2003-01-22 - 11:57 a.m.

i love megatokyo.com and ryan and sleeping. i wish i had the megatokyo blanket from their thinkgeek store so i could sleep under it with ryan.

so, i'm trying to learn japanese from "teach yourself" tapes. it's not going so well, though. i don't really listen to what they're saying in the japanese dialogues because the the british woman translating all the phrases is so funny. and the people talking in japanese have to talk slowly so that the stupid gaijin like me can understand them, and so they all sound really depressed. i love the chapter entitled "shall we have a beer or something?" because the phrases mean things like, "is there a good place somewhere?" "do you drink here every night?" "there's no alternative." etc. anyway, i think it's funny. maybe it's something you have to hear to understand. they all sound like they're talking about how they're going to commit seppeku as soon as they leave the bar, and the british woman tries to offset that by sounding extremely chipper.

useful phrases i've learned so far:

"doko no chiizu desu ka?" : "where is the cheese from?"
"nan no jaamu desu ka?" : "what kind of jam is it?"
"kanai desu, anzai sensei." : "mr. anzai, this is my wife"
and
"sensei no shinbun desu ka" : "teacher, is this your newspaper?"

i'm sure i'll blend right in like the henna gaijin i am.

one step forward - one step back