Well...hello again. I shall tell you all in advance - this will have nooooo organization. Somewhere in between a stream of consciousness and a glorified list. But, it's 10:30 at night, so I feel like I can be forgiven (not that this is a really foreign hour for me, but whatever).
So, let us begin.
I am currently, courtesy of YouTube, listening to Bump of Chicken's new hit single, "Happy," and loving it. Everyone look it up, yeah? The lady at Tower Records in Osaka recommended it, and added that it's particularly well known since the band was popular before the new record. I thought about buying the CD, but figured I could try and find it on iTunes when I got home, instead of buying a two-track disc for ¥1000 (about $12). Anyways, it's actually a really great song. I hate excessive repetition, but they make good use of rhythmic repetition, with a lot of chord variety and a wicked lead singer.
...now then. On to the real point. What the mother of Elvis is up with their band name????
I did a little digging, to see if there was some logic behind the insanity. Really, I wasn't expecting much, 'cause did you look at that name? What on Earth could that be referring to? I thought the lady at Tower had really bad pronunciation or something, or mebbe that she was just screwing with me, until I saw the display (side note: I just noticed the final lyric of the song, repeated...repeatedly, is not just "happy," but "happy birthday," for whatever reason, which, with a Japanese accent and the tune of the song, comes out something like, "hahp-ee, bahs-dey"). In any case, this is what Wikipedia had to say about THAT.
'They organized the band when they were in junior high school, so it was where this funny name came from. They wanted to mean "The coward's attack" as their band name, but they did not know how to say that sentence in English properly. They have used "chicken" instead of "coward", and "BUMP" instead of "attack."'
...okay, not helpful. Does everybody else not get this, too? Mebbe they just ran the Japanese version of the Wikipedia article through Google translator. We all know how helpful THAT is.
Random funny thing: in Japanese, Bump of Chicken is pronounced "Bahm-poo Oh-boo Chee-keen." I love this language.
NEW TOPIC (the song ended, and my enthusiasm ran out)
I'm having a wicked fun time working out the functional, non-translatable differences between Japanese and English. I'm not talking cultural nuances, or even normal usage that becomes insulting in translation (e.g.: "you" is あなた "anata" in Japanese, which is used only to underlings, insultingly, or occasionally as the equivalent of "hubby," for whatever reason), but something faaaar more basic - level of specificity. That is, having something in English where the item is similar enough to warrant using the same name, but we give it a new name anyways, and vice versa.
Example number one: In English, no matter where you've been blocked into, at what point you turn, or what kind of dunce cap you're wearing, a corner is always a corner. However, in Japanese, there are at least two distinct words for corner, dependent on whether you are on the inside or the outside of the 90 degree angle. That is, you turn a かど kado, but you hide in a かたすみ katasumi.
Conversely, in English, there are separate words for not only the legs and feet of humans, but the paws, claws, and talons of animals. However, in Japanese, legs are あし ashi, feet are あし ashi, my host mom's cat's feet and legs are あし ashi, a bird's feet are あし ashi (though there is a separate name for nails/talons), and they even use あし ashi to refer to, you guessed it, fish fins.
Hmmm....off to seek inspiration for more random blubberings.
Mebbe I shall talk about the wonder that was the Osaka subway system, the portrait I painted and gave away in exchange for mine being drawn (twice!), or the squid I dissected in Noto, and promptly ate (nooooo cleaning, that's right - deLISH). But, later.
Much love, signing off,
Egg
P.S. I want to make sure you all know that I think Google and all its affiliated gadgetry is genius. It's pretty hard to transmit sarcasm by blog, and I wanted to make sure that if any Google execs swing by my blog, they'll still be willing to hire me and let me eat at my desk and take naps and bring my dog to work.
