Useful phrases for visitors of Kyoto

Two-thirds of SHK's bloggers are currently in Kyoto, and the remaining third is jealous. But in the spirit of solidarity, I'll give some short, handy expressions I've heard during the past few days, listening to a large number of Beginners' lessons on the japanesepod101.com Web site.
I selected these words or short phrases specifically for practical use in conversations: you can easily put into any sentence or even often say them on their own. They're also in romaji just to make it easier. Groeten uit Amsterdam!

kakkoi	cool
maji desu ka?	Are you serious?
muri	impossible
dame	absolutely not, no way
saikou	the best, great
yappari	just as I thought/I knew it!
kedo	but, however, use as 'ga'.
subarashii	fantastic, breathtaking
X ga ippai	full of X
X ga hitsuyou desu	I need X
mochiron	of course, obviously
kochira koso	same here!
gojuushin	place of origin, where you're from
ryoukai	got it!, I understand
yossha!	all right then!
uso	That's a lie! Get out of here! You're kidding!
kitto	surely
tatoeba	for example
hotondo	mostly
zettai (ni)	absolutely, unconditionally
tonikaku	anyway, anyhow
tondemonai	outrageous, offensive, bullshit

New Japanese keyboard

One of the biggest problem with typing Japanese on a computer is that you can't type a kanji. Luckily, Google Japan unveiled its special Japanese keyboard yesterday. Check it out, it looks awesome!

Stuff I learned from one Japanese conversation

Finally, I had the chance to sit down with a native Japanese speaker and spend an hour or so speaking Japanese as best I could, and listening to it. It went better than expected, but far from smoothly. The best thing is that I took notes and apart from hearing all kinds of new words, I also picked up some of the little remarks or adverbial phrases that you won't easily find in written text. They should come in handy for certain unnamed parties who will be visiting Japan shortly. Here's a list:

• は - used after a number and 回 (かい), this means 'at least'. So ６回は = 'at least 6 times'.
• 大事 (だいじ) means 'important', but in written Japanese, you'd sooner see 重要 (じゅうよう).
• ～様になる (～ようになる) is a standing expression, which means 'to reach the point that ~'. My conversation partner used it in the sentence しゃべれる様になる. しゃべれる is a form of しゃべる, to talk or to chat. The form means to be able to talk. Combined with the (～ようになる), it means roughly 'to become proficient', 'to become able to talk' (Japanese in our context).
• たまに (normally written in kana) - once in a while, sometimes
• そんなに - in combination with a negative verb, this means 'not so much'.
• 気づく (きづく）- to notice. The 気 ('mind', 'spirit') is also found in 'genki', 'tenki' (weather), and 'kibun ga warui' (I don't feel well).

Subtle, very subtle. Thanks, guys.

You're gonna love these two kanji:

• 水 (みず) meaning: (cold) water
• 氷 (こおり) meaning: ice