You think teaching American kids to read is hard?  Try learning to read Japanese.

Victor  finds out the Japanese government is proposing to add 196 characters to the already mandated 1,945 kanji already required to be considered “literate.”  Here’s his reaction:

Write your prayers on a slip of paper, lay them down on the porcelain shrine, and flush.  It works, really … just watch the video if you don’t believe me. 

From the great Japanese Haiku poet Basho:

“I hear the unblown flute, In the deep summer shadows, Of the Temple of Suma.”