sesam.hu

Engineering Manager | Trail Runner | Stockholm, Sweden

Posting in the rain

Tuesday, 11 April, 2006 - sesam

It's been raining for the better part of the last two days, and there is little hope the sky would clear any soon. Looks like the deity responsible for regulating the weather doesn't like the semester starting either.

I went to Tokyo once again last weekend to visit the new prisoner of Jail-C (JLC) with Norbi. We used seishun 18 kippu, which allows to board any train to any destination for one day with one limitation: express trains are excluded. Tokyo being far as it is, it takes nine to ten hours and at least six changes to go there with this ticket. To grasp the extent of fun we had consider the fact that usually the normal (non-express) trains have a limited number of seats but all the more passengers. (The shorter-distance ones are like the Budapest Underground cars, with seats at the windows facing the center of the car.) Apart from the way there and back it was thoroughly enjoyable to meet old friends and acquaintances both at gaidai and Yokohama.

It couldn't have been me of course, without forgetting something. Shortly after leaving from Norbi's (the other one) place I realised I left my sunglasses. Going back we checked his room over and over with absolutely no success. Finally - encouraged by a sudden surge of brilliance, although very sceptically - I unrolled my sleeping bag and there it was, well hidden. Seemingly there is no limit when it comes to my forgetfulness: I can even roll up a sleeping bag without noticing I actually rolled my sunglasses in it.

Meeting us must have been quite a shock for the poor kohai. For one, she was overwhelmed with information - taking turns we tried to tell her as much as possible about life in Japan. And also however much we tried to restrain ourselves, I thing we used an excessive amount of Japanese in our speech. Even after one yaer there are words that just come naturally in Japanese, because we use them so much. And there are the expressions of culture which can't really be translated, not easily anyway, so one's got to use them. From the day I go home I foresee a great deal of misunderstanding because of this unconscious Japanese: people tend to take you for a snobbish know-it-all for it.

As for the net, no news yet. I will know more on Thursday, when some equipment will be installed in my room. I hope it means I'll be able to use it right away.

Anyone wondering why the English, I'll resume using Hungarian once I get to post on my home computer, with a Hungarian keyboard.

Sodzsu; I have no idea. I guess I'd just say shitsurei, it's a good all-around word for expressing dissatisfaction with one's behaviour.