Lost in Translation Part 2

It's become a bit of a hobby of mine to collect pictures of all the strange mistranslations that I find here in Asia. These never fail to amuse me.

Such a beautiful fairytale

I'm always wary of landslides in the shower

Darn, where am I going to store my corpse now?

In Japan, even the signs bow to you

Right now.

A girl is being disappointed

Magical thing!

Somewhere out there, this sign is waiting for my next visit

Make heartily

The ever famous Japanese 'sarad'

I treasure it too

"Time to relax with cute cats."  Well, if you say so.

If only I knew how to make a Christmas

Let's cleaning!

I always thought floor wipers were lovely too

My thoughts exactly

New life slogan: Smile make happy

All my specials

Primitive hedgehogs

Also known as Cinderella

I like to go to museuns

It's not a bad translation, but I love this onion wearing a road on his head

Don't scald your hard

They're really serious about the no talking rule

Open falmes are dangerous

Pellows is such a cute word

I think I'll name the milk Steve

Such compact, much amazing

The 'L' gets them every time

Fall Colors

It's December, but the weather is still very mild here, and the fall colors are as vibrant as ever. I went to the Higashiyama Botanical Gardens today to do some autumn leaf viewing, which I think is a bit of a hobby here. Fall here does not disappoint - the trees are absolutely gorgeous.

I promise I haven't edited any of these photos, the leaves are really that bright and vibrant! I'll be happy to keep the fall weather around a bit longer.

Japanese Explorations

It's officially been over a month since I came to Japan and I'm finally getting the hang of things. Japan's one of those places that the more I learn about it, the more questions I have! But teaching has been really enjoyable so far, and I've had the opportunity to do some more exploring on the weekends. Here's a bit of what I've been up to.

1. Shopping
Shopping is endlessly amusing here, especially in Osu, the shopping district of Nagoya. Osu is basically streets upon streets of shops and stalls selling everything from fried octopus to Japanese comics to fancy kimonos. I love just wandering around and trying to figure out what stuff is! My coworker went with me one Saturday and showed me all the out-of-the-way little places to buy exciting things. I especially love all the "kawaii" cute things - I could spend all my money in the little Japanese stationary shops here!

The streets of Osu

Ready for some shopping

Here's a shop for all your Kirby needs

And if you need a Koopa Shell or two, they've got that as well

2. Shrines
In Europe, if you're taking a cultural tour around the city, you visit the huge, intricate cathedrals and churches; here in Japan, the equivalent is to visit the shrines dotted all over the city. The shrines are either Buddhist or Shinto, the two main religions here. They're usually very beautiful and peaceful, except for the one in Osu, which is usually full of commotion and people feeding pigeons!

Osu Shrine

Paper 'wishes' that people write

Kosho-ji Shrine

A five-story pagoda

A Buddhist graveyard

3. Exploring downtown
There's something really exciting to me about just navigating my way around a big Japanese city and seeing the sights. Nagoya's not extravagant like Tokyo, but there's still plenty of neon lights, five-story karaoke joints, and odd architectural anomalies to keep me intrigued on a day or night out!

A ferris wheel attached to the side of a building

4. Tokugawa Gardens and Museum
There's no shortage of lovely Japanese gardens here, and on one particularly nice weekend, I visited a local garden, Tokugawa, which is also connected to a small art museum housing some ancient Japanese artworks and samurai gear. There was just about everything you could hope to find in a Japanese garden, including little waterfalls, arching wooden bridges, weeping willows, and hordes of koi fish in the pond.

Hungry hungry koi fish

Lots of pretty views

No garden is complete without a waterfall or two

There's definitely plenty to keep me busy!

Getting to Know Nagoya

I've finally gotten out to see the city this past week. Nagoya is the fourth largest city in Japan by population, but it's not particularly famous for anything, nor is it especially touristy. The main sights are located in Sakae, the most bustling neighborhood of the city, where you can find the Nagoya TV Tower - sort of like a little baby Eiffel Tower - and Oasis 21, a spaceship like facility which houses shops and restaurants. You can climb up to the top of the spaceship to take a walk around and snap some pictures by the fountain of water on top.

Nagoya's TV Tower

Oasis 21

On top of the spaceship

There are plenty of pretty parks and natural areas as well. It's still warm here, so the autumn leaves are just beginning to change, and I'm sure it will be lovely when the colors start to come out!

Nagoya also has a castle, rebuilt from the Edo period in 1615. I took a field trip out to see it and climb through the six floors of the castle to see the exhibits. They make you take your shoes off when you walk in the entrance hall, so I was wandering around the museum wearing only my (mismatched!) socks. The rooms in the traditional style are absolutely gorgeous.

There's still plenty more to see and I'm looking forward to discovering more about Nagoya!

The Unwritten Rules of Japan

My first week in Japan is officially over. I'm starting to get the hang of day to day living and working here, though honestly, it hasn't been easy given the fact that there are apparently a million unwritten rules for various parts of daily activities. For example, when you go shopping, it's apparently not polite to hand your money directly to the cashier, and you instead have to look for a little tray to place it on for the cashier to then pick up. You must take off your shoes and put on slippers any time you walk into a home or school. If you get on public transportation, you're expected to be very quiet. And you should never use your finger to point directly at anyone or anything.

The school I'm working at is pretty keen on rules as well, which has made learning the ropes for my new job trickier than expected. The first afternoon, my Japanese assistant teacher asked my to help her set up lunch for the students. It seems easy, right? You pass out the lunch and everyone eats. Well, let me tell you, there are at least twenty different steps to setting up lunch in Japanese school. First, the students must get out their lunch bags with their utensils and drink bottles. They must then put away the bags and set up their places for lunch. When they're ready, we pass out the lunches - two plastic containers containing rice and a main dish. The rice absolutely must go on the left, and the main dish on the right. The tops of the containers must immediately be taken off and placed at a right angle above the containers. The students must take out the dessert from the lunch and place it in the tray at the top, to be eaten last. The container with the main dish must be positioned a specific way so that it is facing the student. If you put the rice on the right, everyone is painfully embarrassed for you. And if you eat the dessert first, there's definitely dishonor involved somehow. No one can eat until everyone is situated to the Japanese teachers' satisfaction. They even require the two-year-olds to follow this routine when they eat, and it's amazing how well the students follow every rule to the T. In a preschool class, I'm the only one who eats lunch like a heathen.

So I am learning a little bit every day, and I'm always on a constant look-out for any new rules lurking around the corner. On the plus side, the students are so well behaved! I can already tell that teaching here will be a much different experience than I've had teaching anywhere else.