The Celebration That Wasn’t
Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day, and it kind of was. But I “worked”. I dog sat. It wasn’t a full rest day.
Today I woke up and felt like, yes, today needs to be a rest day. And today is actually becoming a rest day. Even me writing this, we’ll call it a restful thing, because I’m just having fun with it. There’s no expectation. This is purely for enjoyment. There’s a big difference, between having to do something out of obligation or requirement, versus just for fun. And this writing here is just for fun.
Two days ago I finished the first draft of a story idea that I had hatched. I carried it all the way to completion and that took about ten days. Ten days of tenacity, of sticking to it, of staying on it, and not letting it escape me, but getting through the whole thing, through the ups and downs, the struggle and joy. When I finished the draft two days ago, I felt euphoric, and yet, lost. It had consumed me and stayed in my mind for ten whole days. I couldn’t believe that much time had actually passed. For ten days I contemplated the story and worked on it, held it in my mind, stayed tethered to that fantasy world. And when I was done, I felt strange. It was over. Except, it wasn’t over, and it’s not over. That was just the first part. But that’s probably the hardest part, I feel. Who knows. I’m new to all of this.
It’s the longest story I’ve ever written, possibly ever. Probably ever. And I still haven’t recovered from the writing of it yet, I think.
I knew that the first thing I had to do upon finishing was celebrate. I couldn’t move on to anything else without celebrating the accomplishment. Even from a work perspective, if you are trying to accomplish more, you have to celebrate. It’s part of the job, it’s a necessary thing.
I racked my brain on what to do for my celebration. I tried to walk through the great suburban desert of East Nashville to go to Woodland Wine Merchant and buy a bottle of wine, to crack open with my lads tonight, but I only made it halfway through the great suburban desert before dying in the sun and throwing in the towel. I thought about going to Waffle House or getting some donuts at East Park Donut, but I didn’t really to spend money on that. I wanted to have an experience, and I knew that I had wanted to go swimming. I keep thinking about surfing. I guess I miss surfing, and I miss swimming, and I really want to do it again. So, I decided I would go swimming, even though it meant work, because I had to figure out where I would go, and drive there, which I really didn’t want to do. But I had to celebrate, and it was all I could think of.
I found that Percy Priest Lake seemed to be the closest place to me that I could swim in the wild. In freshwater. I had to drive on the highway…. blah blah blah. Long story short, the highway was a nightmare, the “beach” was a strip of grass next to the highway, covered in trash, there was a homeless guy there with swollen, rotting elephantitis ankles, the water was scummy, and made my eyes sting, and yet I did enjoying frolicking in the water like an otter. It was exactly the feeling I was looking for. Then I returned on the nightmare highway, and had angry visions of bombing everyone on the highway, and of having a giant plow affixed to the front of my car that would allow me to drive through the highway unimpeded and plow everyone out of my way. I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic in the 90 degree July sun and moved 0.2 miles in 10 minutes. Not a good feeling.
Climbing Conquest
So, I still haven’t recovered, and still need to rest, before entering work mode again. I did go climbing at the gym, and if you had read my recent post “Perseverance”, I talk about my “nemesis” climb, the V1-3 that was stopping me from becoming a V2-4 man. Well, I walked into the gym yesterday with Parker, and I had actually forgotten about that climb for a minute, as I was really just there to have fun, and chill, but my man Ryan, a #1 One Piece fan, and a chill high school kid, he told me when I walked in, “Bro you gotta get that climb today, they’re taking it down soon!” And I was like.. Oh, god dammit. The pressure is on. Great. I was supposed to be here for fun.
You know what happened? I was fully charged, and I was strong, and I did some warmups, and then Ryan came out from the behind the counter, and Parker said, “Well, are you gonna do it now? Ryan’s here to watch.” And I said okay. And I walked up to the wall, and I screamed, “THIS ONE’S FOR RYAN!!!!!” And I took that sucker down. It was euphoric. I laid on the ground after the conquest, not moving, eyes closed, basking in the glow of victory. Parker gave me knucks, and Ryan clapped, and then he said, “Now you have to find another project-” But I cut him off, and said, “CHILL. Ryan, chill!!!!” I had just beaten this climb. I didn’t need another project (new challenging climb to be working on) just yet. Chill, bro. Let me savor this.
Well, today, it’s a million degrees, and I was not going to try and go swimming again. Nope. I’m not going anywhere, and not driving on the Nashville highway ever again in my life if I can help it. So.. what else could I do for my rest day?
When I was back in Ozu Machi, way back when, in the depths of the pandemic, when we were all bound to the home and desperate for things to do… I bought a 3DS and got Ultra Moon, in Japanese, and played through the whole thing. I hadn’t played Pokemon for like, ten years, so I had no idea what they had been cooking up, but I knew they had been cooking. I remember that time fondly, exploring the new world of Pokemon, and learning so much Japanese I thought my head would explode. These days, I’ve been feeling a pull to Japanese again, and I’ve been thinking about that playthrough, and so as a treat, and for my rest days, I thought I would try to recreate the magic.
After debating on which new Pokemon game I would buy, I ended up settling on Pokemon Violet, for the Switch, an open world Pokemon game from 2022. And now, if you can stand it, here’s what I want to share with you.
Return To Japanese
Note: I think that even if you are not a Japanese language learner you might just be interested to see some of my notes, and a breakdown of some recent Japanese study. If you are not, this part might not be so interesting for you.
I played for about three hours between yesterday and today, and I haven’t even made it to the first town. Parker was watching my slow, crawling progress, as I sat there with my notebook, scribbling my 20th Japanese study note, and he said, “People would love to see this.” I think I had played for over an hour before I even caught my first Pokemon, which is something you can do, if you skip the dialouge and get straight to business, in about ten minutes.
When it comes to studying language, Pokemon is a great mix of everything. Right out of the gate, we had the sensei speaking in keigo (honorific, polite Japanese), especially when talking with the main character’s mom (called in game, ママ, Mama), modeling a real conversation between a Mama-san and her daughter’s school’s sensei.. you have the kids jabbering casually, and then you have the instructive Japanese of the in-game instructions. Between game prompts, in-game signboards, character dialogue, etc… there’s a lot of variety in the Japanese being used. There’s a wide range of characters of all ages and backgrounds as well, and they all have different styles of speaking, so you can see what language is used by an old fisherman, an honorable sensei, a Mama-san, or a young bug catcher child, or an insolent breakdancer gangster lackey, a mob boss, a scientific genius..
Here are some of the snippets of Japanese I wrote down in my notebook today. Let’s break them down. Just for fun.
ご近所同士仲良くしよう！
The word I was wondering about was 同士, and in the context of 近所同士, which is something like neighborhood companion. This is probably a phrase that Japanese use, and is used for members of the neighborhood. Your neighbor friend was saying this to you in the game.
凄腕トレーナーなんですよ
This word is すごうで. I thought it was a more polite way to use 凄い, and actually it’s using the same kanji 凄腕、凄い.. So I was on to something there. 腕 is arm. So it’s saying “great arm”, literally. The dictionary says that 凄腕 means “1. remarkable ability, brilliant technique or 2.virtuoso, resourceful person”. It’s a compliment to someone’s ability. I like this word.
交流を深めてください
交流を深める seems to be a set phrase. It’s saying something like, “deepen our exchange” or “grow together in our relationship”.. Kind of a thing.
ポケモン勝負より放題
I wrote this down because I couldn’t remember at the time what 放題 was. It’s houdai, unlimited, as much as possible. Like 飲み放題, “all you can drink”. So this is “Let’s battle as much as possible.” I might need the whole sentence to perfectly translate it or to graph the entire meaning because I am a little confused about the より here, which seems to be in this case saying “less than”.
実りある勝負をしよう！
I had never seen the 実りある part here. Not hard to guess what this means. I take this to mean “fruitful”, so, “Let’s have a fruitful battle!” 実 is fruit.
勝負をしかける。
Noting that しかける is a verb used with 勝負. This sentence just means “To start a battle.”
Well.. what I have taken on here is unfeasable. I have about forty more notes in book, just from today.
I’ll do a few more. It’s good review for me, at least…!
へえー！きみ やるね！
I was just suprised at this sentence. It’s so basic. The girl I had just beaten in a battle said this, which basically just means “you can do it!” as in, “You can fight!” That’s what I took it to mean. Natural English translation of this sentence might be: “Damn girl! You can really fight!”
Hermoine, Crookshanks, And Katakana
I was mysteriously drawn to choosing a young black girl as my protagonist in the game. I named my girl Hermione, trying to write that in Katakana (this took me about five minutes of debating and saying aloud how I thought a Japanese person would write it), and settled with ハーマィオニ. This turned out to be very close to correct, but not quite. The official Japanese translation of Hermione is ハーマイオ二ー。And then after naming my character ハーマィオニ, one of the starter Pokemon was a cat, and extremely cute, so I had to pick that.. because Crookshanks. (Hermione’s cat in Harry Potter world.) I couldn’t name my cat Pokemon Crookshanks though, because I was limited to 6 Japanese characters when naming in the game, which pissed me off. What the hell? 6 characters??????
Crookshanks in Katakana is a nightmare. I have to attempt writing it now, for you. For the blog.
クルックシャンクス.
I guess that wasn’t so bad.
But was it right?
Internet says: クルックシャンクス
Yatta!!!!!!!!
I do not know how much you are enjoying reading me thinking about Japanese and getting an insight into my Japanese study world, or if you are just confused. I imagine it would be interesting just to see some snippets of Japanese and look into the world of Japanese language. Japanese is really a fun and interesting language. (Profound statement.)
Chat GPT Sensei
疲れておいでですよ
This was interesting because of the おいで part, which seemed to me a kind of grammar conjugation going off of 疲れておく (spoiler: not true, it’s actually a form of 来る), but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it. The おいで, and then adding です at the end, which is a formal sentence finisher. This sentence is keigo (honorific Japanese) I think, which has interesting and lengthier conjugations. That’s my guess here.
This one actually is a puzzler. So let’s ask our master translator, Chat GPT.
(For all y’all who don’t already know about the power of Chat GPT.. you’re about to see it. I’m bouncing around here in this post. It’s my rest day, alright? Stream of consciousness. Below I have pasted the entire result of me asking: “Can you help with this sentence? I’m wondering about the conjugation.” to Chat GPT.)
(Chat GPT answer)
Yes, I can help with that! The sentence: 疲れておいでですよ is a polite and somewhat gentle expression in Japanese, but the conjugation is slightly unusual and worth unpacking.
Breakdown:
- 疲れて = the て-form of 疲れる (to be tired)
- おいで = an honorific or polite imperative form of 来る (to come), but in this context, it is functioning differently
- です = polite copula
- よ = sentence-ending particle for emphasis or assertion
What’s going on here?
This is a respectful/polite way of saying “You look tired” or “You are tired,” using a classical or regional (often Kyoto-style or older) construction. It’s a softened, polite version, especially common in service industry or among people showing concern in a gentle way.
Key point:
おいでです is a polite respectful form of いらっしゃる, which itself is an honorific verb meaning “to be,” “to go,” or “to come,” depending on context.
So:
疲れておいでですよ
really means:
You are tired, or more literally, You are in a state of being tired, said politely and with care.
More “standard” equivalent:
- お疲れですね (You’re tired, aren’t you?)
- お疲れのようですね (It seems like you’re tired)
In summary:
- The conjugation おいでですよ is a respectful and slightly old-fashioned or regional way to say “you are…”
- It comes from おいでになる, a polite form of いらっしゃる
- It’s perfectly natural in certain contexts, especially when someone wants to express gentle concern
(End Chat GPT answer.)
How incredible. Chat GPT just gave us a detailed explanation on the meaning of 疲れておいでです. This phrase seemed strange to me is because.. well, it is strange. It’s a set phrase, it’s keigo, and it looks like it comes from older Japanese, so the grammar is funky. It seems to be an older and more polite way of saying お疲れですよね！
That was an interesting one. Yes indeed…
興奮しやっって ついつい…
しやっって is an interesting conjugation.. I didn’t even notice that so much when I wrote it down because I was thinking about the ついつい, and I understood it. I think it is another way to say しちゃって.. combining しちゃう and って. Now I can’t even remember exactly what って is used for in Japanese, in this context at least… But that gets used all the time. The ついつい seems to be “accidentally” or “unintentionally”.
Yeah.. we can stop here. Let’s wrap up this brain dump.
Reflecting on this morning’s session, I was thinking: I already know so much Japanese, and yet there is so much Japanese I don’t know. It’s crazy. There’s just so much language out there. So many words. It’s wild how much we all really know.
HAKUMUSU 
Very enjoyable post
Thanks David!!!!!