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Hahaa... yeah. ^_^# I like that what you buy is wrapped. It makes it so easy to turn it into a present! Well that's the point, really, but anywho.. xD
Omgosh it was so bad one time... I was in Kyoto and one thing on my 'must buy' list was a kanji shirt, right? We were so busy, we barely got to stop by in the shops on the way up to the temple, and that's fine.. the place was gorgeous and so worth it. But lol as a result of our rush, I ended up not looking closely at the few kanji that I knew at the time, enough to realize that I would later be going around the mall with a shirt that said, in short, 'Japanese boys don't cry'. :rofl: Sooo embarrassing once my family told me. Hahahaha. :rofl: I tried to hide it behind my hair to make sure people didn't get the impression I was .... well, a guy. XD |
ROFLMAO!!!!! well it could have been worse i suppose but that is so funny. can you make it say something if you cover the 'boys' part with like an iron on? |
There are other funny stories... :B
My sister only knows very little Japanese because she never pursued it past our childhood, which is when we learned very basic words and phrases that we used often, and ended up not using the English words for them. She knows "Arigatou gozaimasu", "Dou itashimashite", "Ohayou gozaimasu", "Konnichiwa", "Oyasuminasai", as well as counting to 20 (after that she starts getting confused), and words like cat, dog, and rice. For me, hearing so much Japanese around me stimulated my learning experience, and my curiosity, my open eyes.. they made me exhilarated. My sister? Aha...let's just say it wasn't quite the same experience. Every once in a while, the words to foreign to her would make her head spin, but she still wanted to make the best of the experience and be polite, so.. from time to time during the trip, a fellow would say, "Arigatou gozaimashita!" and she would reply with "Buenos diaz!" and they would give a puzzled look, wave, and walk off scratching their head. .... She never quite caught on to that. :B I suppose I could but I gave it to a guy that I had a crush on in high school, lol. He took Japanese III class so even though he is white.. I wanted to give it to him because he'd appreciate it. xD It worked I guess. |
lol, sister is precious. i think it's cute she at least had the greeting part correct if not in the language being spoken to her. strange do you want to borrow my white fox slippers? |
Stange: semper fi!! Haha I probably watch too much NCIS...I love crime shows!! ^^
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*peeks in thread* is anybody home? |
I'm home!!! Well, in my college home anyways, ahaha. Hi Hummy! I'm Kuro! Douzo yoroshiku ne!
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welcome home Kuro! it's nice to meet you as well. |
Thanks!
So are you studying Japanese? |
Kuro ~~ no i'm not studying Japanese, are you? |
Hummy: Yup, I've been studying for three years now, and I went to Japan this summer for six weeks ^^
Do you like anime and manga? |
@Kuro ~~ oh how much fun! where did you go during your six weeks in Japan? i absolutely love Japan. i consider it my home but sadly i did not learn Japanese. most everyone wanted to practice their English on me ;[ . and i could never be rude to anyone over there while they were being so kind to me. so i got into the habit of only conversing in English. i miss the sakura trees and the blooms floating during a summer picinic. the little kids walking everywhere all by themselves. leaving my doors open or my purse in the shopping cart as i walk around the store. the hello kitty stores in the ginza and the little 'presents' you are given when you purchase something. i miss everything! |
@hummy: Well there's nothing stopping you from studying it now. :) You must have at least become pretty familiar with listening to Japanese while you lived there, right? I bet you could reach at least basic conversation level fairly quickly.
------ I do a mix of Japanese and English in most of my conversations these days, but I prefer using Japanese with native speakers provided they don't mind. The exception is my fellow English teachers, whom I typically speak English to of convenience since they're basically fluent. I feel so behind if you consider how long I've studied Japanese. :gonk: My first Japanese lesson was six years ago, but I'm still very limited in my comprehension - especially reading. Truth be told, even though I graduated with a minor in Japanese, I honestly could not speak it at all. I tell that to my Japanese friends now, but they always think I'm exaggerating. :lol: I'm happy that I'm at least able to converse now after a year of living in Japan. |
hiya Ferra ~~ how are you doing? i think if i put my mind to it i could learn to speak Japanese at a basic level. i will never be able to read Japanese. most i could do was remember the city Kanji and like the Koban kanji. my brain just won't learn it for some reason. i need letters. yay, i'm glad you feel comfortable with conversational Japanese. and i am sure you are better than you think. |
@hummy: I'm alright, how about yourself?
I know a lot of Japanese people who hate kanji too. XD I personally find it a lot easier to read Japanese when kanji are present, so long as the readings are written above in hiragana. I think kanji are interesting and actually convenient when you know what they mean, but they are very difficult to learn. It was such a gradual thing that I didn't really notice how much I'd improved my speaking ability. I was always able to at least get my point across, even if it took miming or using a lot of katakana-ized English. But after awhile I realized I could go for hours using only Japanese. I don't have to think in English before I speak either, which means I can reply quick enough to keep the conversation going - although not as fast as a native speaker, of course. Still, I'm no where near fluency. :lol: |
Hummy: Yeah, it was a blast!! I was in Saitama prefecture, but I went to Akihabara, Asakusa, Chichibu, Harajuku, and Shibuya while I was there. Where have you been in Japan?
Ahh, I see, that's tough! But it's cool you helped them with their English! Ahh, I didn't see any Sakura, sadly. I've heard they're beautiful though!! How long has it been since you've been there? And how long did you stay? |
楽しい～～～～ :heart: :drool:
私も日本で桜を見たいです。 ^w^ |
strange_dreams_512 ~~ aren't they just beautiful? it's like a snowfall without all the cold weather. it's peaceful and daydreamie ;p . Kuro ~~ it's been a few years since i have been in Japan and i lived there for nine years. that's why i concider it 'home' and wish i was still there. it's embarrassing i cannot speak Japanese though. but i have piced up some of the personalities of many of the Japanes people i am so close with. i take everyone at their word *to a fault*! i take pride in my job and my family comes first no matter what. i was amazed at how i was accepted and not hated, like i thought i would be. i was very grateful for that because i wouldn't have gone all over Japan visiting if i was treated badly. let's see where all did i go????? i am sure i will miss a lot but off the top of my head i visited: hokiedo and saw some of the ice sculpures which were amazing! tokyo and all around the area. i saw the tokyo tower and went to the U.S. embassy, the ginza *way better than any other*, rode all around on the trains and never got lost which was a miricle in itself *because i am directionally challanged*, drove all around the seaside highways and shopped for hello kitty items =^.^= . Nagasaki where i went to the peace park. it was so moving i couldn't control myself. i saw a shadow of mother with her baby in the wall of a building and lost it. i sat down on one of the benches and sobbed. an elderly Japanese lady sat down beside me and offered me her tissues. she looked like she could have been here at that time and i was so touched she was consoling me it made me cry all the more. she hugged me and held me while i sobbed and tried not to cry. i wasn't hated after all. i thanked her and she smiled at me. i wanted to go to hiroshima but after that i just couldn't. it was such a difficult thing to see. so i also shopped at a really tiny but stocked to the gills toy store in their ginza, found a cute hello kitty store there and a store called 'hard off' which was like an American pawn shop kind of store. the town is beautiful. i visited saga and went to a mall and a pet store. they really pay a lot for animals in Japan. like thousands of dollars for a kittie! and for pure breeds you can pay up to and over three thousand dollars! i thought of staying there and breeding animals. i was in osaka and kobe and a bunch of other places driving from here to there. one thing i wasn't too fond of was all the tunnels. but after driving all over it got kind of common place and i didn't panic quite as much. the tunnels are well lit and nice wide lanes. it was better than seeing the edges of the roads! i went to Okinawa a lot and just loved it there. the beaches are so pretty! i was everywhere on the island. sometimes it was because i was lost but on an island you find your way back easily enough ;p . wow, sorry this got so long. i'll add more next time. |
It sounds like quite the adventure~ ^^ I can only imagine what it would be like living that, but I got an idea haha because you described it so well ^_^ How precious..
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Strange: 私も！！日本へ帰った時ぜったい桜を見るよ！！
Hummy: Damn!! Sounds EPIC!! Haha, I'm glad you had a good time though!! |
thank you strange_dreams_512. thank you kuroshinigami. i probably babbled more than i should have. but i hope i can inspire others to take an adventure to Japan. i know if you go there it will be a part of you forever. if anyone gets to go try to be there around sakura viewing time. it's sort of surreal sitting among all the falling sakuras while eating lunch and chatting with friends. |
Hummy: No worries, it's awesome to share each other's experiences, especially since most of us are really interested in Japan and all. Yeah, next time I go I definitely want to see the sakura. We have some at my school, but I'm never on that side of campus to see them...
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LOL...what did you think I made this thread for?
You silly :B Share away :) |
I'm hoping to go to Japan again one day with my fiance particularly on food safaris.
I lived there for a bit. It's not like what people see in TV. I couldn't stay long since the place made me really sick and I fought off an assault. Not a good impression of the Japanese. |
Oh, gosh... what happened with the assault? That's terrible. : <
I've never had an experience like that in Japan. Makes me wonder wth happened o-o And are you okay after that? What kind of food would you like to try ^^? |
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