ARIGATOU letter

Ha, you thought YOU had it hard when writing a thank you letter. Try writing one in a language you hardly feel confident about! It takes at least triple the time to write a letter in Japanese than if I were to write it in English. The first time I wrote a thank you letter (in 100% Japanese) was a few months ago, after I met Hiro's mom for the first time in Yokohama. She'd treated us to delivery sushi and all sorts of tasty foods. The best part was seeing the ever-famous 'naked baby photos' which she had fully prepared in advance, hee hee. Mothers, they never fail when it counts! ^_^ The next time...writing a thank you letter after I stayed there for three days over the New Year's holiday.

Finally, most recently, a letter thanking her for a postcard from Egypt (a recent 2-week trip she took) and a stomach flu care kit. That night I called Hiro, wailing about my stomach and my fears of being struck by another 5-day bout of the norovirus. His mom overheard his call and insisted he bring various things to me, including: bananas, rice gruel, strawberries, mango pudding, steamed castella bread, dorayaki (red bean paste sandwiched between two pancakes)...and more. Wow, I was touched by her kindness and thoughts of concern. I have to prepare a 'thank-you' gift for her to be given the next time Hiro goes home.

Usually Hiro proofread's my letters before I send them out, however, if I send it out Monday it'll be a little too late! So I want to send it out today, mistakes and all (I warned her in the letter that it was not checked by Hirotsugu for accuracy). Japanese is a tricky language - there are more formalities and different levels of speaking/writing according to your audience. I had to be careful not to use the overly casual past-tense... EXAMPLE, to have eaten is tabemashita... (formal) to have eaten is tabeta (casual)...to have eaten, said with some regret or "oops" factor, is tabechatta ...AGHHH verb conjugation. Ha and I thought Spanish was bad...now looking back, I wonder what I was whining about all that time. Japanese, now that is conjugation for the big kids.

So I'll slip some fancy tea in the envelope and off to the post office I go! Then it's a big round of classes until almost 11pm. ^_^