I’m going to be honest: today sucked. Part of me wanted to do something simple for my output practice, but then I thought writing about my feelings could be good practice as well as cathartic.
Today was a speaking practice day with my italki teacher. It’s so hard to communicate with such limited grammar but i just have to make do… We practiced speaking in the casual form today.
I also shared my diary entry from January 1 which my teacher corrected.
She also said I should write my entries in casual form from here on cause it doesn’t make sense to talk formally to yourself.
Replies
I’m really sorry about the broken tea cup!
Are the broken pieces fairly large? I wonder if it can still be pieced back together similar to the japanese art of 金継ぎ. Although I don’t know where you could get this done…
How horrible for you, especially while you were also dealing with guests too.
It’s awful when something with such sentimental value gets broken. I can really empathise with how you feel.
Story time!
When I got married we received a beautiful wicker chest full of handmade china that was made by the family of one of our guests. I loved it so much that we never used it, we just stored it on top of our kitchen cabinets where it couldn’t get damaged by our toddler or pets. I wanted it to become some sort of family heirloom that I could pass on to my daughter one day.
Fast forward a few years, one of our cats somehow got up on to the top of the cabinets and pushed the entire chest off and it fell about 2.5 meters onto the floor. I was on the other side of the room at the time and time genuinely felt like time slowed down as I ran towards it while watching it fall, hoping that I’d somehow manage to catch it.
I didn’t catch it.
Almost every piece was broken and I was devastated. I walked my daughter to school shortly afterwards, and as she met her teacher, she loudly “whispered” in the way 4 year olds do “Boggins broke ALL the wedding china! But we mustn’t talk about it or mummy will start crying again.” at which I obviously burst into tears again and a teaching assistant kindly pulled me away and made me a cup of tea while I composed myself.
ANYWAY - this was years ago, and while I’m still sad that the china got broken, the slapstick nature of the whole event has become a funny story we tell people quite often!
Practical advice
Check the bottom of the remaining plate because it may have details about the company that made the set, and possibly the name of the set or a product code that may make it easier to find a replacement.
Also, it may be repairable if its quite a clean break and no pieces are missing. My mum used to collect vintage china, and I’ve seen some really great repairs!
Maybe its worth seeing whether you can find somebody near you who does kintsugi repairs? It would be fitting since it has a cherry blossom theme Possibly expensive though!
I went on a date with my husband.
We went to a pub called the Royal Pug.
I had halloumi and fries.
My husband had sausage and mashed potatoes.
Afterwards, we had cannoli for dessert.
In the evening I had a bath and watched anime.
The anime was Cells at Work.
I’ve been reading the Cells at Work manga recently and it’s really difficult for me.
So I thought ‘maybe if I watch the anime, I will learn the vocabulary’.
@alygator and @lucylavelle, thank you so much for your messages of sympathy and advice! Honestly, if my kid blurted that out, I’d probably have started crying, too. I washed the broken pieces (and cut my thumb in the process ), and I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss any when I picked them up off the floor. I might look into getting a kintsugi kit and repairing it myself. Maybe the two bowls can symbolize both the beauty of marriage and the regular repairing it takes to keep one together? I’m still working on the analogy.
@softlyraining hope you’re feeling better today (despite the cut you got) and I’m excited to see your DIY kintsugi. Hope you can find a kit and I like the symbolism!
Today was my birthday and I went to a cat cafe to celebrate.
I met lots of cute cats and got to pet them.
My favorite cats were Baloo, Toffee and Popcorn.
There was a cute, naughty kitten that tried to steal everyone’s food.
Another cat sat on the receptionist’s laptop so she couldn’t use it.
It was great.
I went to Birmingham today for a Japanese conversation exchange.
About 15 people came.
It was my first time there, so I was really nervous.
But everyone was kind and friendly, so I had a good time.
Afterwards, my husband and I went to a sushi restaurant.
The waiter recommended the kanpyo maki, so we tried it.
It was really delicious.
The people at the next table ordered a lot of sushi.
The chef served it in a wooden boat.
It was really beautiful.
@alygator Aww, that stinks that you couldn’t go! I’ve only been to one once, though it was a cafe with a buffet that included sweets, so not really the same as a sweets-exclusive tabehoudai. I hope you get to try again soon (and not just because I’d love to see pics of the desserts)!
@softlyraining I know haha. Thank you for the sympathy! We made plans to go on weekend of the 21st so will write about it then and send photos!
@lucylavelle cat cafes and sushi restaurants! the places you’re visiting are so stereotypically Japanese, I would think you’re in Japan but you aren’t!
Today I had lunch with a friend.
He gave me a birthday present.
It was a book called Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki.
At the moment, the book is probably too difficult but I look forward to reading it in the future.
I was looking to get serious about output at the start of this year so this seems like a good start. Bit late to the party though. Between my coworkers and girlfriend its basically impossible for me to live my life and not output japanese several times every day, so I’ll set special rules for what counts as a completed day for me.
1000 characters typed minimum.
Personal messages sent to friends, coworkers, SO, etc. do not count towards 1.
If there are any corrections (from my language partner), they must be gone over and the text must be revised accordingly.
I am allowed to write for the next day so long as I know I won’t be home and have access to my computer for the entirety of said following day.
If I complete every remaining day of January (today is the 9th), then I need to add one extra rule for February to increase the difficulty of the challenge.
example of what 1000ch looks like length wise (wikipedia page about monkeys)
アメリカ地域で二ノ国白き聖灰の女王を買いました。I didn’t know I should’ve switched my region to Japan before buying. For now, I’m playing with Japanese audio, with English subs. It was on sale from 50 dollars to 8 dollars so it was still a good deal! My Japanese is probably not at that level yet anyway.