Mina-san,

Have a great weekend! And tune in tomorrow for some big news that could put you on the air!

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Sumimasen ga,
ilearning:
lesson_360_audio folder seems to be empty.

In Ikea, it feels more like Sweden than America. But, yes in Sweden you sometimes feel you could be in Montana.

As a native Swede I must say that I really love the design of IKEA and the quality on their products is out-standing. If you want to buy Swedish food, it’s possible at IKEA.

Annie -> イケア is the correct pronounciation which is an achronym for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd… Invar Kamprad, the swedish founder of IKEA and Elmtaryd is a place in the town of Agunnaryd. Of course this is a place in Sweden

The largest IKEA is not far from where I live near Stockholm and the first one in Älmhult (not as near me as Stockholm). They say the catalog is the only “book” that is printed in a larger amount than the Bible.

Annie -> You’re right, there was an IKEA in Japan but at that time the Japanese people was too reserved to buy there, I think it was too new to them and the business didn’t go well.

In germany they make a joke about IKEA and say that it’s an achronym for “Idioten kaufen einfach alles” which means “Idiots just buy anything.”

Just thought you wanted to know. Sorry, I always get too excited when something about Sweden turns up. I hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Not to forget, thanks for this lesson!
Arigatou gozaimasu

Hugi-san is right. For the Intermediate level, we have “Intermediate Lesson #39 - My Tokyo Traveblogue - Day 4″ on December 15th, 2006; followed by “Video #8 - iLove VIII - Third Time’s a Charm” on December 22nd; followed by today’s lesson.

I only just started Intermediate lesson, still a long way to go.

JockZon (JZ) Welcome back! The Scandinavian Connection Rules!! S_R_C

They have an IKEA store in the Boston area. It is huge (Peterさん。。YUGE　ですよ). When I went there, it was almost like entering a small airport. There are large signs over the roadway like you would have in the airport.
I was very impressed with the furniture and my Sister-in-Law bought a few pieces (which I had to put together). Just so people get the right impression about IKEA, it is really considered more of “value” furniture than the best furniture. Still the styling is nice　and the prices quite reasonable.

じゃ　また
ジョン

私もイケアに行きたい～
みんな一緒に行こうか？「イケアの日」ということがある？（冗談）
じゃ、練習ですね。

First, head on over to the Ikea site: http://www.ikea.com/ms/ja_JP/ikny_splash.html . Since the podcast uses the Funabashi 「船橋」 location, click on that link. Now let’s say that you’re looking for a bed and a desk. What categories in the left-hand menu do you want?

If you chose 「ベッド＆マットレス」for that first, that’s probably a good place to start. See if you can find western-style beds, Japanese-style futons, sofa beds, and bedside tables. Pick an item and check to see if they have it at the Funabashi store by selecting Funabashi from the dropdown menu in the 「お近くのイケアストアで購入」 box on the right.

Next, return to the main page and instead of hunting through the catgories, try to find a desk by using the search feature. What keyword do you want to enter? 「デスク」 is probably a good bet. From the list that comes up, try clicking on the “MIKAEL” and finding the link to the rest of the Mikael series. Can you get a matching filecabinet? Do they have it in stock at Funabashi? What colors does it come in?

Lastly, let’s say that you found what you’re looking for and are ready to head on over to Ikea and make your big purchases! But how do you get there? On the Ikea Funabashi site, you need to find out what station is closest to the store. Hint: 「アクセス」 would be a good place to look. As you can see from the map provided, the store is essentially right at a train station, so walking from the station to the store itself shouldn’t be a problem at all. Therefore, you just need to know how to get from your home station to Ikea’s station!

For this, you can head over to http://www.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/ and use their transfer guide. If you aren’t familiar with Tokyo stations, try using Shibuya 「渋谷」 as your starting point. (If you had trouble finding the station near Ikea, it’s 「南船橋」. Input a date and time (middle of the day will give you better results than late at night–the form defaults to the current Japan time), and hit the submit button! How long does it take from Shibuya? How much will the trip cost? How many times do you have to change trains? Are they local or JR lines? Is the cheapest route the fastest?

じゃまたね～

I have a question about 待ちに待った.
Can I use the expression meaning “I waited enough,” for example, 私は待ちに待った? There is a similar expression in Korean so I was wondering if there is one like that in Japanese…

thanks JPod101 for yet another great and useful lesson! I just have a random comment/question: i noticed that in the dialogue, the store employee says あす instead of　あした。I know both あす and あした are pronunciations for 明日, but is there any real difference between them (i.e. is あすmore formal/polite than あした？) just wondering. oh, and once i even heard a Japanese person say みょうにち for 明日..is that ultra-formal or something?

I cant understand petey’s pronounciation on some of this, and neither coould my (impatient) japanese friend who I played it for. Pete and natsuko were talking about ordering food and he says “demo futari de ‘katsukeraremasu’”? I know I’m hearing this wrong , could someone please translate? sorry for the romaji. I appreciate the lessons as always, I just wish the teachers would spend less time joking in english in the intermediate section. peace

To reply to JockZon (JZ): IKEA names are only Swedish words