somethin' fishy 'round here
buritto - "sensei, what is the direct translation of 'yotteimasu' (from verb "you", to be drunk) into English?"
koike-sensei - "Ah, you can say "He is being drunking."
buritto - "uh, well, no, you actually CAN'T say that."

Yesterday I was told that people in my Japanese class would think I was much less cool if my name wasn't buritto. How's that for irony?

I have new entertainment at work in the form of some fun aquatic friends. The first one is Pong, a really shiny fantail goldfish that I got despite the insistence of an on-top-of-it Petco associate insisting the bowl I wanted to get for him was the worst possible home. We'll see. Originally Pong's name was "buta" meaning "pig" in Japanese (a throwback to my favorite pet of all time) and it sort of changed to "buddha" since no one could say "buta" and because he's so fat. But since bringing him to the office, Pong keeps bouncing off the walls of his tank non-stop, and hence, I had to change his name to something suitable. Maybe I should get him a friend, "ping". Also joining us from an H2O point of view are "Akka" and "Shiro". In a kumite (karate fighting) match, one person wears a red ('akka') and the other white ('shiro'), and off they go. I bought a divided tank and 2 bettas, and these 2 have been charging at each other for 4 or 5 hours at a time, flaring up or throwing themselves against the divider. It's kind of fun to watch, and, of course, gives me a chance to practice my judging skills... throws off my co-workers when i start yelling things like "ippon!" and "yame!", though.