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After being spared one grammar point this week, there is still lots of lovely new stuff to learn.

と限らない

This little function is quite useful and expresses the limit of something. The kanji 限 literally means limit, there と限らない means something like 'that is not limited to'. In more natural English we would translate this as 'it doesn't mean that. When used as an adverb 限り expresses, 'as far as', 'as long as' etc etc... For example,

僕が知る限りでは、ジョンさんはまだ大学で日本語を勉強している。
As long as I know, John is still studying Japanese at University.

FacebookとかSkypeを持っている限り日本に住んでいる友達を連絡できる。
I am able to contact my friends in Japan, so long as I have facebook and Skype.

When we use the function と限らない we can express the notion of something not being the way it is, let's have a look;

僕は日本語が上手だとは限らない
It doesn't mean I'm good at Japanese.

~からと言って

This can often follow the above, to devastating effect. It literally means 'just because'. For example,

僕は日本人からと言って、日本語が上手だとは限らない。
Just because I'm Japanese, doesn't mean I'm good at Japanese language.

You can often supplement this with 必ずしも to mean 'not necessarily mean'

日本語ができるし、背が高いからと言って、必ずしも日本に行った時に、日本の彼女ができるとは限らないでしょうね。
Just because you can speak Japanese and are tall, doesn't necessarily mean when you go to Japan, you will get a Japanese girlfriend.

~ずにはいられない

To understand this grammar point, you have to break it down. The first bit '~ずには' comes from the negative form of a verb meaning 'without doing something' (i.e. 食べずには - without eating.) And the second part comes from the neagtive potential form of いる (meaning unable to exist.)

Therefore something like 食べずにはいられない- I am unable to exist without eating (lol!)

A more natural translation would be;

去年日本に行った時に、名物を食べるより、イギリスの料理を食べずにはいられなかった。
When I went to Japan last year, Rather than eating the local specialities, I couldn't help eating British food.

You can form this with になる to express the changing state of something of you becoming to the point of doing this action. For example;

いつBar Oneに行っても、お酒を飲まずにいられなくなってしまう。
Whenever I go to Bar One, I can't help drinking alcohol.

~しかない

This expresses something like 'no option of doing' or 'no alternative to doing.'

先週試験を落ちたから、今から、毎日勉強するしかないでしょう。
Because I failed my exam last week, I have no option but to study everday from now on.

Don't it make you feel sick?
Floating, drifting, dancing
A thousand birds in the sky
Cawing their tune for you
In the lazy autumnal drift?

Don't it make you feel sick?
Clashing, clanging, creeping
The marching call of bands
Singing their joyous tune
Amongst the sodden leaves?

Don't it make you feel sick?
Splashing, drowning, pouring
The rain from the sullen skies
Glistening light off asphalt
Straight into your blurry eyes

Don't it make you feel sick?
Teetering, verging, creeping
On the brink of madness,
Remembering long lost loves
Over a bottle of the hard?

Don't it make you feel sick?
Loving, caring, emoting
With another human being.
Who equally emotes with you.
Inside a corporal fleshly shell?

Don't it make you feel sick?
Inside, outside, amongst
Your thoughts, feelings, ills
You can remember and see
Everything around you?

Don't it make you feel sick?
That you feel the way you do
Yet cannot understand why?

Another great one from the mind of me.

I still feel slightly shit, which is down to several reasons. The first is that I have done very little work over the weekend and really wasted what was supposed to be a great opportunity to get some things done (especially doing some cross-over revision from last year) and secondly, I haven't been to the gym yet (lolz?) and am still eating crap. Okay, the time starts now. This is a new leaf and I'm ditching all the crap. Maybe...

On a final note, I was deciding to take a small weekend break somewhere in Europe on the first weekend of December - but after looking at some of the prices (£148 to Lille and about £87 to Brussels) I think I will decide against it. I am not working at the minute, so its very much draining my finances. I think I might just go to London for the day and do some shopping. Which reminds of me going to York last December and walking from the train station to my previous home in Endcliffe Village - which despite its huge distance was somewhat enjoyable. I am a strange fellow.

Onwards and upwards. I just have to rote memorise these 600 kanji, learn some new grammar, type up my translations notes and lexicology notes, read some stuff on the Ainu and finish off the segement of the Japanese translation. And all this in one day. Because I couldn't be arsed to do any work this week. YAAAARRRGGH!


This photo just about sums up the current credit crunch. In about 2 months, the value of the yen to the pound has gone from about 220 to 140. In short, my money is now around a quarter less valuable over there as it once was. Yet more reasons that I'm fearing this and next year.

I've decided to resurrect my blog after some inactivity of about two weeks. Lolz. How time flies. The main reason has been the amount of work I've been doing and a general lack of 'can't be arsed typing out my feelings' syndrome.

At the moment things are feeling pretty shitty but at the same time they are going very well. The very things which are causing to me go insane are making me feel stronger and the things that are making me feel strong and causing me to crash down to earth with a sharp bump.

I've highlighted several things as I'm now officially back into the groove of uni.

1. I'm not going to get a g/f. I might if I try, but I just can't be arsed. There are lots of cute girls here, but I officially can't be bothered. When I try, I come off as desperate and when I don't - I end up seeming distant. Tbh, what started out as a priority for me has dwindled pretty fast. I also can't be arsed with the whole 'I'll be going to Japan next year, so see you later' type thing either. Ugh. I have decided just to make as many cool friends as possible and if things happen, then things happen. I just can't be bothered to hunt them down - as I well know, nothing good will come of that.

2. I've done 4 weeks of Japanese, and I've still not improved. For sure, I have learnt more kanji and grammar but this has pushed out all the old stuff. My listening is still bad and as for my speaking.... Its like talking with a mouth full of sodden ash sometimes. Sod it all I say.

3. I am almost 70% (well, maybe 90% certain) that I will go to Kansai for my year abroad, Kobe to be exact. After some researching and soul-searching it seems the best option for me. Hoo-dee-hum. It all depends on whether I will be allowed to go, or if I can bribe my YA co-ordinator. Our first really *big* meeting is next week, so this when the fun really begins. There seems to be a lot of apathetic people this year and maybe only a few who truly want to go to certain areas, so it would seem so utterly shit, if I wasn't nominated by my university and someone who was ambivalent about ending up at Kobe went there instead. Gyaaaarrrggh! If I can't go here, I'll try and sneak back to Tokyo somehow.

4. In contrast to no3, the whole YA (Year Abroad) seems like a cool novelty so far. As it stands, a lot of people will drop out after the exam and some people will end up getting scared off due to costs. At the minute, even yours truly is viewing next year with huge grey suspicion. Pass the first semester and you'll be fine I've been told. Yeah right.

5. I am detesting the size of my classes so far. It seems as if the guys who went before us (especially those who graduated last year and the current fourth years) had such great small groups. It seems as if we are suffering this year. Oh, and the JS newbs (japan studies freshers) have about 76 odd in their year. Christ, what a living joke.

6. Back to point 1. My friend Aya contacted me today and I was overcome with a sense of emotion. Okay, she might have been a bit humble when she told me that she doesn't think she will pass her year abroad exam, but a huge part of me is wanting her to fail - just for the completely selfish act of me being in Japan (or more to the point Kansai) when she is there. *sigh*. I really like her and she is very sweet - but the small part of my soul which is telling me to do the 'friend thing' first (that is to say, support her in what she wants to do) is coming to fore, more and more now. At the end of the day, I want what is best for her, and screw the practicalites. If we both pass our exams, our paths will cross - but we will of course still share some common bonds. Its a friendship I always want to maintain with her - because she is such a unique individual who I want to know until I'm old and grey. And I know that is trite, but she geninuely is an amazing person who makes me feel good about things...

Well in short: I love my flatmates, I love my flat, I love my course. I love my sensei, I love my classmates, I love my subject, I love the new Japanese people who come here, I love my inability in Japanese, I love my charming northern style, I love my intellect, I love being able to think about things that don't concern me, I love not giving a fuck, I love seeing the months fly away, I love everything, I love nothing, I love not havign any money, I love having student loans, I love buying drinks and getting drunk, I love people, I love me, I love YOU, but most of all I love my life at the minute - no matter how shit it feels at times.

Where does the time go?

It seems like only yesterday I was lamenting about last week. The work has slowly increased and I'm now feeling the burn somewhat. Tomorrow, I have to remember 5 more kanji (woop de doo), plan my story for sensei (about reflecting back on my first year - so lot's of I should have done, or I shouldn't have done etc.) and I have to finish off my translation. But maybe, I only have to do one page of it. In short, I have to cram a alot in, because I will be verrry busy tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first real official Japan society event thingy and I shall be donning my hachimaki and happi coat and dancing around like a prick. Hopefully I will be able to meet some more Japanese people as I have been shamelessly hanging around this Japanese girl I like, like the proverbial goldfish poo. Hopefully she will come for a few drinks at my flatmate's birthday on Friday, so its all good. Before then, I'll say hello and be making myself known to a few more people. And getting drunk. getting very drunk. Hehehe.

I have been so busy this week and there are so many things to do, but its all worth it in the end. The work and social life is coming thick and fast after a slow malaise leading up to this week. Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon.

Tomorrow, I'm up at the crack of dawn and then working from around 1pm until 5pm, typing furiously into my laptop in the IC! Please save me!!!! >o<

Alas, I have caught the dreaded man flu! Oh woe is me! Thankfully, this gave me a great excuse not to do any studying on Friday and Saturday. Now, as a result of my intolerable and suffering man-flu, I'm struggling to remember these kanji and am typing this while rapidly trying to cram them into my brain. I can remember 'doubt', 'omit' and 'impression'. There is also one about 'self reflection' and 'crime' which I can't remember for the life of me... hansei and hanzai? How confusing is that?

I've also completed my sakubun (which is really awful) in which I had to write about my holidays. I'll post the corrected version soon, because no doubt it will be riddled with silly mistakes, which is the hallmark of my written Japanese.

As a result of kanji uselessness, sakubun ineptitude and man-flu, my Japanese flatmate wants nothing to do with me. He's now avoiding me like the plague, even though its just a cold, sorry man-flu. *cough* *cough *splutter*. Granted, it doesn't seem as bad as last year, when my chest felt like it was melting for about 4 weeks but I'd rather get it now than when the exam/essay season rolls around. If you are gonna get sick, get sick when the work is relatively light I say...

Besides, he gave me a cold last year, so its only fair that I infect him this year as revenge.

My physical health has also seemed to be detoriating, depsite the fact I have lost some weight (that's the hills of Sheffield, fruit and veg and plenty of walks everywhere in this great slopey city of ours!) My feet are smelling thanks to some potent athelte's feet that won't go away, my nose has a huge spot on it and my man-flu is making me snivel all the time.

Great. A sniveling, spotty, overweight Englisman with smelly feet. Line up ladies.

I'll try and do this every Friday if I have time...

金魚の糞 (きんぎょのふん)

Gold fish crap.

Delightful isn't? But kinda symbolic. It kinda means a hanger-on, someone you can't shake away, a person who trails around you like a piece of goldfish crap.

For example;

その人は金魚の糞だった。夕べ中日本の彼氏ができた日本女性を追いか廻した。

Hehe. 舞う is one of my favourite verbs in Japanese and sorta means to 'flutter or flounce around'. When you add that with 追い for 'chase' you get a delightful image of some random guy hanging around a Japanese girl who has a boyfriend in Japan, like a piece of goldfish turd.

Yay!

Okay, the funny thing.

And it involves, me, another guy and a Japanese girl.

I kinda know the guy in question, although I've spoken to him once or twice. He's kinda very shy (maybe that's not the right word) but I think it kinda is, so let's go with that. Last year, he befriended a girl I liked (the girl was Japanese - that's important, so pay attention.)

In the end, I don't think he spoke to her again and in the end neither did I. I cut my losses and moved on. Nice girl, and tbh we have a pure academic relationship through e-mail now. Which is kinda good for my Japanese and knowledge of English Literature and environmental, eco-friendly legislature in Japan. Hopefully she'll send me some stuff, but I doubt it.

Anyways, I saw him at the Japan Society event thing, chatting to some girl (who is of course Japanese.) Me being the curious devil, sense an unusual pattern forming. Now of course, the writer in question here makes no illusion of his love for all things Japanese. Its not as if I would only date nihonjin, its more that I prefer the company of Japanese people sometimes. Well, this guy starts chatting to her, but is suddenly surpassed by the all-conquering, completely new sense of confident englishman who strolls around after meeting some people and starts saying hello and being the affable bastard. What I found most endearing was the element of surprise and copy. "Holy shit. This guy is confident. I'm screwed." Whats more amusing was that I could swear he was trying to mimick my friendly banter and mannerism. Oh bastard! There is only one me. I am unique. You can't copy me!

Before I came to Sheffield, I studied a lot about psychology and could read, quite easily I might add, this guy was very uncomfortably in social environments. He sorta looked very uneasy when I started chatting so freely and comfortably to these two (or was it three) girls whom I had just met.

Nah, tbh - I am reading too much into this. In fairness, this guy doesn't stand a chance with this girl for a few reasons;

1. He's not confident enough. Japanese girls want a confident guy. They don't want to date someone who is essentially Japanese and treats them no differently. Shy guys aren't as romantic or endearing I would argue. Do really shy guys embody everything that is stereotypical of Japanese girls perceptions of westerners?
2. He don't speak Japanese. Communication is a necessity for all relationships everyone.
3. The girl in question, whom I know again through a mutual friend at her university in Japan, has a boyfriend. Oops.

Ah well, life goes on. It could genuinely be something quite sweet and merely just friendship. We'll see. But I thought given what happened last year, things like this are very unusual. I'm so happy I ended up speaking to so many random people on Wednesday. As my friend says, if you get in early, you'll become their friend quicker and relationships are more likely to be formed in the first few weeks than later on, when they are essentially closed groups.

Fwiw, I'm playing my cards close to my chest this year. We'll see how things work out. I'm sure if I put in a repeat performance of Wednesday, I'll be alright I guess.

Damn! Where does the time fly, when you are having fun eh? Let me summarise things so far...

Monday: First day excitement and something of damp squib in more ways than one. Classes started at 9am and although its an early start, I would happily get up at 4am for my grammar teacher. The grammar, was kinda pointless and very soft - thankfully she must know how much we are all feeling about our Japanese after 4 months off.

The day ended with a bit of a rush. A 5 hour interlude and then an introductory spell about Japan's Minorities. I then rushed home in the rain and then onto Las Iguanas in the rain and said a sad farewell to my friend Michiko whose birthday it was and also who is going back to Japan next month. How I'll miss her. Our relationships is so unusual, and I kinda think of her as an older sister. I tell her all kinds of crap about my relationships and social life and she in turn listens and makes me feel good about myself. If all goes to plan, I'll end up seeing her sooner than some of her other friends in Sheffield, which really brings home how long and how far some people can be apart from each other at times.

Tuesday: Tuesday is a pain in the arse, because I have three classes and have a ton of fecking work to do. It starts by having some more grammar and writing in Japanese at 10am and ends with Nic giving us a sheet to read in Japanese which half of us can't read. The size of the class also takes the proverbial with people sitting on the windowsills and ceiling. Yes, the class is that big! Before that, I get the luxury of Japan's Minorities in the same room, which also has capacity problems. Sort it out Sheffield!

Wednesday: We recieved the dreaded talk by Angela-sensei, the head of our second year, who instilled confidence in us by telling us how hard this level is. If you miss several classes, you get refered and sent a letter, then if you fail the exam, you get told to switch degrees... and its not optional. In short, YOU WILL FAIL, YOU WILL NOT GO TO JAPAN, YOU WILL BE A LONER FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!! Tbh, although a lot of what she said was tough, I agreed with her. If you struggled with last year's Japanese you will find this very hard. Likewise, people who are struggling along will probably never improve whilst on the course, given the intensive workload placed on us poor bastards. I hope for the class size's sake at least, some people will do the honest thing and drop out (what a terrible thing to say behind the keys of a laptop overlooking a tiling shop in central Sheffield.)

Later on it was the dreaded Japan Society Intro thing. This was kinda surreal for several reasons; Firstly, I totally underestimated how many people would turn up. In the end it was a lot. And secondly I seem to undersell myself sometimes. I just randomly start chatting to Japanese and English alike after just one pint of Czech beer. I am also pondering something else, which I'll talk about later and which I think is hilarious and sad at the same time.

There was a few nice girls there (well what can I say) and I ended up walking four of them back home (I am a kind person amongst this fragile shell of a hubris.) And lastly, we found another full-time Japanese student!!! And he's from KANSAI! Brain overload. Seriously. I just can't wait until next week, when we have the big intro thing and another bout of tandem learning.

Thursday: Today? Oh today was boring. In fact, today never happened. That's how interesting it was. I had another spell of lexicology today with my lecturer reminding me of a Eddie Izzard type character with a severe bout of lexiphilia (love of words.) No actually, he just doesn't love words, he REALLY loves words. Words cannot describe his love for words. Haha. Me and my flatmate also completed Resistance Fall of Man on the PS3. And then we are waiting to for number 2, to justify the crappy ending of the first one.

Friday: Tomorrow I have just the one lesson, with the delightful Arai-sensei, whom I was so close to adding on facebook. Technically we have one mutual friend. The friend in question whose birthday it was on Monday and who is leaving Sheffield as we speak. I think I'll do the Japanese thing and keep my distance and respect the honoured gakusei-sensei hierarchy.

Plus, I don't want her to see photos of me drunk in some nightclub, before my kanji test on Monday morning. I've learnt one thing about the Japanese people in my four odd years of socialising with them - THEY TALK!

So busy right now, so...

jaa ne!

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