A Journey in Time

When you take on a new interest, you generally learn things. Surprisingly, my new interest in pearls has led me to Japanese history.

I've been reading some Japanese web pages on pearls as well. I can't read like I did 15 years ago, but it always pleasantly surprises me that I can read at all after so long. Reading or speaking a rarely used native language is like an old song that you used to know by heart - you have a general sensation of the words that are about to come up, even if you can't formulate them, trapped and eager to pop out, but just stuck at the tip of your tongue. Immediately after you hear them, you think, "yeah, that's it!" and then they come back to you as if you had only forgotten them for a little while. You may have to relearn them to sing them by heart, but they are familiar and fit well, and you know that because you knew them before, they will come back again easily if you want them to.