I don’t often end up on Yahoo! Answers (has anyone ever found a decent answer to anything there?), but, for some reason, found myself landing on a page there quite a few months ago: a list of questions about Japan put together because the person posting them is “writing a story that I guess in a way is like a manga, but no pictures, and of course, it takes place in Japan.”

Yes, “of course”.

And what, exactly, does “like a manga, but no pictures” mean?

Anyway, here is the list (I thought about blurring the icon and name to protect the innocent, but, hey, it’s posted on Yahoo! Answers for all to search and see):

Clearly, this is where we all chime in with the old adage “Write what you know”.

I’m pretty loose in my application of the “write what you know” approach – I think great things can be written about places one’s never physically visited, but, obviously, you know, that would require RESEARCH.

I’m not sure which of these made me laugh the hardest, but I can definitely say that, when reading #17, I did mentally answer: “No, thankfully, we are not all subject to the shockingly crappy cell phone service that some of you lucky U.S. subscribers suffer.”

When I went back to get the link for this blog post, I discovered that a few people had actually taken the time to answer the questions in a friendly, helpful, way.

Of course, when I went back, I had to click on another link for more hilarity:

Oh, don’t worry, ChiefOfAzns, you’ll be just fine when you embark on your globetrotting adventure…