i'm in love.

With this language. Every now and then - quite often, actually - I get distracted when I'm trying to read something in Japanese, and just stare at the piece of text, thinking of how amazing it is that written language, even if it's just used to express the most mundane information, can be so intricate and beautiful. And then I get the utmost urge to have a perfect grasp on the language, right there and then, although I know it's impossible.

See, whereas I'm desperately in love, Japanese, being very aware of its beauty (that's the worst thing, isn't it), is playing hard to get. The more I try to learn, the more difficult it seems to become. It's like my brain is just full of holes that all these kanji combinations fall through like water. I was just reading an invitation to a Halloween party, and it wasn't longer than a few sentences I think. However, I kept translating these kanji compounds using an online dictionary, and I found myself inserting the same compounds that I'd just had translated into the search field over and over again. That's how easy this language is to read - I'm not able to remember the characters I read five minutes ago, not if I'm not already familiar with them.

But that's also what makes it so attractive. I mean, you can use the certain amount of letters of alphabet... How many are there, by the way? I think this is something I should know. Alright, I googled, because of course I'm too lazy to count, and there's 26 in English language... although some sites argue that ampersand (&) is also a letter, which I don't really agree with. Anyway, that's beside the point now. Where was I? Yeah, right, so you can use the 26 letters of alphabet to write all the words in the English, and then if you want to write in other Western languages as well, just add a couple extra letters or accents here and there. In the end, it all just looks pretty much the same. I was reading a status update in Swedish yesterday, and although I've never really made an effort to learn Swedish, neither have I ever been in a situation where I actually needed to use it, I pretty much understood all of it (it was a long update). So, although it goes without saying that I'm happy I'm able to understand a bit of Swedish, it's just boring compared to the relationship that I have with Japanese right now.

So trying to learn to read and write in Japanese is like trying to memorize a thousand paintings by heart. The other day, in between classes, we were trying to find out what the most complicated kanji is. Our teacher drew us one that she thought was very difficult, and apparently even the Japanese themselves usually don't remember how to write it. And of course there are a lot of kanji that are like that, and this one wasn't even amongst the most complicated when it comes down to the number of strokes, but anyway... Here it is.

憂鬱

So the difficult bit is the latter kanji, but it's usually used in the above compound, which translates into depression. How fitting is that, right? So there was a joke about how that kanji is the actual reason for it's meaning, if you catch my drift. I learned to write it yesterday, although I'll probably forget soon... How very depressing.

Meanwhile, until I'll be somewhat able to understand written Japanese, I'll find comfort in the amazing cuisine that this country has to offer. Seriously, even the cheapest lunch bento at the university's co-op store is more delicious than most of the food I usually come across in Finland.

So strictly speaking this isn't Japanese cuisine, but it's food and it was made in Japan, so it counts, right? Banana nut cake at the café near our dorm. Heaven.