Shoes and Schoolbooks and Stupid Politicians

Shopping again this Saturday! And I haven't even seen Kinkakuji or Nijo-jo yet. The Japanese consumer urge is too much for me.

A random church next to the bus stop.

For linguistics nerds: The word for Jesus in Japanese is Iesu and is a katakana transcription of the Portuguese word for Jesus: Jesu (J is pronounced as a Y), as in Pie Jesu. I'm guessing this is because Portuguese Catholic missionaries were the first to introduce Christianity to the Japanese in 1549. According to this theory, though, Christianity in the form of Nestorianism, existed in Japan even before Buddhism.

Tonight, since I've been studying all day, I decided not to review for the listening test I have tomorrow and to upload some pictures of Saturdays shopping trip to Kawaramachi-dori instead.

These shoes were so cute ...

(Hark! Malvolio!)

...I had to get a second pair.

The two looks that typify my vision of Japanese fashion: classy and crazy. Hopefully now I have a foot in the door of both. Warau.

Other than the shoes and stockings though, I didn't find much in OPA - the eight-floor department store I spent roughly 5 hours in - to suit my taste. Japanese women do two fashions really well - coathanger catwalk-model and kawaii kitsch. Having a little more T&A than suits the former and not enough liking for pink frills for the latter, I'm kind of stuck.

Okay, so maybe I did try on some of the frilly skirts. But only because the changing room doors were so damn ... well, kawaii.

I love how Japanese clothes store attendants always say "Otsukaresama deshita" when you emerge from the changing rooms. "Otsukaresama deshita" is an honorific expression, often translated as "You must be tired after working so hard", and is a polite thing for members of a social or work group to say to each other as a kind of goodbye, but with a nice twist. I feel like replying, yes, I am honourably tired, and you know why? Because you make me take my shoes off every time I step in the change room. If I had known that I wouldn't have come shopping in converse high tops.

Slow going with the books today. You people learning European languages don't know how easy you have it. Must be nice to be able to at least pronounce something as soon as you see it. Reminiscing about my Deutsch days, how carefree I was ... Not that I hate kanji, but characters are really what make Chinese and Japanese two of the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

Yeah, Alexander Downer. Try to learn this in two months. Moron.

Speaking of showing off, I'm getting a bit faster at smsing in Japanese, though I still probably sound very foppy (Fresh Off the Plane). For your amusement - a text I sent when I hadn't gotten back to a missed call & text for over 24 hours:

"So so so sorry am ready to kill myself with shame! (Not literally but to my knowledge there's no more sincere version of I'm Sorry than "Moushiwakegozaimasen deshita"). When you called, didn't notice. When received the last mail, completely understand-didnot. Until now have had no 'translation time'. Forgiveness please?"

You get the idea.

P.S. I want to be a translator ;)