Japanese Out and About

 

    

    It's really weird just going out and about and seeing Japanese letters knowing that I can translate them to some degree. It's like recognizing patterns or when someone points something out to you and you start to notice it everywhere you go. Last week I was Christmas shopping with my mother and we were walking through an aisle. I look over and see a bottle of Hand Scream with a cure corgi on it. It had both English and Japanese on it so I decided to just translate it while I was walking around the store. The word ハントクリーム translates to hand cream. Judging by the context clues (aka the bottle itself) I should have guessed that right away, but still, I was able to read it, and I think that's a pretty cool thing. My mom might have given me a weird look as well but still, a proud moment.
    There's also was a Japanese word on a baby changing station in a bathroom I was in. It had a bunch of other lunges on it as well so that a lot of different people could read it. If I remember correctly, it was something like 'changing station' or 'baby station'. I believe it was the second one because I remember the べ symbol on it. I had fun for a few minutes while I was in there.
    I've started to just take a few minutes to translate Japanese words I see now because I've grown curious as to what everything says and how some letters have to be substituted for others. I look kind of weird when I just stop everything I'm doing to read, especially in public, but it's a rare moment where I can just step back and read so to speak. It's been fun seeing what I can accomplish.