Rocking in Hakata

Since You’ve Been Gone by Weird Al　Yankovic, in Japanese. Because I can. And I was in a middle-school reverie earlier. Just go with it.

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Since you’ve been gone
あなたから離れてから
Well, I feel like I’ve been chewing on tinfoil
僕はアルミホイルを噛んでいるようだ。
Since you’ve been gone
あなたから離れてから
It’s like I got a great big mouthful of cod liver oil
僕は肝油を口一杯のようだ。
Oh well, I’m feelin’ like I stuck my hand
僕はミキサーに手を入れて
Inside a blender and turned it on
電気を付けたように感じる。
You know, I’ve been in a buttload of pain
ねぇ、信じられないぐらいの痛みがあるよ、
Since you’ve been gone
あなたから離れてから。

(Since you’ve been gone)
（あなたから離れてから）
I couldn’t feel any worse if you dropped
僕のつま先に２トンのボーリングボールを落ちても
A two-ton bowling ball on my toes
今よりも痛くならない。
(Since you’ve been gone)
（あなたから離れてから）
It couldn’t hurt any more if you shoved
赤熱のサボテンを僕の鼻に押し付けても
A red-hot cactus up my nose
今よりも痛くならない。

Since you’ve been gone
あなたから離れてから
Well, it feels like I’m getting tetanus shots every day
僕は毎日破傷風抗毒素の注射をしているようだ。
Since you’ve been gone
あなたから離れてから
It’s like I’ve got an ice cream headache that won’t go away
アイスクリームを早く食べ過ぎての直らない頭痛があるようだ。
Ever since that day you left me
あなたが離れて行った日から
I’ve been so miserable, my dear
こんなにみじめで、
I feel almost as bad as I did
今の悲惨な状態はスゲェー悪いけど、
When you were still here
あなたがまだ残っていた時の方が酷かったなぁ。

I think I’ll do another over-the-top post-breakup song along the same vein from Weird Al next week. If you liked this one, you’ll like that one too. If you hated it, just avoid the next one I post too. Ha ha. I chose this one because it’s original – I didn’t want to have to explain the various modes of parody (stylistic, genre, lyrics, references) that he uses in his other material. This struck me as bizarre enough by itself. So we’ll see how it comes across, I guess. My other attempts at translating humor have been interesting, so if you missed them, take a gander. And feel free to suggest other stuff. (Already pondering a few short jokes from Mitch Hedburg. Anyhoo.)

Deas Customary Drivel, Humor, Media, Music, 日本語

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Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music

There comes a time for every foreigner in Japan when they run headlong into an existential crisis primarily concerned with the popularity of an unlikely song choice from overseas. Ok, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But you’ve got to admit – hearing John Denver in Japanese is a bit odd at first. Thanks to the Studio Ghibli film 「耳をすませば」 (titled Whisper of the Heart in English), it’s available. I thought it would be fun to do a quick translation comparison. I am pretty sure you’ve heard the John Denver version. In case you’re not so lucky, here’s your chance to hear it in Japanese. The short version, anyway, cause that’s the one I like better.

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To trip the light fantastic and check out the re-translation of the lyrics, click the read more link. Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music, 日本語

Everything I did this weekend was done in my apartment. Most of it was laundry, dishes, cooking & cleaning, and goofing off with the computer. I have been messing with implementing some AJAX features for inline “read more” links – but I am no good with editing PHP or CSS, and wound up breaking more things than I fixed. Then again, it could just be theme complications. I suppose it doesn’t really make that much difference, though. I reverted to using the standard “more” link. Hope it doesn’t bug you guys at all. (The JET entry and $200 Taco entry both have the more link implemented, so you don’t get scared away by the shear length of my blog thoughts. At least, not until you click the more link.) Just thought the front page was starting to look a bit…gargantuan.

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Anyway, I also wound up listening to music a lot as I did my chores, and I hit upon an old favorite of mine that I thought I’d share. It’s called “myth0 ex” (not a typo) from the album Nu-En-Jin, by a group called Mortal. I liked these guys since my good friend Dwight hooked me up with a torn up copy of their album Fathom. I fell for the audio samples from big sci-fi movies (Alien, Dune, etc.) in the midst of their melodic glitch-tech digital grunge sound. Anyway, cool fact: my favorite band, Switchfoot, got Jerome Fontamillas from Mortal to join up with Switchfoot after they’d released Learning to Breathe. He was onboard for the most recent 2 albums. I met him (and all of them) at a summer music festival a while back. Anyhoo – the point of that back story was to tell you that this track features Jon Foreman, the lead man from Switchfoot, on vocals. It’s cool to hear both ends of the sound – Jerome + Switchfoot and Jon + Mortal. Cool stuff. Anyway, I like it. So don’t bash it too badly if you hate it.

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music

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Song: バンザイ～好きでよかった～　Artist: ウルフルズ
Song: Banzai! It’s great that I love you! (rough translation)
Artist: Ulfuls

I’ve got plans for a second nabe party in the works. I had one nabe party a while back, and it was a success, so I thought, heck, that went so well, why not do it again? I had no witty retort to fling in my own face, and thus, it was decided. A nabe party will be thrown once again at my apartment in the near future. Within 3 weeks is what I am hoping for. We shall see how that pans out. I am trying to get a few teachers from Oshima, a few teachers from Yuge, my other Hakata-based buddy Will, and a few other ALTs together for some nabe and possibly a Wii Tennis tournament. Oh yes. There will be tomfoolery afoot, and it will be a really enjoyable evening, if everything goes as planned. (On the other hand…last time I had 7 guests total, I believe. This time it should be somewhere near…11 or 12? Ha ha – that could be a joke in my dinky apartment. We shall see. Maybe I’ll wind up throwing my first multi-room party.) Anyhoo, here’s a picture from the last nabe party I had – officially the first party that I have ever thrown by myself at my place in my whole life. I bet you can guess which one is Will… For those who don’t know, nabe (鍋) means “pot” in Japanese. It refers to the vessel in which a delicious soup of some kind is cooked. My plan is for Kimchi nabe, which is surprisingly not like real Korean kimchi, but quite pleasant in its own way. It’s become my favorite variety. Maybe I’ll graduate up to more complex foods later – like sukiyaki or shabu-shabu. Mmmm… Anyway, the ingredients are usually any assortment of the following: mushrooms, tofu, noodles, radish, meat, seafood, seaweed, dumplings, cabbage, assorted other veggies, etc. It is really darn good. Trust me. Anyhoo. Trivia: You can see the teacher who got me hooked on this song (and some other music) on the left side of the picture below, just above Will. Her name is Aya Matsuura, just like the pop star. Basically everyone gives her grief about it. I think that’s awesome. End trivia. Aileen, now that this song is on my site, I expect you to know it for the next time we hit a Karaoke joint. Fair warning. Shouldn’t be too hard, considering how stoked you were when Josh and I sang it last time.

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music, Photos

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Sadie Hawkins Dance by Relient K

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Music