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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Friday, July 12, 2002 |
 Yakiniku with Wendy
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Biking home with the crescent moon in a sky where the last tinges of blue linger, the shogakusei boys on their way home from softball practice teasing me about England losing to Brazil, and challenging me to a bike race down the street... these sorts of things are why I love Etajima.
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Naval article
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I like Hiroshima dialect, especially the old words few people use now.
For example this afternoon we were talking about something, and I
mentioned kenarii, which means 'envious'. Nagareda-kun, though,
didn't know this, as indeed he didn't know togi (friend) or
gubensha (rich person)...
I'm making a list of old
Hiroshima-ben, and it's growing, steadily but surely.
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Things are snowballing here lately. First a request for a speech in
Ondo, and now today a call from the Prefectural Office in Hiroshima
asking me to write an article for a magazine called 'Keizai Shunju'.
First there was the 'can we interview you for our publication?' period,
and now there's the 'can you submit something?' stage.
I don't know
why things have suddenly become so busy, but I suspect that something
must have triggered it- it's too much of a coincidence that I should
suddenly be asked to do so many things. My own personal view is that the
speech I gave in Kure was the trigger for all this. In any case, I'm not
complaining- it's good that people and organisations think I'm worth
inviting to speak. I'm especially happy that the Prefectural Office
seems to think so highly of me.
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One really scary thing I've noticed, though, is that I find it easier to
write speeches in Japanese than English now. I took a copy of the speech
home last night to make some notes and corrections, and looking at them
today, they're all in Japanese...
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The Matsue speech is finally completed. Not finished, but completed. Now
all I have to do is proof-read it and correct it- in other words, make
it interesting and fun (as if!)...
I also finally got the Navy
article off my hands today- I emailed it off to Tokyo, only a week late.
Getting everyone's approval for the article (a very Japanese thing to
have to do) took longer than I'd anticipated... Anyway, the English
version of the article is here.
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Sending money
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Popped out to the Post Office this afternoon to send money home (yes, it
was during work, but everyone has to live a little
sometimes).
Anyway, when you're in an air-conditioned office you
forget how hot it is- and today was hot. Damned hot. One of those days
where the steering wheel of the car gives you blisters. The
air-conditioning (funny how often that word crops up!) didn't even start
to cool the car in the time in took to get to the Post Office, either...
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This should have been an entry for Wednesday, but I forgot (the
excitement of Natto day and all that). The semi- cicada, if that
means anything- started chirping. They have a really metallic sound,
which almost shouts (or chirps, I suppose), 'my-God-it's-hot'. I'm still
thinking that it's early summer, but if the crickets have started
chirping, then I suppose it's already 'real' summer. Anyway, as we get
to mid-summer and the 'stupidly hot' (this is the Japanese expression)
days of August, the crickets will gradually tune up until they become a
deafening roar.
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Breakfast Show Staple Notable weather
Well, the typhoon missed us, but it hit the north of Japan pretty hard.
This BBC article has the details.
I'm
always torn between wanting to see a really big typhoon (there's only
been one large one in my four years in Etajima) and hoping it doesn't
come because of the damage it causes...
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A strange thing struck me on the way to work (no, not an insect). The
last time I went to Tsukumo Elementary School, some of the children were
moving because their fathers (in the JMSDF) had been transferred, so
they came to say 'thank you'. At the time, I felt quite sad- I've taught
most of them for two or three years- but this morning, I realised I
couldn't even remember who was leaving. It's strange how quickly people
are forgotten.
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Breakfast Show Staple Randomhaiku of the day (from The Genuine Haiku Generator)
grassy modest door
ponders chirpily madman
ripens, blustering
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:18:41 pm.
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