November 10: Stuff

Have to tell you about a comercial I saw on TV. It was for a spray that cleans your tireed without having to scrub. The stuff wass call "No tachi" or "No Touch." In company came up with a rather interesting was to educate the consumer about the English meaning;

The opening scene was a of a young boy trying to catch a butterfly. The boy landed on the breast of a blong woman sunbathing in a red dress that was not covering her breasts very well. The camera zoomed in of the butterfly on her chest, as we watched the boy creaping up to catch the insect.

The boy goes for the kill, and the woman jumps up and says, "No touch!" Then the scene changes to reveal the purpose of this add. Gotta love it.

There is a new program on TV hosted bu KONISHIKI (the Hawaiian ex-sumo wrestler) and Beat Takeshi. The program deals with cultural differnces. The audience is comprised of various foreigners from around the world who speal Japanese (and are probably living in Japan).

Last night one of the topics was, "What if your wife cooks you a bad meal?" We watched 3 different couples from Africa, Brazil, and France. The Brazilian man didn't say anything about his wife's cooking, even though she kept asking him. The French husband said something, but then the wife got upset and said that he didn't love her because he wouldn't eat it, so he go on his knees and comforted her, reasuring her that he loved her, then sat down and ate the rest of the meal. The African man got rather upset, but I couldn't understand what he was saying.

Just to let you know, all 3 wives invited the camera men in and made the worst batch of curry. Lots of salt and each added a whole tube of "wasabi" (horseradish), which was never meant to be in ANY curry dish. So maybe one dish was worse than another.

Anyway, after we watched these, the audience was free to comment. Some people were very impassioned. The general consensus was that if the wife made a crappy meal, the husband should say something. Especially because the wife might try to serve it again. Many people said that newlyweds are less likely to say anything, because of the delicate situation. Wish I understood more Japanese so I could tell you the real scoop.

It looks like next week's theme will be young women (ie teenagers and early 20s). The preview clips show the cameraman following a young girl until she notices and turns around. Then the next scene shows them in bathing suits, in mildly seductive poses and activities. I am curious to know what that is all about. Unfortunately, I will be out of town for that episode.

Only 2 more weeks until the big test. Not doing too well. Not going to pass. I have been studying non-stop, but the info just leaks out my brain during the night. I have been dreaming about Japanese every night. I don't sleep well because I am conjugating verbs in my sleep, or trying to fit words together to make sentences. Unfortunately I am successful neither in my sleep nor in my waking hours. But, I have leaned a lot more Japanese than I ever thought possible, especially considering I haven't had a teacher since August.

I did get up early to see the stars. I was one night oo late according to Mike. I saw quite a few shooting stars, but nothing that would blow my mind. Mike got up ealy on Tues morning and saw an amazing sight. Tons of shooting stars. Some were so bright, and had tails so long that he saw them through his shoji screens (white paper screens that cover windows) inside his house. But I was glad that I got to see the Leonid meteors.

That about does it for my life. Enjoy your Thanksgiving turkeys and pumpkin pies.

Valerie Straayer


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