Today I slept in big time. I slept in from the depths of my soul. In Japanese, slept in is described as “sleeping slowly”, and when I arose from my bed around nine in the morning fully rested, I felt like I had slept slowly all night.
I fixed a bit of breakfast and spent the morning doing laundry and studying. Just after noon Jane came down and rang my doorbell. She asked me to do a little bit of translation for her. Her grandparents and uncle were up in her apartment, and she wanted me to communicate a few things. I went upstairs, and with a big smile and a bit of luck managed to translate for her. It was fun to do – it’s a mental challenge to translate something so quickly, and answer questions from both sides. I still have a long way to go – I definitely am not anywhere near able to do it professionally.
Around three o’clock I went into Kobe, because at four o’clock I was supposed to meet Kuniko there to see a movie. I went a bit early to buy the soundtrack for the movie, a Japanese movie called “There’s No Love In The Center Of The World”, or something similar. Japanese movies always seem to have one big hit song, and I wanted to get that for Kuniko in case she liked it. I had the CD wrapped, and then I stashed it in my backpack for later.
I met Kuniko at JR station, and we walked together over to Starbucks to catch up over iced coffees and review the answers for an exam she had taken in the morning. It was really tough – one of them I couldn’t figure out myself. Kuniko was the one that finally got it. I can’t believe they expect people to figure these out when a native speaker is stumped.
After coffee we killed some time around Kobe and then went to see the movie. There were no English subtitles for me, so I really had to concentrate. Even so, I could only understand about a third of what was said. I certainly wasn’t picking up subtle nuances – just the gist of conversations. Still, it was enough to know what was happening and to follow the plot. The movie was a bit of a tear-jerker, at least to the people that could understand – I think I was the only one with a dry face.
As we walked to the restaurant after the movie, we talked about the movie. Kuniko said that she loved the music. I asked her if she had the CD and she said that she didn’t – but she wanted to pick it up sometime. It was looking really good for me – I’ve got the CD giftwrapped in my backpack as we’re walking.
While we ate dinner I gave her the CD, and she opened it – very surprised. I was thinking what a perfect moment, and in the midst of patting myself on the back she noticed that the CD was in fact the soundtrack for a TV spin-off of the movie, and her song wasn’t on there.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I re-examined the CD, and sure enough, it said something about TV series, and even in English in one part it said TV. Man, I felt stupid. She just smiled and said she was sure she’d like it anyway, and I insisted on taking it back to exchange it.
Sometimes life in Japan can be tough – this is a great example. It’s the little stuff like this that is so easy to pull off in your own language, but a monumental task in another.
We caught the next train back to Osaka, and since we were both wide awake we looked through one of Kuniko’s more interesting study books – filled with lines that foreigners might use to pick up Japanese people. They were hilarious – and I was amused to note that some of mine were in there. I didn’t take her by surprise – not for a minute.
It was a good day. Monday is a holiday for me, and there’s a big typhoon coming, which is rumored to be one of the biggest to hit Japan, ever. Woo-hoo!
