Thursday, September 25, 2003


Wow !!

Amazing photography from Michael Kenna




.... Japan as serene as you´ll ever see it :-)

Monday, September 22, 2003

THE OGRE WHO SANK DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Here´s something you should check out, a fairy tale told in japanese ;-)

"A Kamishibai Play is a storytelling tradition from Asia in which story cards are placed inside a small stage and withdrawn as the storyteller acts out the story line. In this play, a father ogre lives happily with his young son deep in the mountains. One day they meet an old man who tells them how great waves have washed many people of his village into the sea. When another storm threatens the village, the orgre rushes down to the beach to help the old man and the people of his village."

Enjoy ;-)
A fun way to learn japanese .... and to find out that making instant noodles isn´t as easy as it looks ;-)

Click on the pick for the big version, cheers

Tale of how other students of japanese have inadvertently fouled up ;-)


Recycling at its tastiest

I had been learning Japanese for the past few months, mainly for the purpose of communicating with my Japanese neighbor. One evening when he was visiting us, my mother served him a sweet she had prepared. He had never seen anything like it before and looked at it a little apprehensively. I tried to explain to him how the sweet was prepared, intending to say, "Kore wa goma kara tsukurimashita," which means, "This was made from sesame." In my overenthusiasm, however, I said, "Kore wa gomi kara tsukurimashita," which translates to "This was made from garbage."
Geetha Ranganathan
Madras, India

The What is Greener?

The setting was a speech in front of a Japanese PTA group. The speaker wanted to say that the grass at home was a different color from the grass of Japan. Instead of kusa ("grass"), however, the word that came out was kuso, or, politely put, "excrement." The most amusing part was that the mothers only nodded their heads and muttered, "Ah, so desu ka?"
Joseph Tomei
Sendai, Japan
Drinking Etiquette

After last thursday I thought it best to pass on some minor tips on Japanese drinking etiquette ;-P just kidding, but it´s fun, especially the whiskey bottle thing!!

In cozy and friendly Japanese-style bars, customers often pour drinks for each other from bottles of beer as a gesture of companionship. If you are a fellow beer drinker, reciprocate with your own bottle. A whiskey drinker may invite you to drink from his bottle and fix a drink for you. In this case, you need not reciprocate unless you have your own bottle. (Many of these bars have a "bottle-keep" system for regular patrons who buy a bottle from time to time as it is less expensive than paying for single drinks over the long run.)
If with a group, do not begin to drink until everyone is served. Glasses are raised in the traditional salute as everyone shouts "Kampai!" (Cheers!)

If you drink sake, and someone offers a drink from his carafe, drink what remains in your cup before holding it out. In this case, too, reciprocate. But don't let it get out of hand. Pouring sake for each other at high speed can get you drunk much faster than you might imagine.


How miniskirts work ????

nandayo???




Via corndog