Let's Learn Japanese : The King and The Prisoner

Since this is a "Japanese" blog, i would like to introduce a new topic, besides news...

As you probably know, Japanese use Chinese Characters for their writing. At the beginning, Japanese had no way of expressing themselves in written since they didn't have their own writing method; therefore, they borrowed it from the Chinese Language, that's why now, most of the words are actually chinese characters.

What i would like to talk about today, in our first lesson, is the character for King in Japanese (王). Sometimes characters are similar to real things like Mountain (山) or fire (火). So, with a little imagination, you might see a crown with the character of King (王).

Now, changing the king slightly, we get the word for Master (主) and if we add a Person (人) combined becomes (主人) which means one's Master...and here is getting interesting ;).

The same combination for 主人 is also translated "Husband". Well, i guess all men out there are delighted by this ;) ... they would say I'm the master! ...but there is more ;)

Master in Japanese is pronounced SYUJIN (just pronounce it as you would in english). The problem comes now with another very similar word pronounced SYU-U-JIN. Just one 'U' more but very difficult for foreigner to catch it when pronounced by japanese.

So, now we have the two words, the one for Husband - or One's Master (主人) and the other one pronounced SYU-U-JIN (囚人) that means....prisoner.

...I bet now are the girls out there to be very delighted...uh? ;) ... yeah... similar prounonciation but a very different meaning...

So it might happen...that when referring to her own husband, a woman might call him "her Prisoner"... well... sometimes, it might just be the thruth... who knows... married men out there, watch out !! ^-^/

Another Yakiniku Day!

Today, some chinese students, wanted to have Yakiniku. Since i'm having rice for lunch and rice for dinner everyday (with some side dish like takoyaki or korokke), i thought that i could invest another 1,200 yen (CHF 15.--) and enjoy all you can eat yakiniku buffet this week as well ;)

This time no pictures of the food, but just of the classmates who joined. They are all from china beside me and the guy on my left side, which comes from Singapore. The one on my right in the picture is Yamada-Sensei, our Friday Teacher that was very happy to join today :)

The... Western Food Store !

This store is located in the kobe underground city i've written some time ago. It's like an "Asia Shop"...but for Europe! Let's call it "European Shop" ;)

They really carry every kind of goods from all Europe and USA. German Tea, Swiss Chocolate, Italian Food, American Cookies, Canadian Flour... and much more!

The following is some of the Italian Goods Selection...

Even a Palm-Sized Nutella vase (I've never seen it that small ;)

But i saved the best for last...when i said the store carries everything, i meant REALLY everything... I couldn't imagine, i could even find... Willy Wonka's Chocolate!!! Amazing! But wait! There is more! The packages on the shelf (you can see the one on the right) Has even the sticker with "Win the Golden Ticket" On it! Woah!

Shoes Clinic!

Every woman's Nightmare... having her shoes to break while being in the city! Well, here we go! The Shoes Clinic comes handy...

- Shoes Clinic is the actual name of the shop ...i didn't make it up ^-^

Looking at the number of customers waiting, it looks like the business is good ;) If you notice, they repair your shoes on the fly...you just need to wear the provided slippers, sit and wait. Few minutes later their are as good as new!

It's like the F1 pitstop... a quick change of tires ;)...

Greeting Proofed Throusers !

Ok, here we got something new... the Greeting proofed throusers! At first i could not believe my eyes, but here they are!

In Japan, you have 3 levels of greetings performed by bowing: 1-Informal: 20 degrees, 2-Formal: 45 degrees, 3-Very Formal: 90 Degrees.

The above trousers, seems to perform well at 90 degrees... i didn't inquiry further on this, and i don't even know if they are available for export...

Cost of Living : BigMac Index

The actual cost of living is calculated country by country, comparing similar products as Bread, milk and so on. One of the "index" products is, believe it or not, the Big Mac.

Well.... i don' t have a big mac in this pic, i wonder where it went. The above is the current menu outside MacDonald at Sannomiya. I think they have the Big Mac on the menu inside somewhere. Currently they have a special sandwich that is called "Quarter Pounder". I remember they had the same offer in USA few years ago... 1/4 pound, if i'm right, should be around 112 grams of meat...

Anyway, besides the standard offering and the Quarter Pounder, what i plan to try is the Teriyaki Burger... i've tried it few years ago and the taste was good ;)

For the sake of it...here the famous teriyaki Burger!

For the Italians out there: Pasta and Pasta!

Another couple of shots of "Spaghetti" in japan. The one in the pictures are taken at a local supermarket and are frozen spaghetti. I remember i've seen it Switzerland pasta to heat up in the microwave, but i'm not sure i've seen frozen spaghetti.

I thing in italy they might have it. But I bet that the italian ones don't have the half-cooked egg included ;) check the bigger shot below ;)