c'mon, thumbs, you know how to twiddle

[serene]

The Best Temp Job Ever is still the best, but for the last week or so,
they've had a project for me that takes away a lot of my goofing-off time,
which is really fine with me.

I saw the guy I'm going to Tokyo with today; he's pretty excited, as am I.
Even more so because I found out I don't have to navigate the travel
stuff myself -- we're going as a group with eleven other students and some
people from the program for which he's traveling. Yay for not having to
navigate what I've heard is a labrynthine public-transit system on my own!

Hey, firecat, any advice on boning up on essential Japanese
words/phrases/etc.?

Having mom here is wonderful. We had a D&D party on Saturday, and she was
Second-String Snack Wench. It was fun, and she kicked my ass at card
games. Then yesterday, we had a barbecue with loracs, dbubley, tracytreefrog, and someone who's not on LJ. It
was chilly but lovely, and my mom did her best to show my friends and
family where my eating disorders came from. Jeeze, she knows not to
foodcop ME, but sit a few diabetics around the picnic table, and all of a
sudden, she's C. Everett Koop!

Tonight, though? Chopped liver and knaedlach soup. She's forgiven.

Comments

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

brian1789 has been to Japan a few times, and may have some travel books, if you'd like.

[firecat]

When I began learning Japanese, wild_irises and several others recommended Japanese for Busy People, which I got out of the library to look at. I kind of bounced off that. (I have pretty poor language acquisition skills.) Then I got the first set of Pimsleur tapes out of the library, and those worked very well for me. cjsmith used those too and seemed fairly happy with them.

[revcarol.livejournal.com]

Tokyo. I hadn't caught that part before. I'm *especially* glad you won't have to navigate there. I have trouble in Minneapolis!

I'm so glad your mom is there. Too bad you ladies don't live closer together. A good mother-daughter bond is very precious.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I found navigating in Tokyo quite easy; the system is labyrinthine but the signs are magnificent, so patience and the ability to read (English) will get you a long way. Accessibility is harder; there are elevators, but they're often hard to find. You or your companion might want to learn the Japanese word for elevator (which may well be erevato, but I'm not sure).

An embarrassing assortment and variety of people speak at least some English, and I managed on my first trip with no vocabulary whatsoever. I think you need two words:

"Domo" or "Domo arigato" or "Domo arigato goza-i-mas" are all ways of saying thank you, which one says all the time.

"Sumimasen" means something between "excuse me" and "I'm sorry," and is the thing a polite person says whenever they need or want anything, or make a mistake, or don't know what else to say, or might be inconveniencing someone (i.e., all the time). I've also noticed over the years that Japanese people treat me differently if I use that phrase, like I might be more civilized than they expected.

Oh, and "wakarimasen" means "I don't understand."

That will get you through.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thank you, sweetie. This is so helpful!

[dbubley.livejournal.com]

Your mom is wonderful; a very "engaging" woman. So she's got an inner food cop that needs let out now and then. She really does seem to mean well and that little bit is worth ignoring just to hear her wonderful stories. The woman should write!