on Feb 1st, 2006
日本からこんにちは
I want to say “Hello from Japan” and that’s what Google translated it to, but going the other way back to English results in “Today from Japan”. They’re both accurate. (Check your language packs if you don’t see my expertly cut-n-pasted Kanji title.)
I’m staying at a very nice Sheraton on Rokko Island. Normally I’d be at the less glamorous Sannomiya Terminal hotel, but I lucked out and got a super terrific “Special Friends and Family” discount making this one the cheapest of the lot. The only downside is the added 15 minutes of train time bringing the total to almost 1h 20m one-way to work. Even that’s OK if I get a seat soon enough on the train. Whether working or sleeping, I find the commute pretty productive.
As for the trip here, the flight was bearable, but just barely. I was again forced to fly Air New Zealand (imagine that) which meant a very old 767. They’re supposedly upgrading their fleet, but I’ve yet to see or feel evidence of it. Hard seats and poor video (one main RGB projector) have unfortunately been the norm. But even if they can’t afford equipment upgrades, they can surely afford another video tape and show something other than 90 minutes of water skiing after the movie. And speaking of the movie, please change it too… I already saw The Perfect Man last time I flew ANZ in mid-November, and once was quite enough! Sorry ANZ, but I’m still hunting for Singapore Air or Qantas tickets if I can get them!
The last paragraph was a pent up gripe I wanted to write on the plane. That aside, it’s been a good work trip so far. It is the working-level meeting I’ve been waiting for and the Japanese staff have been great. 8am – 8pm are typical working hours for the engineers so we’re blasting through plenty of issues. But I’m looking forward to getting home on Saturday so I can spend some quality hours with Angela before she departs for India on the same day (grrrrrr 🙁 )
One Response to 日本からこんにちは
I showed this phrase to Barbara, and she thought it was a bit oddly constructed. She thought that a Japanese person wouldn’t really express it in this way. If you think about it, “Hello from Japan” is in a pretty colloquial form, and is probably not quite syntactically correct. I can easily see it giving the Google translator fits.
According to B, the “today from Japan” on the return results from the similarity between the words “hello” (konnichiha) and “today” (konnichi).