Clean Hands

This poster explains the six steps required to wash your hands.

It's in a public bathroom with no soap. There aren't even empty soap dispensers. Just no soap. What an interesting culture!

Snow Angels

It's not always easy living in a foreign country, but it is cool being able to convince people that face down snow angels are part of your culture.

The Japanese S Sound

The Japanese have an s sound in their language. I think everyone knows this. Even if you know only a few Japanese words (Sayonara, Gaybot-san, etc.) you have heard it. However, the s sound can not be joined with the vowel i. I know this is true in Korean as well and probably some other languages. For example, a Japanese person might try to say, "Sit down!" but will instead produce, "Shit down!" This, of course, is hilarious and need not be corrected. Still, some people ask me what the difference between "see" and "she" is.
     "You can say set, right?"
     "Set."
     "Right, so just take that same beginning sound and then say ee. So, see."
     "She."
     "Uh, ssss-ee."
     "Ssss-she."
     "Uh, better."
I've tried telling people that when you say sh, your tongue doesn't touch anything, but when you say s, you tongue touches a bit behind your teeth. Now I find out that when a Japanese person says an s, they touch their tongue to their bottom front teeth instead of the top. So for the last few days, I've been periodically trying to say say an s like the Japanese. It's helping me sound like a real idiot.

Japanese Culture Update

The other day I was waiting for the bus home on a fairly busy street. It was already dark and there were no other pedestrians for awhile. Then I saw a blind man with his lady companion. The man was probably around 50 and the woman perhaps five or ten years younger. They crossed the road towards me then stopped and argued in hushed tones for a full minute. When they continued on, the man walked a half step ahead, his walking stick in his right hand. His left arm was stretched in front of the woman. When they came nearer, I noticed that is hand was, in fact, holding her breast. Ever thirty seconds or so she slapped him. He didn't react to this at all. I'm guessing she was his wife and this joke had been going on for a good twenty years. Anyway, I thought those of you interested in Japanese culture would find this fascinating. Being blind in Japan seems to be awesome. Blind with bennies, as they say.