Henceforth

Amanda suggested I take a course or do some mental work to take my mind off of my slow knee healing progress.

Actually I was given a mental exercise the minute I walked in the door from the hospital! A friend at the prefecture office asked if I could look over an English translation of a booklet introducing English speaking foreigners to the prefecture. I said I was happy to do so but I didn't expect the booklet to be 195 pages long!! I also know the person who is doing the translating and I can only say that I hope she doesn't have a nervous breakdown before the job is finished! All the dumb legal terms on top of the dumb official Japanese red tape on top of all the dumb obsolete phrases that have previously been used! What IS the prefecture trying to say?

"As for the foreign national, Konin-yoken-gubi-shomeisho (Certificate of Legal Capacity for a Marriage Contract, so called Dokushin-shomeisho, Certificate of unmarried staus) and its translation into Japanese are required. (As for countries where this certificate is not issued, an authorized certificate in lieu is required.)"

The problem also arises when I try to make that into more understandable English but am reminded that I am "checking" a translation, not translating and also not responsible for changing everything to make it more natural... In some places we are going with the "shall be"s and "Henceforth"s...

Anyway, my nightly brain activity has been correcting grammatical mistakes and tweaking of odd phases or circling sections in red and writing "I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS!!!! PLEASE EXPLAIN!!!"

I sure hope we get this done before I leave for the States. I do NOT want to spend my summer vacation revising the prefecture's formal documents.