(Untitled)

[huntergatherer9]

 First lunch with coworkers:  Adventures in Linguistics, Part I

Female Grad student (in japanese):  Im Masaoka.  I was named the most beautiful grad student in my class.

Me (japanese):   Really?  Well, you are more hated than I am

Beautiful:  Kirai        Hated:   Kirei

Ive screwed up Japanese many other times today, but that was the most entertaining

Comments

[asenseofwonder]

beautiful: kirei
hate: kirai

switch them!!!!

also, how many American cities have 99.99% asian populations?!
Also, they are probably for real amazed at your ability to write nihongode.

[snowscythe]

All big cities are similar when you take away the population. Shanghai is like NYCx2+smog... Delhi is like DCx3+slums+dust... I hear Toronto and Tokyo are very similar? But it's totally the people who make the difference. In Beijing, for instance, we were stared at with genial interest, whereas in Bangalore the interested stare is a lot blanker, creating a kind of scary feel if you're not confident... In Shanghai there were a scary number of over-fashionable, spoiled teenagers and no one took any interest in us. In Rome there were restaurants filled only with jovial grandfatherly men, etc.

Anyway, when you see Tokyo's quirks let us know! Keep reporting, it's fun to hear :D

[mizukaze]

Also, have you been outside of Central Tokyo?

Asakusa is something of a shock, with all of the tiny alleyways, many of which still have tiny izakaya and restaurants on them. Backstreets Shibuya looked shockingly... familiar, though, 'cause the people there are wealthy enough to have American-urban-scale houses and buildings right in the midst of the city. Another thing is that there are multiple stories in use in most Tokyo buildings in the commercial districts; i.e., less of the "shops on the ground floor and faceless offices above." This is kind of generic across Asia, though