[Incense: White Musk
Music: DJ Shadow
Beverage: Kirin Gold Label]
A week of stuff and things ....
A bit of an experience at the Indian place around the corner: the two chefs treated us with barely concealed contempt as we ordered our curry, then the owner, a man we had met before, careened into the room, saw us sitting forlornly at a table waiting for our take-away, and immediately shouted at the chefs to bring us special tea. They brought it in equal mixtures of sullen and ashamed, and we chatted with the owner of his family, his wild adventures around the continents, his dangerous friends, as our bag of food grew cold on the counter and the chefs smiled shyly and lost all their bitchery. Odd.
Watched a couple episodes of "Project Runway: Canada." I rarely watched TV in Canada and never do in Japan; Sage introduced me to the various Project Runway incarnations on youtube and I'm horrifyingly addicted. Interesting thing about the Canadian one was listening to Canadians TALK -- they talk like *I* do, and it's unsettling because I have no Canadian friends in Japan, not a one, so I'm un-used to it. Some of the things I heard that I haven't heard from people other than me in over two years:
- "How's it hangin'."
- "Dude, it tripped me out, dude."
- "Hey, buddy, could you [...]"
- "Dude, like [...]
- "I've got no freakin clue, dude."
- "I mean, for fuck's sake!"
- "It's a bad scene, man."
Went and saw Lennon's gig on Saturday, another electrifying noise-rock thing with howling and smashed microphones and flailing arms, and awesomely, a sax solo --
Cheese party at our place, hosted by Frenchy.
Went out with a group of reputable Japanese guys who were interested in "talking to foreign people." One of the first topics of conversation they brought up: "Are you more a sadist or a masochist?"
Studying, studying, studying. For six hours on Monday, then seven on Tuesday and seven today. Intense. I'll learn this fucking language if it kills me. A couple points of contention: katakana! As Horizon once said, "Why invent a WHOLE EXTRA ALPHABET specifically for spelling foreign words, and then NEGLECT TO INCLUDE the SOUNDS used in foreign words?!" (ie "l," "m-at-the-end-of-a-word," etc.) Agreed. And: thousands and thousands of individual kanji? Dude, English may have more words, but we only have 26 LETTERS. God. That said I'm having fun; I've always got a kick out of conjugating shit, English or otherwise, and kanji is fun to write, even if I never remember what it means. Look for the metaphor!
Posted by joy at February 25, 2009 4:08 AM