You got that right, Hank. The severely context-sensitive nature of the Japanese language is baffling to me, and has prevented me from getting any kind of conversational usage of it. It's kind of like if you say a particular phrase in the afternoon while facing North, it means "Have a nice day...", but if it's nighttime and you're smoking a cigar, it means "Your sister is crazy and I think I just ruptured myself...". 
It's weird...
I once put photos of one of the brushings I have up on martial arts forums for translation, and had fifty or so native Japanese who couldn't even decide whether it should be read right-to-left or left-to-right, much less what it meant... I gave up!
It's weird...I once put photos of one of the brushings I have up on martial arts forums for translation, and had fifty or so native Japanese who couldn't even decide whether it should be read right-to-left or left-to-right, much less what it meant... I gave up!
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