Merry Christmas – One More For the Road

I’m officially free from language school for the next two weeks. And let me tell you, it’s going to be nice. Studying Japanese full-time is a lot like drinking from a fire hose, and I don’t always get the time to digest everything like I should. Hmm… maybe that’s mixing metaphors; do you really have to digest water? Anyway…

This will quite likely be my last post till after Christmas, unless I take my laptop to Tokyo with me and get bored/inspired. Though it looks like my vacation time will be pretty full and fun. So, one last time, here’s a Christmas greeting by a Japanese person who’s obviously a genius. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Happy Almost Christmas

I haven’t said much here lately, have I? I guess I just haven’t had much to say. Maybe in the new year after I’ve had a break from classes and enjoyed some ministry events and some time away, I’ll have something to say. Until then, the above is a poster I designed for my church’s youth Christmas thing, which takes place tomorrow afternoon. I made some no-bake cookies for the occasion, which turned out OK considering I didn’t have the ingredients quite right. I’m sure there will be lots of other goodies to enjoy, though, as well as fun people to spend the time with. So I’m looking forward to it.

Weekend Fun

A while back, received a random email from some guy named Tim, who, the email went on to explain, found me through a mutual friend’s Facebook page. Tim’s a fellow-Canadian (woohoo!) and just moved to Japan. He lives about an hour from Nagoya and has been studying Japanese there for about a month now. Yesterday we finally met up in person and did some wandering around Nagoya. It was nice to have a fellow-Canadian to talk to for a change — we understood each other’s jokes. And speaking of jokes… here we are a with a couple of really cute Japanese chicks we met in Sakae:

Awful pun, I know. Couldn’t resist. Hope you all had a great weekend, too.

Engrish, Part the Five

As before, feel free to use the comment form to add your own captions or commentary. Keep it clean and have fun.

Engrish 2008, Part Fore

This is the fourth part in a continuing series of amusing English mis-usage here in Japan — a.k.a. “Engrish“. Again, feel free to use the comment form to add your own captions or comments. Keep it clean and have fun.

Engrish 2008, Part Thrice

I’m posting these with no captions or commentary, so feel free to use the comment form to add your own! Make me laugh!

Engrish 2008, Part Second

This is the second part in a continuing series of amusing English mis-usage here in Japan — a.k.a. “Engrish“. Disclaimers: first, some of these were shot on my cell phone, so the quality isn’t be great; secondly, this is all in fun. We still love Japan.

Also, I’m posting these with no captions or commentary, so feel free to use the comment form to add your own. Some of you are funnier than I am anyway, so have at it!

Engrish 2008, Part One

This is the first part in a continuing series of “on a lighter note” posts, where-in I’ll be sharing from the large stock-pile of photos I’ve taken this year of amusing English mis-usage here in Japan — what is often called “Engrish“. A couple of disclaimers: first, some of these were shot on my cell phone, so the quality won’t be great; secondly, this is all in fun and in no way is meant to belittle the people or culture of Japan.

Also, I’ll be posting these with no captions or commentary, so feel free to use the comment form to add your own. Keep it clean and have fun.

Kit Kat

I don’t know if Japan is a test-market for Nestle or what, but for some reason, there are dozens of flavors of Kit Kat that you may not find anywhere in the world (or at least not back in North America). Because of this, I have taken it upon myself to snatch up and sample every variety of the delicious treat (as a service to you, my beloved readers, of course). Sometimes you have to snatch them up pretty quick, though, because they’re seasonal. I’ve managed to try quite a few over the past few months and here are some snapshots of the kinds I’ve tried.

Kiwi Kit Kat!

I think this had some kind of Japanese bean paste in it, but there was so little you couldn’t taste it over the chocolate (probably a good thing, too).

Some sort of melon flavored Kit Kat.

Fruit Mix Kit Kat.

White Chocolate Kit Kat. Just like white chocolate generally is. Not real chocolate and, therefore, what’s the point?

That’s right, Strawberry!

Very Japanese: Sakura — Don’t worry, it tasted more like cherry and less like the blossom.

For more on Kit Kat in Japan, see their website (only in Japanese, but I’m sure there are photos too).

Oops… Close Enough?

I just stumbled upon this funny-because-it’s-true blog post about common pronunciation mistakes made by people learning to speak Japanese:

When the West JUST Misses Meeting the East « Little House In Ise

The last one is especially true. My Japanese tutor Haruka has tried to explain the difference between the three repeatedly but they all sound the same to me. *Sigh…

SkitZo Book Available at IndyPlanet

For those who are interested, my first cartoon collection, SkitZo MaN Book One, is now available for purchase at IndyPlanet.

Tokyo Drum Machine

Click here to check out a fun little flash animation. Starts out a little slow (especially if you have a “semi high speed” connection like I do) but it’s pretty cool once it gets going.