I spent a bit of time before the trip learning the two Japanese alphabets - Hiragana and Katakana. Each has about 100 letters and both are used along with Chinese Kanji (symbols) in written Japanese. As a result, I would stop and stare at signs like this, an advertisement written in both Katakana (first line) and Hiragana (second line.) I translates into "starting point" though I have no idea what the chickens have to do with it.
I bought some manga (comics) to practice. I went to manga ground zero - the Animate building in Ikebukuru. 7 floors of manga of all kinds. I sent this photo to Delbert and he almost fainted with excitement.
I really had no idea what to get - I was totally overwhelmed by the choices. I have yet to try it out. My spoken Japanese has definitely improved - especially since it was close to zero before. I was able to order food, tell the taxis where to go and understand numbers when the shopkeepers told me a price.
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