Volunteer

Samantha, Claire, and I will be going for three days to do some clean up on the coast. Specifically we will be in the towns of Miyako and Kamaishi. We will be cleaning up the local churches there so that they can be used for groups to stay at to help in future relief efforts. We will be going with a group from our local church. There are about 12 people going. Don't worry about us we will be far from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Oyajigagu 親父ギャグ

I have had this post ready for a while. I'm going ahead and putting it up. There will probably be more posts about the earthquake.

Oyajigagu 親父ギャグ


In Japan there is a type of joke called Oyajigyagu. Oyaji means a　kind of Uncle/Grandfather type person. Gyagu is gag a loan word from English. These types of jokes are mostly puns. Most of them are only funny in Japanese. Sometimes though there is one that is only funny to people who know both English and Japanese. I like these kind of jokes because I get them. My students don’t like them because they aren’t really that funny. In this post I wanted to explain my favorite Oyajigyagu. So if you have bilingual or Japanese friends try these out.


日本には親父ギャグと呼ばれる冗談があります。親父とは意味はおじさんとかお祖父さんのような人のことです。ギャグはGag、英語からの外来語です。このタイプ冗談はたいていがだじゃれです。ふつうは日本語だけで面白いです。時英語と日本語が話わかる人のための親父ギャグもたまにあります。意味がわかると私親父ギャグは面白いと思います。私の生徒は面白くないと言って、親父ギャグを嫌っています。このブログでは私の好きな親父ギャグを説明します。日本語も英語もわかる友達か日本人の友達をいたら使ってみてください。



Bilingual Jokes

二か国語　ジョーク



A: What is the taste of a tarantula?

A: タランチュラの味はどんなですか。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Suppaida. (Suppai is a Japanese word that means sour. Da is casual sentence ending. Try saying suppaida, doesn’t it sound like spider?)

A：すっぱいだ。（英語でくもはSpiderです。Spiderの発音はスッパイダです。）



A: If Fidel Castro played pro-baseball what number would he be?

A: フィデル・カストロはプロ野球選手になったら背番号は何番になりますか。

B: I don’t know.

B: わからない。

A: Kyuban. (Kyuban mean number 9 in Japanese and is pronounced the same a Cuban.)

A: 九番。（英語でキューバ人はCuban。Cubanの発音はキューバン。



A: Why does Obama smile all the time?

A: なぜ、オバマはいつもニコニコします。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Ha wa ii. (Ha wa ii means good teeth in Japanese. Put it together and Hawaii)

A: 歯はいい。（ハワイ。オバマはハワイ州で生まれました。）



Japanese Only

日本語だけ



A: What is the coldest sport in Japan?

A: 日本で一番寒いスポーツは何ですか。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Kyuudou. (Kyuudou written one way is Japanese archery, written another it is 9 degrees)

A:弓道（九度）



A: If 500 cars leave Hokkaido and 500 cars leave Osaka, where will they meet?

A: 北海道から車が５００台と大阪から車５００台出発したら、、どこで会いますか。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Sendai. (Dai is counter meaning cars. Sen is the Japanese word for a thousand. So 500dai leave Hokaido and 500 leave Osaka. They meet at 1000dai.)

A: 仙台。（千台）



A: What family member can you meet while counting.

A: 数を数えているあいだに家族の誰に会うでしょう。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Nisan (One, Two, Three in Japanese is ichi, ni, san. Ni san means 2 3 but nisan means older brother.)

A:兄さん。（二三。）



A: What is Michal Jackson’s favorite color?

A: マイケル・ジャクソンの一番好きな色は何ですか。

B: I don’t know.

B: 分からない。

A: Ao. (Ao means Blue in Japanese and if you say it quickly sounds like something MJ would say)

A: アオ。（青。）

Earthquake 3

The town is still going about things as normally as they can. We are lucky that so much of our food comes from the farmers in the area. There is still plenty of vegetables and some home butchered meat coming in. Today the town ran out of one vital supply toilet paper. There is no more for sale in the town. Since there was only one role at my house I'm taking one home from work. This probably makes me the closest thing to a looter in the whole island. I know that this sound like a really trivial thing this close to a disaster and it is. There is strange feeling being this close to the tsunami zone and this far away. We are far enough away to be safe and to be unable to travel there on our own. Especially with the fuel shortage. However, we are close enough that we are running out of supplies so there is nothing to donate. To be honest I feel useless. There is so much that needs done and we cant do it.  Which makes me feel really guilty. I'm thankful to have come through safely and with only supply problems in my town. I just wish there was something I could really do for people. Because of how isolated my town has become we can't even give blood.

Earthquake 2

The Board of Education had the Internet so we should be in a bit more regular contact. Ichinohe is still doing pretty good in a lot of ways. People are calm and going about normal activities as best they can. My school at Kozuya even had its graduation ceremony today. You could almost forget what had happened. Till there was a small aftershock during the ceremony. After the ceremony it was annocunced that the town was out of gas. Rumor is that most of the prefecture may be out as well. The local trains and shikansen are still closed in the north part of Japan. This is mostly to conserve power. The toll roads and main highways are reserved for emergency vehicles only. They are warning people in Tohoku(the north) and Kanto(central Japan) to conserve power as much as they can. With the disasters at Fukushima Daiich and Daini and troubles at other plants the national power situation is a bit difficult. There are going to be rolling blackouts in Tokyo and most of Kanto. I don't think that this will effect our town though we might lose power completely. I want to encourage everyone to look into how they can donate to the relief effort. Many people in Japan have lost everything and need alot of help.

They Japan Meteorological Association has said that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7 earthquake in the 3 days following March, 13.

One site that has been recommended as a place to donate is http://www.amazon.com/.

Earthquake

We are both safe and ok. When the quake hit we were in Cokai at an after graduation party. It started out very slow with no one even seemin scared after it had gone for maybe 3 or 4 minutes it really picked up. Teachers opened doors to the outside and every one got ready to get under the tables. Half way through the first quake the electrcity wentout. At that point none of us hadany clue how bad it really was. All we knew was that our area seemed fine. The teachers sent all the kids outside and away from the building. People turned on their phones and we got news of the tsunami hitting the coast. All we did that day was go home and try and contact other teachers and friend and family back home. We didnt have any power and it was a cold night. The next day we walked around townand got flashlight candles and some food. Our town is very lucky no damage that we saw and no deaths. We were without power and much news for over 24 hours. Since the quake there have been alot of choppers flying over. Its 830 am on Sunday as I write this and we are still having after shocks. Last we heard about Ffukushima nuclear plants thhe evacuation zone was 20 kilometers. They had an explosion there around I think 3 yesterday. Also one of the reactor building roof had colapsed. Im watching the Japanese news and the pictures from the coast are awfull. It looks like whole towns are gone. The damage is very bad. Last figures I saw were 300 dead in Iwate most of that number seems to be from the town of Rikuzentakata. The news is running lists of dead at the bottom of the screen and one whole channel is just messages to family members. Please pray for everyone on the coast and the millions still without power. We are very fortunate we have food water power and neighbors who have checked on us. The only thing we dont have is internet. This is from our keindle.

雪祭り

            If you come to Japan in winter you should try and see the Sapporo Snow Festival. Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the largest snow festivals in the world. Even though we were only in Sapporo of a day and a half it was a ton of fun. I have to say I really like Sapporo. There were interesting sites, great food, easy to understand streets. There were also a surprising amount of foreigners. The snow festival was held mostly in a long park that runs down the center of Sapporo. Most blocks had a huge ice or snow sculpture and a few side pieces. Also, they had an international snow sculpting competition and international food court.

            冬に日本に行くならば札幌の雪祭りに行くといいです。世界の大きいの雪祭りの中で札幌の雪祭りは大きいものです。私達は一日半ぐらい札幌にいましたが、とても楽しかったです。札幌が大好きです。面白い所やおいしい食べ物。道も分かりやすいですから。外国人がいっぱいいてびっくりしました。雪祭りは札幌の中央にある細長い公園で開催されます。公園の中に区画がたくさんあって雪や氷でできた像が一つと三つか四つ小さい彫刻がありました。国際雪像コンテストと世界の食べ物展もありました。

    

The Lion King

            The large sculptures were all amazing. I really can’t believe what you can make out of snow and ice. My favorite of all the large sculptures was the Chinese temple. It was just so beautiful, both in the day and at night.

            大きい雪彫刻はどれもすごいものでした。雪と氷からできているものとは信じられません。私の一番好きな雪像は中国のお寺でした。昼も夜もとてもきれいでした。

            The small sculptures that business sponsored were interesting. There were a lot of Tony Tony Choppers from the Manga One Piece. Most of them were of something famous, but could use that name. For example one called 3D had a TV with people who looked very much like Avatar characters walking out of it. Another popular thing was if the character is Chopper to call it Ch000er. Because Japan doesn’t have copy write.

            企業が提供する小さな雪像はおもしろかったです。ワンピースのトニートニーチョッパがいっぱいありました。ほとんどが有名なキャラクターでしがた、その名前を使うことはできません。たとえば、３Dと言う雪像は明らかにアバターみたい人がテレビから出てくるものでした。他に人気のあるところではチ００パというチョッパーの雪像です。日本に著作権がないので仕方がありません。

        

  The international snow sculpture competition was interesting. However, some of them were a little strange. Like Sweden’s of two men trying to pull an I-Beam out of a block of snow. Portland, Oregon’s sculpture was of salmon spawning. The Grand Prize went to a sculpture that looked like a bee hive. The best though in my opinion were the ones that looked like people.

            国際雪像コンテストは面白かったです。でも、ちょっと変わった雪像もいくつかありました。たとえばスウェデンのは二人の男が雪のかたまりからIビームを取り出そうと素もでした。オレゴンのポルトランドの彫刻は鮭の生まれるところをあらわしたもんでした。優勝はフィンランドのみつばしの巣でした。私が一番かっこういいと思った雪像は人みたいに見える雪像でした。

            

           

In the night life district there were ice sculptures. They had one that was a castle made of blocks of ice with fish and crabs frozen in it. When it thaws can they eat it? Others were a little less strange.

            夜の繁華街地域にも氷像がありました。氷のブロックでできたお城の中で魚とカニが凍っていました。祭りの後で、この魚を食べるのでしょうか？その他の氷像もこれほど奇妙はありませんでした。

            After seeing the festival in day time we went to the Sapporo beer museum. It was in the original brewery building. They didn’t have an English Tour so we just showed our selves through. However it was still interesting. We got to see the evolution of the beer sign. It started as wooden carving, than posters of kimono wearing girls, next girls in western flapper clothes, and so on till swim suit beauty. No matter where you go apparently the beer is sold not on taste, but on the girls.

            日中に雪祭りを見た後で札幌のビールの博物館に行きました。初めてビール作ったビルが博物館です。英語のツアーがないので、自分たちで見て回るしかありませんでした。おもしろかったです。私達はビールの看板の変遷を見ました。最初は木の彫刻、次は着物の着た女性のポスター、次はアメリカの1920時代のアメリカの服を着ている女性のポスター、そしたかて現代のビキニ美人のポスターになります。どこでもビールが売れるのは味のせいではなくて、ポスターの女性のおかげなのです。

          

            After the museum we went and ate Gangues Khan style. Eating Gangues Khan style means all you can eat lamb. You have 100 minutes with all the lamb and vegetables you can eat. You also cook it all yourself on a cast iron pan. At this restaurant the pan looked like Hokaido. We could eat for 70 or 80 minutes, but 100 minutes might not be imposable. They also had all you could drink Sapporo beer if you paid more.

            博物館の後でジンギスカンを食べに行きました。ジンギスカンすたいるとは羊肉の食べ放題のことです。100分で羊肉と野菜が食べ放題です。自分でてっぱんのうえで焼きます。このレストランのてっぱんは北海道の形をしていました。私達は70分か80分で食べましたが、100かけて食べることもできなくなさそうです。もっとお金を払えばば札幌のビールを飲み放題できます。

            After the feasting we went back to the Snow Festival at night. It was much better at night than in the day. Seeing the sculptures was easier. In the day the snow was blinding. At night they used spotlights so you could still see.

            ごちそうの後で、夜の雪祭りにもどりました。夜は日中よりさらにいいです。彫刻が見やすいです。日中で雪がまぶしすきます。暗がりでも見えるよう、夜はスポットライトがあてられます。

            On the second day of the trip we just did some shopping. There was a book store with a lot of English Language books. Out of the whole trip there were only two things that I had any complaints about. The first was the train we took from Shin-Aomori to Sapporo. Seeing the new Shinkasen station in Aomori was cool, but the train. They had us on a train that looked to be about 50 years old. The seats reclined about an inch and the back of the seat only went half way up my back. The seats also had warmers under them that were to hot. Your head would be cold and you butt would be sweating. This was the train we were supposed to sleep on.

            2日目はショピウングをしました。札幌には洋書がたくさんある本屋があります。この旅行中二つだけいや事がありました。一つめは新青森から札幌までの列車です。新しい新幹線の青森駅はよかったけれど、列車はよくなかった。この列車は50年くらいたっていたようでした。背もたれはは５センチだけリクライニングできましたが、私の背中の半分までしかありません。いすの下のヒータはあつすぎました。頭は寒い、でもおしりは汗だくでした。こんな列車では寝られませんでした。

            The second thing was there were Ultra-nationalist buses around. They had signs up for and petition about the return of some islands north of Hokkaido to Japan from Russia. I don’t know whose islands they are. To be honest I don’t care whose islands they are. However, Ultra-nationalists hate all foreigners. As a foreigner I hate seeing Ultra-nationalists.

            二つめのいやな事は右翼団体のバスです。雪祭りの会場で北方領土返還を求める看板と掲げて街宣していました。私にはどの国の島なのかぜんぜん分かりません。本当のことを言えば、どこの国の島かなんて興味ありません。でも、右翼団体は皆の外国人ならどの国のひとでも大嫌いです。私は一外国人として右翼団体を見るのがだいきらいです。