I went to the movies

The Disney/Pixar Movie "Up" just came out and we wanted to go to the movie theater to watch it. I was really looking forward to it, because I had always heard that it was a very good and funny movie!

I had already fun buying sweets and snacks in the konbini before the movie, which I wanted to sneak into the movie theater. The prospect of saving money and enjoying some forbidden snacks during the movie even enhanced the joy of buying them ^^ Don't you think?

One ticket for the movie theater for one adult during weekdays and weekends is 1,500 Yen, which is about 11 €. I heard that in other movie theaters a ticket is even 2,000 Yen! A little bit expensive, I think. But for りゆうがくせい (international students) it was only 1,000 Yen.

We were 5 people, 2 of us were no international students. How to get everybody in for the reduced price? Andora (a real international student) showed his ID at the entrance and told them that the whole group consisted of international students. While he was telling them this little lie, I talked to my Japanese friend in English, calling him Edward. And the others just looked away. We were so excited and happy, when we all got the reduced tickets! We felt so smart!

(Oh man, I just realized something. At this point it becomes clear that this blog must be written by a student, who else would devote a blog entry to having saved 500 Yen / 3,60 Euro.)

Coming out soon:

"The mole: Some of us are not one of us..."

Feeling this rush of excitement about our smartness (remember, I also had my secret snacks in my bag! ... and somebody else had McDonald's hamburgers in his pockets)  we went in and snuggled into the comfortabe seats.

Please do not go into the wrong entrance. 

 

There are no seat reservations, you just sit anywhere you want. The seats in the back are also the same price. (Keine Loge) 

This reminded me of the times, when I went to the movies at the age of 12, when there were no seat reservations in Germany. Nostalgia... ^^

There we are, unpacking our forbidden snacks and sitting in the last row (in Germany, the last rows are the most expensive ones!).

When the movie theater went dark and the commercials started I was still busy talking to Ludmilla and unpacking chocolate in order to pass it around. But suddenly I realized that the people on the screen were talking in Japanese... Hmm, we got a little bit nervous, Andora jumping up to ask at the entrance if the movie would be in English. When he came back, grinning brightly, I knew it was over. The movie was in Japanese. No subtitles!

We did not feel so smart anymore. Of course, we got a discount. Which international students would actually go watch a movie in Japanese without subtitles?

We had the choice, we could go outside and get our money back (Japanese are really fair when it comes to service) or we could stay. We decided to stay.

So there we were. Two Germans, one Slovak, one Indonesian, and one Japanese. I did not understand anything that they were saying on the screen.

But I had so much fun watching the movie. Even without understanding the dialogues! The plot was easy to understand and the pictures spoke for themselves. I am sure that I did not get most of the jokes, but still, I had to laugh so much. It must be a fantastic movie, when you also understand what the characters are saying. That's why I highly recommend this movie! Pixar, thumbs up!

Well, but actually I lied. I did understand some words. 5 or so. Those who already watched the movie might recognize where in the movie following lines occured:

き　お　つけて！Be careful!

ボル　が　ほしい　ひと！Who wants the ball!

いぬみたい！Looks like a dog!

かめみたい！Looks like a turtle!

Well, that's about it ^^

One of the words that was new to me, but which frequently reoccurred was

ぼうけん　adventure

So, go watch the movie, it really shows a great adventure!

Japanese garbage

Ok, I have been saying many nice things about my Japanese life here so far. Time for some rant.

One of the most annoying things in Japan is that there seem to be no garbage cans! The pockets of my jackets are filled with garbage because I never see any garbage cans when I need one! You have to imagine that every time I see garbage cans, I stand in front of them, digging deep in my pockets and emptying two pounds of garbage into the garbage cans. Argh!

But when you see garbage cans, they come in a sevenfold! In one of my first posts I already mentioned the Japanese garbage system. Here is a typical example of on of the trashcan series on our campus:

It is especially annoying when you stand in front of it, ready to empty your pockets and realizing that each garbage can is labelled in Japanese! Where to put which trash?!

Have I shown you the garbage plan yet, which each household has to follow? Here it is. The garbage plan for 2009. Each color stands for a different kind of garbage. At the bottom there is some explanation (in Japanese) what trash belongs to which group. But the little pictures (the only thing I understand in this Japanese explanation) do not list every potential garbage. Last week I had to change my lightbulb. And I still have no idea in which trash to put it!

 

So in the course of time we have become fed up with this garbage dividing game, and I have to admit that we do not entirely obey the garbage plan anymore...

Mail aus Deutschland

Ich gucke letzte Woche so meine Emails durch und ratet mal welche Mail von der SBI Fachschaft ist (aus Datenschutzgründen wurde der Name verfremdet ;) ).

What is this?

This dates back from my first days in Oita.

  

Hm, what is this?

  

Lipstick?

  

Eeee?

 

It's my inkan! ^^

This custom made stamp is used to sign official contracts. It is used to for example open a bank account or sign a cell phone contract.

Mine says "Quinni", hehe. I have never had to use my inkan though.

Mary

I have Japanese language class three times per week. It is my favorite class, because I like studying new languages and because our textbook is pretty good. The grammar is explained in a logic and simple way, there are many examples and many practice tasks. 
Our Japanese textbook also uses many illustrations and pictures to support the teaching of dialogues and examples. In a country, where as many manga are sold like toilet paper, it is obvious to use illustrations. Do you remember your own textbooks from school, when you learnt English? Didn't they also have many illustrations and dialogues?
Every week we start a new chapter of our Japanese textbook. Accompanying each chapter, the reoccurring protagonist ist Mary Hart.

Week 1

Mary is American, studies Japanese in her second year, is 19, and comes from Arizona.

Week 2

Mary is a kind young girl.

Week 3 

We learnt how Mary asks for the time politely.

Week 4

We also learnt how Mary buys a watch at the flea market.

 

Week 5

We learnt how Mary says goodbye properly to her Japanese hostmother.

Week 6

So Mary is basically a busy girl, who plays tennis, meets friends, watches TV, etc.

  

So can you imagine our shock, when after watching Mary for 6 weeks we came about this?!

Saint Mary smokes?!

But shortly after recovering from the shock about Mary's questionable purity we had more to digest.

When we learnt the negative imperative form, we started out with:  

 

Please do not walk away.

Please do not take pictures.

Please do not watch.

Please do not talk in class. 

But:

 Please do not die?

Please, this textbook is so Japanese.

(^_^)

Kaikan cat

I like cats. I really do. I would not have become a vegetarian if I did not like animals. And cats are one of my favorite pets! 

But I don't like this cat. It is a cat, which belongs to nobody, but which lives in and around our Kaikan. It is the most annoying creature I have ever met! It is usually said that you have to work a little bit in order to assure the love of your cat. But since Day 1 this Kaikan cat has been following us, stalking us, touching us, meowing at us constantly! Cats usually attract me like a magnet, but I run away from this piece of annoyance. It is not that I would not feel pity with a begging hungry cat, but this one has even become fat since I came here, so it gets enough food.

Our Kaikan would not be our Kaikan if there wasn't Kaikan cat, so I figured it was worth a post. Also, it is interesting to watch the different reactions from each person to Kaikan cat. You could divide the inhabitants of our building in Kaikan cat lovers and haters. (And one person who is absolutely scared of it.)

Guess to which party he belongs to

(No animals were hurt during this photo shoot!)

Japanese logic

I discovered a coffee vending machine in the Oita University! At first I was so happy that it seemed to be possible to finally get some good coffee in between the lectures (I already wrote about my non-delicious experience with canned coffee from warm refrigerators in the Unversity). But after trying it, this bubble has also burst. But bad coffee is not what I wanted to talk about.

Rather, could anybody please explain the logic of this to me? ^^

So if I break it down for me, it basically means that I pay 150 Yen and either get a large amount of cold coffee or a small amount of hot coffee. This would really put me into a dilemma, but as the coffee is bad anyways, I do not have to rack my brain!