taking care of bizness...cards

Culture tip/word of the day: meishi
Exchanging meishi (business cards) is considered proper business etiquette in Japan. Because of this, we are required to have cards printed in English and Japanese. My Japanese is limited to just a couple of words...Konnichiwa, sushi, wasabi. So, I went straight to the internet and found a website that translates for you. Now, I would always get mad at my Spanish students for doing the same thing because it would always be wrong, but out of desperation & curiousity, I did it anyway. I was so excited to see my name written in Japanese and immediately sent it to Lori for her review. Imagine her laughter when she told me that the internet had translated my name Rebecca Gray as "Rebecca is gray" instead. So, she volunteered to have my business cards printed there in Tokyo so I can avoid any awkward 1st impressions. In the meantime, I'm winding things down at school and waiting patiently for my Beginner's Japanese book to arrive in the mail.