Alex adjusted the tilt of her laptop’s monitor and pulled a search engine up on the screen. She had plenty of time, which was good because she was determined to get what she wanted. As always.

“Phonetic Japanese” was the first step, which got her some helpful, if frustrating, leads.

Alexandria’s understanding of Japanese was lacking, mostly consisting of touristy phrases and various requests. She didn’t like being at a disadvantage, but there had never been a need for much more than the basics in her travels. Until now. Now, her small repertoire was entirely deficient. There was nothing that would help her decode the conversation she’d overheard. The one with the gestures toward the very man she’d accompanied, and the furtive almost-whispers that likely would have stopped if the pair had any inkling she’d understood them. But they hadn’t. And she hadn’t. And there was the frustration.

So Alex utilized the limited capabilities of the translation engines on the sites she found until she was fairly certain that whatever the conversation she hadn’t understood, it was important. She made a note to approach Hiroshi with the inadequate information she’d pieced together, and accessed a new search for “Learning Japanese”.