Japan in a Flash

This is a follow-up to Everett Daniels’ July 18 letter on exploring Japan. A traveler really doesn’t need any Japanese at all to “go native” in Japan. My wife and I have traveled extensively through Japan, visiting all four main islands by train and ferry, using only Eoji Kanno and Constance O’Keefe’s “Japan Solo” (Warner Books), an inexpensive Japanese pocket dictionary and flash cards. The flash cards contain such questions as: Is there an earlier train? Is there a later train? On what track? At what time?

As for the dictionary, one doesn’t need to ask questions in sentences. Want to go to the train station? Look up “station” or “depot” in the dictionary and show the word, if you can’t pronounce it, to a taxi driver.

DAVID WESTHEIMER

Los Angeles