Greetings ！今日は！

JapanesePodの皆さん、今日の授業は好きです。ありがとうございます。
I have always been wondering the usage of “なんだ + …”, 勉強になりました。

宜しくお願いします！

たいやきがだいすきですよ！

みんなさん、元気？
今日はアンパンのミニ・ツアー（mini-tour）に行こうか？

Destination one is Kimuraya (http://www.ginzakimuraya.jp/), located in Ginza, Tokyo. To view the store’s products click on 「商品案内」. Do you see the words in gold going down the center of the page? 「銀座で生まれた日本のおいしさ」. The first two characters are “Ginza” and 「生まれる」 means to be born, so the whole phrase means approximately, “Japanese deliciousness born in Ginza.” Can you find the variety of an-pan that the boss featured in the podcast doesn’t like? The character for “shiro” is 「白」.

Next, here’s a site that compares many different kinds of commercial anpan (and shows you the inside as well): http://www6.plala.or.jp/oyomesan/anpan/%82%81%82%8E%82%90%82%81%82%8E.html . As you can see, most are about 80-120 yen, and although it’s hard to tell the size from the picture, most are probably a little smaller than a fist. How man varieties of 白あんパン can you count?

On the topic of donuts, I visited the homepage of Mister Donut (a popular Japanese donut chain)(http://www.misterdonut.jp/) to see if I could find an an-donut, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to be in the lineup…. To see the donut varieties, click on the 「ミスドのメニュー」 then select 「ドーナツ」 from the menu options. 「ミスド」 is short for 「ミスタードーナツ」.

Lastly, here’s a link to an anime series inspired by anpan. Yes, it’s anpanman: http://www.ntv.co.jp/anpanman/ . You can try to use the site to figure out what it’s all about, or you can read the English wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman

The use of 「威張る」(ibaru) in the podcast raised my attention, because I have my own mnemonic (based on an initially faulty understanding of the word) for remembering it. Although its dictionary meaning is to be very proud, in fact, as in this conversation, it seems to be used most often to describe people who freely express their irritation/displeasure with somebody else. And so I had misunderstood the term to mean “to become irritable”. But I see now that it is closer to our term “lording it over somebody else”.

Anyway, back to my mnemonic. My home is in the Thorn Castle Fiefdom, as was Peter’s at one time as well. But excuse my igurisu-ben. In proper Japanese it is known as Ibaraki-ken (ibara = thorn, ki = castle, ken = prefecture/fiefdom). So ibara, thorn and ibaru, to be irritable, or have one’s hackles raised, or more explicitly, to have the skin on the back of one’s neck turn into thorns.

Anyway, that is my image for “ibaru”.

JP101 crew and listeners!

Great lesson, a little to long don’t you think?
Keep it up! S_R_C

PS: I love Beans! ummmmmmm ahhhhaaa

[…] In the dialog and explanation for Beginner Lesson Season 2 #10 - Morning Coffee, they discussed あんパン (anpan), which was described as a bun filled with sweet bean paste. Also, they discussed 木村屋 (Kimuraya), the bakery in Ginza, Tokyo, that is most famous for it. So, I headed down to Ginza to get a closer look. But, first, a look at the origin of anpan. […]