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Konbini bonbini, banana nana fonfini
Yesterday I got a really staggering amount of homework, I mean numbers of assignments even the U of C would consider mildly unreasonable, and I didn't get much sleep as a result, but I've found that these little updates keep me sane, so here's another!
A few days ago I visited a convenience store to fill my phone card. I'd tried to do so at this same convenience store once before and it'd been a disaster. It was a pitched battle between me and the completely-in-Japanese-with-billions-of-menu-options phone card machine. The machine kneecapped me.
Then, just to make me bite the curb and get a few kicks to the back of the head, the cashier came by being all absurdly helpful. I got nervous and couldn't stammer out a proper sentence. The whole debacle only came to a conclusion after some seriously tortured circumloquations utilizing copious English and mute signing for what most would have considered the simple sentence, "I'd like to put money on this phone card." It was not, shall we say, my best moment.
I was determined to try again, so I came into the store casually a few days later and bought a snack. The same cashier engaged me in conversation and this time I relaxed and just talked. We had a very pleasant, very smooth conversation about my school, my host family, how I was liking Japan so far, and where I was from. All subjects I've been trained to talk about fluently, so I sounded more competent than I actually am this time, rather than less.
After the government mandated, "Nihongo ga JOUzu desu NE!" (no. i'm. not! not yet anyway) she told me to wait there a moment and shuffled off mysteriously. As she came back, she said, "Today's rather hot, isn't it? You need to keep cool. Here, have this. It's a freebie!" And with that, she gave me a three dollar package of ice cream you can drink called "Coolish," which is, ironically enough, unambiguously freezing cold. I thanked her numerous times and walked out feeling totally on top of this whole Japan thing.
That feeling lasted five minutes, tops, but it's the little things that keep me in good humor.
Also, I successfully caused my host family to laugh hysterically at the dinner table with a bilingual joke I remembered from Wikipedia (rather than, say, with some particularly egregious spot of Nihongish). I don't remember how I told it in Japanese, but here it is in English:
A Japanese man is trying to sell his Nissan car to an American and he doesn't speak English very well. The American asks if this specific Nissan will 'get him there' and the Japanese man replies assuredly, "Each Nissan, she go."
(p.s. say it out loud)
(p.p.s. still don't get it? 1 2 3 4 5.)
(p.p.p.s. ichi ni san shi go. one through five in japanese. it's funny. laugh. laugh, you bastard! i'll kill you in your sleep! with my brain!)
(p.p.p.p.s. well, my host family found it funny anyway, so screw you mr. boring mcdullpants.)