I've been studying Japanese on and off for nearly 15 years. Largely self taught I had a tutor in my best friend in middle and high school, and managed to catch a year's worth of actual language and culture courses in university.
And it has taken me all of this time to realize what my own pictograph resembles.
I originally chose it because it looked interesting. It was the first picto that came up that wasn't a jumble of lines and a mess. But because it looked a little like a Japanese kanji.
I was amused by it, I liked it, and it was simple to remember what it looked like at the time.
A couple of years ago I switched my tally marks to using the Japanese system, not for any reason than because it's pretty, and because it's much easier to count the things I tally when my tally marks literally spell out 1-2-3-4-5.
And STILL I didn't realize what my pictogram resembled. Here it is, two in the bloody morning where I am. I can't sleep, and I'm watching the map while TEF plays in the background.
A soft lilting melody of frogs and water, wind and the stray lowing of another deer.
Through half closed eyes I look at the map and go...
"Huh... that's funny, that pictogram looks exactly like the number 5..."
TEN MINUTES LATER my stupid, fuzzy, sleep deprived brain goes..
"You idiot! THAT'S YOUR PICTOGRAM! You are literally the number 5!"
For anyone curious.
https://twototokyo.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/five-japanese-kanji-symbo...
That is the Japanese number 5.
http://www.endlessforest.org/community/rya
And there is my profile, with my own picto proudly on display.
Fifteen years of Japanese.
9 years of playing TEF
9 years of looking at my own Pictogram and thinking 'ha, it looks like a Kanji'
9 years of my brain not making the connection that I was wearing the number 5 on my head
Bloody hell am I an idiot.
