There is nothing but Japanese programs on Japanese TV. You’d think they would at least have one or two English channels. Well, at least I’ll get to practice my listening comprehension skills in the evenings. Actually they do have the occasional Hollywood movie on dual sound, but it took me 2 weeks to figure out the toggle button on the remote (since everything’s in Japanese…)
Anyway, one thing I noticed about a handful of female presenters in variety shows is that they often punctuate their sentences with ‘Ne’ much like we do with ‘lah’s’ or ‘lor’s’. A phrase like “Kirei desu ne!” basically means “Very nice hor?” Put three such easily excitable presenters together and you’d get a symphonic barrage of ‘Ne’s in various tones and pitches.
The seemingly lack of vocabulary in variety shows is quite hilarious actually… will try to get a clip of it when I encounter it again.
Japanese on everything
The fact that Japan is so self-sufficient (e.g. it makes its own cars, electronics, household items etc) means that almost everything in it is in the Japanese language. That’s perfectly fine for a Japanese person of course, but it means hours of head scratching for a linguistically challenged person like me. In my first week in Japan, it took me like forever to do simple everyday activities in the house because all its consoles or instructions are in Japanese: Operate rice cooker, heat food in microwave, cook on stove, figure out buttons on the automated toilets so I don’t fry myself, sort out items for recycling (this is a blog post for another day), and make sense of municipal notices. Do remember that I’m still at home, it’s another world out there…
Looking on the bright side, those challenges would also mean countless blunders for me to post on the blog, heh.
Automated Toilets
Everybody knows about Japan's automated toilets. They have heated and height adjustable seat pans, and buttons that do all kinds of stuff. (They wash your bottom and you can adjust the water temperature and power of the jet stream). It also saves plenty of water because you can simply wash your hands from the tap that fills the cistern (I think Singapore is trying to implement this system in our washrooms).
Last month, TOTO recalled one of its models because of a electrical fault which causes it to overheat. Great bowls of fire! Read all about it here.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070417a5.html
In Japan! Finally...
The title of this post says it all. I'm now in Sapporo for a while before heading back to Tokyo. I will continue my ramblings on Japan as soon as I can.