About
Welcome to the blog of another broad abroad. I used to write about my daily humiliations in Japan. Then I wrote about reacclimating to life back home in New York City. Now I write about my daily humiliations here in Dublin, which I experience while getting my master’s in Creative Writing and trying to break into travel writing.
Wait … you eat your what?
My pigeon. “I eat my pigeon” refers to a Japanese language mistake I made about a month and a half into my time in Japan.
What were you trying to say?
“My hat – table!” One night I forgot my hat on a table at Britannia, a “British pub” in my neighborhood. Of course, the proper thing to say to the staff when I ran back inside was “Excuse me – I forgot my hat!” but my Japanese was so poor that the only thing I could think of to say was “my hat – table!” … or what I thought was “my hat – table.”
I dashed into the pub, blurting ““私のハト食べる!” to the puzzled staff, snatched my hat and dashed back out - quite pleased with myself. I had just learned how to denote possession and I knew that many words in English could be used in Japanese, such as “ice cream” (pronounced aisu kur-ee-mu) and “card” (pronounced kaa-do). “Hat” and “table” are not such words. “Taberu” means “to eat” and “hato” means “pigeon.” I eat my pigeon.
You dork. Did you ever figure out how to say “Excuse me – I forgot my hat”?
Yes; “すみません – 帽子を忘れた!”
For more red-faced expatriate fun, follow:
IEatMyPigeon on twitter, on Stumbleupon, and on Facebook. I also write bi-weekly blog posts for tripwolf.
The pigeon story is hilarious! And look at you now…
had you really eaten any pigeons in your life ?
pity if you have not done that in real life , they are the best thing that could be eaten , i think i had more than a dozen this week
Liv,
Thanks for your positive comment on my Vagablogging post “Living the Indiana Jones Fantasy.” It’s nice to get encouraging feedback once in a while.
How is Japan? I’m from Hawaii and currently working in Taiwan. Got the travel bug now, not sure if I’ll ever make it out. My blog is over at this URL:
http://bluefox808.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Marcus
Hi,
At the editorial team of G’Day Japan, an English magazine published in Sydney about traveling/eating in Japan, we have been scouring the web for THE BEST JAPAN Blogs!
We are upgrading our website as well, and we would like to have your website linked to ours, like below.
http://gdayjapan.com.au/
If we don’t hear from you within a week, we will assume you are ok with that.
If you have a problem, please let me know and we will take down your website asap!!
Thank you and keep up the fab work..
Akiko
G’Day Japan
I like you pigeon lady. You crack me up.
you ate pigeons? sugoi!
Great blog. Following on twitter AND wordpress:)