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Sunday, May 14, 2006

Japan Day

Current Mood:

Today seems to be the day for Japanese culture :-).

I took Steve to work and when I was coming back, I decided to check the mail. A Japanese girl was walking to the mailboxes--she wanted to get today's newspaper from the coin-operated newspaper machine. She waved at me, and I waved back :-). I asked her how she was and she replied in Japanese first, then corrected herself and said in broken English, "I'm fine, thank you."

She put her coins in the machine as I was checking the mailbox. As I turned to leave, she opened the machine only to find that there weren't any newspapers left. She expressed her disappointment in Japanese. I wanted to say that I was sorry-- "Sumimasen"-- but I didn't know if it was the right word to use for the situation. Maybe someone who's reading this right now who knows Japanese can tell me if it is :-).

I told Steve about it when I got home and he told me that their first customer was a Japanese girl with a dog named Tetsu. I told Steve, "Well gosh, we're obligated to have Japanese food for dinner now :-)."

I found a kids' website that teaches simple phrases in Japanese. It's got audio and animation :-). It's at http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/index.html. I'm thinking I should learn a few Japanese phrases because the neighborhood we live in has several Japanese families. On more than one occasion, when I would be walking the dogs, I've run into people who have bowed to me. It'll be nice to be able to say "Hello" in Japanese as I bow back :-).

Labels: Arts

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