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

• 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)

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. ))))

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!

恭ちゃん...あのね ... 別れてほしいの。  -- Kyou-chan... well... I want to separate.

Seeing that she is married to that Kyou-chan I guess we could assume that she wants a divorce.

• 別れ --わかれ-- (n) parting; separation; farewell; (lateral) branch; fork; offshoot; division; section;

• 夫婦別れ --ふうふわかれ-- (n,vs) divorce; separation.

This is a compound of 夫婦(spouses) + 別れ(separation) .
夫婦 --ふうふ(P); めおと; みょうと-- (n) married couple; spouses; husband and wife; couple; pair

• And then at wiki the divorce is listed as 離婚 --りこん-- (n,vs) divorce.  I guess, this is a legal term, then.

僕は今強請られている。-- Right now I'm being blackmailed.

• 強請 --きょうせい; ごうせい-- (n,vs) blackmail; extortion; persistent demand

• 強請る --ねだる(P); ゆする-- (v5r,vt) (1) (ねだる only) to tease; to coax; (v5r,vt) (2) to solicit; to demand; to extort;

I'm pretty sure of the translation, but what puzzled me is the reading for 強請 --ゆす. From what I gathered the primary reading for 強請る is ねだる, not even every dictionary lists ゆする reading... And then the noun 強請 has a yet another reading... Really, such a mess.....**sigh**

I saw it on a friend's blog - her collection of ties and though mine is very meager in comparison, I could not help, but wanted to show it ))

ネクタイ - tie; necktie;

クラバット-cravat

Then I started reading wiki page and got lost in the types of ties and techniques to make a knot. I just traditionally go for Half-Windsor knot (ハーフウィンザーノット or  セミウインザーノット), and the idea that there are 85 ways to knot your tie, honestly, scares me ))))

I was recommended to watch Ai to Seishun no Takarazuka. Koi Yori mo Inochi Yori mo -  that's a TV mini-drama about Takarazuka's life. It's highly amusing, but at the same time it is Kansai-ben (関西弁) which means - I struggle to understand ))) But still lots of fun.

And I found the official website of the drama  and the picture just deserves to be worshiped )))))

Ai to Seishun no Takarazuka. Koi Yori mo Inochi Yori mo

This is the vol.3 of sensei's manga about vampires (!) and roses (!) - very pretty.  And as we all know it, vampires is the new!hot!thing.  Kuro Bara Alice (Black Rose Alice) - there is Alice somewhere, but the vol.3 cover rendered me speechless:

Vampires are just so in! )))))

Crochet from Ondori 2004.

This was the pattern:

マフラー (n) muffler (garment, vehicle); scarf;

And this was my result:

The Sword of the Habsburgs / BOLERO (Star 2010)

宝剣 --ほうけん-- (n) treasured sword

I mean, I'm a rabbid Habsburg's fangirl (Spanish and Austrian ... Sisi and Margaret Theresa...), so this Habsburg's unapologetic fangirling is something I definitely would love to see...  A girl can dream, right?

There is no DVD yet released with this prettiness, but definitely something to look forward.

花見 --はなみ-- (n,vs) cherry blossom viewing; flower viewing;

And the good news that  Drama CD part 2 will released 23/12/2009.

I'm SO looking forward!!!

This is the fashion book for the Mori Girl type of style. The type of a girl who loves nature and being close to the nature, who wears comfortable clothes made of natural textures and who choose to be away from the civilization's beat in order to enjoy quite peace of little towns and forests.

What does this fashion book include:

• 森ガールのこと - what does "Mori Girl" stand for?

森 -- もり-- forest

• 季節のワードローブ - Wardrobe by season

ワードローブ--(n) wardrobe
季節 【きせつ】 (n,adj-no) season

• ときどき, ちくちくお裁縫 - Sometimes hand-made

ちくちく (n,vs) (on-mim) type of prickling pain; prick; prickle
裁縫 --さいほう-- (n,vs) sewing;
Google seems to provide the meaning for  ちくちくお裁縫 as "hand-made".

I thought it was a very funny movie. ウォーターボーイズ DVD (2001).  There is also a sequel which I had not seen so far -ウォーターボーイズ2005 夏 DVD (2005) that supposedly takes place 3 years later. Should find it.

On the poster I could not help myself to squee over 男のシンクロ!? - Boy's synchronized swimming !?
OMG, it sounds so scandalized!! ))))

Particularly cute was the give-away of 5 Japanese mangas + Japanese-German dictionaries.  Just too cute for the words! )))