恐れ

おそれ (not koware)
Osore
Fear


Today, I saw a very funny description of fear:

我突然有幾個月沒付房租的恐懼

A sudden fear that feels like you have not paid rent for a few months. I am glad I have never experienced that. I think one has to be pretty bold to give that a try. And at the same time you had to have the conscience of guilt to feel the fear.

詰まらないんですか？

Tsumaranain desu ka?

Yes, I am totally feeling that!! We recently lost a プロジェクト (that we can do locally with very little effort) to our counterpart in インド. That whole idea was fine with us until we were constantly being pulled into 会議 at early morning and late evening hours and bombarded with plenty of メール. Plus our グループ got swallowed by another bigger グループ, so now we have to work differently and less efficiently. Not only did we not get rich because of the マージ (because it's just one of those 組織に改組), we are also facing the possibility of unwelcome しょくい changes. How high could our 士気 be now? 私の キュービクル.

Actually, I don't know if one can tell much about looking at a 見知らぬ人の キュービク, but it's always interesting to see others'.

Anyway, while surfing the web randomly, I came across this:
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/zakkashop/461352/631205/700227/#678120

Which I bought in my last trip to Japan. Seeing it on the web and having it at home, surprisingly gives me some tiny happiness. Weird.

110 slices of cake per day!

at a $4.00 profit for 30 days. That's how much cake one needs to sell inorder to break even a cake business in Japan. So adding the sale of drinks to the business is a must. Hmm....

*台北捷運火車站 誠品書店斜對面的山崎麵包店, 好吃到不行, 你有幸吃過嗎？

映画

Watched a few movies during Thanksgiving.

1) Swing Girls (上野樹里 Ueno Juri)
2) Trainspotting (Ewan McGregor)
3) The Aviator (Di Caprio)
4) That Thing You Do (Johnathon Schaech , Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler)
5) 誰も知らない (柳樂優彌, 清水萌々子, 韓英恵)
6) 溺れる魚 (窪塚洋介)
7) The making of いま会いにゆきます 「６週間の奇跡」(武井証)

Started watching 池袋ウエストゲートパーク (長瀬智也, 窪塚洋介) but fell asleep on the 3rd episode...

Besides 溺れる魚, which was a waste of time...I really like all the movies I watched and the actors & actresses listed. I was going to watch Fahrenheit 911 but was too busy buying furniture, having Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's place and meeting some friends from LA....

What we ate for Thanksgiving:


The once lovable kitty at my brother's house, Toby:

苦情

くじょう
Kujoo
Complaint

E.g.
苦情を受けました
Kujoo o ukemashita
Received/took in complaint(s)



*This is a great picture I came across this morning... Out in the pouring rain can be nice sometimes!

真剣

しんけん
Shinken
Seriousness

E.g.
真剣に考える
Shinken ni kangaeru
to seriously think about sth.

週明け

しゅうあけ
Shuuake
Beginning of the week, or Monday

週明けの仕事はしんどい！
Shuuake no shigoto wa shindoi!
Work at the beginning of the week is tiring!

Yes, it will be especially true for next Monday after Thanksgiving....

*Read a very good lengthy article today. The gist of it basically comes down to:

浪漫原來只是油餅上的那幾粒蔥花兒，是不能當飯吃的。
人其實需要的是一個能給自己樸實而具體的生活上關心的人。

For those who still don't know what they are looking for.

故障

こしょう
Koshou (same pronounciation as pepper!)

Sounds like someone I work with in the office..... :-P

E.g.
車が故障してしまいました。
My car has broken down.

*Why am I working when it's sunny at 19 degree C outside??? Right, the test plans for the 3 new features before Dec..... (涙)

HG 機嫌

Believe it or not, I like to watch clips of HG (ハードゲイ) a lot. He is really funny, entertaining and talented in his own way. He makes the "G" part of "HG" so in your face that it's actually quite hilirious. I know some people are probably concerned what this character is teaching the kids but I think it's all for good harmless humor for people at our working age. I am not sure what time he is on TV in Japan though.....

I especially enjoy this clip of him at Yahoo! Japan office. He is really quite funny to watch.

Huh? He actually has a book!?
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/book/3673504/

I wonder what is the content like since he is only interesting and likable to watch when he interacts with people. I don't think a book with his pictures in different poses will be interesting to look at. Maybe I will stop by Kinokuniya sometime to see what it is about. :-)

機嫌
Kigen
Humor

一時金

いちじきん
A lump sum

* If you have nothing better to do, play this silly game:
http://kikore.ojiji.net/psychic.swf

沢庵

たくあん
pickled daikon/ radish

沢庵漬
たくあんづけ

I like it but better not eat so much processed food.

団地

だんち
Danchi
(Multi-units apartment buildings/complex)

冷, 寒, 凍

冷たい
Tsumetai
E.g.
風が冷たい。
手が冷たい。
(Some specific thing is cold)

寒い
Samui
E.g.
今日は寒い。(feeling cold in general)
今日は冷たい <--- Is incorrect. 今日 is not a specific thing.

私は寒い。(feeling cold)
私は冷たい <--- This mean you are saying you are a cold person.

凍てついた足 (this is colder than cold, freezing!)
My feet were freezing
風が冷たくて、私は凍るほど寒い。
The is cold so I am freezing.

*Thanks to Mitsue Kawashima Sensei! :-)

値段

ねだん
Nedan
Price

E.g.
値段はたぶん30ドルくらい。
Nedan wa tabun sanjuu doru kurai.
The price is probably about $30.

For some reason, I can stare at this picture for a long time.

胡椒

こしょう
Koshoo
Pepper

Almost always used in cooking meat....I was looking at the recipe for Cabbage Roll (ロールキャベツ).

http://www.seikatu-cb.com/resiyasa/rkyabe.html

Just need to cook something different. Cabbage Roll with cream linguine would be great! Yum!


**It has been a while since I last checked the Panda Cam in San Diego Zoo. Su Lin is now almost 10lb!!
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/ex_panda_station.html

I would like to see this done to my cappuccino!

天気予報

てんきよほう
Tenki yohoo
Weather report

E.g.
テレビの天気予報によると
Terebi no tenki yohou niyoru to
According to the weather report on TV...

まったり

mattari
laid-back, mellow

E.g.
昨日が忙しかった反動で、今日は一日まったり過ごした。

稍

やや
a little; partially; somewhat

E.g.
稍(やや/)後悔。
Yaya koukai
A little regret

革張り

かわばり
Kawabari
leather-covered

革張りソファ
Leather-covered sofa (Leather sofa)

繰り返し

くりかえし
Repetition, cycle

E.g.
働いて食べて寝ての繰り返し
Hataraite tabete nete no kurikaeshi.
Repeat of work, eat, sleep.

ババロア

抹茶ババロア
Maccha Babaroa
Bavarois (Bavarois is the French name for Bavarian cream, it is a delicate cream dessert with a crème Anglaise base made from either milk, cream or a fruit puree and then aerated with whipped cream and whipped egg whites before being set in the refrigerator with gelatine. It may be a straight vanilla or combined with additional flavourings; such as chocolate, coffee or liqueurs, served on its own as an individual dessert or as a filling for a variety of charlottes, tortes, cakes etc.)

I had no idea what ババロア is until now. :-( But looks delicious!

椎茸

Shitake
Black mushroom

*Recently I found out most Asian recipes will cook ground meat (ひき肉/挽き肉/挽肉/hikiniku) with onion (tamanegi) and shitake (椎茸). These 3 ingredients (and maybe add Tofu to the list) are things good to have in the kitchen at all time!

帆立

ほたて
Hotate
Scallop


ホタテのお刺身

計量

けいりょう
Keiryou
Measure

My sudden new interest is cake/bread making. Maybe it's because we are having a Bake-Off this December at work? I already have a good recipe I am going to use for the bake-off! :-)

The following are the key steps to making successful pastry:

1. 計量
2. かく拌
3. 捏ねる
4. 一次発酵
5. 分割
6. 成形
7. 最終発酵
8. 焼く

*Update: First trial - not so successful... I was expecting it to be 2 times bigger. Anyone wants soup with it? :-(



Ok, move on to real pastry for now.

スキー

This is the ski package in Niigata (新潟) my friend is planning to book this winter... I don't think I will be going despite the strong dollar against the yen. My new project will go from mid-Dec to sometime in March. :-(

http://www.naspaskigarden.com/hotel-ski-rates-deluxe-room-2005.html

Back from vacation

and back to work.... It has to be the most depressing and cruel thing anyone can treat him or herself to (going back to work the next day after vacation, that is). Work and work email piled up, boss changed, so much to catch up on. I would not mind walking away from this right now ...

No learning Japanese for a long while.



This is all I want to do.