Every day has a new surprise

This is just going to be a short post. I just want to tell you a little trivia about a new food I tried, that I found interesting and quite funny. Maybe you won’t give a damn; maybe my interest will make no sense to you, but thats ok. I can handle it. I handle a lot of things here that before I would never have been able to. I’ve become a mentally stronger person already, which was secretly one of the reasons I wanted to move away from my comforts like family and friends. I wanted to grow up… and I guess I have already ( ^ - ^ )

So anyway, theres this food called 丼 (donburi), that is really delicious! Its basically just an egg on top of rice. ( Oh, and yeah, suddenly I love egg. If you know me, you know that I hated egg before coming here. My favourite tastes have changed quite a bit. Its awesome. )

Anyway, yesterday my host sister and I decided to order at the cafeteria. And she suggested I have a different type of donburi. Theres three choices other than just rice and egg for donburi at our cafeteria. You can choose an addition of chicken, beef or pork. I don’t eat pork, so I didn’t bother about that one. But what I found funny was the names they use for beef and chicken donburi.

Chicken donburi is called 親子丼　(oyakodon/oyakodonburi) Don is just an abbreviation of donburi, so don’t freak out about that. I’ve noticed that the Japanese people love abbreviating things. Anyway, so, that first kanji (picture/writing) looks like this: 親 , and is pronounced Oya. Oya means parent. The second kanji, 子, means child or younger version of something. So, the meal I guess literally translates as parent and child … rice. Or something. Anyway, I found it really funny that thats how they’ve named this meal, because the chicken is the parent of the egg and they are sharing a place in the meal. Of course, it also made me a little sad, seeing as I am vegetarian… that has basically been forced to eat meat to not displease and burden my host family. But, still… its so interesting to me so find out what these little word-plays are. And I’m glad I can share them and enjoy them too. I hate being left out on the joke, so being able to understand this little thing has made me a little proud of my Japanese study.

Oh, and the translation of beef and egg donburi is “strangers”, because they arent related like the egg and chicken are. Lol XD.

Now that I think about it… this was a pointless post. Theres more I feel about it, but I dont know how to say it so this just ends up looking so stupid. Oh well ( – _ – )

Yesterday, I sprained my ankle at dance club, but I was in the middle of the dance so I kept going until the end. In the last move, I twisted it again by accident. It seriously caned, but I just asked to sit out for a few minutes. My friend took me to the nurse and they made a big deal out of it. I only asked to sit out for a few minutes… but they put this strong smelling sticky thing and then a bandage around my foot. I have never had this done so I don’t know the name of it. And then my friend rang my host sister and my host mother.. wah it was all just one big mess to me. I didn’t mean to make a big deal, and I swear I didn’t. I’m not like that anymore. In the end it turned out ok, I don’t really feel like explaining the whole story. Sorry.

On happier news, my older host sister whom I had never met, is staying with us for a few days during this Golden Week. Shes seems really cool, and shes an artist. She wants to do my portrait sometime before she leaves! I can see so much similarity in Megumi and Risa’s speaking and actions, that I feel comfortable with her already. I feel like I know her, but shes probably really different from Megumi in other ways.

Anyway, I gotta go.

ごめん！！

みんなさん、ごめんなさいよ。

ええとね。。。私のﾌﾞﾛｸﾞが忘れてしました。ばかですね　（；ー＿ー）

メメする:

(Or in English, if you are unsure as to what the hell I just wrote/totally failed at writing:)

Everyone, I’m really sorry, OK?

Um.. I kinda forgot about my blog. Idiot, right?

I will do a meme:

What I was doing;

10 years ago

Learning how to write the alphabet properly. I also learnt that 30 days have September, April, June and November XD. I had a fight with some chick and she shoved a handful of sand in my mouth…so I pulled her skirt down. And it was fun. Oh, and I learnt how to multiply by 2. I played an important part in my society by winning a state-wide colouring competition for 6 year olds. You know, the usual stuff XD.

5 years ago

Being a loser; obsessive with getting the best score on everything. Oh, and I learnt how to not confess your schoolyard love to someone who hates your guts. Fun times.

1 year ago

Making new awesome friends, being a lazy ass, spending way too much time on the internet, discovering Morning Musume, Kago Ai and basically all my favourite bands and TV personalities… Japanese ones, naturally. Making the decision to move to Japan.

Yesterday

Watched “The Spiderwick Chronicles”. Keitai-ed (mobile emailed) my Japanese friends waaaaaaaaay too many times then is good for my phone bill. Drove through the Osaka version of Akihabara… I got to see a real Maid Cafe chick advertising her place. “Would Master like some buns with his coffee? Oh no Master, I didnt mean mine…” Im sorry… the maid costume just looked so cheap and her bust size looked so fake… lol. Oh and about one street later, I got stared at by this old-ish woman who was walking past our car. You see, my late 50-something Host Father having a young, blondish gaijin in the carseat next to him almost always gets us looks. But this lady was a complete bitch about it. And the stupid traffic light wouldnt turn green so I was stuck with her staring at us for eternity. For goodness sake woman, he is NOT my sugar-Daddy or whatever the hell you think he is. Ahem. Im pretty sure thats why she was staring, not the fact that Im a light-haired gaijin. I mean, she was only in the most gaijin/otaku/gaijin-otaku filled area in Osaka…

5 snacks I enjoy

1) CHOCOCRO!!! It is the best Japanese sweet ever… Im having some for breakfast tomorrow haha.

2) Chiffron Cake. Hell yes.

3) Ichigo… anything. Thats strawberry btw.

4) Pocky.

5) Does all the Japanese school-boy eyecandy I spend my days with count? ( ^ – ~ )

5 books I like:

1) Fruits Basket… Manga counts right?

2) Series of Unfortunate Events

3) Dessert Cookbooks XD

4) Harry Potter books.

5) Probably BAR FLOWER… its on my reserved to like list ( ^ – ^ )

What I’d do with 100 million dollars:

1) Pay back my parents for the part they played in sending me here.

2) Bribe whoever is in charge here to let me stay as a permanent resident.

3) Pay for my and/or my friends frequent trips to visit each other as much as possible.

4) Pay for a private sensei who would teach me Japanese properly… not the bullshit way.

5 places I’d love to run away to

1) Tokyo!

2) (once my exchange is over) Osaka

3) My Nanna’s house… yeah seriously. Shes the shit.

4) France

5) Karaoke bar XD

5 bad habits and pet peeves I have

1) Habit: Getting flustured and building up a queue behind me as I take forever to put my change in my wallet and walk away after buying something or using money for any reason.

2) Pet Peeve: People who talk about me on the trains thinking i have no idea theyre talking about me.

3) Pet Peeve: Having the same pervy guy find his way behind me every friggen morning so he presses up against me as the train gets fuller and fuller of people.

4) Habit: Daydreaming of what Id love to do if suddenly only I and my guy classmates came to school one day… and all the teachers (except for one OMG!) and chicks were absent… yeah I daydream this in class haha

5) Habit: dismissing the fact that im supposed to be trying to do the same work as everyone else here… and just doing Kumon (self-taught Japanese lessons) every class.

5 things I like doing

1) Daydreaming about hot Japanese schoolboys and one hot Japanese sensei… oh yeah

2) eating. eating chococro. but eating in general works too.

3) playing Jankenpon in my head (sciccors paper rock) with my cell-phones closing animation XD

4) Talking in Japanese English. Laiku Thisu.

5) Speaking Japanese properly and having some random turn around in shock.

5 things I would never wear

1) Grunge. EW.

2) Girdle.

3) Someone elses used undies. lol

4) all-fluro stuff

5) plastic wrap around my stomach to hide the growing bulge XD

5 TV shows I like

1) SMAP X SMAP

2) Music Station

3) Quix! Hexagon (If only for しゅうちしん lol)

4) Berikyuu!

5) … too many random and stupid shows here that are just too randomly stupidly awesome for words.

5 movies I like

1) Kiki’s Delivery Service

2) Love Actually

3) 3rd Harry Potter

4) Hairspray

5) Beauty and the Beast hehe

5 famous people I’d like to meet

1) Kago Ai. OMG. No words can describe how much I want to meet her once my Japanese skills go up. I can dream cant I? lol

2) JunJun. I dont know why, but her banana fetish and thunder thighs makes her so much more interesting. And besides, I connect with her exactly on those two points… but maybe the banana one isnt so much a fetish for me XD lol

3) … Its really hard to think of someone non-Hello!Project related. Gawd thats bad. Umm… Patrick Demspey! Wow, that was non J-pop related too!

4) The yellow guy in しゅうちしん. Hes an idiot, but hes damn hot and is pretty funny too.

5) Taka-san. From Utaban. Last week I wouldve said because hes awesomely weird, funny and a little perverted. Now, I want to meet him to kick his dirty, old, perverted and weird ass.

5 People I’d like to see fill this out:

Eeehh… Im out of the blog-o-sphere loopy thingy. So if you happen to read this then please, fill it out too.

 

Im off, its past midnight here haha. Goodnight! Love yall!

おやすみなさい

Another random translation project..

I suddenly decided at about midnight that I wanted to translate my new favourite song, Café Buono!, because Buono! are the coolest and most awesome group out at the moment, and because I find that knowing the translations helps me remember the lyrics somehow XD. The album has only been on official release for a few days so there are no translations on the internet, so I decided to take it upon my newbie self to try translating it.

Many thanks to Some Boys! for supplying the kanji/original lyrics, the good quality album cover and for transliterating into romaji. I was getting hungry for the Café’s lyric’s too! (Gomen, gomen nasai… I couldn’t help myself when I saw the opportunity to make a really bad pun XD)

OK, I’ve only done the first two stanzas (or is that verses… or paragraphs?! I can’t even remember the right word!) , and I know the translations are probably wronger than wrong and very unnatural sounding (the only parts I know I got right were the katakana parts haha!) but I am doing this mostly for my own benefit and… satisfaction I suppose.

Thank god for my Rikaichan mouse-over-to-find-definition-dictionary haha. I’m really no where good enough to try anything like this but I find that I learn words and kanji easier when I have a reason to be reading it in the first place. And seeing as I love music, I find lyrics as an awesome way to learn new kanji and words! Also, I still suck at katakana so this song gives me a good opportunity to brush up on it.

o(^ ^)o Translations are the coloured text underneath each line.

———————————————–

Ciao! ねぇ知ってる? あの角曲がればほら
Ciao! Hey, you know what? Well, turn the corner to look at me
クラスのみんな ウワサしてるカフェがあるって
Everyone in class is gossiping about the cafe
Ciao! どうぞこちらへ 看板娘はそう
Ciao! Please go in the direction of the shop girl (Show girl? Shop girl?)
街でイチバン キュートなアタシのこと
In this town I am the cutest (I think that line is wrong for sure, but I couldn’t work it out!)

ドーナッツとカフェラッテ
Doughnuts and café latté
チョコミントアイス
Chocolate mint ice cream
ナポリタン あと オムライス
Neapolitan after omelette rice
ピッツァマルゲリータも おすすめ!
Pizza margarita is also recommended!

———————————————–

Why does it have to be now that I decide to translate a song about food? Its now 2:30am, and I am craving for a doughnut and a café latté!

Anyway on a quick note, I’ve noticed that most of my daily hits are coming from people searching for stuff about Aibon. Seriously, if you care about hits too much, just make a post with the tags “Aibon”, “Ai Kago”, “Kago Ai” and “New York” and include all those words in the post, and I guarantee you that you will have an extra 1 to 10 viewers each day depending on the strength of the “OMGmustfindoutaboutAibonrightnowbecauseshemayhavesuddenlyappearedagainwithinthelast24hours” mental wave signalling across the world on any given day. And no, that is not why I post about Aibon XD.

Also, I know theres one or two people I should be replying to comment-wise, but because I take my sweet time in writing its now 2:50am. And I’m sleepy. I could talk have spent this time replying to you, sure, but hey I don’t have those pages open right now. And now you’re probably thinking (or shouting at the screen, take your pick) “OMG wtf you’re spending all this time on a tired rant about how you don’t want to reply right now, yet you’re spending the time giggling like a little girl looking at the word count go up as your post continues to go stupider and stupider by the friggen second!”

OK i’m spent… goodnight all XP

Memories

Today I came across my (relatively large) collection of things Ayu gave me as I was looking for some papers regarding luggage limits. It brought back so many funny and uncomfortable memories, as well as some good ones of course! I remember that night she first came home so well. We’d already set up Ayu’s bed next to mine, so it was Activ8 (haha my sister hates that name already XD) and me on my bed, Ayu on hers, and her suitcase in between our beds.

We were helping her put her clothes in the extra drawers and stuff like that. I was trying out small talk with Ayu, mostly with the *cough* trusty *cough* phrase page we’d been given by the organisation she was exchanging under. There was a lot of …”ehhh? uh… you mean…? eeetoo..sorry! I don’t understand. Oh! You mean *insert fast Japanese* OK!” on her side and a lot of sentences like, “um.. sorry if your bed in not comfy like at home. Eh… Sorry if beddo *point to bed* is not very comfy *lie down and try to express uncomfortableness*.. yeah?” from me.

After finishing with her clothes, she gets to a different zip of her bag, and shes like “OH! I forgot. Sorry! Puresentu for you ” which I, clueless to her culture at the time, completely wasn’t expecting, but after my initial surprise, I thanked her and said it wasn’t necessary. Now, after saying that, you would think that would’ve her plently of time to get the present out right?

Wrong. She had this friggen huge plastic bag that wouldn’t come out because of how full it was! Me and Activ8 looked at each other so comically, it was like it was on cue and we both turned to each other with goldfish eyes and mouths dropping to the floor. It was amazing! Once she got the bag out and opened she was like, “Origami paper *gives to Activ8*. Origami paper *gives to me*. More origami paper *points to the packet’s design and gives to active8* Lilo and Stitchu!” This went on for a few more times lol. Then she opened up a smaller plastic bag that was inside the larger one, tipped it upside down onto her bed and so~~~ many origami designs came out. She’d made the normal cranes, flowers and stars etc, but then she’d also made hello kitty ones, pokemon faces, little designs that looked like envelopes but with hello kitty faces folded into the design (I dont know how to explain that one clearly) and so many other interesting things that were so cute and original! (Unfortunately I ended up throwing most of them out last month during my big cleanout session that I have every month. I’d left them in my room for a few months but there was just no room to display them, and so they were all squashed together in my bookcase.)

Next, she went back to the main bag she had and pulled out these packets. The paper is so light, delicate and is decorated; they are very pretty! They all have the same design of a geisha on them, and each one is wearing something different. The geisha is a thin wooden stick. Her hair kind of looks and feels like the paper cupcake holders except thicker and rougher. The hair is tied up with gold-coloured twine..stuff. The kimono is made up of patterned and textured origami paper with a piece of plain coloured paper stuck on the inside to make up the kimono’s next layer. The obi is made up with a different coloured paper with a small strip of the textured paper put over the top. The kimono is folded in such an intricate way! Hopefully you can click on the picture’s I’ve uploaded to get a better look at how they’re made on the original sized photo. I’m really impressed by these because Ayu’s grandmother made them. Oh and I forgot about whats inside these things! Chopsticks! All that work and detail just for chopsticks!

Above: The chopsticks inside their packets, 2 packets of origami paper I’ve yet to open, some designs of Ayu’s that I kept, and heat packs.

I had never seen heat packs before, so we had a good 5 minutes or so where she tried explaining what they were using her electronic dictionary/translator and her own knowledge of English. I, being the all-comprehending genious that I am, only got what she was talking about when she wasted one to show me what they do. In my defense, the best the dictionary could come with was ‘warm pouch’ which doesn’t seem to match when you’re just a clueless person looking at this flat packet that sounds like it has rice inside when you shake it. OK, that wasn’t very good defense… I guess I’m just slow XD.

Above: Theres nothing better than fanning your hot self while promoting products, companies and universities from a different country.

Next Ayu took out these fans. On the back of the light blue one theres the name of the University its promoting in romaji. So great, all-comprehending me decides to try to read this name of elaphantine proportions (I just watched Ratatouille again, can you tell?). I won’t put its name up here, but basically when I tried to say it fast Ayu ended up holding her sides from laughing so much! Keep in mind that at this point I hadn’t done any study into the language, I didn’t even know the correct way to pronounce the vowel sounds and I wasn’t used to saying words of roughly the same length as the chemical ingredients listed on back of a shampoo bottle. So it kind of ended up something like “Tezukayayamaguyuckirukiuopuinrin…kuin.”

I think the LISMO! one with the squirrel and the one with the cute little lion mascot are my favourite, too bad theres not much use for hand-fans anymore when electronic fans and air cons are much more efficient.

Above: The Jyuuni-shi (12 animals of the Chinese zodiac)

Do you know how friggen excited I was when I took this out of its packet?! I’d just finished reading the last chapter of the manga Fruits Basket about a week before Ayu came, and I’d finished watching the anime a month or so before that. If you don’t know, the Jyuunishi play a huge part in the plot of both the anime and manga; its basically what the whole story is based on. Being both my first anime and my first manga, it of course was my favourite of each at the time XD. I might’ve scared Ayu with how excited I was, but I made up for it when I said “its the Jyuuni-shi!” Her reaction was priceless to me. At first it was sort of a thoughtful look: “I have no idea what shes…”, then it was the furrowed-brow look of deep thought: “hey wait was that one of our words or an English one that sounds like it?”, and then it was “how the heck does she know that word?!” and finally she smiled said “Very good! Yes! Jyuuni-shi!” I think I gained a little more respect, if only a tiny bit, from her because I knew some random word.

Above: Reversed adaption of Otani Oniji II

I have to admit it: I was less happy to receive this one. I’d seen it countless times in a few art books in class; you know the ones that you can’t help but flick through to ease the boredom while Teacher rambles on for half an hour about the artist on the page you’re supposed to be on? Yeah.

Its not that I think its a bad piece of woodblock art, its just that I find the illustration of the actor extremely scary looking. Yeah, I know it is from the Edo period and all and that style was normal back then, but if I was that actor and had someone portray me like that? Toshusai Sharaku would’ve been missing a few teeth and I’d be sporting a bruised fist.

Anyway, I thanked her for it still; she gave us so much awesome stuff that I wasn’t even expecting so that last gift was hardly a problem for me. But I have no idea what to do with the last two things! I mean, what exactly are they for?! Decoration? Tableclothes for the tiny tables? I’m really confused as I don’t know how to make use of them.

That was one awesome night, in any case. I could spend a whole nother post on the first dinner we had and what we did after the packing and presents, but I’m tired of typing haha.

—

(This post has been almost three days in the making lol. I kept getting interrupted, or sidetracked, or forgetting which folder I uploaded my photos into on the computer and couldn’t be bothered finding them etc etc. If you read ALL THAT then congratulations for making it through such a boring feat! I just got all emotional thinking about that night so I decided to let it out and I guess share with anyone who happens to read this. And I know theres at least one of you that comes regularly! I’m not very good with replying yet but I love to get feedback and know that I’m writing for a reason, so any comments, questions or discussions are well received and I appreciate them all!)

Ai Kago

To the 2 people who searched for “ai kago address new york” and “ai kago,is she back in japan 2008?” and came to my blog, I’m so sorry that I don’t have the answer .

Mr/Mz “ai kago address new york”, it isn’t very considerate to a person’s privacy if you’re trying to find out their address, especially if its Aibon. She went to New York to get away from everything that linked her to fame and scandal, and she obviously just wants to be left alone for the time being. So why are prying to try and work out where she lives?! Isn’t that really inconsiderate to her wishes? Maybe its just me but I think that going against her wishes of privacy and trying to find out where she lives means that you don’t care for the real Ai Kago, the real person with feelings; instead you just want to see an idol return so you can hear her sing and be cute for you (and the rest of the fans) and make you happy.

To the person who searched for “ai kago,is she back in japan 2008?”, I really do hope that is the case. But, if not, I accept that maybe shes over fame and the high risks it can have on your private life. To be honest, if I was her and all that happened, I would probably never want to be famous or to step foot in Japan again, at least until the magazine Friday was shut down or something.

We can only hope though, right?

Happy Belated Birthday Ai + Maimi!

I missed my favourite (ex-) H!P member’s 20th birthday! Do you know how stupid I feel? I mean, Aibon was the very, very first one I was interested in, so much so that I started disliking Nono simply because everywhere I looked it was always “Leader Tsuji and sub-leader Kago in W” and stuff like that. Anyway that faze over now, I know now that Nono is awesome.

But anyway, enough about Nono for now Happy belated birthday Ai Kago! I can’t help but feel that if only she had waited until this year to smoke and date, she would still be a part of H!P and wouldn’t be lying low in New York =(

On a happier note, it was also Maimi’s birthday on the same day! So, a late happy 16th birthday to Yajima Maimi, who is quickly becoming my newest favourite member =) I can’t believe shes younger then me by only a month, shes so much more mature-looking and beautiful and talented ;-;

°C-ute’s New Single!

So, I’m a very new Hello! Project and Morning Musume fan, as I’ve only known about H!P since about.. the middle of December I think. And I’m already obsessed. Alongside all the Marimo podcasts and various jrock/jpop songs on my ipod already (and the occasional song thats actually in English), I now have just over an hour of H!P songs =). I’m very slowly catching up with all the different generations and groups, but I’ve decided to take a break from listening to songs and finding out info on the girls in the oldest-to-newest order, and go from newest-to-oldest instead. Mainly because I’ve become extremely attached with MiniMoni and W, only to find out that MiniMoni finished when Mika wanted to go back to America, and W was put hiatus when Ai was suspended for underage smoking, and then disbanded once Ai Kago got expelled for dating. So, I’m worried that if I keep going this way, I’ll become to attached to the older generations and groups that have graduated or disbanded, and not have an open mind for the newer ones.

You probably have no idea who or what I’m babbling on about, but hey I didn’t know either before the middle of December, and now I don’t know if I could ever forget it.

Anyway, °C-ute are releasing a new single on the 27th of February, but the PV has already been cirulating the net for a day or two. And I have to admit, it is too awesome for words; well for a °C-ute single, anyway (Even if the dresses, some of the choreography and the guys backing vocals had me giggling )! I listened to one of their other songs a few weeks ago and.. well lets just say I made a very narrow-minded, judgemental review of all newer generation groups based on that one song. But they’ve made up for it now .

So, this is why I’m starting from the newest stuff. Because otherwise I’m going to keep comparing generations and I’d never accept a good song simply because it wasnt up to par with the older songs.

Anyway, thanks to Some Boys! for the info on the release, and here is the link to the PV. Even if you’re sceptical, just give it a listen k?

I love Marimo!

Seriously. No really, Marimoeo is awesome.

They’re these high school chicks (or at least I think they were when they first started) who regularly upload podcasts. And I mean really good quality podcasts. Not the “eeetto…. uhhh….” unprepared ones, where the people sound so unreal, so forced and like they’re reading off scripts and speak like snails so we can “understand” them. Which in reality makes it harder!

I hardly understand a thing these chicks are saying because of my level of Japanese, and I guess also its got a little something to do with the fact that they’re speaking at a natural pace. But, this is actually really helping me because I’m getting really good at picking out the random phrase and sentence that I do understand or I think I understand, and then working out what they’re talking about in general from the expressions in their voice and if they’re laughing or more serious etc while talking about it.

What I really like is that they’ve left all their podcasts on the site since the very first one in 2005, and theres an option to download them! So, I have emptied my ipod and filled it with 4 hours of these podcasts already! And I’ve been listening to them all day. Each time I listen to one, I pick up another phrase or sentence or I grasp the meaning of a conversation that I didnt last time.

I’m really dizzy today and slow in the head, as I havent had any sleep. So I may not have make much sense in this post, but I’m too tired to check now.

I’m reallllly looking forward to the 2 and a 1/2 days of babysitting i’ve got ahead of me starting tonight *cough*.

Quick update.. then sleeeeeeeeeep

Hey everyone,

I’m really sorry that I haven’t been around to answering comments and commenting on your posts for the last few days. I’ll get around to it tomorrow.

I gave myself a sort of “GET OFF YA ASS, PRACTISE YOUR FUCKING JAPANESE, STOP EATING SO MUCH CRAP AND REMEMBER TO FIND THIRTY YOU STUPID LAZY IDIOT” boot-camp type thing over the last few days, which is why I haven’t gone near my computer for a while. And believe me, I feel so much healthier and better already. Now, I just gotta keep the habits.

Japanese was still a little tough, seeing as I’m mainly self-teaching with a computer program that I couldn’t use during my no-computer period, but I got by with notes and with the activity book Hannah gave me. One thing that pissed me off though, is that the activity book comes in a set with 2 audio cds, the teacher’s booklet and a course book. Basically, if you don’t have the other material, especially the course book, then you have almost absolutely no idea what your doing. One guess who doesn’t have a course book -_-.

But, thanks to the hours I gave myself without distraction, I managed to finish 11 pages. These pages contained stuff like word puzzles, crosswords, “read the description and fill in the questions”, “copy the sentences in the following dialogue”, kanji number dot-to-dot, translate blah-blah’s letter etc. The one activity I had major trouble with, but felt the most satisfaction upon completion, was the full-page, ‘fill in the speech bubbles’ comics. I’ve completed one, but the next one I’m completely stuck with. They are just very badly drawn explanation wise. I have to assume that the person whose speech bubble is to the left and/or up the top goes first within each square, but its so difficult! And NONE of the facial expressions/ gestures match with the dialogue to choose from! Especially the last picture. This kids like 8 ( ). The 8 is his eyes, and the brackets are his OMFG freakout like open-mouthed expression. Sentences to choose from (translated by me of course):

• What grade are you in?
• (あのう) What is in 1st period? (Does あのう mean ‘umm’? I couldn’t work it out.)
• 7th grade.
• Sport is 5th period. English is 6th period.
• What do you have in 2nd period?
• What’s your name?
• Maths.
• Maths first and second period.
• What subjects do you like?
• Sports.
• (えっと) 2nd period maths. (I’m guessing it means ‘hmm’, but I don’t know)
• Masashi. (I’m pretty sure this is the kids name.)

So, the only thing I can think of to the kid’s expression is either he is saying Maths or Sports in a “oh no I hate the subject” sort of way, or maybe i’m translating some stuff wrong. Even if I have, I’m proud with my efforts. I did not know the words for sports, maths, period (as in timetable), subject, grade before starting that page and the preceding page, but using the small clues I think I’ve translated it almost all right.

Anyway, tonight I decided to try again at the test found here. I really don’t know why, as I’m nowhere near good enough to translate things without a dictionary, and I don’t have any original transliterations and/or translations of lyrics that haven’t been uploaded. I guess I just started doing it for the fun of it. Anyway back to the test, I only know hiragana, katakana and the basics of kanji numbering, so its been a rough night with the kanji, but I’ve managed to use a few kanji lookup tools, translators and online dictionaries to get me along. I’ve managed to complete half of the test so far and learn a few kanji along the way; heres what I’ve got.

Original:
人気小説 “涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱” から, 新作コスチュ一ムが登場する.
ハルヒ仕様の髪飾りリボンと, 県立北高校の男子制服の2種類だ.

My romaji transliteration:

Ninki shousetsu “Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu” kara, shinsaku kosuchu ichi mu ga toujou suru.
Haruhi shiyou no kami kazari ribon to, kenritsu kita koukou no danshi seifuku no 2 shurui da.

My translation:

From the popular novel “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, a new costume has been introduced. It comes with a hair ribbon in Haruhi’s style, and the North High School youths’ uniform comes in two varieties.

The translation is very rough sounding to me; I was trying to think of better wording for the first sentence especially but everything I thought of sounded just as unnatural. Its fustrating me to no end, but its almost 2:30am now, so I’ll come back to it tomorrow.

A big hi to Coby, the first person to visit my blog who is a friend in real life! I haven’t told people about it, but I put the website in my msn for any curious peoples =) Anyway, こんにちは コオビイちゃん! [Hello Coby-chan =)]

Wow, this post is like 800 words… not good for a post titled “quick update” haha.

Before I go, one important piece of info *snicker*If I’m ever talking to any of yous over the phone/webcam convos/ in RL etc, and I happen to say something like “she put my fracking clean shorts into the dishwashing machine!”, or “I overloaded the dryer again tonight cos I was too tired to do the dishes”, please ignore me. My brain, for some wacked-out reason, is wired to say dishwasher for the dryer/washing machine, and dryer/washing machine for the dishwasher. It can’t be helped. Its natural to me. I’ve had about 4 conversations today that were either about the dishwasher or the dryer, and they all turned into arguments. I only worked out a few hours ago that I had been asking Mum questions like, “Why do the cups in the dryer have crap in them still?” and “Have you seen a yellow button in the dishwasher by any chance?”

-headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk–headdesk-

Friends

On the whole, I think I have hated these summer holidays. And its been all my fault. We’ve been out of school since like… Dec 12 or something? And the ONLY friend I’ve seen since then is Hannah. And Caitlin, but hey she came all the way from Scotland, it would have been criminal not to see her. Oh and that doesn’t mean I DIDN’T want to see her, heck, she was my best friend when she lived her. Oh yeah, and I saw Sharna, but thats completely different as well as we live in different cities and hadn’t seen each other in a year or so.

So yeah, going back to how I’ve seen basically no one. Although Coby and I had a fun game of Truth/Dare over webcam. And I talked to Jaylene on MSN. Buuuut other then that… I just haven’t been bothered. I really do want to see them, but I’m the worst organiser, and slackest person you’ll ever meet. Plus, I’m a boring host. But, I decided that I’ll try a sleepover anyway.

So, last Sunday I called Hannah, asking her if she wanted to sleep over this Sunday. I asked Mum if that was ok, she said it was. Then, I invited Coby. I still need to talk to her to clarify if she can come, and at this moment its only 34 mins until Saturday.

I was also going to invite Jaylene. Crap, I’ve lost her friggen private number once again. And no one else has it. And I keep forgetting to go on msn in the short space of time at night before she goes to bed. OMG did you know that she voluntarily goes to bed at like 8.30/9.00? That was my bedtime when I was about 11, and I never kept to it. I’d sneak in my gameboy or a book and light under the covers and be content for a few hours. Now, my normal “Ooook I told myself a few hours ago that I would go to bed” time is about 3-4am. Hehe, and I wonder why I’ve got bags under my eyes the size of pillows.

Anyway, I then decided to give Sarah one more shot. I’d tried ringing her a gazilibililimililitrilion in the first few weeks of the hols, but that didn’t work. And what has happened? I threw away her number as I figured she must’ve gotten a new one. Then the El Brillianto inside of me said, “oh my god you idiot, just look up the online yellow pages!!” Of course, El Brillianto is right, except that she decided to tell me that after it was already sunset! Why does that matter? Because shes a Seventh Day Adventist, and from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset its a strict sabbath day. Yeah, I dont get to see Sarah much out of school because of that.

I’m think I’m so scared of missing the few friends I have, that I’m already pushing them away. Also, I think I’m way too attached to staying inside with the fans and air conditioner when its almost 40 C… which is the weather its been almost every friggen day this holidays!!

What is a lazy, ungrateful, gossipy bitch like me to do in times like these?