Although it's not really that surprising, Japan continues to find new ways to make me laugh. I just had a very interesting conversation with one of the teachers here about Japanese personal pronouns. There are quite a few ways to say 'I' in Japanese. I finally got to use the plain male form of this, 'boku', for the first time the other day. It was very exciting.

So I was chatting away, discussing the use of 'watashi' and 'boku', when the teacher introduced 'ore'. I'd come across the word before, but had forgotten about it. The funniest part was that I was trying to put all the words into a politeness level scale. 'Watashi' is up the top, just under the ultra polite 'watakushi'. Next comes 'boku', a word you can use with friends etc.

The description my teacher gave for 'ore' just made me lose it though, hahaha. She said "If you're ever eating with the Yakuza, you should use 'ore'". LOL. the choice of the ultimate in bad asses, as opposed to just some somewhat blokey friends I might have (where it can also be used just fine) was hilarious. As was the inherent assumption or even the suggestion that I might one day be eating with Yakuza.

Japan - I love you! :)