shogi

There’s a bakery Yoshinaka Bakery at the end of my street (a 1-minute walk) that I pass by basically every day - it has a lot of really lovely reviews, but Miles and I weren’t super impressed when we went the first time immediately after moving here. To be fair, I think we’re partial to Western/French-style bakeries that feature crispy, buttery, and airy pastries versus Asian-style bakeries that have soft, slightly sweet pastries (Miles more so than me, at least I did grow up eating Asian-style baked goods so I have a soft spot for them in my heart). I was browsing Google Maps to find other potential hidden gems in the area, and I re-read the reviews for this bakery and decided to give it another go. I will say, the pastries are unbelievably cute - there’s Doraemon, Anpanman (I think the bakery should’ve made it an anpan (red bean bread pastry), so it could’ve been Anpanman-anpan, but instead it’s just Anpanman-pan), Hello Kitty, and my favorite: ペンギン クン (Mr. Penguin). Obviously, I got Pengin-kun (and also another proper savory sandwich).

…I felt so cruel eating Pengin-kun 😢 he was yummy but did not deserve to die like that

Unfortunately, I don’t think my opinion changed very much, but the bakery does have such wholesome vibes that I think I’ll have to go back occasionally.

I’ve been having a pretty frustrating experience in Japanese class where the teachers will introduce a confusing concept, and they either don’t speak English so they don’t understand my question, or they dismiss the question and say it will be addressed later and to not worry about it. Though I can tell my teachers are starting to get frustrated with me too because my questions are derailing the class a bit, I’m pretty sure most of my classmates share similar sentiments and confusions. Honestly, I think they should stop introducing confusing concepts, but I get that they have to follow the set curriculum. I’ve started keeping my phone out during class with ChatGPT open and have just been typing questions there instead, and honestly, it’s been really helpful. Additionally, I’ve found that ChatGPT can often answer questions more succinctly and accurately than native speakers, because think about your language learning experiences as a child - you probably weren’t memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, you just absorb usage from other native speakers and can tell when things “sound” wrong. Then if a non-native speaker asks you a question (e.g. “why is it x in English?”), you kind of have to think about it and impose a rule that seems correct to you, but it’s probably not how you learned to use that phrase originally (and maybe was never even a point of confusion for you to begin with). I’ve found listening to native speakers in the “real world” is really helpful for figuring out how phrases are actually pronounced and used (e.g. dropped sounds and syllables in practice, such as how native English speakers may abbreviate or contract their phrases but you wouldn’t see it in a book/textbook: going to -> gonna, because -> cuz; in Japanese, I’ve heard arigatou gozaimasu -> ahsss, gochisousama deshita -> gososamadeshta).

I looked up the difference between おおきい and おおきな, which the teacher introduced and completely glossed over…

After class, I went to a Meetup to learn Shogi (Japanese Chess). I’ve been meaning to learn Shogi since last year, but I tried downloading an app and it was all in Japanese, so I gave up. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was exactly what I was looking for - basically everyone there was a beginner, and it was a great mix of Japanese people, non-Japanese people who speak Japanese, and non-Japanese people who don’t really speak Japanese (i.e. me). The organizer was super nice and taught me how to play the game - his English wasn’t great but luckily, the game is actually really similar to regular chess, so I picked it up pretty quickly. I had so much fun, and it was especially great because it was quite irrelevant that I didn’t speak Japanese since chess is a pretty universal game. The first person I played was Japanese and didn’t speak any English - he had more Shogi experience than me, but I definitely had a lot more chess experience. Hand gestures and props were more than enough to keep clarifying rules of the game, and I ended up winning the first game! We changed partners, and at some point the host was playing 3 people at once, and he was playing me with a severe handicap (he basically only played with pawns and king) and I was sweating the whole time. At the end of the night, we had to wrap up and leave, but I was in the middle of a game with someone and I really didn’t want to go. I’m sure there’s a huge novelty element to it, but I thought it was even better than regular chess.