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Shiso Seeds Marinated in Soy Sauce, Good to be Served on Top of Rice.

They are almost a kind of weeds in my garden, but “Shiso” is growing many places. They are now having seeds.

And people around here like marinated shiso seeds with soy sauce very much. I decided making it this time. I gathered seeds from green and purple Shiso, and got the amount of one bowl of metal colander.

I removed seeds from the stem by my finger, one by one.

I got 132 grams of seeds. Of course, the weight of container is deducted.

I put salt on them. I tried putting salt of 10 percent of Seed’s weight.

Next day, I washed the seeds and marinated with soy sauce.

Putting them on top of Rice, and I ate it. I felt it was like a taste of autumn season.

Now the Season of Persimmon, Got to Get Rid of Bitterness with Strong Alcohol.

This year too, I have got some persimmon fruits on the tree of a bitter persimmon “Koyo”.

I poured strong alcohol onto a small dish. And put the upper part of persimmon into it about ten seconds.

Then I put three persimmons into a plastic bag. I hope I will be able to eat them in several days. The strong alcohol I used was made from Gāoliang (高粱). I guess its smell will remain until I eat those persimmons.

Oh, by the way, now it’s the time for me to work a lot on my garden before the winter comes. So probably I will not be able to write a post of “Japanese Learning” for a while.

Japanese Learning (A1 S43): Expressing your Prediction; Something is about to happen / Your Speculation about Future.; [Verb : Masu-form without “masu”]+ sou desu.

First of all, “Souda/Soudesu” we are learning in this post is a “future-bound” expression when you talk about your speculation. From the perspective of grammatical structure with verb forms;

<1> [Masu-form without “masu”] + sou desu. — Speculation for future — today (A1 S43)

<2> [Dictionary form] + sou desu. — Hearsay — A1 S47

<3> [Ta-form] + sou desu. — Hearsay — A1 S47

So, we are learning <1> today. Before looking at example sentences, let’s check the connections between verbs in “Masu-form without ‘masu’” and “sou desu”.

Group2 Verbs:

– Ochiru/Ochimasu : intransitive verb : fall down => Ochi+sou desu.

– Kieru/Kiemasu : intransitive verb : (The fire) goes out, disappear, vanish => Kie+sou desu.

Group3 Verbs:

– Kuru/Kimasu : intransitive verb : come => Ki+sou desu.

– Suru/Shimasu : transitive verb (occasionally intransitive verb) : do => Shi+sou desu.

Group1 Verbs:

Gr1-W

– Iu/Iimasu : transitive verb : say, tell => Ii+sou desu.

Gr1-K

– Naku/Nakimasu : intransitive verb : cry, weep => Naki+sou desu.

Gr1-G

– Nugu/Nugimasu : transitive verb : take off cloths => Nugi+sou desu.

Gr1-S

– Hanasu/Hanashimasu : transitive verb : speak, tell => Hanashi+sou desu.

Gr1-T

– Katsu/Kachimasu : intransitive verb : win, overcome => Kachi+sou desu.

Gr1-M

– Yamu/Yamimasu : intransitive verb : stop doing sth => Yame+sou desu.

Gr1-B

– Tobu/Tobimasu : intransitive verb : fly => Tobi+sou desu.

Gr1-R

– Naru/Narimasu : intransitive verb : become, turn to be => Nari+sou desu.

There are two types of sentences for the speculation using verbs in “Masu-form without ‘masu’” and “sou desu” as shown in (1) and (2).

(1) The speaker feel that something is about to happen immediately.

1. Jitensha ga Taore sou desu. (The bicycle is almost falling over.)

2. Imanimo Ame ga Furi sou desu. (It seems like to start raining right now.)

where, Imanimo is an adverb meaning “At any moment”

(2) The speaker expresses his/her speculation about things in future.

3. Okome no Nedan ga Agari sou desu. (It seems that the price of rice is going to go up.)

4. Kotoshi wa Natsu ga Atsuku Nari sou desu. (I guess that summer is going to be hot in this year.)

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This post was written with reference to the exercise A1 of Section43 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”

Japanese Learning (A3 S42): It takes some Amount of Time or Money in order to Do Something; [V-dic] no+ni/ [N]ni [Amount] Kakari masu.

Since the exercises A2 and A3 are similar in terms of use of the combination of nominalizer “no” and particle “ni”. In A2, “-no+ni” phrase expresses a purpose of action of the predicate verb. In A3, the predicate expresses how much money or how long time it takes for accomplishing the “no+ni” phrase.

<1> An example of A2 sentence

1. Kono Pasokon wa Inta’anetto o Miru no ni Tsukai masu.

(I use this personal computer in order to browse the internet.)

<2> An example of A3 sentence

2. Kuruma o Kau no ni Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.

(Buying a car costs 2 million yen.)

where, Kakaru/Kakarimasu is an intransitive verb which means to take

When we look at A2 sentences and A3 sentences in macro perspective like;

[“no+ni” phrase] + [Predicate].

Saying [“no+ni” phrase] is important in the A2 sentences, while saying [Predicate] is slightly more important than [“no+ni” phrase] in the A3 sentences.

Other example sentences for A3are as below;

(1) How much money it costs;

1) [V-dic]+no+ni

3. Ryuugaku-Biza o Koushin-suru no ni Yon-man Hassen – en Kakari masu.

(In order to renew the international student visa, it costs 48,000 JPY.)

where, “Koushin-suru/Koushin-shimasu” is a transitive verb which means to “renew”.

2) [N] ni

4. Ryuugaku-Biza no Koushin ni Yon-man Hassen – en Kakari masu.

(For renewing the international student visa, it costs 48,000 JPY.)

“Koushin-suru” is a verb, but “Koushin” is a noun. Note that “Ryuugaku-Biza no Koushin” is in the form of “N1 no N2”.

(2) How long time it takes;

1) [V-dic]+no+ni

5. Kaisha e Iku no ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.

(In order for me to go to the office, it takes one hour.)

2) [N] ni

6. Tsuukin ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.

(It takes one hour for the commute.)

“Tsuukin” can be a verb in the form of “Tsuukin-suru”, but just “Tsuukin” is a noun.

Take a look at the sentences 2 and 6 again;

2. Kuruma o Kau no ni Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.

6. Tsuukin ni Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.

Do you find subjects in these sentences? Yesterday we learned that the subject and the predicate must be consistent in a sentence. The subject markers are particle “-wa” or “-ga”. Is there any word with “wa” or “ga”? Perhaps some people want to put “-ga” as shown below, but I don’t think it’s good.

2’. Kuruma o Kau no ni <Nihyaku Man – en ga> Kakari masu.

6’. Tsuukin ni <Ichi-jikan ga> Kakari masu.

The reason why I don’t think this is a good way to show the subject is that a number with quantifier is usually used without a particle because it works as an adverbial.

Let alone, words and phrases with the particle “ni” cannot be a subject because they are also adverbials that modify a verb behind. Therefore, if the subject should be stated in the sentences, it would be like the follows;

2’’. Kuruma o Kau no ni <Okane ga> Nihyaku Man – en Kakari masu.

6’’. Tsuukin ni <Jikan ga> Ichi-jikan Kakari masu.

Let us check the consistency between the subject and the predicate for these 2’’ and 6’’.

2’’=> [Okane ga]+[Kakari masu] => good

6’’=> [Jikan ga]+[Kakari masu] => good

But in most cases, when the predicate is “Kakari masu”, the listener can easily tell it costed some money or it takes some period of time. These [Okane ga] and [Jikan ga] can be omitted.

Anyway, it is good to look for a subject and a predicate in a sentence, and then once you have found them, to check the consistency between the subject and predicate. This procedure can improve your understanding about that particular sentence.

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This post was written with reference to the exercise A3 of Section42 in “Minna no Nihongo (2nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”