foreign press conferences

so i attended these two press briefings yesterday and today at the japanese embassy, and both briefings were completely in japanese - a language that i only recognise a few highly-utilised words.

like "udon". which was not mentioned.


so the talk was about myanmar and the aftermath of having a tornado dance on it just six days back - i've been reading about the disaster and i couldn't help but curse the military junta for being idiots about international aid. you accept supplies yet keep your well-meaning neighbours at the door when your own people are dying???

talk about sticking one's head in one's own arse!


so the japanese embassy called us journalists to give us the latest updates for japan's latest moves with regards to myanmar's situation – japan is pledging US10 million to myanmar, and that myanmar's to make necessary arrangements to receive it on their end. of course, there are mentions of warming ties between japan and china....

so if you're wondering how on earth i understood all of that mentioned above – there's this wonderful lady mayuko-san – also a reporter, who translated the main points of the entire briefing to us three non-japanese speaking people and made sitting there listening to a language i could catch no word of worth it.

sorta.


well throughout the half-hour briefing, i kept having the urge to giggle. simply because it was very tempting to do so. i mean, here are officials in solemn gray suits seated behind serious-looking wood-topped desks in a brightly-lit room with a cream backdrop, speaking solemnly in a language i couldn't quite understand – how can anyone not have the urge to laugh in such a situation??*


anyways. i wondered if they'd call me an anti-japanese heathen then proceed to howl me out of that place.

i wondered if i would have an ally mcbeal moment, and i fought it. i possibly shouldn't have, for the more i fought it the more i wanted to giggle. when they're talking about a disaster-swept myanmar.

that would probably spell the end of my japanese reporting career - possibly until i explain that i understood no word of japanese and that the speaker's rhythmic scratching of his sleeve made me think of a geisha strumming the strings of her whatever it is that they strum. ...somehow i don't think they'd be charmed by that.

the more i contemplated it the bigger the giggle became, oh my goodness me; i'd've stuck it if hadn't focused on how it's not funny, how it's not funny, how...


thankfully, i was able to dissipate the giggles and was straight-faced and poised throughout so the half-hour passed without incident. then the briefing ended and we left the building.

and i went to harry's and congratulated myself with half a pint of kilk's. perhaps i'll encourage acts of willpower with a nice gin-and-bitterlemon next. ;)



* it's like hiding from someone and suddenly having to sneeze just as the person is walking past you.