Funny Dreams Chapter 8…”The mayor on the Harley”

(These articles in this category are just a fictional story I had in my dream. The character, H.P., indicates me.)

-Prologue-

Takashi Kawamura, the mayor of Nagoya, is famous for his political policies and his speaking style. Nagoya ben, a Nagoya accent, is his style. For example, you can say takusan(means “a lot of” or “many”) in Japanese. The word turns into gyo-san in the Nagoya accent. He treats himself as a sales person of Nagoya and let people know Nagoya deeply by using the Nagoya accent. Strictly speaking, his accent is not the original Nagoya accent, but a combination of Chita and Mikawa, the regions around Nagoya city.

This time, I got a dream in which Takashi Kawamura acted my superior. Suprisingly, he was not the mayor in my dream. He was…a detective.

– The Funny Dream –

H.P. was sitting on a chair and getting on making documents. The Police station, where he worked, was so jammed because of many arrested criminals.

“Hey, H.P.! There is nothing you can do in such a place! All detectives must go outside and check sites. Only the scene of crimes can indicate us to the goal.” patting H.P. on his shoulder, one middle-aged guy told H.P. It was Takashi Kawamura. “I have something important to do. Our boss is waiting for this report.” said H.P. “Forget about it! Let’s go!” Takashi Kawamura insisted to go out and pulled H.P.’s neck.

“How could he do that?”, was H.P.’s first phrase in a police car. Gripping the car’s wheel, H.P. kept moaning. There was no one sitting on the passenger’s seat. “Look at Beverly Hills Cop! Axel Foley always sits on the passenger’s seat and Billy always drives, right? I got it. He thinks himself he is Taka or someone. Then, am I Yu-ji?” said H.P.

*Taka and Yu-ji are characters in a famous TV drama in 80’s of Japan, Abunai deka(means “dangerous cop”) Taka and Yu-ji acted sophistecated cops in the drama. The phrase, “kankei nai ne(means “I don’t care”) by Yu-ji, is one of famous phrases in the drama.

Moaning such words, H.P. kept gazing one guy riding on a Harley-Davidson. That was Takashi Kawamura. In addition, he was driving his Harley without a helmet. “Hey, you’re a cop, aren’t you?” his behavior was beyond H.P.’s understanding.

Takashi Kawamura‘s Harley suddenly turned right and stopped in front of a building. “koko dagya(means “That’s it” in the Nagoya accent)” he stood in the right front of the door and nearly kicked it. “Hey, what are you doing?! We have no warrant!” H.P. stopped him doing and shouted. “eegaya kanke-negaya!(means, “Don’t worry. I don’t care”) said Takashi Kawamura. “I do care!” cried H.P.

At the right time Takashi Kawamura tried to kick the door, unknown men who put black suits suddenly gathered like “Agent Smith in the movie, Matrix” and took Takashi Kawamura out. One of unknown agents said to H.P. “I am from the Nagoya city office. We’ll take him and get him back to his original duties.” He bowed and walked away from H.P.

It was…a funny…and strange dream…

Funny Dreams Chapter 7…”Eye of The Tiger”

(These articles in this category are just a fictional story I had in my dream. The character, H.P., indicates me.)

-Prologue-

Celebrations of lunar year were held at many places last week. The Chinese zodiac this year is tiger. I had a funny dream about a white tiger.

– The Funny Dream –

H.P. woke up in a jungle. Thick and hot air in the jungle made him irritated and nervous. He didn’t know why he was there, and where he was. He got up and wandered the jungle to find a clearing. Something was gazing him, he felt. Two glittering things. That was animal’s eyes. H.P. felt scared and tried to find something for arms, but it was too late. He found it was a white tiger. He felt himself was going to die. Coming out from the bush, the white tiger kept gazing him. With the eyes of the tiger, he couldn’t move at all. The tiger was closer and closer. H.P. closed his eyes but instead of death, a kiss was the first thing the tiger gave to him. Opening his eyes, he saw the tiger doing like a cat or a dog, which leaned the body toward H.P. It was the female tiger.

The tiger brought some foods for H.P. and took him springs. Her behaviors were totally like a woman. H.P. at first thought he became her feed, but she seemed she was not supposed to do.

One day, he finally got a route for a village. H.P. tried to say good bye to the tiger and left her but she wouldn’t part from him. She kept following him. H.P. wondered how people would feel when they found the tiger. What if they feel so scared they try to kill her? That was what he was thinking.

An elder woman was the first person who H.P. saw at the village. “Hello? I don’t know why I am, but I’m lost…” said H.P. Some voices groaning behind H.P. It was the tiger’s. The female person ran away from H.P. once she heard the voice. “Hey, don’t do that. What makes you do that?” saying to the tiger, H.P. was back to the tiger. The tiger’s face had turned glad and calm. “You’re totally like a lady in love being jealous.” said H.P.

Time went by. Finally, H.P. got a chance to get back to home. Most of villagers already realized the tiger was not that dangerous and treated her as a parter to H.P. Waiting for the ship at the harbor, H.P. and the white tiger sit side by side. The tiger exactly couldn’t speak any languages, but she always understood what H.P. talked. Her eyes was shining like the ones which H.P. met at the first time in the forest, but somehow look lonely. The ship had come and H.P. got abroad. “Sorry, you can’t come with me.” said H.P. A bunch of tears sprung from the tiger’s eyes and dropped. “I’ll be back…someday…” said he, waving his hand from the ship to her.

Her cry kept going until H.P. was gone.

Every little thing in my ordinary life 10

Tough days keep going on
A lot of things in this week burden me so much. Especially today, three consecutive meetings are ongoing. Before the last meeting, a chance to post an article in an Internet cafe has finally been given to me.

Alcohol is no longer my friend. A lot of customers made me drink many kinds of alcohol in my younger age, as an clerk at the club. Since quitting such a job, Coke or coffee are my friends, instead of beer, whiskys etc.

One of my clients asked me to drink together and the drink meeting was held yesterday. It’s been a long time to drink…since 27th in Dec last year? The association which the client attend get in trouble now. During the meeting, many topics about the problems appeared and were discussed between the clients and me.

In Japan, driving with alcohol is now a serious and crucial violation against Road Traffic-Act. You will be fined and must pay less than 0.5 million or 1 million yen depending on your drunkenness. Staying at somewhere was what I had to do after drinking. After that, today has come….ummm…quite sleepy.

Formal way when calling
A few days ago, I had an English conversation class. One of students asked our teacher who is Australian. That is, “How could I formally say when I call?”

There are many polite and formal ways in Japanese when we call, which is called keigo. You sometimes can see many Japanese business persons talk with their clients with a phone. One of my friends who came from other countries often laugh at me, I mean, my Japanese, when I’m calling.

I just imagine “Hello, my name is HoneyPotter(or this is HoneyPotter), I’d like to talk with Mr./Ms.OO. Could you put this phone through him/her?”

My teacher couldn’t answer the question at once and promised to check the way and answered it next time.

What do you think of it?

Every little thing in my ordinary life 9

Don’t be hasty
As you already know, I wrote at least two journals every week in my blog now. It has kept for 9 months in a row. Ofcourse there are many stupid mistakes on grammar in these journals. I’m surprised that I kept writing.

Before these 9 months, I got just a few articles in a month on the contrary. First, I couldn’t express my feeling or thoughts in English more than now. Second, I don’t have such motivation like now to keep writing in this blog so much. Things have changed, I think.

Sometimes I see some ESL learners struggling as well as me in Japan. Some of them try to keep writing what they are, what they’re doing, or what they’re thinking. And some of them don’t do that so much. Some of them claim that speaking and writing are the most important thing and they should improve our English by speaking and writing. Some of them say they don’t need to do it.

I think I should, I mean, I want to improve my speaking and writing skills in English. In order to do it, I write my trivial topics in this blog. However, I know writing in English is also difficult and I have to wait for my writing and speaking skills improving. WAIT and KEEP, are the very critical words for me. These words, however, are also the most difficult words for ESL learners. Some of them can’t stand them.

I do know how they feel. Sometimes I can’t help thinking like this; “How long should I keep writing? When do I accomplish the status I want to get?” I always say to myself; “Hey, one of trivial, stupid and idiot Japanese speaker? How long have you spoken Japanese? How long have you read a lot of books in Japanese? How long have you heard a lot of things in Japanese? How much terms and what kinds of things have you experienced in Japanese? You can prove that you did the same thing in English by yourself? I know how you feel, but don’t be hasty!”

Thanks to you, who come to read this blog. I can communicate with you even though I live in Japan.

Demonstration of ignorance
I often write temples and shrines in this blog, however, I don’t think I know religions very much. I got a topic which showed I am ignorance about religions.

One of my friends, who lives in other country, talked about Ash Wednesday. People go to the church and the priests in there draw a cross on people’s forehead with ash. I totally didn’t know such a ritual. “Japanese have no religion, right?” my friend chuckled and said. Ummm…I am a Buddhist, but I go to shrines at the beginning of the year and celebrate the Christmas. These habits are not based on my religious beliefs, just based on my annual customs. Ummm…it’s not unnatural for her to say “Japanese have no religion.”

While talking about this topic, I just had a mistake about Christmas. “The Christmas, 25 Dec, is not the day when Jesus Christ was dead, right?” She was surprised with what I said and said, “Not the day Jesus Christ was dead, but the day he was born!” I’m so sorry… I just wanted to say, 25 in Dec is basically the special day of other religion(pagan?), not the Catholic. It is said that people treated the day as the birthday of Jesus Christ at the Nicene Council in 325. And they also certified that the Trinity, which are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Oh, you’re interested in history and religion?” she seemed to be pleased.

I’m so sorry…I’m not a Chtistian. I just saw Keanu Reeves baptizing a half-bleed saying “In the name of God…father, son, and holy spirit…something like that” in the movie, “Constantine.”

I think I am totally ignorance on religions.

Hip-hop styled conference?

At first, please check this YouTube film. It is the press conference of Kazuhiro Kokubo, the professional snowboarding player and a Japan national snowboarder.

There are many critics against Kazuhiro Kokubo because of his defiant attitude. The Japan national team players was going to gather and get on board at the international airport for Vancouver Olympics. As you know, each Olympics association(or committee) in each country gives the uniform to the players. At the airport, they put their suits on and got on board. Kazuhiro Kokubo lowered his pants around his sidebone and put his shirt out. He said that it was his style and many professional snowboarders often did as well. I often see many high school students or junior high school students in Japan put their school uniforms on like him.

Many criticisms occurred against his fashion style. JOC, Japan Olympics Committee, ordered him not to attend the ceremony when the players entered the athlete’s domitories. More criticisms happened to him when he had a press conference after the ceremony. His bad and impolite attitude made many people in Japan angry and uncomfortable.

What do you think of his attitude? Many kinds of people live in many kinds of countries. There might be many meanings of “polite.” At least in Japan, his attitude, especially his tut while talking and pronouncing the end of sentense lazily, are treated as a bad thing. What he did looked very arrogant, defiant, impolite or so. Even worse, after he talked, he turned his face toward someone beside him and snickered without looking at someone asked him. That was also bad. “Your question was idiot and stupid.” his snickering probably sounded like that.

I don’t know what the professional snowboarding players’ style are, and I know the hip-hop fashion. Styles are styles. There are many differences between styles and attitudes. I haven’t ever seen interviews of snowboarding players. Maybe he was inspired by pronunciations, intonations and stresses in English. There are no such things in Japanese, except the young.

If you are interested in learning Japanese or you are already a Japanese learner, please don’t copy his talk. It is a bad model.