In one of the previous posts, I've covered - and embarrassed myself in the process :) - some of what's written on the railing of the Luzhniki-Vorobyovy Gory Bridge in Moscow.

Here's another picture taken on that bridge:



And here's some of what's going on underneath the bridge - pretty awesome and, in the case of all those teens flying up and down on their bikes and skateboards, absolutely breathtaking:

More flower pictures - I wish spring lasted forever... :)

(UPDATE: This post doesn't make as much sense now as it did initially, because I - haha! - mistook Chinese for Japanese in the text written on the bridge railing! Thank you, Little Miss Moi, for your great explanation! I did have some doubts of my own at one point, but was too sleepy to give them serious thought... :) I would have posted these pictures anyway, even if I had known it was Chinese, not Japanese - and I'm still very curious about what it says there, and I hope it's not something too inappropriate! Sorry if it is!)


A month or so ago, I bought myself a bunch of Japanese textbooks and iPhone apps, and started learning hiragana. Sort of suddenly. I now feel like a kid learning to write, once again. Last time it happened to me was in 1996-98, when I was learning to write in Arabic and Armenian. And it's making me extremely happy.

We're also watching Hayao Miyazaki's wonderful, amazing films all the time. Again, total happiness. Mixed with sadness.

And every now and then, I keep running into traces of Japanese in real life here in Moscow.

On the door of the elevator in our building, for example, someone had scribbled Neko Nyan ^_^. At first, my eyes caught the word "neko" ("cat"), one of the few Japanese words that I know, and I thought that I was, well, seeing things, but then I noticed those cat ears, so Marta and I googled it at home and learned about Chocotto Sister anime and its ending theme, the Neko-Nyan Dance:



Today, a Facebook friend shared a video about this charmingly silly device, Nekomimi (Cat Ears):



Also today, as we were crossing the bridge over the Moscow River at Vorobyovy Gory, I saw this text written on the railing - and now I'm so curious about its meaning. Someone, please help!!! (And, in case it says something nasty and inappropriate, I do apologize to those who know Japanese Chinese.)

#1

(A comment in Russian by someone who's most likely as clueless as I am: "Completely agree.")


#2



#3



#4



#5.1

("What is it?" - in Russian, in addition to "WTF?")


#5.2

(And they also think it's in Chinese: "A Chinese Corner.")

(Ha, and suddenly I'm having doubts as well - what if it is, indeed, Chinese, not Japanese??? Ouch.)


#6

("We're the champions..." - from MGIMO students; something in Japanese; and a German quote from Bill Kaulitz/Tokio Hotel fans.)

There was much more on that railing, including "I love you" in the Tatar language, but since I'm interested in Japanese now, I only took pictures of the stuff above.

Again, I'd love to know the translation! (I hope it's something as innocent and silly as those cat ears, and not some evil curses.)

:)

A ton of flowers (55 photos):

Marta and I stood watching these ballerina girls rehearse something by the river today (click to enlarge):



(The Moscow State Academy of Choreography is a couple of blocks away.)

Hitchcock, a block away from Kremlin:

Living next to a church in Moscow (click to enlarge):

An old, wooden building in downtown Moscow (click to enlarge):

Traffic in downtown Moscow is horrible. And now that the weather is finally so nice, this comes as something of a shock, somehow.

But - I've seen a middle-aged traffic cop today who was smiling a genuine, human smile to a cute young girl on a moped, who, for some reason, had smiled to him first as she passed him on Bolshaya Nikitskaya.

I've also seen a traffic cop today who shouted an unusually friendly "ay-ay-ay" to a woman who decided not to bother walking all the way to the intersection and was instead crossing the street illegally, right in front of his car.

And, almost sadly (in this context, at least), I've seen a traffic cop who was talking on his cell phone about his kid's cold and low-grade fever.

An elderly, fat, homeless mutt was running down the dusty street, thinking: "I have survived. I have survived winter."

A tiny, young Yorkshire Terrier was riding a bicycle down by the river, squeezed into a leather bag that her gorgeous owner had tied to the rack over the rear wheel. They were going very fast. The poor thing was thinking: "I hope I'll survive this ride. I hope I'll survive."

All this on the second truly warm day of spring 2011 in Moscow. The 55th day of the actual, calendar, spring.

This note is pasted on one of the first-floor windows of an old building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, which, I assume, houses the Moscow city branch of the Russian Writers' Union.

It reads like something from the 1980s, very sour in a Soviet kind of way, very pitiful. Very uninspiring.

But they mean well, so I wish them to succeed. Or - I hope they'll feel as if they've succeeded.

Internet is a path to the reader!

The Moscow City Organization of the Writers' Union of Russia is launching a program aimed at creating a centralized system of personal WEB-pages [sic] for writers who are members of the MCO WU of Russia.

From now on, every writer will have an opportunity to post on the Internet, under the aegis of the MCO WU of Russia, [his/her] biographic and bibliographic data, information on awards and achievements, as well as [his/her] works!

An application form and instructions on how to fill it out are available at the Secretariat of the MCO WU of Russia (2nd floor, room 18 - Conference Hall, phone # [...]). Completed forms should be returned to the Secretariat of the MCO WU of Russia or sent electronically to this electronic address: [...]

Municipal workers' revenge :)

In addition to this wonderful French site for kids, Marta really likes this Polish one. The ongoing Russian Orthodox Church luxury scandal has reminded me of her concern for Jesus and his family after she had played a Christmas baby Jesus game: "They are so poor, they live in a barn," she told me sadly, then added hopefully, "Did they become better off later?"

Moscow's downtown buildings, just as Kyiv's, don't get treated nicely when it comes to preserving their initial height...

This is Moscow a few days ago:



And this is Moscow today - the first lovely spring day, but a bit too much dog shit everywhere still:



It'll only be getting better from now on, hopefully.