July 30 - August 5 (Tues-Mon) - Shuuchuu shinai hodo urusai, or When They Cry

Tuesday: A new private class today. One man who wants some intensive brushing up on his English over the next couple weeks. The textbook is too easy for him so it’s mostly just conversation. A rather interesting guy. This is his company; it’s a kind of health food thing based on brown rice.

I made Thai green curry for dinner. But I didn’t take a picture, so you’ll just have to imagine how beautiful it looked.

Then I spent a lot of time getting frustrated at typing on my phone as I carried on several conversations at once in part broken Japanese and part English. AAAAH. No spell-correction for Japanese. めんどくさい!

I’m just tired. Even without elementary schools, there’s just so much to do. I unclogged my fridge drain today. (I hope. I guess I’ll see if it keeps leaking.)

Wednesday: Business class was fun. But the class leader was missing, as his son was born (a few weeks prematurely). They have a couple of mock-tests to complete over the next week so I hope he does ok though he probably has no time to study!

Then I went shopping for fun and necessary stuff.

Then I finally took proof of how loud these bugs are — whatever they are (I think semi, cicada). Keep in mind this is one. Just. One.  See the video here.

Thursday: The little kids in the morning drained whatever energy I had. I spent the rest of the day trying not to fall asleep.

Friday: Meeting. Dance. From the dance studio we could almost see the fireworks from the festival. Today we learned... Tango!!

Saturday: I made the bestest breakfast — behold...

All my classes went fairly well and drained me fairly well. I’d wanted to go to Fukui to see the festival, but since I was feeling sick, I didn’t. Thank goodness. Relaxing evening.

Sunday: Fun day! Activities in the morning, then we did a collaborative lunch with Hugh and Mako: chickpea salad, avocado dip (with baguette), corn, sausages (for those of us who eat meat), and veggie juice. After this feast, I showed them the koto and let them try. Like I thought, it was a new experience for them :)

Nathan joined us for a Japanese lesson from our dai-sensei Kaori. It was difficult! But really good.

We watched some anime, then headed out for a BBQ at Yuka’s and Ralph’s (restaurant). Turned out to be Ralph’s birthday. So I ate a lot again — sausages, cucumber, tomato, rolls, potato salad (with eggplant), kusukusu (? like quinoa, very tasty), chicken, and fajitas with any of those ingredients.

A group of musicians (but everyone is a musician in Japan, really) also joined us, so we were serenaded (and sometimes got to play with) various drums, ukulele, guitars, and bass. Fun.

Monday: I’m definitely sick. Please let it go away.

But I had a nice tkd lesson, and koto (/tea ceremony) lesson in the afternoon.

Spent the rest of the day getting stuff done — cleaning, lesson-planning, laundry etc.

Recent Japanese:

chatsuke (茶漬) = rice with tea (lit. tea-soaked)

takuan = pickled radish (OR, takuwan — the Murata guys were all surprised when they were about half-and-half what to call them!). 

masui = anesthesia

namako = sea cucumber

yagou = house name;  

semi shigure = shower of cicadas (sound of many cicadas)

kakushu (各種) = every kind, all sorts

kurage (海月) = jellyfish (note this is another sea word where the kanji has absolutely nothing to do with the pronunciation of the word, i.e. umi is never read ‘kura’ and ‘tsuki’ is not read ‘ge’ [though it is getsu]). 

omoiukaberu (思い浮かべる) = to imagine, to be reminded of, called to mind

kyodai (巨大) = huge, gigantic

touji (当時) = at that time, those days

doukou (同行) = accompany

toumeido (透明度) = transparency

yubiori (指折り) = leading, prominent (top 10) — comes from counting on fingers

shi (氏) = Mr. (or Mrs. maybe — for prominent people; e.g. Clinton-shi). 

tairitsu (対立) = conflict, opposition, confrontation

dokusai seiken (独裁政治) = dictatorship (dokusaisha = dictator)

minshu (民主) = democracy, democratic

senkyo (選挙) = election

ichinen no uchi (一年のうち) = within a year

chuumoku (注目) = focus, notice

shitsugyou (失業) = unemployment

zouka (増加) = increase

bukkadaka (物価高) = high prices; (inflation)

shitsubou (失望) = disappointment, despair; (shitsubou suru = to disappoint)

toumorokoshi = corn (tomorrow for sure!)

fuman (不満) = dissatisfied

binjou (便乗) = free riding (taking advantage of ~)

shinsou (真相) = truth

goku = some, a little ; or quite, very ??

oozappa (大ざっぱ) = in simple terms, roughly, basically

haikei (背景) = background

dan (団) = group

seijika (政治家) = politician

shuukyou (宗教) = religion

gokai = misunderstanding

fukushi (福祉) = common welfare, social good, (volunteer)

jisseki = results, accomplishments

shiji (支持) = support

hirogeru (広げる) = to expand (so shiji o hirogete = to expand support)

sukkiri / assari = refreshing (e.g. assari shita aji = a refreshing taste)

guchagucha = sloppy, messy

issai ue (一才上) = one year older (sansai ue = 3 years older etc.)

(~nai) hodo (~) = to the extent that; e.g. taberarenai hodo ippai = there’s so much food I can’t eat it; wasurerarenai hodo tsurai = so painful I can’t forget; kikenai hodo urusai = so bad I can’t listen.

~(i) you (desu/ni) = seems like, is like; e.g. dono you desuka ? = how is it like? ; sono you desu = like that.

ano kumo wa nani ni miemasu ka? = what does that cloud look like? (pyramid ni miemasu.)

deru kugi wa uttareru (出る釘打たれる) = the nail that sticks out is hammered down

darui (怠い) = sluggish

Waa, am I going to remember all of that? ~(ºoº)’/