issue 19

iJapanese Newsletter7th September 2015

TERM 4iNFO

How time flies...
It’s our last term for the year!
Starts from21st September

We will also be organising
Christmas holiday courses.

END OF TERM 3
EVENT
DATE:
TIME:
PLACE:COST:
RSVP & PAYMENT

コンビニ Konbini
The very first convenience store (Konbini) opened up in Japan in the early 70’s. To
date there is now a staggering 52,872 stores throughout Japan. Hence there
name “convenient”, but like so many other things we take them for granted. For
people who have shopped at Konbini, have you ever thought about what is
uniquely different about them, apposed to other countries?
1: Food quality
Onigiri (rice balls) have all kinds offilling, which tastes very yummy andonly costs $1.50 each. Konbini also
has their own variety of original bento
boxes and breads. The shop staff are
more than happy to heat up yourbento box and will ask you ‘Obento
atatamemasuka? (Would you like toheat it up?)’ so you could say ‘Hai,
onegaishimasu. (Yes, please)’ They
also sell a variety of drinks including
alcoholic beverage. My advice,especially when travelling is to spend
more time sightseeing and to drop bya Konbini to grab a quick and cheap
meal.

Next time, grab your favourite drink
and plan where to go next.

2: ATMs
24-hour ATM inside all konbini, allows
you to withdraw money using
international bank cards.
Oddly enough not so many Japanesebanks will accept your internationalbank cards and if the Post Office ATMs
are closed, you always have theconveniences of Konbini stores.
Remember to always carry cash withyou since many small shops and ticket
machines will not accept credit cards.

7. Hospitality
Konbini staff are welcoming and kind,creating a comfortable atmosphere
for your shopping experience. All
things are provided , eg. chopsticks,
folks or straws. They will also bag yourpurchases separately if you have both
hot or cold items. If you don’t needthem, you can say ‘Fukuro/ohashi/
fooku/storoo kekkoo desu. (No bag/chopsticks/folk/straw, thanks)’.

3. Courier delivery pickup/dropoff
You can send or pick up yourpackage. You can even arrange foryour luggage to be dropped off andkept safe or have it shipped to the
airport, saving you the hassle oflugging it around with you while
catching the train.
4. Café Konbini
Some konbini will have a space where
you can relax and enjoy a drink.

5. Free public restrooms
Most Konbini have clean restrooms foranyone to use. Even for non-customers
who only wish to use there facilities, justa quick saying ‘Sumimasen toire otsukaimasu (Excuse me, I would like to
use the toilet)’.
6. Free Wi-Fi spot
These days konbini provide free Wi-Fi
spots. Just open up your browser in thestore, click the English button andfollow the instructions. How convenient
for travellers!

Convenience store in Japan are
genially convenient, Enjoy!

By NorikoiJapanese Newsletter issue 19

Page 2 of 4Student from iJapaneseAngie Wszola san
Hi minna! My name is Angie and I have been studying at
iJapanese now for around 12 months. I am currently
completing my Bachelor of Health Sciences in Nutritional
Medicine and I also work in after-hours recruitment
which has me keeping strange hours and starting workat the ungodly time of 2am sometimes.
I guess my introduction to Japan came through TV andanime although that was some 30 years ago and I still
am an enormous anime enthusiast today (otaku, haha).
From anime, my interest expanded into history, music,
art and culture and the rest as they say is history! I had
always wanted to learn Japanese at school however
none of my schools offered Japanese as a subject andinstead I got stuck with learning Italian and French. Fast
forward to one year ago where I decided there is notime like the present and here I am at iJapanese!
This year, I finally visited Japan for the first time not oncebut twice which was AMAZING!! The first time I went wasin winter (fuyu) with my partner and spent a monthtravelling around. I visited Tokyo, Kamakura, Osaka,
Kyoto, Nara, Hokkaido (Sapporo and Niseko) andNagano. It was an amazing trip and I was certainly
grateful for all the learning I did at iJapanese thatallowed me to get around, ask questions and make newfriends. I would have to say the highlights for me weregoing to the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri, The Studio Ghibli
Museum (which was smaller and way more crowded
than what I anticipated – note to anyone planning tovisit: go early in the morning and during the week!! It will
still be busy but maybe less so then in the afternoon!)and the Ushiku Daibutsu in Ibaragi Prefecture. As I
mentioned before, I have a great interest in Japaneseculture and history and the Daibutsu in Ushiku is a little bit
off the beaten track but well worth a trip out of thehustle and bustle of Tokyo to see something truly
awesome. It is actually
the world’s tallest
Bronze statue standingat total of 120 meterstall and can be seenfrom great distancesaway.
The Sapporo Yuki
Matsuri is the annual
snow festival and was
also fantastic. There
are so many sculptures to see and there are ice
sculptors who travel from all over the world to display
their amazing creations for a few days. The sculptures

themselves vary fromabstract, anime,
western cartoon
characters, animals
and the atmosphere isfantastic. It’s also
really cool to stroll
around sipping hot sake from a glass flask and eating
yakisoba in the snow. Hokkaido is a truly beautiful place
and also having the opportunity to sit in an outdoor
onsen with snow falling around you is such a truly uniqueexperience. Not to mention the phenomenal amount of
SNOW everywhere!!
Later in the year I was fortunate enough to win tickets tosee one of my favourite Seiyuu (voice actor) groups
perform in Kobe (thanks to Noriko san’s help filling out
the application form) and was then able to purchasetickets to see my favourite Japanese Band Oldcodex
play in Osaka so off I went again
to Japan for just under 3 weeks
in the summer. I was lucky to beable to catch up with both
Yumiko san and Ayano sanwhen I was over there which
was great also. The concerts
were AMAZING (Oldcodex wereso awesome!!) and going to a“raibu” in Japan is certainly an
experience that I hadn’t had
before – Japanese audiences
are certainly very genki haha!
It was great to see the contrast between the 2 seasons,
everything was lush and green and added a completely
different dimension to places that I had been to see inthe winter time. I visited Miyajima, Hiroshima and Himeji
Castle which were all incredible. Plus, further
developing my understanding and knowledge of thelanguage went along way and I have returned homehaving made new friends who I keep in regular contact
with and will see again when I return next year (I missLawson sweetie treats, vending machine tea and curry!
Oishiiiiiiiiiii)
Studying at iJapanese is truly a rewarding experience, I
look forward to my classes every week and the learning
environment is open, supportive and a lot of fun. All our
teachers are fantastic and always put so much effort in
to ensuring we get the most out of our classes.
Ganbatte Minna San!!

www.iJapanese.com.au

Page 3 of 4

Japanese phrases that sound like English
Have you even heard English while speaking or listening
to Japanese? You may say “Huh” but in actual fact I
can show you a few phrases in Japanese that whenspoken out loud sound just like English.
Remember to say these out loud… Listen and write themdown.

湯のみ – Yunomi
Means “tea cup” but sounds like…. You know me?

兄移住 – Ani iju
Means “My brother emigrates” and sounds like…

ハマチ – Hamachi
Means “Yellowtail”, sounds like…

わしゃ、変 – Washa, hen

いつ相撲終わる？ – Itsu sumo owaru?
Means “When is the sumo over?”, but sounds like….

幅ないっすね！ – Haba naissune
Meaning is “Not enough width.” But in English sounds
like…

ほった芋いじんな – Hotta imo ijinna
Means “Don’t touch this potato I dug.” In English sounds
like…
Okay, Let’s try the opposite way.

“He’s such a bully.”

Which Japanese word dose this sound like?
… This concludes my Japanese lesson for today.
Can you think of other Japanese words or phrases thatsound just like English? If so, Let us know.

Means “I’m really strange.” Yet sounds like…

寝具破損 – Shingu hason
Means “The bed is broken.” This one is a little moredifficult…

Associating Japanese words with other commonly used
English words will always help you to remember them infuture.
Best of luck with your studies and I hope this has helped.

By Phillip
New teacher – Tomoe Iguchi
Konnichiwa!
My name is Tomoe Iguchi and I am from Shizuoka, where Mt Fuji is! Unfortunately, I can not see
Mt Fuji from my city because it is some distance away. Shizuoka is a large city and famous forgreen tea. If you have an opportunity to visit, make sure you try green tea ice cream, it’s so tasty.
At high school I did Kyudo, a Japanese archery. When I practiced Kyudo the etiquette was themost important thing to remember. For example, at the beginning I must bow once to showrespect and then walk silently step by step to the hall. I learnt Japanese etiquette and manners
from Kyudo. I also used to enjoy belly dancing at university. I like all types of dancing not just belly dancing. If you areinterested in dancing, let’s dance together.
I have lived in Melbourne for only 8 months. Before coming to Australia, I was working at a cram school in Kanagawa.
Cram school is called “JUKU” in Japanese and it is a after school tutoring activity. I was not a teacher, but instead
working as a manager. However on rare occasions I have taught students Japanese, English or Math.
From my experience in teaching, when students can say ”I got it”, I feel pleased. If you can also say “I got it”, I will
also become very glad! The acquisition of a new language opens up and expands life’s opportunities. The more you
can study Japanese, the more chances you’ll have to talk with Japanese people and expand your cultural
understanding and knowledge. Your Knowledge is your own property, which can never be stolen from you. So inorder to gain new knowledge, let’s study Japanese together!
I’m happy there are so many people who are interested in Japan and Japanese language in Melbourne, including
you as well. I hope you can enjoy my lessons at iJapanese.
Yoroshikuonegaishimasu.

www.iJapanese.com.au

Page 4 of 4

Fushigi - I wonder...
I will introduce my favourite poet from Senzaki in
Yamaguchi. Her name is Misuzu Kaneko and she wrote
over 500 poems in her short life from 1903 to 1930.
Senzaki is a fishing village, relying particularly on catchesof Japanese sardine and whale. Scenes of fishing andthe sea often make appearances in her poems.
After she died, her poems were forgotten for many years
but Setuo Yazaki, a collector of her poems republishedthem in 1984. Shortly after the Tokyo University used her
poems in there entry exams and nowadays her poems
are also used in Japanese textbook at primary school.
Needless to say I have read her poems as a child andwas given Misuzu’s books for a birthday present from mymother. I visited Misuzu Kaneko memorial hall andwatched the drama about her life.
I like her poems, because she can think about such smallthings in life, the fish, snow and trees change yourperception towards them giving me more of an open
mind and a feeling of sympathy from her poems.
When I was a child and still today I am the person who
keeps wondering about everything in life and ask, Why?
Why? and Why.

The answer, is ”why not?” or “that is nature” but theseanswers never seem to satisfy me. I remember mychildhood memory's of feeling different than otherpeople felt.
When we were studying about stars at school we learnt
that even we could see the star right now the star might
not exist anymore. I was just like “Wow! How does it
happen! So cool!” and could not stop asking thequestion, why?. Full well knowing the reason, yet could
not stop wondering. Don’t you think how fantastic that is
too?
Everybody would comment and say “why is it such a
wonder, it’s a natural occurrence”, continue to look atme oddly, like I was a crazy or weird person. Yes, sure!
Perhaps I am but I did not understand why everybody
could not think like I did.
That day, after school I read one of Misuzu’s poems“FUSHIGI”. I felt she could understand my feeling, she
could recognise me like I was her, she was me. Since
then “FUSHIGI” is my favorite poem.
She wrote a lot of wonderful poems so if you would liketo read them, please google her.
I hope you will like her poems as much as I do.

不思議
私は不思議でたまらない
黒い雲からふる雨が銀にひかっていることがFUSHIGIwatashi wa fushigi de tamaranai
kuroi kumo kara furu ame ga
gin ni hikatte iru koto ga

WONDERI cannot help wondering
why rain from black clouds
are shiny silver

私は不思議でたまらない
青い桑の葉たべている
蚕が白くなることがwatashi wa fushigi de tamaranai
aoi kuwa no ha tabete iru
kaiko ga shiroku naru koto ga

I cannot help wondering
when they eat green mulberry leaves
silkworms turn whitewatashi wa fushigi de tamaranaitare mo ijiranu yuugao ga
hitori de parari to hiraku no

I cannot help wondering
without a poke from anyone
moonflowers open at dusk

watashi wa fushigi de tamaranaitare ni kiitemo warattete
atarimaeda to iu koto ga

I cannot help wondering
people I ask laugh and say,"Nothing strange in that."

私は不思議でたまらない
たれもいじらぬ夕顔がひとりでぱらりと開くのが私は不思議でたまらない
たれにきいても笑っててあたりまえだ、ということがBy Mihono

Japanese phrase answers
Yunomi - you know me?
Ani iju - I need you.
Hamachi - How much?

Could you hear them ?

Washa, hen - Wash your hands.
Shingu hasan - Sing a song.
Itsu sumo owaru? - It’s a small world.

Haba nai sune - Have a nice day.
Hotta imo ijinna - What time is it now?
He’s such a bully. - Hisashiburi

iJapanese Language & Culture School
Suite 3 Mezzanine Level, 257 Collins Street
0401 886 629
Info@ijapanese.com.au