ひまですか。NOという感じです

I learned something new and very important today. Attention all gaijin Japanese speakers!!!

When you say ひま (hima), it means "having absolutely nothing to do." A corollary remark to this is that when you're talking to or about someone and you have to be ていねい(teinei, polite), then don't ask them if they're ひま. That's rude because it implies that they haven't found anything to do and they are seeking out something to fill their time like a beggar. Yes, thank you 日本語 for having yet another word that's so commonplace with your friends but impolite otherwise and which has a sticky translation into English (generally translated as "has free time"). The correct term for this if you want to say or ask whether a person has "free time" is 時間がある (jikan ga aru; "there is time (free for someone to do something)").

My mom's coming to visit on Tuesday (she's currently in Tokyo for a business conference) and I'm going to go to Kyoto with my host mother who will show her around Kiyomizuderu or something like that. We're gonna talk about that this morning. Yes, yes, yo. Saves my host mom the trouble of cooking dinner but it also creates the trouble of going around Kyoto with my host mother. Wait, wow-- I just realized I haven't spent time out with my host mother at all! (Because she's never 時間がある.) That's why I found the idea so odd at first, and the experience something I'm not used to. Whoa...

Exciting.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to go to Arashiyama and then Monday to the Toyota factory in Nagoya. And I thought I was going to be severely cutting down on traveling for the next few days. Whatever, more happy for my camera.