Wednesday, February 15, 2006

いい天気ですね!

ii tenki desu ne!Japan and America are really not so different: the most commonly uttered bit of small talk is "nice weather, eh?" in both cultures (well, that trailing "eh?" may be a Canadian thing that I picked up from somewhere). In Japanese, this brilliant flash of insight is rendered thusly: いい天気ですね! (ii tenki desu ne!).

But today, gentle--and not-so-gentle, in the Kohler's case--reader, today did feature some astoundingly spring-like conditions, as can be seen clearly at left (if one clicketh upon yon image, forsooth! one shall be conveyed by strange and eldritch magicks to a certain eldar scroll, upon which thou shalt perceive the portents of today's meteorological activities).

(Sorry about that; my Muse apparently played too much Dragon Warrior back in the day.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm loving the "いい天気" Of course, seasons being what they are, we should probably expect a sudden temperature drop each and every Fri-Sun. Remember, it's not Japan unless you can only admire the weather through the window of your workplace. Do they even let you have windows over there at Amazon? Or are IT staff expected to remain in the server rooms cooling them with tastefully decorated paper fans?

Josh Glover said...

Actually, I have a wonderful view of one of the inlets of Tokyo Bay. Chiba City is to my left, Shin-Urayasu to my right, and open sea (at least, as far as the eye can see in this pollution) straight ahead.

We use interns to cool our servers with Amazon.co.jp logo-emblazoned paper fans. ;)

Your weather prediction was oh-so-true: rain yesterday and today (Friday), with more in store for the week-end.

Ah Japan, Land of the Rising Suicide Rate! (This is almost certainly a lie; I am sure the suicide rate peaked a year or so after the bubble popped and has been receding e'r since.)

SFB said...

Posts! I want more posts! Tell me about drunken salary men, odd convenience stores, girls that like hip-hop and so only want to date a black guy, there has to be some good variety T.V. shows on, something? Come on man your killing me, in the land of the rising weird there has to be SOMETHING to write about ;)

Anonymous said...

I think the reason why Josh's blog is so good is that he tells Japan like he sees it and does not focus on all the "wacky" stuff that people expect... More posts would be nice, however. Busy at work?

SFB said...

Maybe you mis-understood me, I don't really care about the wacky stuff though it does make for easy posts. And besides Japan IS wacky, I'm not saying that American culture is better or worse than Japanese culture but it is different and most certainly wacky in some ways. That's where the fun is in being in Japan, I love the wacky stuff, but in general here writing about anything there even the things that seem mundane to Josh would seem really interesting to us.

If I offended anyone I'm sorry, I realize I am a LITTLE excitable.

Josh Glover said...

SFB, worry not. Just smack Matthew in the head with a fire extinguisher if he gets out of hand! ;)

Matthew, ever thought about doing a blog? You have a lot of fun stories, interesting insight, and more background knowledge than most of us will ever acquire. Blog! Blog! Blog!