postal

...while we've been learning the language by hitting the books and memorizing hiragana and katakana, our language learning is pretty much 24-7 as we read ads on the trains (or at least try to), listen to our friends talk a million words a minute, shop daily at the market, and pick up new vocab while doing errands that, in the states, we took for granted...

...such as going to the post office...today claire and i learned how to do the simple task of mailing a letter...since i've been sluffing off many of the daily errands to claire, she forced me to do this one, and i'm glad she did...granted, i stumbled here and there, but i managed to communicate the following: good afternoon...can i buy a stamp?...i would like to mail this letter to the united states...and finally...do i need to fill in the small boxes printed on the envelope?...

...by starting with the proverbial qualifier -- "i am an american and i do not speak much japanese" (some missionaries refuse to say this, but i have no shame) -- the japanese person to whom i am talking usually cuts me some slack (which is good given my asian face)...

...with every passing day, with every mundane task, we're learning....and we thank God for that and we thank God that we have each other to pick each other up...