I would divide my experiences this past week with the Japanese language into 3 different categories: reading the Japanese used for native expressions (written with Kanji and Hiragana), reading the Japanese used for foreign words (written with Katakana) and conversing in Japanese.

Reading Kanji: We didn’t get to studying Kanji in my Japanese class, as there was plenty to learn as it was, so I wasn’t expecting to read Kanji when I got here. There are approximately 2,000 standard Kanji characters used for native Japanese words (and many more less commonly used ones). I can read the phonetic Hiragana characters that are sprinkled in sentences, but the primary meaning of a sentence is usually embedded in the Kanji, so knowing the Hiragana usually doesn’t get me very far. This led to a comical, miserable failure our first night in the apartment. Maria had to go out to tend to some things related to her job, and before leaving she was kind enough to pick up some prepared food for me and the boys for dinner. All I I had to do was heat things up. I struggled with deciphering the Kanji buttons on the microwave (and hitting them in random combinations) for about 5 minutes before giving up. It was a combination convection unit and I couldn’t get anything besides the convection part working. So I thought I’d try the gas range. No luck there either - I tried everything I could think of but couldn’t get a fire going. By this time Eidan was getting very fussy so I needed to give him a bottle. But I had to warm it up somehow. With only three buttons, I was able to figure out the rice cooker! It took a while, but I heated up some water in there and stuck his bottle in it to warm up. While I was busy with all that Kai had crawled into bed and fallen asleep with no dinner (as he hardly got any sleep on New Year’s Eve), and after Eidan finally got to drink his lukewarm bottle, he fell right to sleep too. (I felt a bit better when I learned later the range wasn’t working because the gas was shut off, since the apartment had been empty).

Reading Katakana: this has gone really well. There are a lot of foreign words that have been incorporated into Japanese, and being able to read them has been a big help. I was able to order Kai a ハッピセット at McDonald’s (ha-ppi se-tto - in Japan a happy meal is a “happy set”), myself a ココア (ko-ko-a - a hot cocoa) at a coffee shop, find a トイレ (to-i-re - toilet), and so on. The only thing that drives me crazy is trying to tell the difference between ソ (so) and ン (n). Print is often stylized and the difference can be subtle.

Conversing in Japanese: it turns out my pronunciation of Japanese is superior to my vocabulary. This means I’ll say a simple phrase to a waiter or clerk, and I guess I say it well enough that it sounds to them like I know what I’m doing, so they dive into speaking normal Japanese to me, and I get lost very quickly. But so far everyone I’ve encountered has been very nice, and they don’t mind getting through the transaction with a combination of miming, my limited Japanese, and their limited English. But even my limited knowledge has come in very handy. For example, in our apartment building, I was getting in the elevator and I was followed by another resident who had his hands full carrying two large packages. He said to me “rokkai onegai shimasu” and I knew to push the 6th floor button for him. One thing I’ve had to learn quickly is the general use counters, mainly for ordering food. For example, if you want two of something, you use futatsu, not ni (koocha o futatsu kudasai). Another important phrase I’ve learned is “Sumimasen, Machigaimashita.” (Sorry, I made a mistake). I had gone into a handicapped bathroom to change Eidan’s diaper (as that’s where the changing table was also located), and Kai used to the toilet. We couldn’t figure out how to flush the darn thing. I ended up hitting a green button, which turned out to be the emergency help button (living in the US, I would’ve expected such a button to be red). A voice came over an intercom, presumably asking me what the problem was, and I didn’t know how to answer. Saying sumimasen and shitsuree shimashita over and over didn’t get him to go away, so I slinked away with the boys. (And it turns out, to flush the toilet, there’s a square panel that you need to wave your hand over).