いらっしゃいませ! 日本円での買い物を 日本語でどうぞ

This is Bergen (Norway) in June 2010.  A wonderful place.  At the fisher market they have special locations for Japanese tourists where they can buy fish with Japanese yens and where the personnel speaks Japanese!  Tons of Japanese tourists are roaming the place and the prices are all in NorKr, Eur, USD and Yen!

One of the things that everyone leaning Japanese knows almost before anything else is that "koi" means "love" and "carp" depending on the kanji

• 鯉 --こい-- common carp; koi carp
• 恋 --こい-- (n) love; tender passion

I bet there are tons of the jokes in misinterpreting and interchanging the meanings.  Not that I have any particular examples.   Anyway, these particular "koi" are from the München Zoo - a very nice place to spend a weekend ))))

猫 【ねこ】 (n) (1) cat;

I saw this cutest thing in a little shop Ulm and just could not help myself.  It says "Cats are stupid."   I really want to make one like this for my little garden )))))  With my little knowledge of Japanese it comes up with: 猫がバカですよ。 but I'm not totally sure if it makes sense to anyone exept me.  Good thing my neightbours do not know Japanese and I have little chance of embarassing myself.  And the cats - they will not see the difference between German, English or Japanese )))

白鳥 --はくちょう-- (n) (1) swan

A random photo of the swans, because they are just so beautiful.   And in the connection I cannot miss the all-time classical shoujo manga スワン-白鳥 by 有吉京子 (Ariyoshi Kyouko).  I believe SWAN 白鳥 vol.12 was the final volume of the re-print of this epic ballet manga.

I love München Zoo!

• 動物園 --どうぶつえん-- (n) zoo; zoological gardens;

The cutest thing that lives there is red panda. There are actually two of them and most of the time they either sleep or eat.  The Japanese name of the red panda is romaji of "lesser panda"  ))) cute and easy to remember.

• レッサーパンダ (n) red panda (Ailurus fulgens); lesser panda

I'm not sure about the difference in use of the words みがって and わがまま. The both could be used as nouns and na-adjectives and both describe selfishness and egoism.  I already knew the word わがまま, so みがって is the new one here.  To make it easier to remember - a manga title to go with each word.

• 身勝手 --みがって-- (adj-na,n) selfishness; egoism; egotism

身勝手なあなた by まさお三月 (Masao Sangatsu)

• 我儘--わがまま-- (adj-na,n) (1) selfishness; egoism; self-indulgence; wilfulness; willfulness; (2) disobedience; (3) whim;

わがままロメオ by あじみね朔生 (Ajimine Sakufu)

As we are still in the holiday season, the manga by 中村光 (Nakamura Hikaru) that amused me greatly and that fits the season's spirit oh so well.

聖☆おにいさん vol1
聖☆おにいさん vol2
聖☆おにいさん vol3
聖☆おにいさん vol4
Sei Oniisan - Saint Brothers.

聖 --せい-- (n,n-pref) (1) Saint; St.; S.; (n,adj-na) (2) sacred; holy; pure

This manga follows Jesus and Buddha living in an apartment in the modern Japan. Riiiight! That just so fun on so many levels.  Buddha makes a third of the t-shirts the both wear with the tale-telling slogans.  I have so much fun trying to figure out the references on Jesus's t-shirts (I totally fail to understand what's on Buddha's ))))))

in ch.1 Jesus had "アーメン" -- amen-- t-shirt
in ch.2 Jesus had " ミレニアム" -- millennium -- t-shirt
in ch.3 Jesus had an English t-shirt "Like is not ambitious".
in ch.4 Jesus had t-shirt "13" - is it about what I think it is about?
in ch.5 Jesus had "父と私と精霊" - Father, Me and Holy Spirit ))) t-shirt. ))))

メリークリスマス -- Merry Christmas.
I was thinking if I know any manga with the word クリスマス and here is lo and behold:
流星と真夏のクリスマス by 藤 たまき (Fuji Tamaki)  --Ryuusei to Manatsu no Christmas --

and there was in 2008 bunko reprint.

It's a very lovely collection of Fuji-sensei's early works that already have everything that makes sensei's mangas so special - very warm feeling, edgy art and translucent emotions.  Very delightful read!