lost in translation

In August of 2006, Drew and I took a trip to Japan. There were lots of amazing things to remember about that trip, but one that made it especially exciting was the language barrier.

Drew and I don't speak Japanese -- if you didn't know. I had no assumption that the Japanese people would speak English (and, for the most part, they didn't). Thankfully we were with a good friend, Chris Hainge, who spoke both Japanese and English.

He was crucial.

One of the more obvious things about the Japanese language is that it doesn't use the Roman alphabet. The funny thing that Chris explained to us is that since the Japanese language doesn't use our alphabet, Japanese people love the look of letters (opposed to characters). It's a novelty -- who doesn't love a novelty? Because of this, you see lots of stores with English names that don't reflect what they sell at all.

For instance, we saw this place

Which did not sell cakes made of dogs -- or cakes for dogs.

And this place

Which did not sell boo-bees.

We had to have lunch here.

If "Hamburger is my life" where else would I eat?

We bought some awesome kids shirts at a mall in Japan.

Not only are the shirts themselves great, but the tags are a hoot as well.

"All children are fine" Good to know.

Another hilarious language thing we noticed were the great translations of warning signs.

Personally, I'm glad we saw this one because I was seconds away from growing a hand in the fence.

And I also almost fed the birds, but then I realized how sad it would have made them.

And didn't.

I now consider Japanese my second language.