About this time two years ago, my wife and I were sitting in a concert hall in Kansas City listening to author and humorist David Sedaris read excerpts from his latest book. As he read snippets from the book and commiserated with the audience, Sedaris stopped on a chapter about his experience learning Japanese while trying to quit smoking in Japan. While describing the idiosyncratic and absurd process of using Pimsleur phrase books, he remarked that despite all he had learned, the most useful phrases he found were “hello” and “I’m sorry”. As we listened and laughed, we knew that all too soon, we would also be faced with the same dilemma of feeling awkward in Japan. It was at that time that my wife accepted a job that required us to relocate to Japan, and I would start working..
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