Archive for February, 2015
February 3, 2005 – Friends and bad haircuts
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 4, 2015
Today was Setsubun, which I explained in detail here. Since I didn’t participate in any of the usual traditions, it was just a regular day for me.
During the day I went for a haircut at QB house near Seiyu. QB House is famous for their traffic light sign outside the store that indicates how long you have to wait, and for their 10 minute, 1000 yen haircuts. The barber who cut my hair was extremely friendly, and turned a simple haircut into an energetic show. Unfortunately friendly does not cancel out a communication barrier. I now look like a cross between an English soccer hooligan and a reject from a punk band.
Thanks to the internet, I was able to finally start watching the final season of Friends. I have liked the show for a long time, and it’s going to be good to see how it ended. Friends is one of those shows that probably stayed on the air a year or two longer than it should have, but there were piles and piles of money to be made.
Speaking of money, don’t EVER download TV shows from the internet for free. It’s just plain wrong. It is your duty to sit through at least 6 minutes of commercials during every 30 minutes of entertainment. If you do accidentally find copies of downloaded TV shows on your computer, you are pretty much obligated to look up a list of the show’s sponsors and go buy their products.
Regardless of how you choose to legally view Friends, it is a show that I always recommend to students who are looking for more exposure to conversational English. The characters on the show mostly talk about jobs and relationships, and there are usually a lot of visual clues to help fill in the context of the conversation. Other than the really wacky episodes with monkeys or dance routines, Friends is a fun way to practice listening to natural English conversation.
(2015 Update) I was excited to find that friends is now available on Netflix. However, they took the original 4:3 picture and trimmed off the top and bottom to completely fill today’s 16:9 standard. Yes, in the interest of filling up the whole screen, they cut off part of the picture. Everyone please stop doing this!!!
February 3, 2005 – Setsubun
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 3, 2015
Roasted soybeans ready for throwing at demons
Happy Setsubun!
Setsubun is a traditional festival in Japan to celebrate the start of spring on the old calendar. It is celebrated every year on February 3 or 4. The characters used to write the name, 節分, literally mean “season” and “divide”. It is famously known as the day where you can throw soybeans around your house.
To properly celebrate throwing soybeans around your house, you first need to prepare an offering of roasted soybeans on the family alter. After the sun sets, the head of the house or another lucky member of the family goes around the house throwing beans at entrances and dark corners while yelling “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi”. This roughly translates to “demons go out, good luck come in”.
After dispatching any demons in the house, people may participate in one of many regional or family variations to the celebration. I asked my students to give some examples (in English), and here are some of the ideas they gave:
- Try to eat the number of soybeans that matches your age.
- Eat a large, uncut sushi roll while facing this year’s lucky direction. (This year’s lucky direction is west south west for those who are interested) The goal is to eat the entire sushi roll (25-30cm long) without stopping.
- Someone dresses up in a demon mask while kids throw soybeans at them.
- Hanging a burning sardine head outside the main entrance to the house to keep evil spirits away.
In addition to throwing beans and burning fish heads (urgh), there are often celebrations at Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. Cities may also have their own variations; Mishima had one of their main streets lit up with lanterns in the evening.
After a year and four months in Japan, daily life is becoming more and more routine. However, I have only started scratching the surface of learning about the rich and interesting culture in Japan. In addition to being very interesting for me, it’s also a great opportunity as an English teacher to get the students talking about their culture and traditions. Everyone has fun trying to explain to the Canadian teacher why they throw soybeans around the house every year.
I wish you all a lucky, demon free year!
February 2, 2005 – Royal Rumble
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on February 2, 2015
I ended up watching the 2005 Royal Rumble this evening – don’t ask how. The ending was bizarre, with both John Cena and Batista getting eliminated at the same time. Vince McMahon came out to order the match restarted, and managed to tear both of his quad muscles at the same time while getting into the ring. Vince has worked out for years and occasionally competed in matches. What are the odds of tearing not one but BOTH of his quads at the same time getting into the ring?
I miss regularly watching pro-wrestling with my friends from home. It’s just not the same watching by myself while away.
February 1, 2005 – What makes a lady “foxy”?
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke, Shizuoka, The Penpal on February 1, 2015
Everyone at work has colds. I felt like I was starting to get something, so I had a very relaxing day off. To be fair, I am pretty lazy on most of my days off.
In the evening I hung out with The Penpal and her friend Williams, who had just returned to Japan from a 3 month trip to England, with a run through Italy, Belguim, and France on the way home. His English definitely sounded different after a few months of speaking with native speakers.
When a Japanese person goes to another country to practice English, they usually come back with a bit of the local accent, and some more casual expressions. Nobody was going to mistake Williams for a Londoner, but he did sound more James Bond than he did previously. He was also using “like”, “you know”, and “know what I mean” liberally. These space filling expressions really help an ESL speaker sound more like a native speaker.
Despite my intentions to take care of my voice, the three of us ended up at karaoke. My new song of the evening was “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix, which thankfully doesn’t require a lot of singing ability. After the song finished, I had to try to explain what exactly makes a lady “foxy” to both The Penpal and Williams. English is hard!
Drinking in Japan 
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