門に着くかぃ？

This evening as I was watching an episode of Mushishi, a sort of Miyazaki does the X-files type of series, something interesting happened. I'm in the habit of watching a lot of anime and Japanese TV when I can to keep my ears trained to Japanese. I suppose if I spoke it more often, I'd be better at that too, but I have to take my steps one at a time, or something like that. Anyway, at the end of the episode, they release a large cloud-like creature from the inkstone in which it had settled over thousands of years. Turns out there was quite a lot of it, because it rather filled the sky. I was rather in a daze and not really thinking too much about what I was watching, but when I saw it, I immediately thought 「でっかい」completely out of nowhere. My curiosity piqued, I jaunted on over to the WWWJDIC, which is the most comprehensive Japanese dictionary in existence, and looked it up. Turns out I was right on the money, as the definition is "huge; gargantuan". I was puzzled, but rather pleased by this unconscious response. However, it reminds me that a couple of weeks ago I had a dream where I saw a half-Japanese friend of mine. I found out it was her birthday and, in my dream, said 「お誕生日おめでとう。」which, of course, means "Happy birthday." It causes me to wonder if all this passive studying is actually doing some good deep down. I'd be curious to see how much I could speak if I were hypnotized. I'm pretty sure the only thing keeping me from really being proficient is the typical "stage fright" that comes with learning a second language. However, these revelations may yet encourage me to start speaking Japanese more often with my friends...namely this girl...who, incidentally, I'd like to go out with...if she didn't have a boyfriend. でも、後の時の話なんだよ。Woops.