Omiai and omimai.

Two very similar-sounding words with VERY different meanings.

Omiai means a set-up or arranged meeting (as in arranged marriage). Omimai is going to visit a sick person. I know the difference but, much to the amusement of friends and coworkers, my tongue seems to always want to say the wrong one!

A Bird's Eye View

I went to a art museum on Sunday afternoon. Not surprising or out of the ordinary for me, and as usual my fellow museum-nerd buddy and I had a great time - having to remind each other to look at the actual objects and not just the display techniques, dissecting the exhibits, and chatting about just about everything.

Two hanging picture scrolls got us talking about differences between English and Japanese. For example, the Japanese hato (鳩) translates into English as both "dove" and "pigeon." In Japanese, while many different types exist with different names, the two birds are not largely differentiated between (as based on the opinions of the three Japanese friends I went with, feel free to disagree) but in English, however, there is most definitely a differentiation! Common pigeons can be called the rat of the bird world and are often considered dirty pests while white doves are a symbol of peace. On the flip side, the English "duck" covers two terms in Japanese - kamo (鴨, sometimes translated as "wild duck") and ahiru (アヒル).

And then there is the "three-coloured ware horse" which I know isn't Japanese, but still doesn't look like English to me!

The problem with dictionaries...

With now just over a week before my thesis is due (EEEEEEK!) I've been spending a lot of time at home or in coffee shops / 24 hour diner type restaurants. I've of course been spending a lot of time with the love of my life - my little Vaio P, and my long-time best friend - my electronic dictionary (I've had this particular one for nearly 7 years now, and two friends who bought them at the same time have had theirs die, I live in fear that the same thing will happen and I'll have to "upgrade" to a newer model that doesn't have dust from 400 year old bug-eaten documents ingrained into the frame...).

Anyways. I've been spending a lot of time with my dictionary. And most of the time I love it. I love the jump function (that my previous one didn't have, so that 7 years later having the feature still makes me happy). I love the example sentences. But sometimes I don't particularly love the words it spits out at me. For example - I have a small section on multi-cultural services in libraries - which in the Japanese case includes programs for both foreigners and Japanese (ie returnees from time abroad and mixed families). I look up something slightly more formal than the common "haafu" (half - for biracial kids) but my dictionary doesn't have an entry for "biracial." So I look up "mixed-marriage." I find "sakkon," made up of the characters for "miscellany" and "marriage" but there is no definition given when I jump over to the Japanese dictionary. All it says is "same as rankon." So I jump over to the definition for "rankon" and the first word of the Japanese definition in the Japanese dictionary is an English word in parenthesis - PROMISCUITY.

I actually read through the definition and apparently it is a specific term based on mid-19th century theories of the American anthropologist and sociologist Lewis Henry Morgan. I don't have the time to let myself procrastinate enough to actually find out what he said, or figure out why a few jumps on my Japanese dictionary led me from "mixed-marriage" to "promiscuity," but it did make me shake my head over just how much I could read into this on the general Japanese outlook on mixed-marriages.

Right. Enough procrastination. Back to thesising...

took the words right out of my... language

The ability of Japan to mangle the English language is well documented. Engrish is a never-ending source of amusement. At times equally amusing and bizarre is wasei-eigo.

I remember in the very first lecture of the Intro to East Asia course required of all East Asian Studies majors at my university, the prof (a Japan guy) told us all about the reason why he had gotten hooked on Japanese - he loved loan words. Pretty much the only thing I still remember from that class was one example he had then proceeded to tell us - sutopu-rukku which came from the English "stop" and "look." It referred to a bikini so skimpy that it caused males to stop and look.

More recently a couple of my friends were talking about their research topics. We had been talking about the importance of selling your topic in grant proposals. I said that there were some topics that were "sexy" (in a whole different way from the sutopu-rukku!) One of my friends agreed, saying that when she had chosen her topic she thought she had chosen one that was naui, but after doing some research she had discovered it wasn't. I looked confused, so my friend explained that naui is an adjective meaning new or fresh. The i at the end being the basic equivalent here of "-ish," having been tacked on to the English word "now." Right, so her topic is passe, not now-ish.

In Japanese a honeymoon is a shin-kon ryoko, literally a "newly wed vacation." But the English term has also found its way into Japanese in a somewhat altered form. I saw a travel advertisement the other day aimed at older couples, suggesting they go on a furu-mun ryoko. If a honeymoon happens at the start of a marriage, then by the time you've been married for a few decades it's time to go on your full moon trip... Makes sense in a way that languages rarely do!

Another one of those days... and singing-dancing-penguin-Christmas tree!

Yesterday it seemed like no matter what I felt like a stupid foreigner at every turn. Just little things - like the little old lady on the train who barely came up past my waist and kept glaring at me. Or the clerk at the post office who decided my Japanese skills were non-existant and so proceeded to speak to me as if I were a three-year old with hearing problems. (I had a brain fart and couldn't remember why I had walked into the post office in the first place) Or being left out of conversations all day, like the one about pop idols from the 80s.

Of course, my brain was not plugged into its langauge socket either, so everytime I tried to say anything I seemed to be searching for words which frustrated me and getting frustrated I ended up making stupid grammatical mistakes. Being largely stupid mistakes I wouldn't normally make, I noticed them and got even more frustrated with myself.

Gargh.

I know these days happen when you live in a foreign country and communicate in a language that is not your first. Most of the time it doesn't bother me. But when I'm under stress and exhausted... Sigh.

So I came home yesterday, after my long, exhausting day. There were two parcels waiting for me. One was a book I ordered for my thesis - which is pretty exciting (its in English instead of the German one I've been using, and no, I haven't taken German since first year of university!) But there was also a parcel from a good friend in Canada and this...


I LOVE penguins. This little guy sings, dances, and ensures that I have a Christmas tree in my room to give me a little holiday spirit... Yeah. It TOTALLY made my day.

You Know You've Been in Japan Too Long When...

You know you've been in japan too long when...

1. you have trouble figuring out how many syllables there really are in words like 'building'
2. you notice you've forgotten how to tie shoelaces
3. you rush onto an escalator and just stand there
4. when you wait for the first day of summer to wear short sleeve dress shirts
5. you don' t think it unusual for a truck to play "It' s a Small World" when backing up
6. you leave your expensive bottle of Royal Salute with a sleazy barkeeper and don't worry
7. You appear for your first skiing lesson with brand new Rossignol high performance racing skis and an aerodynamic racing suit with color matched goggles. And then snowplow down.
8. you automatically remember all of your important year dates in Showa numbers
9. you noticed 7-11 changed its onigiri wrapping houshiki for the third time
10. you are not worried about speeding in the rain, because you know the cops are only out there in good weather
11. you think the best part of TV are the commercials
12. you think wet umbrellas need condoms
13. you only have 73 transparent, plastic umbrellas in your entrance because you have donated 27 to the JR and various taxi companies in the past few months... or you have over 100 small, transparent plastic umbrellas in your entrance even *after* donating 27 of them to taxis and JR recently
14. when you think it's alright to stick your head into a stranger's apartment to see if anybody is home
15. you think the natural location for a beer garden is on a roof
16. you have discovered the sexual attraction of high school navy uniforms
17. you think 4 layers of wrapping is reasonable for a simple piece of merchandise
18. When looking out the window of your office, you think "Wow, so many trees!" Instead of "Wow, so much concrete!"
19. you think NHK is "the Japanese BBC"
20. when in the middle of nowhere, totally surrounded by rice fields and abundant nature, you aren't surprised to find a drink vending machine with no visible means of a power supply, and then aren't surprised when that lonely vending machine says 'thank you' after you buy a coke
21. you return the bow from the cash machine
22. you find yourself bowing while you talk on the phone
23. you see a road with two lanes going in the same direction and assume the one on the left is meant for parking
24. when you think Japan actually has only four seasons
25. you don' t hesitate to put a $10 note into a vending machine
26. when getting ready for a trip you automatically calculate for omiyage and you leave just the right amount of space in your suitcase for them
27. on a cold autumn night, the only thing you want for dinner is nabe and nihonshu
28. you can' t find the "open" and "close" buttons in the elevator because they' re in English.
29. you think "white pills, blue pills, and pink powder" is an adequate answer to the question "What are you giving me, doctor?"
30. you think "English literature major" is a polite way to say peanut-brained bimbo
31. you think Masako is beautiful and Hillary is cute
32. you think birds cry
33. you think the opposite of red is white
34. when your arguing with someone about the color of the traffic light being blue or green... and you think it's blue
35. when you no longer find anything unusual in the concept of "Vermont curry"
36. you start thinking can-coffee is equivalent to real coffee
37. you really enjoy corn soup with your Big Mac
38. you buy a potato-and-strawberry sandwich for lunch without cringing
39. you find a beautiful new way to eat natto
40. you develop a liking for green tea flavored ice cream
41. you buy and eat "Melty Kiss" without thinking twice about the name
42. when you are talking on the telephone to your parents and your father says, "Why are you interrupting my explanation with grunts?"
43. you stop enjoying telling newcomers to Japan 'all about Japan'
44. you have run out of snappy comebacks to compliments about your chopstick skill
45. you get a "Nihongo ga joozu" and feel really insulted
46. you phone an English-speaking gaijin friend and somehow can't bring yourself to get to the point for the first 3 minutes of the conversation
47. you think its cool to stand in the "Japanese only" queue at Narita Immigration
48. you ask fellow foreigners the all-important question "How long have you been here?" in order to be able to properly categorize them
49. you see a gaijin and think "Wow, it' s a gaijin!"
50. when you get on a train with a number of gaijin on it and you feel uneasy because the harmony is broken

I remember getting something like this when I was first in Japan on exchange. I had only just arrived when somebody sent it to me and I thought it was hilarious. I read it and laughed, and forwarded it to all my exchange friends who were equally amused. A decade later I'm no longer laughing, but nodding instead.

• When I was in Canada for Christmas I confused my father by beckoning to him across a full room by flicking my fingers with my hand palm down instead of waving my hand palm upwards.
• I have long tried to insist to amused friends and family that the other end of a phone call CAN hear the difference when I bow.
• Two weeks ago in Sapporo, I again confused my father, this time by saying "the light is blue, we can cross!"
• The lady at the omiyage shop at our hotel figured I lived in Japan after I asked for extra bags for the omiyage I had bought and she had put all together in one bag.
• The day after I came back from my business trip to the US I went out for dinner with my study group and they were all amused when I remarked how delicious plain white rice and simple pickled vegetables could be.
• Caffeine affects me strongly, after drinking a cup of coffee I can have trouble sitting still. And yet a bowl of matcha (green tea) even if served at a desk in a classroom, calms me completely.

I may not be Turning Japanese, but I recently I have been thinking a lot about just how much living here is affecting and changing me in ways I don't always notice...

The Last Thursday

I had my last Education Thursday yesterday - well, if except for the exam next week! (eeeeeep!!) I've enjoyed this particular class and feel I've gotten a lot out of it - surpassing my expectations in both regards. With one week left of classes (including two final exams and a presentation on my thesis to the entire department - double eeeeeeeep!), I'm feeling the same way about the term in general.

My first term as a full-time graduate student at my university has sped by. I've learned tons, have gotten a good start on my thesis, and really feel like I belong. But it has been tough too. I find the more I am able to do the more I realize I am missing out on... I can follow the discussions in my graduate seminars, but depending on the subject I can find it difficult to marshal my thoughts, put them into some semblance of coherent Japanese, and then actually say them before the discussion moves on elsewhere. The weekly response sheet for my education class is similar. Class ends and I'm usually still madly taking notes. By the time I've written my name, student number, and the class info, most of the other students are handing their sheets in. The prof has very kindly told me to take my time, but I nevertheless feel rushed trying to get SOMETHING coherent down on my sheet. It never fails that I am having lunch an hour later and suddenly think - "Ah! I should have said this!!!" or "Ah! Why didn't I think of that?!!"

All this has me rather worried about the upcoming exams. I love writing, and term papers or other such assignments have always been something I've enjoyed. Exams, however, well not having to write final exams was a definite plus of grad school! And yet here I am, back in grad school but taking undergrad classes and so having to write exams - in Japanese too! Sigh. Figuring out the question, sorting through what I want to say, and then writing it out by hand (without a dictionary, of course) just takes that much longer. Especially since both exams are in areas I've never studied before - bringing with them a whole set of specialized terminology... Aaaaaaa. But I am a regular student, and I don't want to ask for special treatment, so I will simply have to study hard and then do what I can on the day of the exam.

As my grade 8 social studies (I was in French Immersion, so it was actually sciences humaines, if you want to split hairs) teacher taught me, I will get a good night of sleep the night before, read through the entire exam before I write anything, and start with the questions I know I can answer, pacing myself throughout. I certainly don't remember my grade, but many of Mme. Clarke's lessons have remained with me to this day. In the same way, I'm going to try not to stress over how well I do or don't do on the exams, but instead focus on what I've gained from these two classes.

All the same... When it comes to picking out the rest of the undergrad courses I have to take for the curatorial certificate, I'm going to do my darnedest to make sure I pick courses with final papers instead of written exams!

Japnese Lesson

Facebook has an application that will teach you a new Japanese word everyday. I'm not going to try to beat that, but I do have one word I am going to share with those of you who don't already know Japanese. The word is 告白 (kokuhaku), individually the characters mean "announce/report" and "white." Combined they mean "confession," most commonly in the sense of a professing of feelings for somebody. The word can be used with the addition of する (suru, "to do") as a verb, in the sense:

She finally managed to stop being a wimp and kokuhaku.

Just by itself it is a noun, in the sense:

He was completely surprised and rendered utterly speechless by her kokuhaku.

So there is your lesson for the day. What does it mean? Well honestly I thought I knew but it turns out that maybe, just maybe I don't afterall. We'll see. That's the fun thing about the Japanese language (and life in general), there is always a new surprise waiting to be learnt.

No Education for Me! - REVISED

** NOTE: I've edited this post after learning that my professor DID in fact contact the correct people to have the class officially cancelled - I apologize for thinking otherwise! I am not sure whether that notice resulted in an official posting, however, as it seemed like a full class of students waited the allotted 40 minutes. **

Two Thursdays have passed without an Education Thursdays post, so allow me to explain. The first week's lack of post was due to the fact that I skipped class (and the country) for my trip to the US with the museum. The second week's missing post? Well that was due to the fact that the professor didn't show. There is a complex system in place at my university for professors to alert students to the fact that class has been cancelled. It involves classes being listed somewhere on campus. Since I take courses at two different campuses, and both undergrad and grad courses at one campus, this means I am supposed to routinely check multiple notice boards. I admit to not checking these boards (especially for my education class as I only go to the campus for the class). I know where the grad board is and I check it for class cancellations and general announcements about once a week. For the rest - well, I just go to class. I didn't check, so I can't be sure, but given the large number of students sitting around, I'm guessing that my education class was not posted as cancelled.

There is apparently a time rule - how long students should stay before they are allowed to assume that class has been cancelled. I'm not sure of the time (I think it is about 40 minutes), but apparently most of the class does know the time (or they were just following each other, as about half of the students got up to leave at the same time. I stuck around for another 5 or 10 minutes before heading off myself.

I had other things weighing on my mind. You see I had an oral presentation scheduled for my grad seminar the next day. (yes, note my use of the word "scheduled") I was VERY stressed about this presentation. I was to be giving an overview of one chapter of the book we are currently reading (on what would be best translated into English as social education/pedagogy), written by the professor. I managed to figure out a way that I thought would be new, different, and rather clever, to go beyond the book for the second half of my presentation, but I was worried about the first half. After all it is really only in the past year that I've become able to honestly say I can sit down and read an academic book in Japanese and actually have it make sense. And did I mention this is a book written by the professor, who would be obviously sitting right there for the entire presentation?! I've done that before in my previous incarnation as a grad student, and, as the saying goes - once bitten, twice shy!

So much of the past week has been spent working on this presentation, often into the wee hours of the morning (made much much worse by a nasty case of jet lag). Then I get to class on Friday and find out we're still watching War period and pre-War period animated films, related to the previous chapter.

So that about sums up my week...

I hope to be back to commenting on more interesting stuff soon, and do promise that my next knitting update is in the works!

Mummy Jhaveri

At the end of March I got sad email telling me of the passing of a wonderful woman that everybody I knew simply called "Mummy."

Many years earlier the Jhaveri family had adopted Sangam (the centre in India where I volunteered/lived), inviting staff, volunteers and many event participants into their homes. A normal visit would include a long conversation over cups of hot chai, followed by a delicious home-cooked dinner (after which it was time to leave, as it was Mummy's bedtime!)

I can't imagine how many strangers from around the world this incredible family welcomed into their home, but each and every one left feeling like they had made lifelong friends. The entire family had a way of making you feel at home in their home.

This evening when I came home from work I found a letter from India in my mailbox, with a printed page bearing a poem titled "A Celebration of Mummy." I'm a little late, but in honour of Mother's Day and a wonderful woman, I wanted to share a section of the poem:

We remember you...
Your love
Care
Patience
Sensitivity
Your warm smile and
Those sparkling eyes
The fun and laughter you shared
The peace as you endured
And your internal strength
...
We respect you...
Your generosity
Kindness
Compassion
Open heart and open door
Unassuming hospitality
Welcoming all into your home
Serving those from distant lands
And close to home
Indian mother to us all

Good-bye Mummy Jhaveri, and thank you.

Crazy Gaijin? CHECK!

There are some days when the Japanese language causes me to want to bash my head repeatedly against a hard surface - any hard surface. There are some days when I swear that the language itself is out to get me. There are some days when no matter what I try to say in this #%^%!@ language it just won't come out right (I've had friends say the same thing, so I know I'm not the only one). And then, once in a while there are days when it actually makes sense. When my host mother says, out of the blue "wow! Your Japanese has gotten SOOOO much better!" Or when I sit down to read an assigned read for class and, after beating myself up for taking hours to read 20 pages, realize I understood it pretty well, and didn't even use my dictionary!

My host mother's complements aside, being complemented on your Japanese skills is not always a big complement, as it often comes after you've only uttered a few simple words. I still bristle when I remember having my language skills complented by an older Chinese waitress in an alley-way yakitori shop. Her accent was so thick that I barely understood her (although the condesension was crystal clear, thank you very much!), and had to bite my tongue from replying nastily "yeah, my Japanese is better than yours, @#$%*(!"

I am amused to report that despite any difficulties I may be having with the language, apparently it is the best one for me... nice to get the confirmation I suppose! (although I'd hardly throw in the towel and move to the other side of the world if told I was better suited to learn Swahili, as tempting as it may be...)

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

Stop! Police! and Ramblings on Cultural Identity

Three nights a week I have class until 9pm. After class we often go out for dinner and a round or two of drinks with my advisor. I normally get home close to midnight, but I'm not the only one exiting the station and walking home at that hour.

The other night it had gotten suddenly chilly and was raining. Not a very nice night. I just wanted to go home and go to bed as I had to be up and in class early the next morning. I left the station and started walking towards the dorm (a 20 minute walk), passing the police box, as I always do. As I walked by I thought I heard a voice call out, so I looked back. The man standing in front of the police box, with a police hat (protected by a plastic shower-cap) and plastic rain poncho didn't appear to be looking at me, so I kept walking. The voice called out again, and again, so I looked back over my shoulder through the rain. The guy hadn't moved and again didn't appear to be looking at me so I kept going. When I heard the voice again, however, I stopped and lifted my umbrella, and while the officer still didn't appear to actually be looking at me he had left the limited shelter of the police box's overhanging roof and was standing right beside me. The young officer bowed his head to me and asked me if I was carrying my foreigners registration card. He then quoted a certain law or something that allowed him to stop me and ask me for my card. I have been told numerous times that this could potentially happen, but had never actually had it happen, nor heard of it happening out of the blue like this.

I acknowledged that I had my card on me, and the officer asked to see it. I reached into my bag and took out my wallet, opening it to show him my card. He asked me to remove the card from my wallet however, which proved to be a bit difficult. Juggling my umbrella, my school bag and another bag I had trouble getting the card out of the small pocket in my wallet. The officer watched me and waited patiently. I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the situation, however, especially since I couldn't actually see his uniform except for his hat. He was also rather young and the darkness didn't do anything to ease my discomfort. He must have sensed this, as he tried to reassure me that the situation was not dodgy - only making me more uncomfortable! I held onto the corner of my card as I showed it to him. He stared at it intently, reading it multiple times and questioning me about the information on it.

Officer: "Hmm.... So, you are a foreign student?"
Me: "Yes."
Officer: "Hmm.... So, you live in the area?"
Me: "Yes, in the foreign student dorm."
......

He finally released my card, bowed to me and wished me a good evening, and then he was gone into the night, back to the police box.

I continued walking home, and as I went over the situation in my mind I started getting really upset about it. I realize that the officer in question was polite, that nothing happened, and that plenty of others have had experiences that are actually seriously unpleasant to say the very very least (Korean and Chinese students in Japan have some unpleasant stories of being hassled by police, and visible minorities in North America - especially young black men can tell horror stories of being the victims of racial profiling). In comparison, my brief encounter is really nothing, and I am no longer upset by it, but that evening, walking home in the cold rain, I felt very much singled out because of my skin colour. I felt as if I was being reminded that I am a foreigner, and being made to feel unwelcome in the country in which I choose to make my life.

It did get me to thinking... I talked with a number of different people, about the incident itself and about cultural identity in general. Here are some of my ramblings...

As a tall white female in Japan I stand out. When I first went to the island of Tanegashima in the south of Japan 8 years ago I just about caused car accidents every time I walked down the main street in town! Living in Tokyo these days is different, but I still get looked at. I'm used to it, however, and it doesn't bother me most of the time. Some of the time it ends up being a positive - like when my friends remark about how easy it is to meet me anywhere, they can immediately pick me out of a crowd! And yet, for all that I stand out, I feel that I fit in. While I am sure that my professors treat me somewhat differently from other students, I am a regular student, not an exchange student. My friends tease me that I must have been Japanese in a previous life, and one of my friends has a couple of times, out of the blue in the middle of the conversation, suddenly remarked "huh? Ohhhhh... right, I forgot, you're a foreigner!!" Not that I think I'm "turning Japanese" a la Vapors, but I have chosen to make my life here, not just for a year, but for the foreseeable future. This is where I study, where I work, where my friends are, where my life is.

In one instant, however, I was reminded that however much I may feel that I belong here, and however much those who know me may agree with that and treat me in the same way, I am and always will be a foreigner. Not that that is a bad thing, nor a good thing, it just is. I accept it. I feel that it is something that every non-Japanese person has to come to terms with to live happily in this country. Japan is a country with a strong sense of identity, a strong idea of what it means to be Japanese and who the Japanese are. This is historical, cultural, and linguistic. I don't think you can say it is a purely bad thing, or a purely good thing either. As a Canadian girl, despite the fact that I also have a British passport, I grew up without a sense of cultural identity. Growing up I remember attending the annual Toronto multi-cultural festival and seeing children my age up on stage dressed in traditional clothing and performing traditional dances at the Latvian or Cuban or Greek or Hungarian community centres. I was always jealous, I wanted to have that "culture," that specialness of identity. I thought we were boring, without culture.

It has taken living outside of Canada for the past 5 years to help me appreciate what it means to be Canadian. When asked to dress up in national costume and cook traditional dishes for an international event during my exchange to Japan, I joked that we Canadians don't have clothing or food. Eight years later, however, when asked about Canadian food I will describe poutine, or talk about my uncle who makes maple syrup in his backyard, or mention the delicious fish and fruit plentiful in BC. When asked about national identity I will now proudly talk about official bilingualism, about the Canadian mosaic and the multiculturalism of large Canadian cities, about the range of cultures and languages that make up the average elementary school class.

My name is Sarah. And I Am Canadian! (grin!) Follow the link if you don't know what I'm talking about, and watch a video clip that made it cool to be Canadian...

(Ir)responsible Person

Having spent the better part of the past two days working on translations for the museum, and facing spending the next two weeks working on a massive translation contract for another museum, my brain is about to come dribbling out of my ears. I am having trouble linking coherent thoughts one after another, especially when said thoughts involve anything above basic ideas in a single language.

I am currently procrastinating and avoiding two words in particular. They are not terribly scary words, and I understand what they mean in Japanese, the trouble is that when I try to translate them into English they come out meaning the same thing. In Japanese the words are tantōsha and sekininsha. My favourite Japanese online dictionary gives the exact same English translation for them, “responsible party.” Whether or not you speak/read Japanese, you may realize that both end in –sha, which is a suffix for a person. My trusty electronic dictionary doesn’t have the entire word, but defines sekinin as “responsibility, blame, fault, liability,” and the verb tantō as to “take charge of, work, cover.” I found an English language help site with a question by somebody evidently suffering from the same problem as me. (I’m not the only one – yay!) I didn’t find it much help, however, as I am still struggling on how to apply these two titles to two separate individuals involved with the setting up of a museum exhibit. The first term is the lower ranked position, and is basically the person who is in charge of doing the work, while the second term is the higher ranked position, and the person who is responsible for the work (not necessarily the actual doing). In some of the cases the two people are actually one and the same, but not all of the time. I suppose this would be easier if I had a museum-related vocabulary in English! Sigh…

Any ideas? Right now I’m using “Manager” and “Representative” but I don’t like those choices (hence the procrastination while I ostensibly think up better terms but really just procrastinate…) Suggestions please!

India in Japan

Last week a friend forwarded to me photographs of the son of a friend of hers in India. When we left India the announcement that a baby was expected had only just made so I was expecting photographs of some chubby little thing in diapers. The little boy in the pictures, however, looked much older than that and I was forced to remind myself that we were in India 3 years ago!

On the weekend I joined two other friends from my time in India and a few of their friends at the annual Indian festival in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park. There were food stalls that smelt a whole lot better than India but unfortunately the curies, biriyani, lassis and chai on sale just didn't quite measure up (the mango juice, however, was divine!). There was a stage with musical presentations from classical to modern - the crowd (us included) enthusiastically dancing along with the Bollywood dancers. And there were stalls selling dry goods, clothing, jewelery, embroidered bags, bedcovers... The alleyways in between the stalls were much too wide and the cool and rainy weather didn't quite fit, but it still felt a whole lot like Laxmi Road!