Today we went out wandering and ended up at one of our local branch libraries. We borrowed some CDs, a book of children's songs, and a bilingual version of the Japanese constitution with historical commentary.
I'm already enjoying the constitution. I am a big fan of the US constitution; I enjoyed studying it when I was in school. If I had taken up law, it would have been constitutional law. I ought not have overlooked the Japanese constitution for so long. It is an equally interesting document. I find myself already thinking "Really? That's not how things seem to work, at least not what I understand from current events" about quite a few points. Perhaps it will all come clear when I get to the Amendments.
The other book is a bit of a lark. Children's songs are a different sort of window into culture and I want to know some of the ones that every Japanese kid knows. Now I have a book of 600 of them. I need some help to narrow the field. Aside from Zousan, which I already sing to the elephants at the zoo sometimes, what song(s) do you think I ought to learn? Tod likes Oppai ga Ippai., Boobs are Full, which is more innocent than it seems, I think...
Moshi moshi kame yo, kame-san yo... Sekai no uchi de, omae hodo...
When I took Japanese in college I learned a song for extra credit. A Japanese native friend taught me a children's song about how eating fish was good for you and would make you smart and strong. She said it was as ubiquitous in Osaka where she grew up as Mary Had A Little Lamb is in America. I'd have to look back in my notes to find the name of the song....