[Cover] Rainy day ～浜崎あゆみ

A slow piano cover of ’Rainy day' originally by Ayumi Hamasaki.
浜崎あゆみさんの「Rainy day」を歌ってみた。
Piano backing track and arrangement by Abottchen.

Lyrics from here.

For a rainy day.

Romanji:

Wasuretakunai koto nara

Oboeyou to shinaku temo

Wasureru koto nante nai

Sou shizuka ni kanjiru

Are wa aru samui hi de

Tsuyoi ame no naka

Boku wa tada kimi dake o

Machi tsuzukete ita

Hitori kiri kasa mo naku 

Tachi tsukusu boku wa 

Dare yori mo odayaka ni 

Hohoende ita 

 Kogoeru te o kazashite 

Arawareta kimi o mite 

Nakidashi sou ni natta no wa 

Kanashimi no sei ja nai 

 Bokutachi o isshun no 

Hikari ga terashita 

Korekara no yuku michi o 

Iwau kano you ni

寒い。。。

最近は、突然で天気は寒くなりました。
月曜日に軽い雪がありました。
私はもう一度厚い服を着ている。
今日はちょっと風邪を引くの気持ちがあります。
頭が暑そう。。。悪いの感じです。
だから私は気をつけることがしてみたほうがいい。
今の薬はVitamin Cがいっぱいの苺と水だけ。
皆さん、もう気をつけてよ！

Recently, the weather turned cold suddenly.
There was light snow on Monday.
I'm once again wearing thick clothing.
I feel like I have a slight fever so I'm attempting to fight it off with loads of strawberries and water. Everyone take care too!

Sad to say I think I might be suffering from a case of senioritis, a term I learnt today. :/ I hope its not going to be detrimental to my record so far! My damage control is not very effective! :((

JP lesson: How to change informal verb to -masu form + complete verbs negative conjugation

今日は！また日本語の授業の時です。昨日のクラスに先生はこれを教えました：
Good day! Yet again time for another japanese lesson. Yesterday, the teacher taught this:

How to easily change original form (dictionary/casual/informal) verbs into -masu (polite/formal):
If its 五段动词：
Change the last hiragana to equivalent "i" in the same column i.e. “ぃ”段 and then add -masu.
For example:
busy = isogu 急ぐー＞急ぎます。
write = kaku 書くー＞書きます
buy = kau 買うー＞買います
return = kaeru 帰るー＞帰ります
die = shinu 死ぬー＞死にます
fly = tobu 飛ぶー＞飛びます
drink = nomu 飲むー＞飲みます
speak = hanasu 話すー＞話します
hold = motsu 持つー＞持ちます

簡単だね？じゃ次！

一段动词(e+ru or i+ru)：
Remove the "ru" at the end and replace with -masu.
For example:
wake up = okiru 起きるー＞起きます
eat = taberu 食べるー＞食べます

Suru -> Shimasu
Kuru->Kimasu 

How to change to negative for polite form verbs:
Simply change -masu to -masen!

So as a practice summary, we had to do this on the spot:
会う to meet ー＞会わない to not meet
会いますto meet (polite)ー＞会いません to not meet (polite)

5 yomu 読むー＞読まない。読みますー＞読みません
1 miru 見るー＞見ない。見ますー＞見ません
5 arau 洗うー＞洗わない。洗いますー＞洗いません
5 kaku 書くー＞書かない。書きますー＞書きません
5 nomu 飲むー＞飲まない。飲みますー＞飲みません
5 hakobu 運ぶー＞運ばない。運びますー＞運びません
5 tsukuru 作るー＞作らない。作りますー＞作りません
1 abiru 浴びるー＞浴びない。浴びますー＞浴びません
5 toru 撮るー＞撮らない。撮りますー＞撮りません
5 yaru やるー＞やらない。やりますー＞やりません
5 hiku 引くー＞引かない。引きますー＞引きません
5 inoru 祈るー＞祈らない。祈りますー＞祈りません
5 iu 言うー＞言わない。言いますー＞言いません
5 kaburu 被るー＞被らない。被りますー＞被りません
1 tsukeru 付けるー＞付けない。付けますー＞付けません
1 kakeru 掛けるー＞掛けない。掛けますー＞掛けません
1 kiru 着るー＞着ない。着ますー＞着ません
5 haku 履くー＞履かない。履きますー＞履きません

See the pattern?
To see how to categorize verbs into 五段动词 and 一段动词 see this post.

[Cover] Ray of light - FMA 歌ってみた & Utaite culture!

After being a fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist 鋼の錬金術師 series for a while (watched both the original and the brotherhood series), I finally got down to finishing one of the songs which I liked from the anime. Recorded last summer, this is a cover of the ending song "Ray of light" from fullmetal alchemist brotherhood originally sang by Shoko Nakagawa 中川翔子. I chanced upon a video of her talking about the meaning behind the lyrics she wrote which if you're interested. She wrote the lyrics to the song from the point of view of edward to his father who left ed and his brother when they were young just like her own father so she tried to identify her own feelings with edward's. The song means is mostly about conveying the process of growing up, much like a strong ray of light.

I found it a little difficult to record this, I think mainly because the pitch goes lower than I'm comfortable with so I tend to sound flat, but after many tries, this is what I came up with! I hope you like it!

Also found out some terminology today. People who (like me lol.) regularly covers j-pop and anime songs are called 歌い手（うたいて）and the songs that they cover are usually labelled "Song title を歌ってみた" which essentially means "I tried to sing ____". Apparently its a Nico nico douga practice? 面白い。

The discovery of this 歌い手wikipage also uncovered an entire universe of youtube/nico nico douga (NND) cover singers, some of which are more famous and have tracks in compilation albums such as quoted from the wikipage:

• 10 Dai Utattemita Live! BEST (10代うたってみたライブ!BEST) features talented utaite in their teens (10代).
• Ikemen Voice Paradise (イケメンボイスパラダイス) features utaite who are considered ikemen, that is, male utaite whose voices give the impression of being good-looking.
• Kamikyoku wo Utattemita (神曲を歌ってみた) features kamikyoku, or "godly songs", sung by notable utaite.

Amazing isn't it? At the risk of sounding like some fangirls I know of this subculture, some of the male singers of this genre do have very attractive voices, and some of the girls are very professional too! XD Granted alot of it revolves around vocaloid songs that are original productions. Anyway I digress.

Van

JP lesson: Set phrases of Noun + Verb

This week's Japanese class notes （paper is too easy to lose compared to cyberspace's permanent record isn't it?).

As in how english has phrases like "to catch a cold" which doesn't make too much literal sense, Japanese has similar set phrases (idioms?) as well. These are the examples from class this monday.

お経を読む（おきょうをよむ）to read scriptures
新聞を読む（しんぶんをよむ）to read the newspaper
夢・映画を見る（ゆめ・えいがをみる）to see a dream/movie
手を洗う（てをあらう）to wash hands
手紙を書く（てがみをかく）to write a letter
水を飲む（みずをのむ）to drink water
荷物を運ぶ（にもつをはこぶ）to transport luggage
料理を作る（りょうりをつくる）to cook (lit: to make food)
電話を掛ける（でんわをけける）to make a call (lit: to hang up a phone)
Showerを浴びる（をあびる）to bathe
写真を撮る（しゃしんをとる）to take a photo
野球をやる（やきゅうをやる）to play baseball (lit: to do baseball)
旅行をする（りょこうをする）to travel
車を運転する（くるまをうんてんする）to drive (lit: to move a car)　例えば：車を運転する事が難しいです。
日本語を勉強する（にほんごをべんきょうする）to study japanese language
風邪を引く（かぜをひく）to catch a cold (lit: to pull wind)
漢音様の御加護を祈る（かのんさまのおかごをいのる）
空を飛ぶ（そらをとぶ）to fly in the sky (Note: this is a set phrase though it makes sense to say sora ni tobu)
気を付ける（きをつける）to take care
面倒を見る（めんどうをみる）to look after　例えば：子供の面倒を見ることが面倒くさいです。
文句を言う（もんくをいう）to complain (tsukeru also means dip/pay)
帽子を被る（ぼうしをかぶる）to wear a hat (kaburu = to cover)
眼鏡を掛ける（めがねをかける）to wear glasses (kakeru = to hang)
服を着る（ふくをきる）to wear clothes
手袋を付ける（手袋を付ける）to put on gloves
ｽﾞﾎﾞﾝを履く（をはく）to put on trousers. haku = putting on items in a bottom up motion.
靴下を履く to put on socks
靴を履く to put on shoes

We also learnt a new sentence structure, and that is Verb + koto ga (事が）+ adjective.

Also the meaning is the same: 勉強する＝勉強をする、学習する＝学習をする　等等, but the left hand side is a verb and the right hand side is a noun+verb.

But the structure is different:
日本語（N)を勉強する（V)事が好きです。（N＋を＋V）
日本語（N)の勉強（N)をする事が好きです（N＋の＋N)　ｒｍｂ：N+が＋Adj

Plural forms:
私ー＞私たち
貴方ー＞貴方がた
彼ー＞彼ら
彼女ー＞彼女ら

Random new words:
裏（うら）＝inside
撮影（さつえい）＝film
説明（せつめい）＝explain　例えば：日本語の文法（ぶんぽう）を説明することが難しい。
注射（ちゅうしゃ）＝inject
薬（くすり）＝medicine

March beginnings - nail art & cooking roll!

Started my weekend with anything but work! Had the urge to do another nail art design (most probably from the need to escape my work that is piling up) and what better design than one relating to easter? So here's the assortment of bunnies, chicks and random pastel-ly swirls and dots which are supposed to resemble decorated eggs. Did it all with a toothpick as usual.

Easter nail art design!

Then decided to do thai sticky rice dessert with the reduced price ripe mangoes I picked up a few days ago. Wasn't sure if I could find sticky rice and coconut milk on short notice, but Waitrose didn't disappoint (I LOVE WAITROSE, fav supermarket in the UK). For some reason most recipes called for steaming rice in pots and pans or microwaving, but I just used the rice cooker and it was fine! The steps are easy but I guess a good tip is to skim the thicker layer of cream of the coconut milk to use as topping and the liquidy bottom to soak the rice in after its cooked. Also pre-soaking the rice is important before cooking!

Thai sweet sticky rice mango dessert

Had pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast with tons of cinnamon and a dash of cloves added in the batter. Strawberries were on sale and I wasn't sure then but they are really sweet. :) But I still prefer bananas to sweeten the buttermilk pancakes with. 

Banana, strawberry, maple and cinnamon pancakes

And....today's very normal lunch lol. The erm right photo was aubergines, tomatoes and red onion cheese bake. The veggies were all layered. It taste better than anticipated haha (and better than it looks). I think cheese makes everything better. These two photos are more representative of what food usually looks like pre-arranged X).

Spent the afternoon watching "The Help" (about the point of view of African-american maids in the 1960s during the civil rights movement) and cried 5 times? I don't know why the last few movies I watched all made me tear. It was a good movie which deserved its 8.0 rating on imdb. Silver linings playbook was the previous movie I watched.

Anyway half my weekend is gone and next week will be really busy too. I should really get down to working.

Till next time!