日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

第2巻：京都 / PART 2: KYOTO

京都の街 / Streets of Kyoto






京料理かじ / At a Kyoto cuisine restaurant










忍者レストラン！ / Ninja restaurant!


電子王座 / The electronic throne


この宅配車のマスコットはちょっとカンタスカンガルーみたいだけど、変わったところはスピードラインとジョ ーイも加えられた!
This deliver truck mascot looks like the Qantas Kangaroo, but they added speed lines and a joey!


清水寺に行こう！ / Let's go to Kiyomizudera Temple!


この高い坂を登って / Walking up this steep slope




人力車 / Rickshaw


ハロー・キティーの店 / Hello Kitty shop


神道の神々の彫像 / Statues of Shinto Gods


清水寺から見えるの景色 / The view from Kiyomizudera




音羽の滝 / Otowa waterfall


おむつを変える時間だ！ / time for nappy change!


このアイスクリーム食べたい？ / Want some ice cream?


祇園の八坂神社 / Yasaka Shrine in Gion


お酒 / Saké


でかいオバケの兎！ / Big monster bunny


超ベリー綺麗な電車！（豪州の汚い電車と全然違うね！） / Japanese trains are so clean!


クリフジャンパー / Cliffjumper


嵐山のサルにえさを与えて / feeding the monkeys at Mt. Arashiyama


またクリフ / Cliffjumper again


東映映画村 / Toei Movie Village






ニンジャになった！/ We became NINJA!




侍に殺されちゃった! / Killed by a samurai!


忍者ショー / the Ninja Show




第四の壁を突破する / Breaking the fourth wall


第四の壁を突撃する！/ Attacking the fourth wall!


トラフォプライムのビーコンを持っている芸者さん / a geisha holding a TF Prime Vehicon


無銀の銀閣寺 / The Silverless Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion)






新幹線N700系 / N700 Bullet Train


------------------------------------------
次回・・・　第3巻：埼玉県 (我の故郷よ！)
Coming up... Part 3: Saitama (my old home!)

[Shirokaze]

Loving all the pics! I've only spent a single day in Kyoto, and didn't venture more than a kilometer or 2 from the station, so those shots are especially awesome

[Darthprimus]

yeah, awesome pics man.

[GoktimusPrime]

埼玉県東松山市 / SAITAMA (Higashimatsuyama)

みんなたぶん高坂というのところが聞いたことないだと思いますが、昔々遥かの銀河でここに大学生でここに住 んでいたから、拙者にとっては懐かしいですよ！
Most of you have probably never heard of this place, but I used to live here as a student a long time ago in a galaxy far away, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for me!

高坂駅 / Takasaka Station


高坂駅の前にあるのバス停 / The bus bay outside Takasaka station


拙者はこの店から雑誌をよく買いました / I used to buy magazines from this shop


高坂駅の自転車駐車場 / Takasaka station bike parking


このカメラ屋で写真のフィルムを現像されちゃった！/ I used to get my film processed at this camera store!


安い食べ物：ガスト！/ Cheap eats: Gusto!


大東文化大学 / Daito Bunka University


この広場は平日の昼間にバンドの演奏が聞くことができますよ。/On weekday afternoons you can listen to bands performing here.






友達の伝統的な和式の家 / A friend's traditional Japanese home


あったかい炬燵に座って / sitting at a warm Kotatsu


すばらしい家庭料理！ / incredible home-cooked meal!


他の子供たちを遊んで / playing with other kids




茶道 / Tea Ceremony








雛人形 / Hina-ningyo dolls


床の間 / The Tokonoma


拙者が住んでいたアパート / my old flat







----------------------------------------

次回：　東京！
Next: TOKYO!

[Firestorm]

SENPAAIIIIIII...... you're really making me miss Japan

awesome pics by the way , is that ninja resturant one of those places where the staff all dress like ninja and do "ninja magic" for you while you eat?

you went to the Toei Movie Village, jealous

your pictures are giving me ideas of places to go for my next trip

[GoktimusPrime]

ありがとうさ

Originally Posted by Firestorm

SENPAAIIIIIII...... you're really making me miss Japan

Dude, I've been missing Japan for the last 15 years!! So much has changed since the time I was living there. Stuff like...
+ Security everywhere is way more tight/paranoid; like the fingerprint scans at the airport and CCTV in public places... even signs saying that surveillance is there to counter terrorism and crime etc.! So this is what post Sept 11 Japan is like...
+ People aren't smoking as much in public places. In the old days No Smoking signs were purely decorative, now people actually obey them!
+ So many "portable hikikomori" - especially on trains where lots of people are just insulated in their own tiny worlds of their mobile phones. No eye contact or anything! The Japanese have always been recluse, but I think mobile phones kinda make it worse because it means they have an "excuse" not to interact with people sitting next to them (too busy interacting with people online!). Makes them bigger targets for attack too... just as well Japan has such low crime (could you imagine people being so damn inattentive to their surroundings in Australia or countries with much higher rates of assault/robbery?!?).
+ A lot more train stations have lifts now! When I was there last most stations only had stairs. Having lifts makes travelling so much easier when you're pushing a baby stroller around. However since lifts have only been a relatively recent addition to most stations, they can be placed in really inconvenient locations (i.e. the bum-end of stations where you have to circumnavigate half the area just of freakin' get there! Half the time we just went "Ah bugger it" and carried baby & stroller up and down flights of stairs!). But still, a significant improvement over last time where stations with lifts was more of a rarity.

At the Osaka meet when we found some Beast Wars toys at collectable stores like Hero Gangu, I told Odie that when I was living in Japan these toys were current... now that he's living there it's DOTM and TF Prime! (and OTCA^Austran was only about a year old and had less than 50 members!) Sign of the times.

Oh, and this is what I looked like when I was there last (black shirt):

...yeah, before I got all fat and stuff. <sigh>

Originally Posted by Firestorm

is that ninja resturant one of those places where the staff all dress like ninja and do "ninja magic" for you while you eat?

I believe so. We didn't actually go inside any of them.

Originally Posted by Firestorm

you went to the Toei Movie Village, jealous

Yeah, unfortunately it started raining while we were there, so we had to leave prematurely and didn't see everything (downside of touring with a baby). But I enjoyed what we did see though. They had this little anime museum which is only about the history of Toei anime No images of Transformers, but they had a historical timeline of Toei anime which mentioned the Japanese G1 TF series (Headmasters et al.). Our camera battery died by this stage, but I took photos with my phone... just gotta find the USB cable for my phone.

[Firestorm]

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

ありがとうさ


Dude, I've been missing Japan for the last 15 years!! So much has changed since the time I was living there. Stuff like...
+ Security everywhere is way more tight/paranoid; like the fingerprint scans at the airport and CCTV in public places... even signs saying that surveillance is there to counter terrorism and crime etc.! So this is what post Sept 11 Japan is like...
+ People aren't smoking as much in public places. In the old days No Smoking signs were purely decorative, now people actually obey them!
+ So many "portable hikikomori" - especially on trains where lots of people are just insulated in their own tiny worlds of their mobile phones. No eye contact or anything! The Japanese have always been recluse, but I think mobile phones kinda make it worse because it means they have an "excuse" not to interact with people sitting next to them (too busy interacting with people online!). Makes them bigger targets for attack too... just as well Japan has such low crime (could you imagine people being so damn inattentive to their surroundings in Australia or countries with much higher rates of assault/robbery?!?).
+ A lot more train stations have lifts now! When I was there last most stations only had stairs. Having lifts makes travelling so much easier when you're pushing a baby stroller around. However since lifts have only been a relatively recent addition to most stations, they can be placed in really inconvenient locations (i.e. the bum-end of stations where you have to circumnavigate half the area just of freakin' get there! Half the time we just went "Ah bugger it" and carried baby & stroller up and down flights of stairs!). But still, a significant improvement over last time where stations with lifts was more of a rarity.

At the Osaka meet when we found some Beast Wars toys at collectable stores like Hero Gangu, I told Odie that when I was living in Japan these toys were current... now that he's living there it's DOTM and TF Prime! (and OTCA^Austran was only about a year old and had less than 50 members!) Sign of the times.

Oh, and this is what I looked like when I was there last (black shirt):

...yeah, before I got all fat and stuff. <sigh>

ごめんな じいちゃん :-P
clearly you've watied way longer than me so I'll stop complaining now
thanks for the history lesson though :-P

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I believe so. We didn't actually go inside any of them.


Yeah, unfortunately it started raining while we were there, so we had to leave prematurely and didn't see everything (downside of touring with a baby). But I enjoyed what we did see though. They had this little anime museum which is only about the history of Toei anime No images of Transformers, but they had a historical timeline of Toei anime which mentioned the Japanese G1 TF series (Headmasters et al.). Our camera battery died by this stage, but I took photos with my phone... just gotta find the USB cable for my phone.

I'm putting Ninja Resturant and Toei Movie Vilage onto my list of things to do (toei does 仮面ライダー don't they?)

[GoktimusPrime]

Originally Posted by Firestorm

ごめんな じいちゃん :-P

"Turbo-revvin' young punk!"

Originally Posted by Firestorm

(toei does 仮面ライダー don't they?)

Yup!

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最終巻：東京 / FINAL CHAPTER: TOKYO

新幹線に乗っていてサウンドウェーブ / Soundwave on a bullet train


ファンタグレープ！ / Fanta Grape!


富士山 / Mt. Fuji




東京の電車の中に・・・ / inside a Tokyo train


食券機 / Ticket vending machine for food at a small restaurant




なります駅。日本に住んでいた時代、自分の誕生日に友達たちと一緒に新宿のシズラーズでメシを食べて、その あと拙者は映画を見に行きたかった、友達たちは「でも日本の電車は１２時に止まるぞ」と言って、拙者と映画 館に行かなかったので自分で映画を見に行っちゃったんです。映画が終わった後すぐ拙者は１１時５０分ごろ埼 玉県の高坂駅までの電車乗車券を買って電車に乗りました。その時、１２時あと誰も電車に乗られないんだけど 、もう走っている電車は最終乗り場まで必ず行くんだと思ったのに、自分は大丈夫だと思ってたんです。拙者は 必ず間違いました！乗った電車は１２時に「なります」と言う駅に止まりました！！　ぐぇええ！み んなはこの駅に電車を降りれなきゃ！電車はまた午前６時に走るって！　しょうがないから拙者はホ ームレスな貧乏のように駅に泊まったんだ！現金もなかったし・・・（その時代にクレジットカードが使われる ところが現在より少なかったんです）；６時間ぐらいそばにいる同じようにどうすることできなかった銀行労働 者と喋って、彼はご親切に電車乗車券の買うために金を貸してくれました。午前７時ごろ自宅に帰ってもう寝た かったんですが、豪州にいる家族と友達たちは何回も電話かけて「ハッピーバースデー」と言いたかったんです 。１０時ごろ関西から来た友達は他の友達をアパートに来て、その友達は拙者を電話かけて「速く来なさい」と 言うったんだぁ。だから自転車に乗って駅の反対側にある友達のアパートに行っちゃたんだ。ギャアア！:ro lleyes:
Narimasu station. (I'll explain the story about this in English later )


御茶ノ水駅 / Ochanomizu Station (Astroboy fans should hopefully get this reference )


猫ガール / Cat Girl


東京タワー / Tokyo Tower








建設者の名前はちょっとヤバイなあ / an unfortunately named construction vehicle


「賞金稼ぎどもめ。クズどもの助けなどいらん。」 / "Bounty hunters. We don't need their scum."


ジブリ美術館のバス / Studio Ghibli Museum bus






ジブリ美術館 / Studio Ghibli Museum














新宿 / Shinjuku




うるさい人種差別主義日本人の前にポーズした白人さん / A white dude posing in front of a racist Japanese guy


紀伊国屋書店 / Books Kinokuniya


漫画フロア / manga floor


新橋駅 / Shimbashi Station


秋葉原 / Akihabara




Cure Peach!

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

<snip>+ So many "portable hikikomori" - especially on trains where lots of people are just insulated in their own tiny worlds of their mobile phones. No eye contact or anything! The Japanese have always been recluse, but I think mobile phones kinda make it worse because it means they have an "excuse" not to interact with people sitting next to them (too busy interacting with people online!).<snip>

Yeah, there really are a lot of them aren't there? It makes me kinda sad, for all the good technology has done for Japan it's done quite a bit of harm too.

On a less of a downer note, I had a nomikai with the first-year teachers for my area on Friday, and managed to sort of hold a (really basic) conversation for ages, including teaching one of the other ALTs how to do a basic jikou shoukai (however it's Romanised) and doing the same for the new Japanese teachers in English. Benkyou Suru pays off!

[GoktimusPrime]

Just realised that exactly 15 years ago from yesterday was when I first went to live/study in Japan! Although I arrived at night and all I did was go from the airport to my apartment, unpacked a bit - switched on the TV (Crocodile Dundee dubbed in Japanese, I kid you not!), then went to sleep. So really 15 years go today was my first real full day in Japan... wandering around barely speaking a word of the language. I remember poking my head into one small restaurant and the woman working there said 「いらっしゃいませ」 and something else... I don't remember since I couldn't understand her at the time. I freaked out and ran away!