2015年1月30日金曜日

2015年1月30日金曜日 -

Wu Yifan: Some differences between Beijing and Osaka

    我叫吴一帆。我从寒冷的北京回来了。其实这些年北京的冬天也不像以前那么冷了，虽然温度还是在零下，再有很多年轻人的穿着也比以前少了，只是一件薄毛衣什么的，虽然他们还是会冻得缩着个脖子，耸着个肩膀。

My name is Wu Yifan. I just came back from visiting a very cold city, Beijing. Actually, in recent years Beijing has not felt quite as cold, although the temperature often falls below zero still. Nowadays, young people in Beijing can be seen wearing much lighter clothing than before, such as thin sweaters. They do this even though they end up shivering.

    记得我刚到日本的时候，大冬天的居然看到一个小男孩儿穿着个短裤，那时候我真不敢相信自个儿的眼睛！北京穿棉裤还来不及呢！后来我慢慢发觉北京和大阪的气候截然不同，像冬天同样的6、7度，北京在外面呆时间长的话，就开始觉得冷得刺骨，冻耳朵了；大阪再冷，也还是比较温和的空气。

During my first winter in Japan, I saw a little boy dressed in shorts; I couldn’t believe my eyes! Wearing shorts in winter!? In Beijing, students wear trousers! I soon came to realise, however, that the climate in Osaka and Beijing are not the same. Even though the temperatures may be similar, for example, six or seven degrees, in Beijing people may feel the biting cold and complain of frozen ears while in Osaka it feels comparatively mild.

    说到气候，还有一件让我不可思议的事儿。那是我在日本迎来的第一个冬天，十二月份、一二月份居然还在下雨！我迷惑地望着那蒙蒙细雨，脑海里同时浮现出来的是北京冬天一片银白色的世界，白雪皑皑，映衬着它的美、它的浪漫。不过这些年北京的初雪也往后推了，以前大概11月份左右开始下雪吧，现在晚的时候甚至要到1月底2月初春节前后，有的时候也只是飘几个雪花儿而已，雪也积得没有以前那么厚了。就说今年吧，北京很多地儿连个雪花儿的影儿都还没见着呢。

Speaking of the weather, there’s another thing about Japan’s weather that surprises me. Rain! I cannot believe that it rains during the months of December, January and February! I remember looking out at the drizzle one day and feeling puzzled and my mind flashing back to winter in Beijing; a silver-white world of snow, quite romantic! Years ago in Beijing I hated to see the snow start to fall in November but now the first snowfall comes quite late, at the end of January or even as late as February. In Beijing, it used to be common to see a thick blanket of snow covering the city but now often only a few snowflakes fall and then it’s over. Even so, when visiting Beijing this year, a light flurry of snow meant that I couldn’t see very far at all.

    不只是这些，还有让我吃惊的事儿呢。您猜是什么？我居然看到了山！那是我第一次去大阪的大学的时候，首先进入我眼帘的是一片片起伏的山峦，啊，太美了！雄伟的山脉在蓝天的映衬下，是那么壮观！这是我在北京除了专门去爬山之外，很难见到的景象！

Another thing that surprised me when I first came to Japan was the mountains. I still remember when I arrived in Osaka for the first time. The first thing I saw were the surrounding mountains. They looked spectacular set against a backdrop of a deep blue sky. In Beijing, it would be difficult to see such a beautiful sight unless you got out of the city and went hiking… it would be something of a special occasion.

毛衣máoyī：sweater：セーター
缩着个脖子、耸着个肩膀suōzhe gè bózi, sǒngzhe gè jiānbǎng：shivering：寒くて首を縮める様子
短裤duǎnkù：shorts：短パン
冷得刺骨lěng de cìgǔ：biting cold：骨を刺すように寒い
冻耳朵dòng ěrduo：frozen ears：耳が凍える
说到shuō dào：speaking of：～といえば
浮现出来的fúxiàn chūlái de：flashback：思い浮かぶ
雪花儿xuěhuār：snowflakes：雪片
吃惊Chījīng：surprised：びっくりした
壮观zhuàngguān：spectacular：壮観

 ☆Wu Yifan's blog☆

2015年1月23日金曜日

2015年1月23日金曜日 -

Josue: One of my many trips to Las Vegas (Part Two)

So there I was in Las Vegas. I had saved $300 dollars specifically for the purpose of buying my ferret. However, with the pet store closed for the night, I thought I might try to increase my funds. I was surrounded by casinos and I had recently learned to play Three Card Poker, after all.

By midnight, I had found a Three Card Poker game table and begun to play. I started off by making small bets of one dollar. As time went on, I found myself breaking even; I would sometimes lose and sometimes win. Later on, I decided to try increasing my bets so that I could get a big win and walk away while I was ahead.

Suddenly, I began to lose more often. By four in the morning, I’d lost all $300 dollars that I had intended to spend on my ferret. Needless to say, I was upset. I left the casino, got in my car, and drove the four hours back home. I left Las Vegas empty-handed, without a ferret and without any money.

I was disappointed with myself for several days, but by the end of the following week my determination to get a ferret came back with a vengeance. On Saturday, one week after my trip to Las Vegas, I returned.

This time, I left my house at ten in the morning and arrived in Vegas by two in the afternoon. I drove straight to a pet store, but they didn’t have any ferrets. Likewise at the next pet store. I began feeling worried but kept searching, and finally found my ferret at the third pet store I visited.

The moment I laid eyes on her, even before I bought her, I knew I wanted to name her Boba. I purchased a cage, plenty of food, and various other ferret supplies. As soon as I bought Boba, I drove straight back home without even thinking about stopping at a casino!

Boba brought me a lot of happiness during the time she was with me, and I really appreciated having such a wonderful pet!
 
started off：始めた
bets：賭け金
breaking even：
later on：その後
needless to say：言うまでもなく
upset：焦った
with a vengeance：猛烈に
supplies：必需品

2015年1月16日金曜日

2015年1月16日金曜日 -

Josue：One of my many trips to Las Vegas (Part One)

Once upon a time many years ago, I had a pet ferret which I named Boba. Boba was a girl, and I got her when she was about two weeks old. I had her for five years before she got sick and passed away. Let me tell you a little bit about how I got Boba.

As a child, I never had a pet for very long. I remember having baby birds that we rescued from a tree my dad chopped down, but they died a few days later. I had a turtle I found in Mexico, but it ran, well, crawled away after a few weeks. And I’ve had plenty of fish, but they never lasted long.

After graduating from high school, my days of wanting pets were over. I went about a decade without a pet or even the thought of having one, until one day I suddenly discovered ferrets. I don’t remember how it happened, but I started to do some research and soon found out that many people had them as pets. Many ferret owners compared taking care of ferrets to taking care of cats and dogs. Ferrets’ personalities were described as being somewhere between cats and dogs; not as loyal as dogs, but much friendlier than cats. Physically, ferrets are generally smaller than cats and dogs, although male ferrets can grow to be as large as a regular-sized house cat. Ferrets are fearless and will not back down from a fight with a larger animal.

Unfortunately, I also found out that ferrets are illegal to own in the state of California, which is where I lived. However, all pet stores in California carry ferret supplies, and a lot of people in California do own ferrets. Ferrets are not sold in California, however, so if you want to buck the law and own one, you need to buy one in a state where they are legal to own and smuggle it into California. So I started to look for nearby pet shops outside of California that carried ferrets and found several in Las Vegas, Nevada.


One Saturday, I finally decided that I was ready to get a ferret and that evening I got in my car and drove to Las Vegas. It typically takes about four hours to drive to Las Vegas from where I was living… I left at about 6 pm and the pet shop closed at 10 pm, so I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t make it on time. I arrived at the pet store at 10:10pm, just ten minutes too late. I could see some store employees still working inside, so I tried knocking on the glass door to see if they would let me in, but they waved me off.

I had to decide on whether I should turn around and drive the four hours back home or stay and wait for the pet store to reopen in the morning. I weighed my options, and decided to stay. Sitting there in my car, the thought of getting a hotel room crossed my mind. However, I wanted to save money so I then thought about finding a nice dark place to park and just sleep in my car until morning. Suddenly the realization that I was in Las Vegas occurred to me! I had not planned to do anything else in “the gambling capital of the world”, but now that my attempt to get a ferret had been delayed, I could spend the night having fun and maybe make a little money while I’m at it.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Once upon a time：むかしむかし
chopped down：切り倒された
crawled：はった
a decade：10年
loyal：忠実な
Physically：身体的に
back down：引き下がる
buck the law：
smuggle：密輸する
typically：一般的には
waved me off：さよなら､と手を振った
weighed：両天秤に掛けた

crossed my mind：心を横切った

☆ Josue's blog ☆

2015年1月9日金曜日

2015年1月9日金曜日 -

Christin: New year’s eve in Germany

Frohes neues Jahr! Und was feiern wir am letzten Tag dieses Jahres? Richtig! Silvester! Silvester ist ganz anders als hier in Japan. Man koennte fast sagen, dass Weihnachten und Neujahr genau andersherum gefeiert werden. Hier in Japan feiert man Weihnachten mit dem Freund oder der Freundin, wie Valentinstag und Neujahr wird mit der Familie gefeiert. In Deutschland aber feiert man Weihnachten mit der Familie und Silvester oft mit Freunden (manchmal auch mit der Familie).

Happy New Year! Do you know how we celebrate the last day of the year? Right! New Year’s Eve! New Year’s Eve in Germany is very different from New Year’s Eve here in Japan. You could even say that Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated in completely the opposite way to how they are celebrated in Japan. Here in Japan it is customary to celebrate Christmas with your boyfriend or girlfriend, similar to Valentine’s Day, and spend New Year’s with your family. However, in Germany you celebrate Christmas with your family and New Year’s Day with friends (although sometimes people will celebrate with their family).
 
 
So, wie feiert man eigentlich das Ende des Jahres in Deutschland? Mit Feuerwerk und viel Laerm! Oftmals nimmt man an einer Party teil (muss man aber frueh genug buchen....schon Ende Sommer manchmal), da wird viel getanzt (meistens gibt es einen DJ, der Musik spielt), gegessen, getrunken, gelacht und gequatscht. Etwa 5 Minuten vor Mitternacht macht man den Sekt zum anstossen fertig, giesst ihn in Glaeser und dann 10 Sekunden vor Mitternacht gibt es einen Countdown. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...und alle schreien “frohes neues Jahr” und umarmen oder gratulieren den Leuten neben ihnen und natuerlich stoesst man auch mit einem Glas Sekt an. Dann kommt der Hoehepunkt der Nacht. Feuerwerke selbst in die Luft schiessen und beobachten. So viele Feuerwerke wie an diesem Zeitpunkt sieht man im ganzen Jahr nicht! Das sollte man also gesehen haben.



So, how do we celebrate New Year’s Eve? With fireworks and a lot of noise! Quite often, we go to a party (which you had to have already booked by the end of summer). At this party we dance (usually there is a DJ playing some music), eat, drink, laugh and talk a lot. About five minutes before midnight someone will get the champagne ready for a toast by pouring it into glasses. Ten seconds before midnight there will be a countdown: “10... 9… 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3… 2...1…” and after that everyone will scream “Happy New Year!” and hug or congratulate the person next to them. Of course we will also do a “kanpai” with the prepared champagne. After that comes the highlight of the night: shooting fireworks into the sky and watching others do the same. You can only see this many fireworks one day out of the whole year; I really recommend the experience!

Ausserdem gibt es auch sogenannte “Knaller”, die man anzuendet und dann auf den Boden (weitweg von sich und anderen Leuten) wirft und es explodiert nach einigen Sekunden. Es ist also seeeehhhhhrrr laut. Das geht dann ungefaehr fuer 30 Minuten oder eine Stunde so weiter. Manche Leute gehen wieder zur Party zurueck und feiern noch weiter, aber viele gehen dann so gegen 2 oder 3 Uhr nach Hause. Am naechsten Tag schlaeft man bis in den Mittag hinein...das ist wahrscheinlich der faulste Tag des Jahres :)

Ich wünsche dir ein frohes neues Jahr!


Furthermore, we also ignite so-called “fire-crackers” and throw them as far away from people as possible. After a few seconds a fire-cracker will explode, so this is a verrry loud night. This will last about 30 minutes to one hour. Some people may go back to the party and keep celebrating, others will go home around two in the morning. The next day, most people will sleep until noon... It is probably the laziest day of the year :)

I wish you a Happy New Year, everyone!
  
Frohes neues Jahr! ：Happy new year：あけましておめでとうございます
Richtig：Right：その通り!
Silvester：New year’s eve：大晦日
Weihnachten：Christmas：クリスマス
Neujahr：New year：お正月
dem Freund：boy friend：彼氏
der Freundin：girlfriend：彼女
Sekt：champaign：シャンパン
Anstossen：toast：乾杯する
Hoehepunkt：highlight：ハイライト
Nacht：night：夜
Feuerwerke：fireworks：花火
Ausserdem：Furthermore：更に

der faulste：the laziest：一番怠惰な

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