Learning Japanese

I am trying to learn Japanese but I haven't found a single textbook I enjoy learning with! So I have more or less given up learning in a traditional way and concentrate on listening to my colleagues speaking all day. Recently, I have started watching more Japanese movies...I can't say I understand everything, but I understand enough words to follow the stories.

I watched Kamome Diner tonight (with English subtitles!). It's the story of 3 Japanese women who end up working together in a small Diner in Helsinki. They are convinced Japanese food is the best in the world and that Finnish people will rush in to try onigiri (rice ball). The movie is a bit slow at times, but I enjoyed it all the same. Maybe also because I am hoping to move to Finland next year...

Naruto is famous for....

All towns and cities in Japan are famous for something. Don't ask me why!

I have been thinking about my hometown, Querrien, there really isn't anything unique about it...but I am sure a Japanese tourism office could find the winning formula!

Here are a few things Naruto is famous for:

its whirlpools;

wakame (sea weed)...

Naruto Kintoki (sweet potato that taste more like chestnut)

Otsuka Museum (pay €25 to see 3000 reproductions- not one painting is real!!!)

And last but not least, Naruto is famous for being the first place in Asia where Beethoven's 9th Symphony was played! Naruto had a German POW camp at the end of the 1st world war and somehow, German prisoners managed to get enough instruments to play it...

New Neighbours

The bell rang at 8h45 yesterday (Saturday)morning...Joy! It was a young woman offering me a big box of tissue. Although I repeated 'iranai' many times, she wouldn't let me not take it. Then she excused herself profusedly for waking me up so early and making noise.

I only put two and two together when I looked at the box and realised what was happening in the car park. Now, if you were working for a moving company and about to make a little bit of noise outside someone's apartment, would you make sure you'd wake the entire building up by ringing their bells to offer them a box of tissue? Please say NO!

Later that evening, my new neighbours followed the Japanese custom of new comers and came around with a small gift. I'd try to do the same when I moved in two years ago, but didn't find anyone at home. Anyways, here is what I received...

五月病 gogatsu byou

(May desease/la maladie du mois de mai)

One of my colleague told me that this is like what foreigners feel around xmas time when they aren't with their family. But I think there is more to it and that foreigners who have lived in Japan for a while are likely to suffer from it in May too!

In Japan, a lot of things seem to change in April: new fiscal year, school year, staff, etc. So when things don't run so smoothly and you let stress build up for weeks, in May, you end up suffering from some form of 'adjustement disorder'. I guess it didn't hit me until the end of May..and I am still finding it tough to get motivated for work. Rokugatsu byou or lazyness on my part?