Today we almost became kindergarden drop outs. Our sensei (teacher) gave us a writing test. We were supposed to practice Japanese writing, but with all our focusing on new culinary discoveries, there was not time for homework. We were sitting, looking stupid among our young fellow students, all of whom are quite younger than our own kids. The Sensei humoured us and allowed us to have our books open while writing the test, and it was still too hard! How can you absorb 3 different writings of Japanese?: Hiragana, feminine and soft. Katakana, masculine and aggressive, and Kanji, writing style that had been imported to Japan from China.
In spite of the difficulties, there is something so poetic and beautiful in Japanese writing. We were given a short document that describes the Japanese characters in English. I found it so enchanting:For example: the description of the charachter Su is: "Sooey sooey, you call out to a pig with a curly tail".. go figure!
In a previous email to friends i named our Japanese adventure: "Eating, loving learning" (not too original). Since the focus is on eating, i made sure that i know how to read and write Sushi in Hiragana. I cannot write much, but I can confidently say:" Gochisoo sama deshita, Okeikee onegai shimassu." (I finished eating, the bill please) Most of the waiters laugh when they hear me say it.
Time to go, there is another writing test tomorrow
I'm enjoying hearing about how you're learning while you're over there. I'm sure it's a humbling experience for you, but you both seem to have a really good attitude with it. I'd like to think that is something that was passed down to the next generation. No word yet from the NHL, although one of my references sent me an email saying they had contacted him and describing how he said great things about me. Talk later.
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