216!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Many Americans believe China is a society that puts an abnormally high emphasis on keeping its citizens in line through punishment. But the truth is that only 1.2 percent of China's 1.3 billion people are in the slammer, whereas the U.S. has jailed 7.7 percent of its population of 300 million. In other words, my home country has a much higher percentage of our people behind bars than they do. I bring this to your attention, Pisces, as a prod to free some of the parts of yourself that you've imprisoned. Declare amnesty for the miscast captives and repressed workers within you. Bring the level down from the U.S. rate of incarceration to the Chinese level.

This bears some thinking about... Some "captives" have to be locked away for their own protection as much as anything else... :-?

Japanese Vocab for this week:
Noren (noh-reh-n)--Shop Curtain
Hashi (hah-shee)--Bridge
Hare (hah-reh)--Clear Weather
Hagaki (hah-gah-kee)--Postcard
Hiru (hee-roo)--Noon
Hitsuji (hee-tsoo-jee)--Sheep
Fune (hfoo-neh)--Ship
Fue (hfoo-eh)--Flute
Fuusen (hfooo-seh-n)--Balloon
Hei (heh-ee)--Fence

And finally that brings me to over 200 words and phrases! I think this calls for a celebratory breakfast when I get off work. ^_^