Go see Matrix: Revolutions. Right now. Don't argue.
The women in the photo are wearing handkerchiefs on their heads because they were caught in the rain without real umbrellas. I think that if I had been given a million years and a hundred thousand handkerchiefs and an eternal rainstorm, I would have created a finely stitched needlepoint tent with a four-seasons landscape scene before I would have thought of just putting one on my head and prattling on to my friends as if I weren't wearing anything funny on my head at all, thank you very much. This is at the Byodo-in, and was one of the best parts of that visit.
I am desperate for someone who speaks Japanese and has seen Matrix: Revolutions to tell a joke relating to the Japanese subtitles to. If you fit that category, please tell me. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it in this space before, but the Japanese subtitles of movies are of uniformly horrible quality. Part of this is due to the Japanese language's near-total lack of expletives and ejaculations, so the translators have to resort to overusing extremely tired and weak words and phrases where the English dialogue pours out a variegated stream of profanity and anguished cries. It's often equivalent to translating the "cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war" speech as "go get 'em!" or Oedipus's speech after realizing the truth as "Oh no!" For an English speaker who reads Japanese, it's non-stop hilarity.
In one of my Japanese classes, we have devoted much of the semester to making invasive surveys and then making strangers take them. Our first survey, and as yet our only one that we've actually used, was about religious practices, which is an incredibly sticky subject to the Japanese. As a result, at least a few people thought that we were creepy cult members seeking to control them with the power of poorly phrased Japanese, and thought this strongly enough to ring the Creepy Gaijin Buzzer and call in the Power Rangers to defeat us. This is strictly and literally true if you interpret "Creepy Gaijin Buzzer" to mean "talked to the people at the International Center" and "Power Rangers" to mean "a very sweet lady at the International Center who gently cautioned us not to ask about religious matters any more." Still, the damage has been done and some portion of the campus thinks that we are the first wave of a new Foreign Barbarian Religion sent here to teach them lurid and unholy things about deodorant and good dental hygiene.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
