I used to travel to Japan a lot on business. I got by okay without speaking Japanese. I managed to learn a couple phrases although the only two I recall are "I am sorry" and "I take its life" (a little prayer before eating).

I used to joke with my colleagues that I did not have to learn to read because the pictograms were so easy to figure out like:

"emergency exit" equals the one legged stickman figure falling out of a flower pot with his head on fire...simple! lol

Cheers!
Rich

Good to see you back posting.