Japan and Europe

Kansai Gaidai University is a place where many international students come to study Japanese, and where many Japanese students come to study primarily English, among an assortment of other foreign languages. I have met people from Estonia (well, I haven't met him, but I know he's Estonian), Latvia, Sweden, South Africa, France, Germany, Finland, Oklahoma, and other foreign places. Oh yeah, and the Aussies.

For most of the Europeans I have brought up the topic of Eurovision. You know me. I can't help it. So far I have gotten negative reactions on Dima Bilan from both Russians, and the girl hates the Shady Lady because his composer is too flamboyant and ubiquitous. Outwardly I smiled, but I was frowning somewhere deep inside my little stomach. I informed the Latvian as to the pirate infestation in his country, and he said that it was a "fun song" after I played it for him from my iPod.

I have also met a Belgian girl. This was the most peculiar case. She, so far, is the only individual I've met who says she has trouble finding food she likes in Japan. That's crazy. I guess she isn't used to finding curry mysteriously inserted into what appears to be French bread at the bakery. Speaking of that, I should get my ass over there before the bakery closes.

And speaking of "ass" and other words, I realize that two blogs ago I have somewhat of a swear-laced, angsty tirade. That is okay. I think words are worth a thousand pictures, and this gives you a picture of what can go wrong when you're about 一万 (ichiman, ten thousand) miles from home, or wait, do I actually know how far I am from home? It doesn't matter, really. If I were talking to Japanese people about this, I'd have to convert it to キロ(kiro, kilometers or kilometres for all you Canadian spirits out there) first anyway. In any case, what I mean is that I can't guarantee I will convert to putting pictures in my blog, and I can't guarantee I'll keep it clean. The one thing I'll keep it is honest.

But let's go back about 23903キロ to ベルギー(berugi, Belgium). I had to look up the word for Belgium last night for my homework, because I was writing some sentence about how "since she's from Belgium, she can understand a lot of languages" or something, and I found this word among the search results: にっぱく, which has kanji 日白. This word means "Japan and Belgium." If you change the kanji to 日伯, the pronunciation stays the same (にっぱく, nippaku), and the meaning is "Japan and Brazil." What the hell?

Japan and Europe have some weird ways of coming together. Right now I am all excited about the fact that in mid-2009 there will be an Asiavision contest in the style of Eurovision, with similar logos, and it will have about 15 countries in Eastern Asia competing. I can't remember whether India's included, but I know Japan, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines will all be involved. That's tiiiight.

Bye bye!