bike-san, your help is needed^^

Yesterday in my japanese class we were discussing counting suffixis, like -satsu for books, etc. Then there came a question with which suffixes do japanese count mermaides, centaures and other mythological creatures. I suppose it should be -nin for mermaids (like for people) and -tou for centaures, but I'm not sure. And I heard there were some special suffixes for demons and gods, is that right?

It would be very kind of you, bike-san, if you could help me to find the answer to the question. :)

PS: Sorry, I can't write in Japanese from this computer, it doesn't have oriental languages installed on it.

Strange people in metro

We have a lot of strange people in metro, I guess it's the same in any other big city. This Saturday I saw a man writing some lyrics of his own on an advertisment poster with a marker. No one was really paying attention to him. The lyrics were about the stupidity of our TV (the ad was of a magazine with a TV program).

First Japanese class

On Friday I had my first Japanese class. I have 2 classes a week, one with a russian teacher that will teach us grammar, and the other with a japanese sensei to teach us the right pronunciation and some facts about Japan and japanese language. Sooo... The first lesson was with Kentaro-sensei, he is originally from Tokyo, don't know why he came to russia but he is studing here and writing a paper. He speaks russian fluently with a funny accent. He's a nice person, but I guess he can be harsh sometimes. And I guess he does "business" for his family, as he helps his russian students to go to Japan - his family rents them a room to stay, they make an invitation for a visa, etc.
I don't particularly like my group, 'cause people don't look like hardworking to me, so Kentaro-sensei let me come to another class of his with another group and I liked it a lot... Still they a little bit ahead of me, so I need to work hard to catch up, till then I'll be staying with my initial group.

Inside a train at a rush hour

The post was inspired by the photo posted in bike-san's blog. So you here you go: russian train during rush hour. The photo is not really clear, I took it with my mobile, so sorry for that, but you can get the idea of how crowded it is.