Monday, March 31, 2003 - 10:18 p.m.
A phallic story for March:
First, let me introduce a song called "Osakana Tengoku" ("Fish Paradise"). It's apparently the official theme song of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, and it was created as a campaign song to encourage Japanese kids to eat more fish. (Part of it) goes like this:
Sakana sakana sakana
Sakana wo taberu to
Atama atama atama
atama ga yokunaru
Which translates to:
Fish fish fish
When you eat fish
*You will get smarter
(*Literally: Head head head, will get better)
Anyway, I was teaching a kids' class today (which consisited of 4 kindergardeners) and when I showed the little monkeys a "F is for Fish" card, they started singing this song in unison, at the top of their lungs!
As though that wasn't freaky enough, they changed the song a bit and started singing this cannibalistic song (in Japanese, of course),
"Head, head, head, when you eat heads, your fish will get better!!!!"
And then, for some strange reason, one kid belted out:
"(naughty body part), (naughty body part), (naughty body part), if you eat (naughty body part), your (naughty body part) will become hard!!!!"
I didn't know whether to laugh or to be shocked at the fact the six-year-old kid said "(naughty body part) will become hard" instead of the orothodox(?) "get better"......
Saturday, March 22, 2003 - 09:17 p.m.
The Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) I planted a week ago has finally sprouted!! For some strange reason, seeing the little green sprout poking its head out of the dirt made me immensely happy. I should have discovered the joys of gardening earlier!! When I was living at home (in California) last year, I had no interest in pottering around in the garden- I played Harvest Moon on my PlayStation instead. My mother would take this as a personal insult, saying "You can plant real tomatoes and flowers out in my garden!!"
I really have to start a daily exercise routine... I went to Harajuku and the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo with some friends yesterday, and walked a lot. And now my back hurts. I am so unfit...
Monday, March 17, 2003 - 11:55 a.m.
A lesson I taught yesterday was a story about a wedding. After the lesson, I pointed to a picture of the bride and asked my student (male, late 30s), "What's the special name for a new wife?" The gentleman screwed up his face and thought for a while, and said, "HONEY!!!" I pointed to the groom and he said, "DARLING!!!!" I love students like him.
After I taught him the words "bride" and groom," I asked him to describe a traditional Japanese wedding, and he said, "The bride and groom get married in a.... SHRIMP!!"
choose the correct replacement for the underlined word:
a) temple
b) shrine
c) crab
d) all of the above
Thursday, March 6, 2003 - 11:46 p.m.
Picture time:
Hina Dolls for Girl's Day in the Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku~ When I was little, I always wanted a big staircase of Hina dolls just like this one...
Wednesday, March 5, 2003 - 11:33 a.m.
The other day at work, I was eating some ama-natto which is an old-fashioned Japanese snack- they're little sugar-coated beans. They're not especially great, but I was in need of something sweet. When I was trying to raise my blood sugar level eating the little black beans, one co-worker (British) commented, "They look like camel turds." While I sputtered and coughed, another co-worker (Australian) retorted, "They're too small to be camel turds!" Then came the reply from the first co-worker: "Monkey droppings, then." .......In my opinion, they look like bunny poopies.
