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Hello again from Dallas, where we've concluded
the A-Kon anime convention. Once again, we've had a great time,
enjoying contemporary anime culture and watching the vibrant
anime generation (or "the kids" as we call them) show
their love of Japan. If you haven't experienced a cool anime
gathering like A-Kon, we hope you'll check one out -- they're
really something that should not be missed.
When you study a foreign language, something
interesting happens: you actually develop a separate new
personality in that language, which can be quite different from
your normal one. And while your new personality is forming,
you're very much like a child, experimenting with language the
way children would, discovering its boundaries. In Japanese,
there are separate verbs for "to be (in a place)"
depending on whether the object in question is animate (like a
person or animal) or inanimate (like a car or tree): iru or aru,
respectively. Since having to decide which word to use on the
fly can be difficult for native English speakers, we sometimes
use the wrong word, which sounds "cute" to Japanese
listeners. When I came to Japan, I was surprised to see children
making the same mistakes that I'd made learning Japanese, for
example using iru instead of aru to refer to a car moving (it's
moving, but it's not an animate object).
Although coffee and Western tea are popular in
Japan, many prefer the wide variety of Asian teas often grouped
together in the wide category of "green tea." The list
of teas enjoyed in Japan is almost endless, with the most
popular being ryoku-cha (a slightly weak green tea), mugi-cha (a
pleasant-tasting tea made from barley, enjoyed in the hot
summer), or genmai-cha (tea with roasted grains of unhulled rice
in it). Oolong-cha, a dark refreshing tea from China, is perhaps
the best-selling bottled beverage in Japan; it's very nice
because it cuts through oil, washing down anything greasy you've
eaten (it can be even used as a mild cleaner). Matcha, a bitter
green tea made from powder, is used in the Japanese tea
ceremony, and is also a popular flavoring for cakes and ice
cream -- they even have matcha yogurt, although I honestly can't
recommend it. At J-List, we sell mugi-cha tea bags every summer,
and these are on the site now. We think they're great!
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