Sep 12, 2024 Salon
Guests:
M-san, K-san, A-san, A'chan
Discussion Content:
We talked about the humidity at night – it was 99% last night – and how at night time the temperature goes down but the humidity goes up. I wondered why, and said “That’s funny, isn’t it?”. K said perhaps the sun evaporates the humidity during the day.
I asked if everyone checks the weather report every day, but only one person did. The others don’t bother. I wondered if they ever got caught in the rain, but they said not so much. K said she is a “Hare-Onna”, meaning someone who always brings good weather with them.
A’chan said she went to a chiropractor because she has a rounded-back. Japanese call this a “Neko-ze”, which means a “cat back”, because cats have a rounded-back when they sit. She said that the one session made a big difference to her back, and so she’s going to go there regularly – twice a week for 3 months.
Somehow we started talking about the Japanese band called “Bump of Chicken”, and I said how it’s a funny name because a chicken is considered a funny, weak animal, and a bump sounds like an injury. I guessed they were trying to make a name like “Tori-hada”, which is “Goose-bumps” in English, but when M checked Google for the origin of the band name, it said it meant that the members were all weak kids, but now they are sort of “punching back”, and that they used the word “bump” to mean a weak kind of punch.
Still, it’s a funny-sounding name, because normally a band would choose an animal with a cool-sounding name – like eagle, or lion, or dragon, etc.
I asked if Japan has speed-bumps on the road, and M said yes, and explained to the others that this meant the bumps in the road to slow cars down. During her explanation she said the phrase “speed down” which is incorrect, but interesting because we do say “speed up” – but the opposite of that is “slow down”, not “speed down”.
Useful phrases:
Goose-bumps
weather bureau
just right
That’s funny (meaning strange or unusual)
I wonder why?
get caught in the rain
raincoat
bring good weather with you
a right-angle
a hunch-back
a rounded-back
insurance
once-a-week
speed bump
speed up VS slow down
stink
pelvis (Elvis the Pelvis)
go regularly
to “play chicken” (with cars)
the ”rat-race”