During the two months I’ll be here in the U.S., I’ve got a long list of things I need to get done, including performing various software installs and upgrades in J-List’s San Diego office, finalizing a refinance on my house in San Diego (if you think dealing with banks is difficult, try doing it from the other side of the world), and making sure to stock up on American cold medicines like Nyquil and Alka-Seltzer Plus, as Japanese medicine doesn’t work so well on my giant gaijin body. I’ll also be picking up some herbal supplements a lady I know from my gym asked me to get. When my wife heard of this, she said, “Why are you helping that lady? You don’t even know her.” I countered with a Japanese proverb 人の字は１人じゃ立てない hito no ji wa hitori ja tatenai, meaning “the kanji character for ‘person’ cannot stand up all by itself, it needs the support of another.” This saying — that the kanji for ‘person’ (人) is drawn with two lines because each side is holding the other up, which represents the way people support each other as we go through our lives — is one of the more interesting observations I’ve encountered in Japan.
The character for ‘person’ cannot stand up by itself.
