Tiny note about Japanese. Read below for new enrty about the wedding!

Get a good phrasebook. At the very least your hosts will get a kick out of seeing what they chose to put in the phrasebook. A lot of people in Japan speak some English (it is taught in school to everyone, but the emphasis is on reading and writing, not speaking), but any effort on the part of the traveler is appreciated.

I have learned a little. "Kudasai" is very helpful. It means please, in the asking sense (the offering sense is dozo), so any noun followed by "kudasai" means "I would like one of those please".

You can't say Konichiwa all day long, as I assumed before I got here. It doesn't mean "Hello" because there is no word for that. It means more like "Good Day" or "Good Afternoon". Night greetings are exchanged by saying Konbanwa. if you say konichiwa they look at you funny. Good Morning is Ohayo, which sounds just like the state so it is easy to remember.

Sorry and excuse me can both be conveyed by saying Sumima sen, so that's good to know. I'm not sure I'm putting the spaces in the right spots here actually; I don't have my phrase book here by the computer. Just say it straight through and it is about right.

Suki des ka? means Do you like it? which is answered by saying Hai, suki des (Yes, I do like it) or Ee-eh, suki des (No, I do not.). No is not spelled that way, actually, more like iie, but it is pronounced that way.

Verbs don't change for different tenses or persons, the order of the words and the prepositions change instead. So it makes it easier to pick up the language.

OK! (That is Japanese too, actually. You see lots of English phrases in advertisements targeted to the Japanese public, mostly OK! and Let's Play!) time for bed. Good night! Oyasumi!