The reality of "learning Japanese," Japan's special relationship with garbage, and the history of the Japanese Postal Mark

One thing I've heard from foreigners who have recently come to Japan -- and which I've probably uttered myself a long time ago -- is the phrase "And then, when I've learned Japanese..." This is amusing to me since you never actually "learn" any language in the sense of suddenly becoming completely competent in all aspects of its use. A foreigner living in Japan naturally stakes out the important areas of his life or work and attains working fluency in those areas, usually not bothering with aspects of the language that will probably never touch him. After four years of study in college and a decade and a half of living in Japan I'm able to function in a wide variety of situations here, including business settings, dealing with family and friends, ordering a pizza and giving directions to my house, attending funerals and weddings and so on...but if I were suddenly thrust into the world of a banker, a politician or a daiku carpenter who builds houses using traditional Japanese techniques, I'd be completely lost. Similarly, my wife is perfectly functional in English in most cases, yet when its time for the CSI broadcast on NHK, I know she'll flip the TV into Japanese mode since the show lies outside of her established linguistic boundaries. As your life meanders on and the way you use language changes, naturally your language skills will change too. When I became a father, I realized that I didn't have a clue how to speak Japanese "baby talk," so I started that aspect of my language education. In the process of running a Japanese company I've had to learn how to read contracts in Japanese to make sure I didn't accidentally sign away my house or something, and now I'm quite comfortable with most Japanese legalese.

Every morning my car greets me and gives me my daily "What day is today?" trivia point, informing me that today is Ice Cream Day (May 9), Natto Day (July 10), Haiku Day (August 19) and UFO Day (June 24), and so on, and every time I get in my car I never know what wacky and esoteric new information I'll be presented with. Tomorrow is "Japanese Postal Mark Day," celebrating the establishment of the unique symbol used to indicate a place where you can find postal services here, which looks like the marriage of a capital T with an equals sign, or like the katakana symbol for te (テ）. The Japanese post office was established in 1871, just four years into the reign of the new Emperor Meiji that proved to be a watershed moment in the modernization of the country. In 1887, as part of a national revitalization effort, the Postal Service announced that the English letter "T" would be the new symbol of the Post Office of Japan. Ten days later, the ministry sheepishly admitted that they had mis-read their own symbol, and the actual symbol of Japan's postal organization was the one that's in use today. The "postal mark" symbol is officially registered with the International Standards Organization and is included in all Japanese fonts on personal computers.

One of the first words a foreigner who comes to live in Japan learns is gomi, the most common term for garbage in Japanese. The reason is that Japan -- a nation that ranks 63rd in the world in terms of land area yet 10th in terms of population -- must understandably take some special measures to make sure its trash situation doesn't get out of hand. As newly arrived gaijin must learn, trash can be disposed of on designated days, and must be separated into various categories (burnables on Tuesday and Friday, non-burnables on Wednesday, organic trash every other week) and disposed of in approved bags you can buy in stores in that city. Although the words "environmentally conscious" don't spring to mind when you think of Japan, with its custom of covering the sides of mountains in concrete on the off chance there might be a rock slide someday, the country has been recycling for decades as one way of reducing the amount of trash generated by society. When you buy shampoo or bathroom cleaner, you're presented with a choice: a regular plastic container, or a cheaper refill-only package that lets you refill the bottle you've already got at home and cut down on what you throw away. There are many laws on the books requiring that you take special steps to safely dispose of old cars, computers and televisions, and it's common for home electronics stores to take away your old stuff for free when you buy something new, to save customers from the hassle of paying a recycling company money to take care of their old junk.

In addition to an extensive line of cool Japanese T-shirts and super-warm hooded sweatshirts, all printed with loving care by our staff in San Diego using the best printing methods for years of use, we also sell embroidered hats featuring cool and wacky kanji logos and anime designs for you to wear on your head. Many of our most popular T-shirt designs, from our "Cheshire Totoro" to our "Otaku" parody of the Oakley brand to our world-famous "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend," are available on high quality Vintage Chino Twill Caps made by Alternative Apparel, featuring soft "bio-washed" fabric, an adjustable brass buckle for "set and forget" size adjustment, and handy holes in the top to keep your head cool. Today we've got a new addition in our hat lineup: the three cute cats from the Mona Neko, three cute ASCII characters from Japan's famous 2ch BBS who love to drink, dance and always have fun. Check out the new hat now!

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Urecco Gal DVD Oct 2006 . Urecco Gal has really changed, there's no denying it. Gone are the ultra-stylish girls showing their bubblegum nudes. This new Urecco Gal comes with a massive 4 hour DVD in place of it.
	Love Pola -- Misaki. Beautiful photobook featuring Misaki, shot as a series of bold polaroids in a love hotel.
	HISUI -- Mayumi Ono. Cute-as-a-button Mayumi Ono is looking great in her newest photobook.
	Sexual Esthetic Full Course -- Kaho Kasumi. Why do I love the elegance of the Japan side of "ero" over, say, much of what I see in the U.S.? The elegance of this woman is part of the answer.
	A Graceful Degenerate of Lesbian -- Noa. Enjoy the very beautiful Noa as she shows you how to perform with other women.
	Japanese Hat - Beware of Perverts. New embroidered hat for you, featuring the popular 2ch characters Mona Neko, who sing the Numanuma song.
	Fighting Heroine Insult Princess 22 ~ Touki Ryoujyoku vol. 22. A brand new Fighting Heroine Insult Princess, in which real characters from anime and video games right the good fight against tentacle monsters.
	Oishiku Meshiagare (Delicious Seduction). An aptly named manga about delicious seduction in a variety of short stories.
	Replication Space ~ Fukusei Kukan. Why is this cool? I can't put my finger on it, but they recreated a part of old Japan back in the Showa Era with perfect faithfulness. Looking at these pictures is calming, somehow.
	Bata Bata Mamegoma. Awww, this is the cutest Mamegoma plush I've ever seen. Not only is he (she?) soft as all get-out, but he (she?) flaps his (her?) tail when you press the right place.
	HIragana Learning Tape A *Three Refills. This is, um, celophane tape that helps you learn Japanese, starting with hiragana. Wow!
	Miniture Geta for Display. Cute little Geta to display in your home, or wear if you have extremely small feet.
	Sanko Soy Sauce Rice Cracker . Mmm, my favorite type of senbei, bar none...
	Soyjoy -- Mango/ Coconuts Flavor *Energy Bar. A cool new healthy energy bar that's got tons of soy inside.
	Tomica 114 -- JSDF Light Armoured Vehicle. Cool! Japanese miltary vehicles in the Tomica series.
	Saber *Kisekae* Figure -- Fate/Stay Night. Wow, a figure of Saber that you can dress up in different outfits.
	Kanji Sticker -- Moe "Cute". We got some cool kanji stickers in, with beautiful designs and fun meanings.
	Best of YesJapan Volume 1. It's back! Our good friends over at YesJapan have the most entertaining and useful 4 hours you can imagine. Go on a date with Keiko, and learn to be annoying in Japanese!
	Nintendo DS Can Pen Case. Nintendo DS fans, here is the ultimate pencil case.

Since I'm talking about shampoo, here you go, some pictures of shampoo. Yes, I did get some rather odd looks taking these, thanks.

I've often thought this would be a good name for shampoo... This is one of the refill only packages, of course.

Another one. This one is Nuance Airy, whatever that is.

Wash your hair with black, sooty charcoal, yes!

From across the room, Tommy Lee Jones was silently watching me with eyes that were somehow sad.