A mixed bag of a long weekend
Last weekend was a long weekend and, officially or not, the busiest and most packed Kyoto weekend of the year. Thursday was a national holiday and for four days hordes of out of town visitors descended upon Kyoto like armies of some warlord from ages past. All on account of the autumn colours.
For me the weekend consisted of a mixed bag of activities, including some very nice walking, maple-viewing, work, and taiko-watching. All the while trying practice non-attachment in face of the rudeness that this weekend seems to have brought out in some... nothing for that like a war party of obasans (grannies) elbowing their way past you onto a crowded bus.
Anyway... there was some truly nice walking with Hideyo and with Ohta-san and his posse...
Fushimi Inari
Marcin, Iwata-san, Kiuchi-san, Ohta-san, and Yabe-kun
A Fushimi Inari dragon
There were some truly lovely maples...
There were some truly huge crowds on account of those maples...
But to make things better after the nasty crowds, there was some good amateur taiko involving three of my compadres from Kawarazaki sensei's class:
Ai-chan, A-chan, and Taro-kun. My pals from Wednesday nights
Taro-kun doing his thing on the oke
Okedos and more okedos
I am a horse. I am a fish. I am a...
And back to taiko
For me the weekend consisted of a mixed bag of activities, including some very nice walking, maple-viewing, work, and taiko-watching. All the while trying practice non-attachment in face of the rudeness that this weekend seems to have brought out in some... nothing for that like a war party of obasans (grannies) elbowing their way past you onto a crowded bus.
Anyway... there was some truly nice walking with Hideyo and with Ohta-san and his posse...
Fushimi Inari
Marcin, Iwata-san, Kiuchi-san, Ohta-san, and Yabe-kun
A Fushimi Inari dragon
There were some truly huge crowds on account of those maples...
Ai-chan, A-chan, and Taro-kun. My pals from Wednesday nights
Taro-kun doing his thing on the oke
Okedos and more okedos
posted by Marcin at Wednesday, November 29, 2006
3 Comments:
1.Pushy obasans were pushy before they became obasans.
2.Finally managed the you tube and was surprised that the group[s] reminded me of rappers.
3.Enjoyed the beautiful colours in your photos.
1. Beautiful colours and lots of people - I remember Japan always in beautifil colours and with lots of people, but the colours were never so intense (I guess I have never really seen Japan in full fall), and people were always VERY polite. Difficult to imagine anybody "pushy"; apparently fall does it to people...
2. Really enjoyed meeting your friends astronomers on one of your photos.
Now: I know -san, also -sama, but what does -kun mean?
3. Rappers were awesome. Dragon too. Colours too.
-san is the suffix used to indicate a degree of respect, perhaps equivalent to "Mr" or "Mrs". But it also gets used for things other than people. For example, neko-san (Mr. Cat) is a somewhat playful way to address or describe a feline. Ramen-ya-san, is for a noodle shop (ramen-ya = noodle shop).
-kun is the suffix used for males who are junior to you, usually in both age and status. It is used for boys (girls are -chan: see below), but also for men younger than you but with whom you are somewhat familiar, perhaps because they are subordinates or junior colleagues at work.
-chan is for young girls, very young children of either sex, or for close loved ones (wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend).
Post a Comment
<< Home