Hi! So, I think I'm on the mend. Besides a nagging cough, I don't feel too bad at all. :) I'm hoping I'll be completely recovered by Friday...I won't be traveling this weekend (for once), so we're celebrating with Indian food, karaoke, and 42! Friday post-exam is going to be awesome.
Monday we had an adventure and went to Omi-hachiman! My friend Addie's homestay family lives in Omi-hachiman (a town about midway between Hikone and Kyoto) so we decided to accompany her there. We mainly hung around the station, which was fine because there was a big shopping mall right nearby! As with most big cities, the station has a lot of cool stuff nearby. Including a CREPE OJISAN! Oh my, delicious. So, we had yummy crepes and went through shops full of cute things (and I now have Sentimental Circus mugs! :DDDDD) and a music store and generally wandered around the mall for a while.
We've been taking liberties with the Japanese language here at JCMU. In class, of course we have to speak properly, but certain things have been co-opted into our everyday language. Easy ones to integrate are "sumimasen" (excuse me/I'm sorry), "daijobu" (are you okay/I'm okay), "yappari" (as expected), and "tabun" (probably). I'm pretty sure I will be using all of these phrases upon my return - it will be a hard habit to break! My personal favorite, though, is changing the part of speech. For example, the adjective for something you like is "suki" (pronounced "ski"). My roommate today used it as a noun: "This is my suki." And you can sometimes conjugate adjectives as verbs, like daijobu! Using verb conjugations we just learned, you can use the phrase "Daijondemite kudasai", which literally translates to "please try to be okay". That one is probably the silliest, and therefore my favorite. And I'm sorry for the lengthy language lesson, but I've found it amusing.
Besides the Omihachiman trip, not much has happened! I had a paper to write for history, so that (and being sick and a little miserable) has sort of taken up my time. Life is going as normal otherwise, so I don't have much to report. Which is why you get another picture of a plum tree in a pot. XD
New song! It's by Super Junior, a Korean band (yes, another one). It's called Perfection. Ignoring the fur hats, I LOVE the video. I'm definitely becoming a K-Pop fan. :D
Good luck with the rest of your week!
For the suki adjective/noun thing - is that not grammatically correct? Aren't you just using the adjective substantively? :P In Latin they used adjectives in place of nouns - like sultus (foolish) could be used to mean "fool". Maybe that's just because sultus already has a (masucline) gender, and therefore a (male) person is implied? :/ How does gender work in Japanese adjectives/nouns, again??
ReplyDeleteAnd I love "please try to be okay". XD