[As opposed to Japan being 'The Land of the Gods' that was the only important part of the universe until around the 1860's?]
You could always give it a try. I wouldn't consider myself so terribly lacking in understanding.
[After all, he can READ! And WRITE! And do ARITHMETIC! Slowly, of course, he's no scribe or anything... but if you wanted to know 571 minus 238 and gave him a whole lot of paper, he'd eventually come out with an answer that stood a pretty good chance of being in the general vicinity of correct!
(All those Roman numerals, you know. Made math a real pain.)]
[Video]
You could always give it a try. I wouldn't consider myself so terribly lacking in understanding.
[After all, he can READ! And WRITE! And do ARITHMETIC! Slowly, of course, he's no scribe or anything... but if you wanted to know 571 minus 238 and gave him a whole lot of paper, he'd eventually come out with an answer that stood a pretty good chance of being in the general vicinity of correct!
(All those Roman numerals, you know. Made math a real pain.)]