Some Japanese words I've Learned + The Last Days

And I am finally back from Japan!! Haha, not today, but on Thursday 28 May 2009. Reached home past midnight and was dead beat.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for Anna's photos, so I will just do a text update here. Here are the words I've learnt from my trip and this list includes those that I already knew before the trip:

桃 (this is the kanji form)/(wow I had a hard time finding this word) もも (this is the hiragana form) = peach. Pronounced "momo".

ピーチ (I had an even harder time finding these) = The katakana of peach. Pronounced pi-chi. So cutee!! =P

の = ...actually I'm not very sure how to describe what this means. If I'm not wrong, it is used when you want to talk about a property that belongs to an object. For example, if you want to describe about a young girl, you write " 女の子", if I'm not wrong. Haha.

えび = prawn. Pronounced ei-bi. Okay to be honest, I only remember the second character, also because of the "bi" in "wasabi" =P

I'm going to use romaji for the rest because I don't know how to write them =P

okaeri = welcome home!

tadaima = I'm home!/just now...(Anna's not sure of the second meaning and will check, HOR? =P)

itekimasu = I'm going out and will be back soon!

oiishi des yo = I'm telling you that this is delicious!

oiishi des ne/oiishi des = This is delicious indeed! ( I think so. Please correct me on this if I'm wrong =P)

ima = now/currently

Please feel free to correct any mistakes that I have made above =P Heehee.

The most cool thing I found about the trip was (as I'd exclaimed to Anna before) this time when we were trying to find the right exit to get out of the underpass to meet the rest of our tour group people, and were suddenly approached by an elderly Japanese lady who asked Anna if she could tell her where the JR (Japan Railway) is. We happened to be standing next to an information plaque, so Anna just scanned through the floor plan to determine where the JR is, and told her politely that it was up ahead...

The whole exchange was in Japanese.

Damn cool right!! We were tourists and were asked She was a tourist and was asked for directions, in the native language that she actually understood and replied in! Wahaha. Three cheers for Anna ;)

The next cool thing was that at the end of the tour, when we were about to bid farewell to our Japanese-Taiwanese (she's Taiwanese, but moved to Japan to study at 18 because her mother is Japanese. She later married a Japanese husband) tour guide at the airport, I urged Anna to thank her and say goodbye together in Japanese. She was reluctant at first because there were others around, so I ended up doing it alone -_- But later, when the rest had moved away and there was a brief chance, Anna, hurriedly said it - and really impressed our tour guide, who asked her why she didn't let her know earlier that she can speak Japanese so that they can speak it to each other. Haha. And she later said "you're welcome" in Japanese (douitashimashite)...which was like the first time I had ever heard anyone use it for real! OMG. Haha. Pardon my childishness =P

That was fun for me; hope it was fun for you too Anna...I know you had done that partly because you had seen the disappointed look on my face when you didn't say it with me the first time. Thanks =)

Sigh, so both my grad trips are over and my worst nightmare during the exam period is finally realised. I mean that I had pictured myself sitting at home and missing my grad trips and even my exam period, during the exam period...and right now this is the case. Nothing more to look forward to - work isn't something that I can look forward to since once I start work, it would be the end of my youth. No more carefree days. No more going out on weekday mornings. No more sleeping in.

Sigh. I really hope I can spend the remainder of my youth meaningfully and happily. No hitches, k? *hopeful*