Wakana went to dinner with the rest of the Japanese Language Teachers Association (JaLTA) last night. They'd been invited to the Japanese consul's home. Apparently they made up quite a crowd.

Before she left Wakana assured me she wouldn't say much because there were a few people in the crowd she doesn't like. She planned on staying a short time and then coming home.

By 10:00 PM I decided to call her to make sure she was OK. She was. We ended our conversation with our usual "I love you." She sounded a little funny when she said it. I found out why when she came home.

There were only two topics of conversation last night. One, of course, was about teaching Japanese. The other had come up shortly before my phone call. The consul wanted to know about the use of the phrase "I love you." He didn't understand when it is used, under what circumstances, etc. He asked if you might just pick up the phone, shout "I love you." to the woman, and then hang up.

And so I have some homework. I am to write an explanation of the concept for the Japanese consul which Wakana will email to him. If you want to have some input on this please feel free but I will probably be done in another day or so.

Let's pause and think about this. The Japanese are having population problems. The number of working age Japanese is shrinking. Family size is small. Children grow up into adults who enjoy life too much to want to settle into having children. Women are still treated with less respect than men though that is changing.

And Japanese don't understand the phrase "I love you."!

The papers and magazines are full of explanations for why the Japanese population is shrinking but I believe it might just boil down to a lack of love in marriage.