Japan’s “Southern Accent” – Kansai-ben (Hannah)

It’s a journey, to say the least, to apply the knowledge you learned in the classroom to everyday situations. It’s even more of a journey when you learn standard Japanese and most of the people around you are speaking in a dialect you can barely understand. Imagine someone from Chicago going down to New Orleans and not being able to understand a word.

That’s how it is for me.

Especially living with a host family, I had to get used to the dialect very quickly. My host mother and grandmother have very thick accents, though I can tell my host mother tries to tone it down whenever she speaks with me, something I’ve figured out when I compare how she speaks to me versus the rest of the family.

Kansai-ben is the dialect of Japanese spoken in the Kansai region, an area in southern Japan made up of Osaka, Kyoto, Wakayama, Shiga, Hyogo, and Nara prefectures. I’ve noticed it’s a bit more nasally than the Japanese I hear in class, with slang terms and pronunciation varieties that confuse me greatly. Kansai-ben is most often associated with Osaka, and is often mistaken for Osaka-ben, or a dialect that seems to be only spoken in Osaka. Each Kansai region has it’s own variation of the dialect different from that spoken in Osaka.

Luckily, I’ve made friends who help me!

Selfie with Natsuki (right) and his friend Yuuya (left)

A Japanese student named Natsuki approached me in the international student lounge one day, and he has been very helpful in deciphering Kansai-ben. Every week we sit together and teach each other different phrases in each other’s languages. Not everything he teaches me is Kansai-ben, but a significant amount is, and I’ve overheard the words he teaches in conversations on trains or bus stops.

Natsuki is proud of his dialect, from what I have gathered. He told me he teaches Kansai-ben to his other international student friends, and is as eager to learn new English phrases as he is to teach Japanese ones. I am a master of tongue twisters now, thanks to him.

He taught me words like なんでやね “Nandeyaneh” which means something similar to “are you kidding me?” andおおきに “ookini” which is a Kansai casual form of “thank you.” I’ve even learned words outside of my Japanese friends’ guidance, a frequent one I have begun using being めっちゃ “me-cha,” or “very.” I feel like I’m more in the inside group than the outside when I use Kansai-ben, and it’s very comfortable to use.

I’ve heard these words in and around the area, and I love the feeling of hearing words I’ve learned in real life situations. I just hope that I don’t suddenly speak Kansai-ben in class when I get back to Beloit!

Cream and Anko and Melon, Oh My! (Hannah)

They say the first step to curing an addiction is admitting you have a problem. Well here I am, taking that first step. I’ve become addicted to cream custard buns.

Pre-packaged cream pan you can buy at almost any store.

It’s gotten to the point that every time I see a bakery I have an almost insatiable urge to go in and buy a piece of bread. It’s never too expensive, rarely over two hundred yen, but it adds up in the end I suppose.

I guess it started when I visited the bakery across from Gotenyama station that I mentioned in a previous blog post. It’s rarely open in the mornings when I pass by, but I’m lucky enough to find it open on the way home after some afternoon classes. It’s a small bakery run by a husband and wife; the husband does most of the baking in the back (I have yet to see him, this is what I’ve heard from a professor who is also a regular there) and the wife runs the front.

Front of the Gotenyama bakery; it was early so it wasn't open, yet.

The first time I went there, I found an pan (red bean paste buns) and a cream bun, but I wasn’t sure what the latter was at first, but it sounded good. From the first bite it was perfect. The soft, fluffy sweetness of the bread coupled with the way the cream melts in your mouth… was it addiction at first bite? Now I try and drop by at least once or twice or week. The wife I think has recognized me at this point, and she often tells me my Japanese is very good. She didn’t seem surprised to see a foreigner in her shop however, which makes me wonder if other foreign students have become regulars.

First bite out of a cream pan.

There are some variations of cream buns. I’ve found in all my wanderings that actual bakery bread, and not the prepackaged buns in the above photos, is much better. While the pre packaged ones are still delicious, the bakery buns are noticeably fresher, and while the taste varies a bit from bakery to bakery, it’s still absolutely delicious.

Japanese bakeries are different than American bakeries. In America, and Panera Bread comes to mind, there are the bread displays, you order what you like and it is given to you. In Japan, when you walk in there are small plastic trays and tongs next to a display of bread. It’s typically laid out in a line fashion, so you go down this line of bread and put the bread you want on the tray using the tongs. When you’re done, you take it to the cashier, who will check you out and wrap the bread in small individual plastic bags. Voila! Unless I get a drink, three pieces of bread rarely costs over five hundred yen. Most convenience stores just have a rack of bread.

7/11 bakery.

I’ve also tried other forms of Japanese baking, from different types of an pan, melon bread (a misnomer, since the bread a, does not taste like melons, and b, does not have any melon in them), corn bread (with actual corn kernels), and curry buns (with actual curry). Yet I still stand by my assessment. Cream buns are the best.

And you know what? I’m not sure if I want to get over this addiction.

Attendants, Please Be Prepared for Departure (Hannah)

As I set out on this journey, the most prominent thought in my mind remains the Japanese Language Placement Test. I worked all summer, and subsequently did not have as much time to study as often as I had originally planned, and therefore worry that my score on the test will suffer because of it. I also worry about the flight itself. While I’ve been abroad before, it was always with my family or a group of people with whom I had already been acquainted. I will have never gone so far and on my own. While I won’t be the only student from Beloit studying at Kansai Gaidai this semester, I want to try and tackle as much as I can on my own.

I’ll be participating in a homestay program during the semester, and I often speculate what the family will be like. I’ve hosted a Japanese student before, many years ago, and the homestay program was one of the reasons I chose Kansai Gaidai in the first place. Who will be members of the family? Will they have pets? Children? Are the rules of the house similar or completely different to those of American households? What little I know about Japanese home life comes from watching Japanese television in preparation for my journey, but I don’t give it too much credit since every house is different and television is often over dramatic for viewer pleasure.

Gifts for my homestay family.

As a segue, I’m not worried at all about food and alterations to my usual diet. As a Jew, I grew up without eating shellfish (like crab, lobster, shrimp) or pork, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that Japan, being an archipelago, eats a lot of seafood. While I’m sure I’ll be able to avoid pork fairly easily, I won’t avoid things like shrimp and octopus, and I’m okay with that. I’m not allergic, and I’ve come here to experience Japanese culture in all its forms, and I think I can be forgiven for that.

I’m prone to getting lost, and I can only hope that either my ability to read maps (Japanese and English) will magically improve, or the GPS on my phone will connect and not let me end up on the other side of the city! I have no idea what to expect when I arrive, and even in the first week of orientation I’m planning to keep an open mind so that whatever may come I’ll be at least somewhat prepared for it.

First sunset in Japan