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.

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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!

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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.

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(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*.