Here's what my card now looks like. The top left part reads "Kawasaki" (Kawa = river, can you imagine the three vertical lines representing the river? that's a pretty easy kanji to memorize), the top right part says "Kanda", a station farther out than Shinbashi. Note the second kanji in "Kanda" is that "Ta", the square with a cross inside, which means "rice field"... again you can imagine a rice field, don't you think? And as for the "20", that's the year (actually 2008, expiration date of the card). We're currently in "Year 19", based on the tenure of the Emperor. I can't beleive it's already been almost 20 years that Emperor Hiro Hito (father) died... I vividly remember seeing the news on TV.
This morning, I ordered my cafe latte in Japanese! I know the word for small, hot, and latte is "latte" so that was easy. I missed the part where the barista was asking whether I wanted it "to go", but I learned that one now. What makes me smile every time is how all the cashiers, whether at cafes, restaurants, drug stores, always say out loud the amount of your purchase, how much you gave them, what you get back, and a bunch of other incomprehensible phrases. For all I know they could be saying "You idiot why are you giving me Y5000 for a Y100 purchase, can't you give me real change?", or "I like your shoes, where did you buy them?", I wouldn't know the difference... I'm just smiling as the cashier carries out the one-way conversation. Maybe they're thinking "dumb gaijin", after all...
At work, I sat in a meeting that I thought would take an hour, but ended up being about two and a half hours. All in Japanese. Mommy. I'd pay closer attention when some numbers were discussed, or when I would identify a few random words, particularly the ones derived from English. See, Japanese is not all that difficult, when you think about it. Hanger is "han-ga", receipt is "ri-shi-to" (I understood that much from the cashier), but if you do decide to try your luck at using an English word, you have to make sure you pronounce it with a bit of a Japanese accent. Nobody will understand you if you say "handbag", try "han-do-baggu", and ta-daaaa!!
The good news of the day is that I might be able to move to Atago sooner than the 24th, yippee! Can't wait!
3 comments:
J'aime bien des commentaires imaginaires de caissier.... some more please if you're inspired.... ça donne envie de dessiner la BD Tokyo Miki's adventures :-)
Si tu dessines la BD, tu me dessines version "manga" avec des yeux enormes et des cils a n'en pas finir, STP? :-)
As part of an assignment I had in Asia was to look at some aspects of the Japanese (then Malaysian and Chinese) banking systems. I also discovered that despite the technological "western" perceptions of Japan. The financial systems and perception of the greater fiscus are totally different to the western approach (some called it inferior, I definitely do not agree, but it is different). I therefore share your "frustrations" wrt the auto-xeno-carta-plastico-phobic (foreign credit cards) attitude of the atms. I recall a relatively timely wait at the Hiroshima branch of one of the banks, while I was asked to move to the "waiting chair area", while the transaction was processed diligently but all manually a whole horde of staff and their supervisors. Eventually I got my cash, receipt and polite bow. From then on, I relied on only cash.
btw when you get a chance to go for some more traditional cuisine try out their eel... really cool stuff!
cheers
R
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