The Case of Mistaken Identity

All of my life I've been confused with my older sister, Kelly. It didn't matter if it was school, sports, church, family, CMU, or strangely work, I'd gotten used to answering to the name "Kelly". Some times it's an honest mistake (at least I hope so--Dad). But often times relatives or acquaintances just can't remember which is which.

So now I'm here to report that "Kelly" has followed me to Japan! The first time it happened was my first week in Tokyo. I thought I had misheard this guy, and I blamed it on the Japanese accent or the known poor pronunciation of "r"s. The second time was no mistake... I received mail from my apartment addressed to "Ms. Kelly". Then today, I was plugging one of my 75 emails into Google Translate to make sure it was irrelevant to me and I could delete it, when the sentence "Please show Ms. Kelly Green-san" caught my eye.

After a little investigation I realized that "Kelly" and "Kerri" are the exact same characters in Japanese, so if people read the Japanese side of my business card, they automatically assume "Kelly" is my name since it is much more common!! Here's the screenshot to prove it:

So all I can say now is, thank goodness my parents never decided to move us to Japan!! It would be a little confusing with 2 daughters who have the exact same name!! Circa 1984 Circa 1998

Circa 2008.

I still love you, Kelly... maybe even more now that I know we have the same name :)

This post is for Kelly & Mike!

I occasionally come across things in Japan that remind me of home, or that I know people would LOVE, and here's just a few that remind me of my sister and bro-in-law... (1) This was my lunch on Wednesday. After I had it half eaten I was told the name of it was "hamburg". It's a Japanese-style hamburger patty. No bun, of course, but served with radish/barbecue sauce. Also on the plate is a jumble of cooked pork slices, onions, and who knows what else!! To the left is white rice, and to the right is miso soup. YUMMY!!

(2) Japan is so BLIND friendly it's unbelievable! Kelly and her fellow MSB workers would be so proud! Here's a warning from the local paper. I think the gist of it is "Don't park your bike in the path of blind people".

The streets are lined with "truncated domes" so that blind people can use their white canes and more easily follow the sidewalks and approach intersections.

They even have truncated domes in the middle of the street, so no one mistakenly veers off into traffic when crossing!

Here's my fave! It features all 3 types of truncated domes. I'm not an expert, but this is what I think they mean: The ones on top are short dashes, which indicate a ramp (incline or decline). The domes in the middle indicate a change or intersection. The long lines on the very bottom indicate that the person should continue straight!! Kelly--your comments are welcome if I got this totally wrong!

(3) Here is a giant moving crab that I pass on my way to work. The legs go back & forth and up & down. I'm told they serve the best crab in Japan. I'll stop in and be the judge of that!! If you watch the video with your sound on, you can hear my cheesy commentary!