Here we are again, dear readers, though not a great amount of experiences to recount this time. I've a few more tests, written ones which I seemed to finish rather early (though I gave them my best effort), giving me an unfamiliar 45 minutes or so to play around with in between lessons. With those out of the way the half-term holiday started, so I've no Uni until Thursday 4th. I doubt I'll get up to anything amazingly interesting; more likely to use it to catch up on work (two essays to write and a speech to memorise - ulp!). I was going to go on a field trip to one of the University's more far-off campuses, but it got cancelled due to the approach of Typhoon Chaba! So here are some thoughts about this-and-that which may amuse or interest.
- Nagoyan Culture - On Thursday we had a relaxed end-of-term lesson about various aspects of local culture. One good question that came up was why the mascot for the Japanese baseball team The Dragons is not a dragon. Apparently, it has to do with the team name being an English word pronounced the Japanese way - Do-ra-go-n-su. Take the first two syllables and you get "Dora," meaning koala in Japanese, which the powers that be evidently decided would make a more cute mascot. We also touched briefly on the dialect spoken in this locale, very interesting and a little bizarre how much regional variation can occur within the same language.
- Public Toilets - I was wandering around the shopping arcade at Osu on Friday, and found myself trying to find a toilet. I paused for thought when I noticed a sign saying (in English and Japanese) "Please feel free to use the toilets." There are many comforts of my homeland that I miss very much, but public toilets is something I will miss about Japan when I leave and return to London, where using a toilet without paying seems tantamount to high treason. Japanese toilets also tend to be reasonably clean and well-maintained - I don't think I've yet found one where the taps didn't work.
- Dates - When writing the date in Japan, as in America, the month comes first, therefore the English 30th October becomes October 30th. I'm not sure why and how this trans-Atlantic differentiation came about, but there is a reasonable explanation to be had in the case of Japan. In Japanese culture and language larger or more impressive things always come first, e.g. Japanese names are written with the family (i.e. group) name first, then the given (i.e. individual) name. I only noticed recently, though, that in keeping with this the year is written first, so - 2010/10/30. It makes sense, of course, but it still looks a little odd to me and takes me a moment to work out which date is being expressed.
- Microwaves - Someone recently asked me how dorm life was treating me, and I told him that it took some getting used to cooking without an oven. The chap then replied that he had the impression that the English tend to use microwave ovens more than the Japanese. This set me to thinking, and while watching a video online detailing a recipe for pumpkin cake it dawned on me that the main difference is perhaps not the frequency of use but the attitude toward it. I'm not sure about the rest of you, dear readers, but I've always thought of the microwave as something to use when the gas/electric oven would require too much time, or for cooking ready meals. In contrast, in Japan the microwave seems a tool with its own merits to use in cooking. Plus, I always thought it you put cling-film in a microwave it would melt and poison your food - not so! Was I misinformed or is Japanese film specially made to be more resistant?
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| Sometimes I like to wander to lonely spots to help me think. |
