SEIWA-EN

Seiwa-en, or the garden of pure, clear harmony and peace, in the Japanese section of the Missouri Botanical Garden. We all could use some pure, clear harmony and peace, but frankly, in the short to medium term, I ain't optimistic.

I used to know a little Japanese but it has been so many years since we have been there that it slipped away. My crowning achievement was asking a store clerk for directions to our hotel (before mobile phone maps). Our sensei, or teacher, told us that you really can't say that you are lost. "Only a child would say that," she told us. But with knowing the phrase for "where is the **** Hotel?', plus right, left, straight ahead and simple counting we found our way home. 

By the way, I found the hardest thing to learn in spoken Japanese was counting. It's mind-boggleingly complicated by the standards of European languages. You could look it up.