Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Putter has become the Pimp Cane

Poor Tiger Woods. It seems as if he has all but fully transformed into the cheating husband who used to golf. My classroom proves it week after week. After talking about verbs associated with the Winter Olympics, my teacher asked me if I knew any Japanese Olympians. I knew only 2 so he asked if I knew any other Japanese sports stars. Anyone in Japan with the gift of site has seen Ishikawa Ryo`s picture no less than 1253 times. (see link for Wiki page) Dubbed the Bashful Prince, this young Japanese golfer is the youngest to ever reach the world`s top 50 golfers list. They naturally asked if this God of the Greens had made his way to American TV. I have seen him mentioned a time or two on ESPN but it was never more than a passing comment. The teacher quickly followed with, “I guess Tiger is always on TV for…many things.” The class then asked me to translate a few less than favorable terms that might apply to Tiger`s recent behavior. I`ll spare you the Japanese lesson and just tell you that in favor my brute translations I ended up giving a short vocabulary lesson on the verb ‘To Cheat’, ‘Homewrecker’, and ‘Player’. I am planning to expand on this lesson next week by showing the American classic Super Fly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryo_Ishikawa

Sunday, February 7, 2010

SNOW!!!




While visiting a local restaurant in Hamochi last December I was told by the owner that Sado has not received much snow in the past few years. This made me, a born and raised Georgia Boy not accustomed to snow in any great magnitude, quite happy. Well, Japan celebrated "setsubun", the beginning of spring, on February 3rd. Despite it being "spring" it was - 5 degrees that night, my kitchen was 2 degrees at 7:00am the next morning and it was snowing like crazy. By Friday we had what is called "nan nen buri yuki", which is best described as "Snow I don't know when we last had" or in Southern-speak "Snow I ain't seen since I was knee high to a pig's eye". Later, the news confirmed that Niigata has received more snow than it has in the last 26 years! As my friends on the east coast go through "Snowmageddon" I am doing my part to feel for you as I dig my car out of the snow. All the best to all of ya'll freezing your butts off down South.