Just got back from Yokohama, where I finally managed to sort out my visa and re-entry permits, and change of status etc. for my brand new passport - so feeling somewhat relieved and pleased with myself - not only did I make it to Yokohama and back (and only got lost once, by getting on the wrong train), but I managed to communicate (OK - it was minimal) in Japanese. So I found a bookshop in Motomachi (posh shopping street in Yokohama) and bought some more books from which to learn the old Nihongo 日本語 including the Complete Idiot's Guide to Japanese, which appears to suit me down to the ground.
I am finally getting on top of the two phonetic syllabaries used here - katakana and hiragana - 47 basic characters each, plus extras (don't ask why two?) - and am suddenly being able to read stuff all over the place - shops, buses, lamposts ... It reminds me of when I walked out of the optician's at the age of 11 wearing my first pair of National Health specs and suddenly being able to see everything, after a year or so of blurred vision. The amount of Japanese English is overwhelming - it's everywhere - Ladies' Clinic, Public Golf, Store, Cleaning, etc etc etc etc but all written in kana. 'Cleaning' (meaning a dry cleaners), for example, is クリ二ング ku-ri-ni-n-gu (or something like that).
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You hear Japanese English all the time - for example I went into a baker's today - as you enter you take a plastic tray and a pair of tongs and help yourself to the buns and so on (some unusual fusions available, eg. curry doughnuts - カレ ドナツ ka-re do-na-tsu (or something like that). In some places you can pay using your train/bus pass, so I thought I'd try it today - so I ask, in a form of Japanese, 'Is it OK to use my bus pass?', to which the delightful shop assistant answered 'Yes, of course - please touch' - touch onegaishimasu - タチュ お願いします (or something like that)－ 'Touch' being Japanese English for 'stick your bus pass on this electronic sensory device here'.
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That's the thing about Japan - full of surprises - as Forrest Gump's mother said - Life is a box of chocolates - you never know just what you're going to get.
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We have started having regular video nights here at home - last night it was Forrest Gump; last weekend I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid two nights running (only the third time in my life that's happened - the first two being Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources, and Stealing Beauty.)
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has a great last line -
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Butch: Did you see Sherriff Forrest out there?
Sundance: Nope
Butch: That's a relief - for a minute there I thought we were in trouble...
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At the age of 11, by the way, I had trumpet lessons for a year, and the only thing I half-mastered was Raindrops keep falling on my head (from the above film), which I remember playing to the valley from my bedroom window.
