Sho mo nai!

Jishin ga aru?

So last night I got to bed really late, after watching "The Abyss" and a little bit of an anime about the end of the world. So naturally my dreams were a little affected. I was also kinda hungry. At one point I kinda felt a little nauseous like I was rocking a little, and in a mode of half consciousness was like "Is this an earthquake?" Then my consciousness returned back to sleeping and I didn't make any note of it. But then a moment ago I was reading the blog of another Shikoku-dweller where last night's earthquake was mentioned. So it would seem that there was in fact an earthquake and that I should maybe learn to pay more attention to these things than just going back to sleep. Then again, it's hard NOT to fall back asleep when the earthquake is so gently rocking your bed for you.


Mini Japanese lesson:
The verb "aru" expresses the idea of existance for inanimate things. "Iru" is for animate things. Often posession of an object is stated simply by saying it exists.
So "cola ga aru?" could mean "is there cola?" or "do you have cola?"
Japanese is also full of homonyms.
For example:
自信 jishin: confidence
地震 jishin: earthquake

So then, when I say "Jishin ga aru?" I could be asking either "Is there an earthquake?" or "Are you sure?"

やっぱり，「しょうもない」ですね。
Looks like it's "sho mo nai" after all.

posted by Fletcher @ 9:35 p.m.