4. Classroom appearance…well.

There are lots of desks with chairs that push in and out from under them. At the front there’s a wall of black boards (mine were green, though), and at the back there’s a smaller blackboard that’s usually doodled on by students, sometimes written on with schedule information if the never-changing schedule does something weird (doesn’t happen often).

At the front of the class, the teacher has a kinda raised platform to stand on. So even if they’re around the same size as the kids (which some of them are), the teacher will be higher up. There’s a podium for the teacher to lecture behind, which the teacher usually stands behind. One note, though, the podium’s kinda flat, not slanted. I had a koten (old Japanese. It’s basically a class teacher where you learn to read old haiku, etc) teacher sit on the podium and perform for us once...I forget what it's called, but it's like a...one man play? Usually funny stories.

5. Hiruyasumi is lunch-time, but unlike American lunch-periods, Hiruyasumi (lit, mid-day break) is an hour long. NOT a measly twenty minutes.  While I’m on the subject of time, I should mention that class periods are also an hour long, and between classes there’s a ten minute break. However, most schools don’t get out until five-PM…ish. ^_^ and then after club, you have students going home at times like 7:00 or 8:00 for sports, and at the earliest 6:00 for shorter clubs…

6. “Irashaimase.”

“Irashai.” = short form for Irashaimase.

“Welcome to the store.”

All store cashiers will say this to anyone and everyone who comes in the store. So, in busy places like a video store, you hear clerks saying that over, and over, and over…sometimes in the middle of a sentence. It’s really funny. ^_^ It’s tradition to say it very loud and in a whiney tone. JThat is to say, it’s almost always said in a high pitched tone. I think this is so everyone can hear the clerk, but maybe it’s ‘cause it’s cuter, and not offensive…? I don’t know.

Fancy restaurants also say irashaimase, but I’ve also heard of them saying banzai! But I’ve never been anywhere that did that, so I can’t tell you for sure. Taise’s host sister Saori reportedly got so used to saying irashaimase (coincidently also working at 7-11) every time a door opened that she even said it in her sleep. It gets to be reflex.

“Welcome.”

Maybe it has roots in Chinese, which has stress on pitch, too…*babbles*

7. Yellow flower vs. red dot.

People in the western cultures draw the sun as a yellow flower. It’s a yellow circle that’s transcribed ($5 verb for “inside of”) in a kinda squiggly circle. The squiggles are sometimes triangle-like, sometimes not.

 8. “Yosh.”

If you’re familiar with Japanese, it’s like, “Ganbarou!”

This basically means, “OK, I’m doin’ it!” It’s something you say to mentally prep yourself for doing something. What you’re doing isn’t necessarily hard, though.

9. ni-no-gokumi:

“Ni” means two, and in this case the “nen” (year) is implied, so it means “second year”. And “no” is the Japanese equivalence of the possessive marker in English (‘s). “Go” is five, and “kumi” is class.  So, all together, this means: The fifth class of the second years. ^_^ ni-no-gokumi is easier for me…But, I might refer to them as gokumi, or the fifth class. I’ll find out later, along with you guys, probably. ^_^

11. 1-subject folding notebooks vs. spirals.

I didn’t know anyone who used spiral notebooks. All of my, and Taise’s, classmates thought our “huge” American notebooks were the strangest thing. Their notebooks are considerably smaller, all paperback and look like they could have been bound with duct tape. Only very nice duct tape. Notebooks are about the size of half of their American counterparts. 179 c 252 mm

 

Almost all notebooks say “note” or “campus” or other school related, English babble. Like “Campus notebooks contain the best ruled foolscap suitable for writing” is written on one of mine. And “Most advanced quality gives best writing features and gives satisfaction to you” on the one I scanned. Not as goofy English as t-shirts or pencil cases, but still a bit stilted.

 12. Sasuke-yo

…does anyone remember in the episode where Naruto and Sasuke are fighting up on the hospital? *Smiling* yeah? Good. There’s a part in there where Naruto says, “Sasuke-chan yo!” before he does something…*blank expression* I forget what. Anyways, Naruto isn’t mad at Sasuke enough to call him “chan” (right now). So, I added the “yo” to Sasuke’s name to convey that Naruto is rather…hmm, upset, shall we say?  ^_^

Recall that in Japan, it’s rude to call someone by their first name unless that person specifically asks. My Naruto is occasionally semi-polite, and calls him Uchiha. Sometimes he’s rude, and calls him Sasuke.

*the sometimes classmates

Sharing classes…sometimes. Refering to the math class Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, and Ino are in. So, “Sometimes classmates.” *Twiddles thumbs* Yes, I’ve been reading Shakespeare… it was assigned. The ever-popular Hamlet.