Animal Quarantine

Ordering things online can be a bit tricky when you live in Japan. Not all establishments deliver out of the country. So, when I ordered a pair of sassy black leather boots that couldn't be delivered to Japan, I had them sent to my Mom's house and had her send them to me.

Thus, the adventure begins.

Being the sweet lady that my Mom is, she made me a little care package. Along with the leather boots, my mom packed some other goodies for me to enjoy.

After about 3 weeks of waiting for my package, it never came. But, I did receive a letter... from the Animal Quarantine Division in Tokyo. The Animal Quarantine Division?!? What in the world did my mom send? A hamster... with rabies?

All things were possible at that point since I couldn't read the letter. It was in Japanese.

I brought the letter to school and had one of the teachers at my school read the letter to me. She started to chuckle.

Oh no... DID my mom send a hamster?

The teacher explained that there were some cow products in my package that were not allowed to enter Japan. They weren't allowed to be sent back home either. This was during the whole Mad Cow Disease situation in the U.S. So, I was given a choice to either burn the whole box of goodies or burn just the cow products.

As I mourned the loss of my boots, I checked the "yeah, you can burn my new boots" box, and mailed the letter back to Tokyo.

The next day my mom called to see if I had received my package yet. I responded, "uh, not yet... by the way, what did you pack in there?" She listed all of the good stuff, "dried fruit, nuts, beef jerky, and some candles". I then told her that my package was in Tokyo... in the Animal Quarantine Division.

She started to laugh, and said, "there is one happy postman in Tokyo. He's probably wearing your boots right now, enjoying some beef jerky".

Ha ha very funny. Those are MY boots and MY beef jerky. Jeez.

A few days later, I received a package that had been looted, stripped, and taken advantage of. No sign of beef jerky. BUT, the boots were there. Although, they did look like they had been worn once...

Movies in Japan

I hear that one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is to watch movies in that language. It helps to give natural spoken examples of the language instead of robotic mechanical grammar that you learn from a book. Its a great way to learn slang and phrases too.

So, one night as I was flipping through the channels on TV, I saw that the movie "The Sixth Sense" was playing. The characters were speaking Japanese, and there were no English subtitles. I felt jipped. But, I guess I am in Japan, right?

Well, I had never seen this movie before so trying to decode what they were saying was difficult. Very difficult. They were talking so fast. So I tried to read their lips in English, but still... nothing.

The only part that I knew for sure was "I see dead people". I saw his lips move as clear as day. I started dancing around, I was so happy.

I figured out a line in a Japanese speaking movie!

I then realized that that doesn't take any Japanese skills to read lips in English. And, I didn't even hear the Japanese translation of it.

What a waste!

But, then it occurred to me... when am I ever going to need to say, "I see dead people" in Japanese anyways?

Well, I think its safe to say that I should stick to learning Japanese from a book.