pedals start falling and then you're done. It's just my opinion, but I think Japanese are really taken with transient things, which is why they love cherry blossoms so much. It's only for a short time, but for that short time you get this awe inspiring beauty that can even give ugly people with bad personalities a shot at a date (if you can get your potential significant other to the tree sites). Also, April is the month where business start their new years and when the new school year starts, so it's also looked at as the beginning (or transitioning into) of a new year. If this isn't on your to-do list to do with a loved one before you die, it should be!
花見【はなみ】 (hanami) (n,vs) cherry blossom viewing
花見【はなみ】 (hanami) (n,vs) cherry blossom viewing
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