Things that make you go hmmm.

Japanese envelopes do not come with that gross tasting, icky licky sticky stuff on the flaps.
Apparently it is because of the weather.
No really! It is too humid in Japan and everyone’s envelopes would get stuck closed, or start sticking to who knows what not, which would wreak havoc in people’s stationary boxes.

The math of language learning.

ryou =　旅 = (n,vs) travel, trip, journey. and
kan = 館 = (n,suf) house, hall, building, hotel, inn, guesthouse.
thus, ryokan = 旅館 = Japanese style inn.

This is the front lobby of a Japanese inn. (in Amanohashidate (天橋立)) It is said that if you are in Japan you need to enjoy the 旅館 experience at least once.

Lost in Translation.

In the process of learning a new language, one always runs across new words which are often very difficult to translate. Some words contain so much cultural history and/or so much experiential feeling that they are nigh on impossible to translate.
This tidbit of knowledge led me to wonder.
When God speaks to someone, what language does he use? Do you suppose there is something that gets lost in translation?

久しぶり

久しぶり！