This post will be about revision, partly because I have a grammar test tomorrow (and I’m rather weak in grammar), and about some conversations I had at the Japan Plaza, which shone light onto some aspects of Japanese cuisine and lots of new words to get acquainted with.
Revision
〜そうです (when reporting something you’ve heard of):
Essentially, you keep the word before 〜そうです in its dictionary form. So for 脱ぐ, if you heard someone took off his shoes, then it will be 靴を脱んだ（past tense )そうです。Other examples:
探す（さがす）：探すそうです
きれい：きれいだそうです
おいしい：おいしいそうです
先生：先生だそうです
〜って (when changing そうです to a more casual form):
You eliminate そうです, and add an 〜って behind.
探す：探すって
きれい：きれいだって
〜たら(if)
The sentence structure remains the same, yet there are varying degrees of subtleties. The general meaning remains: “If A happens, then B will happen”, ”Aたら, B”
The method of conjugations are as follows: First, convert to the past tense. Then use the following conversions
Example:
For なーadjectives:きれいーきれいだったら
For nouns: 猫ー猫だったら
For いーadjectives: おいしい：おいしいたら
For うーverbs: 買う：買ったら
For るーverbs: 食べる：食べたら
Now here are the differing degrees of subtleties:
First, the clause before たら describes something that could possibly happen, and the one after it describes a consequence which then follows.
But second, if there are two events that are very likely to happen, and the second event takes place right after the first event, then たら is an arranging of the two sentences in chronological order.
Example: 今晩、うちに帰ったら、電話します。
Tonight, when I come home, I’ll use the phone.
Lastly, if something is impossible, but just expressing a wish for it to happen, you use たら too.
Example: 猫だったら、一日中寝ているでしょう。
If I were a cat, I would sleep the whole day long.
Conversations
I spoke to two Japanese students at the Japan plaza, who said that nattō, 納豆(なっとう) or Japanese traditional fermented beans, is part of their daily meals. Some really great tasting food include mixing (混ぜる) kimchi and nattō together with tofu (豆腐) and some pork. Add some rice and you have a cheap and tasty お弁当 (obentō).
Another tasty combination? Japanese mushrooms (茸：きのこ) together with beansprouts (もやし). Add a bit of shoyu, garlic and onions, and you’re set. So gonna try this out tomorrow. Bought some shimeji and enoki mushrooms, fingers crossed.
It is really easy to make katsu apparently, just mix flour (小麦粉：こむぎこ) and eggs, mix the meat in, coat it with bread crumbs, and finally put it in oil (油：あぶら).
(I’ll try my hand at translating: カツの作り方が簡単です。まず、卵と小麦粉を混ぜて、肉を入れて、肉の衣を付ける。最後、油にいれる。)
Apparently for shopping, you can go to the grocery stores at night and they have really good discounts of up to 40%. I bought a long strip of unagi for 500円, which could probably last me two meals. I was so so happy! So if you go to this shop called tachiya (たちや) at sunset (夕方), you can get really cheap ingredients for cooking. And if you go to the supermarket at around 9pm, they start slashing prices (価格：かかく) to get people to take them off the shelves.
We also talked about diet, specifically the grapefruit diet. So if you eat grapefruits, you feel less hungry (お腹が少しすいている). Regarding this sentence, I just spoke to my Japanese dorm mate and I found out that すいている comes from 空く(which means empty). Now this phrase makes so much sense.
The last thing that I found so useful? 易い X 難しい and 安い X 高い (The X represents two terms that are opposites of each other). Now I know how to represent something that is easy to do, like 宿題が易いですね (the homework is easy to do you know). I had never known how to express this besides using “kantan” or 簡単. There’s always a catharsis when you’re able to dispel some nagging words that you’ve always wanted to know but forgot when you opened the dictionary.
Meanwhile, in the Aichi-ken travel book, I found some really really cool factories that I wanna make a trip down to. There’s a Pocari sweat factory, miso factory, piano factory, nattō factory and a milk factory. Best thing? They are all free! I am gonna be making a trip down soon I hope, so watch out for pictures 🙂
Many thanks to this group of students at the Japan Plaza for introducing me to such interesting stuff, being patient with my struggles in Japanese, and having a cool conversation.
NINJA WANDERER: Tales of Travels 