Homophones Across Languages

Around two weeks ago, I went to 7-Eleven nearby my home and charged my Nanaco (7-Eleven membership and prepaid electronic money) card. I wanted to charge for 1000 yen. I gave my money to the staff, he charged my card, then used the Nanaco to pay stuff I bought.

But then he put 1000 yen one more time to my card. Wait, but he charged already in the beginning right? Hmmm... And then he wanted to give my 1000 yen back. I rejected since it was the money to pay my card charge. If I received then I would get 3000 yen for free 😂

While walking home, I checked the receipt, and yeah, he put 2000 yen on my money. I was thinking a little bit, should I assume this as my luck or should I go back to the store to tell this that the staff made a mistake. I ended up doing the first one 😂 Greedy human.

And the staff who made a mistake was an old man and his name is たい (Tai).

Few days later, I went to the same eleven around 11 pm. That time, the staff who served me is the owner and his name is also Tai. Out of curiosity, I asked him whether Tai-san who is always work in the morning is his father, and immediately the owner and another guy said, "Yes, he is our father." Then I realised another guy also has the same name: Tai. They are brothers. 

I asked them whether they are Japanese because this is my first time to know Japanese family name Tai. If Chinese family name Tai, many people has it. The owner said many Tais are from northern part of Kyoto. The owner brother told me the kanji of is 'ta' of 'field' and 'i' from 'well: 田井.When I got back home, I checked and even there is a town called 'Tai' in Kyoto.

Then I got more curious whether they have been to Indonesia or not. What if they reserve a hotel room, and the receptionist ask them, "So the booking is in the name of Mr. Tai?"

And since Japanese most likely using their family name to introduce themselves then they will say,

"Hi, I am Tai."

And what if they start to learn Bahasa Indonesia, and they will say, "Saya Tai."

Tai means 'shit' in Indonesian 😭

One day, I went to Kebab store near my school with a Nigerian friend. He talked about Nigerian snack he is missing called Puff Puff. I think it is similar with poffertjes or doughnut. I checked immediately on Google with keyword: puff puff Japan. And what I found was, "puff puff is a Japanese term for the placing of a person's face between a woman's breasts, often for sexual pleasure". 😭😭😭

Nigerian also has snack called 'chin chin', and it means 'men's genital' in Japanese. 😂

What if a Japanese visits a family in Nigeria and they serve chinchin and puff puff for him/her 😭

In my school there is a lady called 'Saaru'. In Japanese, 'saru' means monkey, and in Javanese 'saru' means 'obscene'. Another case, there is a teacher in my school who has an Arabic name, and it means 'monkey' in Nepali 😂

Yobisute 呼び捨て

I didn't have wi-fi for more than two weeks.
I felt so lonely... and missing out too many showbiz news a.k.a celebrity gossip.

So I just moved to a new house, it didn't have wi-fi. Finally I got it only few days ago! Now I can watch Atta Halilintar Youtube videos whenever I want.

No.

I don't watch Atta's videos. Well sometimes if it came on recommended videos by Youtube.

In this post, I will talk about Japanese culture on addressing other people. I think most of you know, that in Japan, normally they add -san, -kun-, or -chan behind the name of someone they call. Calling a person you don't really know without appropriate suffix is considered as rude. When people call someone without suffix, it means they are close or their subordinate at work.

Also calling someone with his/her family name is quite normal. Not only in polite situation, but sometimes two people know each other since little but they call each other with family name. It's just normal. In other hand, I know some Japanese people who don't like to be called by their family name.

There is a word in Japanese 呼び捨て 'yobisute' which means calling someone by their first name, and without any suffix. Yobisute literally means 'throw away the calling'. So basically, 'throw away' the suffix. When someone does this to other person, it means they are close, or this someone is trying to be rude.

When I lived in Australia, I met so many Japanese. And of course, they use their first names to introduce themselves and they will call other person (foreigners) without any suffix. They will just call me 'Una' without any suffix.

But then, I met some of my Japanese friends (who I met before in Australia) in Japan, they just changed to call me 'Una-chan' or 'Una-san'. It is just super fine, but '-san' a little bit kaku though. Maybe they feel something missing 😂, if they don't add any suffix behind the name.

So I searched on Google what is the antonym of yobisute. I thought it was 呼び拾い 'yobihiroi', which means 'pick up the calling', but this word doesn't exist. The opposite word of yobisute is さん付け (sanzuke) which literally means 'putting the -san'.

For me doesn't matter they call me with suffix or not. In Indonesia, my younger brother and cousins with more than 5 years of age apart also call me without any prefix (a.k.a 'mbak') 😂. Only name is okay, I feel I am as young as them. 

Cat’s Tongue

As we know, cat’s tongue is a type of cookie. As Indonesians, we call it as ‘lidah kucing’, but also in most of the part of the worlds they call it the same, in their own language. For example, in Netherland they call it ‘katte tong’ and France it is known as ‘langue de chat’.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you might see cat’s tongue cookies in many stores as local souvenir. But they use word ラングドシャ (rangudosha), which is Japanized word of French ‘langue de chat’. They don’t use word: 猫舌 (nekojita), which means cat’s tongue, for this cookie.

Best Japan's 'cat's tongue' cookies: Shiroi Koibito

Instead, in Japan ‘cat’s tongue’ or ‘nekojita’ has completely different meaning.

Nekojita is used to explain a condition where a person cannot enjoy hot food. People who are nekojita will wait the hot soup or noodle until certain heat before they can enjoy. Never try to give my cats hot food, though. 

Do you have ‘cat’s tongue’?

I think I have. When my friends can immediately eat the soup served by the waiter, I had to wait a little while until it was getting cooler. Until I cannot enjoy hot coffee or tea except it is a cold day.

I also cannot eat spicy food, not sure my tongue is cat's tongue, or manja tongue 😋

My thoughts on religions in Japan

I was on the bus and there was a ruko-styled building caught my attention.

It has an European neoclassic architecture on its exterior and there's written 'HAPPY SCIENCE' without any Japanese characters. I was wondering what kind of shop is that. I didn't immediately search it on Google, but when I returned home, I googled it, and it turned out it is a name of new religious movement in Japan.

Happy Science or 幸福の科学 (koufuku no kagaku) was founded by Ryuho Okawa in 1986. It is spreading around the world and claimed to have around 11 million members. Currently, it has entertainment divisions, publication company, and even university. I don't have comment about its teaching, but anyway this religion said to be controversial and a cult.

If you come to Kyoto (not sure about other part of Japan), there are some people standing in some crowded areas to spread Jehovah's witness or mormon. While their missionaries usually wear white shirts and black pants, the people who 'advertise' mormon on the streets are usually middle-aged and so fashionable.

I once went to Mormon Church in Australia. The people are so nice and friendly. But about the religion itself... no comment 😂

Now I'm gonna talk about my experience about 'new religion' in Japan. For privacy concern, I won't mention the name of the 'religion'. I don't understand what's the meaning of privacy concern in this case, I just don't want to say it without any reason 😂

One day, the boss of one of my part-time job places talked to me about the religion she's doing. She talked about very seriously and could show me how she's practicing this religion very whole-heartedly. I was curious because I heard this religion name before from an Indonesian friend. Long story short, my boss invited to me to join that religion event. Basically, it was just watching that religion group conference through television.

The conference was attended by members from all over the world. I even could see Indonesian there from their batik shirts. There were also speeches from Japanese members and one Spain member.

I haven't really read or study much about this religion. What I know, the members adore the leader so much. I can understand since the leader I believe is a very great person but for me they seem kinda 'worshiping' the leader, that's what I a bit uncomfortable. You know, in Islam we are taught not to worship other than God, not even Muhammad.

Other than that I'm fine, I mean I listened to my boss story about how is she doing the religion and she said she always feel energised after praying or reading the leader's teaching. That's a really good thing 😇

I believe what religion you're doing, as long as it's good for you and not disturbing other people, all izz well. 😇 Even if you don't have or believe in religion, all is fine.

One day, I talked to a Japanese friend about religions in Japan. And she said to be careful, because there are some 'religion missionaries' who will arrive in front of your house door to advertise the religion. She said the people at first look nice, but after that you will be ask for amount of money.

Then she said, "Religion is not bad thing, it's actually good. But, it's better to follow religion what your parents teach you. And it's better not to invite your friends to join your 'religion', it will worsen your friendship. You know, many friendships are broken because of religion stuff."

Well, I'm quite agree with my friend.

Instagram Jealousy

“Ugh, I hate to see her posts on Instagram and she always shows off her new bag or luxurious trips. I prefer to see Syahrini’s posts sitting in private jet or traveling to Bora Bora,” said by a friend.

She was not joking. She said it seriously as she was really jealous of her friend.

I understand that Instagram makes people insecure. Instagram likes are addictive, everyone is trying to show off what he/she has, and anyway, everything people do is like for the sake of content #demikonten. I myself will be very happy if my Instagram post get 200 likes or my stories viewed by 200 more people (since my followers are only 1300).

What I don’t understand of my friend is, she was jealous of her friend because of her Instagram posts, but, in my point of view my friend always posts her pictures of traveling around the world. I knew she came from well-off family and pretty sure she never stayed in cheap hotel or backpacker hostels. If you check her Instagram, you can tell she often go traveling abroad, and I think no post of her taken in Indonesia. Why is she still jealous of her friends?

Well, the grass looks greener on other side.

Jealous or not, Instagram is not healthy if you use it a lot. Currently, I’m using Instagram to check famous people that I’m curious of, and rarely give likes to friends’ posts. I’m sorry 😂 I even don’t bother to scroll pictures on Instagram home 😂 If I see Instagram stories, I only see the few first ones.

Anyway, there is a song I currently like titled 'Instagram'. It is a song by Korean singer, DEAN. I'm addicted to that song.

Kikangentei Yowai 期間限定弱い

期間限定 (kikangentei) means ' limited time' or 'period of time'.
While 弱い (yowai) means 'weak.'

The word '期間限定' can be found in the shops or products. Basically it means 'limited edition'. This time I'm gonna talk Japanese food products, for example beverage or snacks.

If you ever been to Japan, you must know that products in Japan always lure us to buy. Cute packaging, good taste, and also the 'seasonal or limited edition' products. Sometimes the limited edition products are based on season. For example, now is autumn so many products make their own 'autumn limited edition' and usually the most 'widely used' flavours are chestnut, pumpkin, and sweet potato. You would see Pocky, Calbee chips, Starbucks drink in pumpkin flavour or sweet potato, and many more. Also in spring, there are so many peach or sakura flavoured products.

And they are just too tempting 😢

Today, I finished work at 12 in the midnight and I visited a convenience store where I knew the clerk who always is in midnight shift is so handsome 😂 (last time I only saw from outside). Actually, I just wanted to see the guy (almost 30 year old here, but I just realized that looking at handsome really can wash your eyes, a.k.a cuci mata lol) but I ended buying Starbucks Sweet Caramel Pudding Latte. Just because there was written in the shelf: limited edition.

The taste? So so. And I won't buy for the second time. I really don't like the aftertaste.

Anyway, there is a famous term in Japan 'kikangentei yowai' which literally means 'weak of limited edition'. This term is used to describe someone's trait who always lured by the word 'kikangentei'. People who are 'kikangentei yowai' cannot see the word 'kikangentei'. Whenever they see that word, they see will have desire to buy the product.

One of them is me.

But not all products with 'kikangentei' attract me to buy, though. I always buy seasonal edition Starbucks products in convenience store but I never been attracted by seasonal Starbucks drinks in Starbucks stores. Limited edition Kitkat also cannot tease me.

I'm looking forward for winter. Wondering what 'limited products' are coming...