Using ～とは思えない to emphasize a “despite of” result

When we want to express a situation if something happens, a result will occur, we can say:

お金がたくさんあったら、幸せだ！

The opposite of this would be:

お金がたくさんあっても、幸せじゃない！

Now if we want to have more emphasize of the “despite of” result, we can say:

お金がたくさんあっても、幸せだとは思えない！

another example:

車がなくても、困るとは思えない。

You can add　たとえ  (even though, even if) to make the sentence more complete

たとえ高い物を作っても、あまり上手だとは思えない。

たとえタクシーで行っても、間に合うとは思えない。

Turn left, turn right

When we start learning Japanese, we will learn turn left or turn right dialogues as follows:

左へ曲がる

右へ曲がる

The equivalent and maybe shorter meaning are:

右折「うせつ」する

左折「させつ」する

Level of politeness of asking for something

Depending on who you talk to, this is the general level of politeness, from the top relative casual to the most polite at the bottom. Gosh, I never knew we could be THAT polite right?

教えてください

教えてくださいますか

教えていただけますか

教えてくださいませんか

教えていただけませんか

教えていただけないでしょうか

My decision [ことにする] and someone else’s [ことになる]

When trying to state an action that is based on your decision, you can use ことにする to end the sentence.

あしたから　たばこを　やめる　ことにしました

However, if the action is a decision made by someone else, for example, your boss, then you should use ことになる.

実は、社長に言われて、残業することになったんです。

Using って or て in place of と in speech

In Japanese, it is very common to short form pronunciation in speech. 　と in casual conversation can be replaced by　って　or　て.

• 使用禁止は使うなって（と）いう意味です
• あそこに　「とまれ」って（と）書いてあります

て is used when the previous word before と is an ん.

• このかんじは何て（と）読むんですか。

Compound Words – 合成語

Compounds words are simply words formed by combing two words together. This very common in the Japanese language, especially in sign boards.

• 私+達  = 私達 (we)
• 日本+人 = 日本人 (Japanese)
• 日本+料理 = 日本料理 (Japanese cooking)
• 乗る+換える = 乗り換える (to transfer)

1) ～ 口　（ぐち）

口　(くち） by itself means mouth. When used in a compound word it means a location or  direction. Its used with a noun + 口 or verb (masu-form) + 口。

Commonly seen in train stations indicating the location of the exit:

• 東口 (east gate)　　西口 (west gate)　　南口 (south gate)　　北口 (north gate)　　中央口 (central gate)

or direction of exits

• 出口(exit)　入口(entrance)　上り口(up-going stairs)　下り口(down-going stairs)
• 窓口  means ticket window (location)
• 非常口 means emergency exit, very important!

2) ～　中　（じゅう）

中 by itself means center or the middle location, but when used as compound word, has 2 meanings in general. The first means throughout that time period when the word is a time period + 中. Commonly used examples:

• 一日中（all day long）　一晩中（all night long）　一年中（throughout the year）

Ex: 朝から一日中コンビューターをつかっていたので、目が疲れてしまった。

3) 　～　中　（ちゅう）

The second meaning shows an action which last for a certain period of time. However, only a limited number of nouns and verbs can be be used in such construction.

• 食事中(while eating) 　出張中(in business travel)　電話中(while on the phone)　試験中(during exams)

Ex: 部長は今、タイへ出張中なので、帰りましたら、すぐご連絡いたします。

Most commonly see in restaurant

• 営業中(in business)    準備中(in preparation)

Some exceptions that cannot be used:

• 心配中　びっくり中　結婚中　招待中   輸入中　輸出中　出発中

Additional infomation:

• A noun indicating a location + 中 means throughout that place.

Ex: この新聞は世界中で読まれています (this newspaper is read throughout the world)

• A time period + 中に means within that period of time

Ex: 来週中にレポートを出してください (Please submit the report by the end of next week)

• A time period + 中は means all through that time period

Ex: 土曜日の 午前中（ちゅう） は家にいます。 (I am at home on Saturday morning)

Food Review: Mr Curry by Waraku

Most of my friends know that one of the first few things I do whenever I visit Tokyo is to head for Coco Ichiban Curry house. The curry is delicious and the ingredients are taste, plus you get to put as much preserved veg on your curry as you like.

So when I say Mr. Curry in Central, I thought we could get a good japanese curry experience in Singapore… finally.

So some of my friends went in and order some of the curry sets and I must say that its very dissappointing.

Tim order a beef cury set and when the beef curry came, there was only strands of fats float in the curry with very little trace of meat. We thought it was a mistake, but the waitress told us that its normal, but offer to change another dish for us.

I order a fried oyster curry. The fried kaki was okay, nothing to cry about. However, I find the curry a bit too starchy, almost empty of personality. For around $12 per set, I had expected more.

Now our sets all come with the soup of the day, but I wanted to try their onion soup and found that I had to pay an additional of $2 for the soup. When it came, I regretted paying extra $2 for a bowl of onion water.

All in all, the curry is no where near any good curry house in Japan and for the price, I expected more and got much less.

My verdict: I wouldn’t go there again.

Japanese Dictionary for Palm/WinMo

Having been both users of plam phones (treo 650/centro) and Windows Mobile phone (Treo Pro), having a good japanese dictionary is surely an important addition for those studying Japanese and needs a quick reference to those difficult kanji.

For Palm OS, I found that PADICT is quick, easy to use and more importantly free. You can also search for kanji by writing on your screen. However, the dictionary is not as comprehensive as I would love it to be, but it is good enough for most of my needs.

For WinMo, I have tried 3 japanese dictionaries:

• EBpocket -> could not get the fonts working properly nor the dictionary to work
• Declan Japanese Dictionary –>totally useless, don’t work at all, plus it needs a larger screen then my Treo Pro has

I finally settled on PocketDictionary, together with JapaneseInput, both are incredibly free.  Together they offer the  japanese/kanji input dictionary experience on Treo Pro for me so far. Further the dictionaries are based on the famous Jim Breen‘s dictionary.

おいしいそば

I was never impressed with soba, especially 茶そば or even ざるそば. What a waste of money eating nothing but carbohydrates with soy sauce!

Well, not until I tried the ざるそば at Kuriya at Raffles City basement, the other day. I was impressed by the rich texture and taste such a simple meal could afford. I cannot really describe how it tastes like, but its something you know it if you eat it. Even my boyfriend who don’t really like stuff like ざるそ, says its nice.  At least now I know why my friend Tadashi was raving about some soba at　新宿　２ chome. Really makes me want to fly there immediately to try it.

Having tried the soba at Kuriya, I have since tried soba from a lot of other places, but have not been impressed enough yet. For one thing, its my belief that soba should be eaten cold, that how the taste and textures comes out in full. In hot soup, some may just become soggy. However, I belief a good soba shop would know how to dish out good soba in hot soup.

The other day, we were at Shin Kyushiya at Vivo city and I order something similar but its udon.  The dipping sauce is sesame based instead of dashi.  The うどん looks a bit like our hor fun or the vietnamese pho (flat rice noodles), but the texture was good, it was actually unlike typical udon, taste more like a good pho. The dipping sauce was unimpressive but the udon was good. Worth the money spent.

7 stories of love

Eddie took this picture around Ueno station. Its a adult sex shop… 7 stories of it. I went into one of them before, er.. only the first floor…the shelves is fill up boxes of silicon pussy, whole wall of them! I never noticed the wordings on the building until Eddie too this picture. Anyway, the Japanese words at the side of the building says “大人のコンビニ” [Otona no conbini]. Translated: adult’s convenience shop.

Click picture to see bigger (no pun intended!)