It's Rice Field. Brave Love Rice Field.

When I first arrived in Japan, one of the immediate 'official matters' I had to attend to was ordering my hanko, or stamp. Everyone in Japan has a hanko with his or her name on it and it is generally used in place of a signature. I guess the system can be compared to the seals used by dignitaries and such during the middle ages. Your hanko is very personal and it needs to be registered with the government, so it is also very official.

Japan has three main alphabets, one of which is used exclusively for foreign words (katakana). Because I myself am foreign, my name is usually sounded out using this foreign-word alphabet and my personal stamp (inkan) reflects this, reading 'Bu-re-n-da' (I go by Brenda, rather than my last name, as most Japanese people do).

Last week, however, I got a new stamp in the mail. My kanji stamp! Kanji is another of the three alphabets. My new kanji name still reads the same as my first name, but the three kanji (Chinese characters) it is composed of mean: 1) brave, 2) love, and 3) rice field. I find it kind of funny that my new Japanese name is Brave Love Rice Field, but I am told this is very beautiful. I will still be using my katakana stamp for important matters (official forms, the bank, etc), but I am happy about the new stamp! Feel free to call me Rice Field for short;)