Music legend Bonnie Tyler passed away at 75

"Holding Out for a Hero" is one of my favorite songs of all time. I once wrote an alternate version where the hero was a girl.

Which of her songs makes you smile?

Here's the lyrics to my alternative version if you're curious:

Intro]

Do-do, do-do

Do-do, do-do

Do-do, do-do

Ah, ah

[Verse 1]

Where have all the good women gone and where are all the gods?

Where's the streetwise Xena to fight the risin' odds?

Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?

Late at night, I tossed and I turned and I dreamt of what I needed

[Chorus]

I needed a hero

I was holding out for a hero till the end of the night

She's gotta be bold and he's gotta be fast

And she's gotta be fresh from the fight

I found a hero (Hero)

I was holding out for a hero till the morning light (Hero till the morning light)

Said she's gotta be sure and it's gotta be soon

And she's gotta be larger than life, larger than life

[Post-Chorus]

Do-do, do-do

Do-do, do-do

Do-do, do-do

Ah, ah

[Verse 2]

Somewhere after midnight in my wildest fantasy

Somewhere just beyond my reach, there's someone reaching back for me

Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat

It's gonna take a Wonder Woman to sweep me off my feet, yeah

[Chorus]

I needed a hero

Then I found my a hero at the end of the night

She's bold and she's fast

And she's fresh from the fight

I needed a hero (Hero)

I found a hero at the morning light (Hero at the morning light)

She's sure and it's soon

And she's larger than life

I needed a hero

I was holding out for a hero till the end of the night

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]

Up where the mountains meet the heavens above

Out where the lightning splits the sea

I swore there was someone somewhere watching me

Through the wind and the chill and the rain

And the storm and the flood

I could feel her approach like a fire in my blood

(Like a fire in my blood, like a fire in my blood)

(Like a fire in my blood, like a fire in my blood, blood)

[Chorus]

I needed a hero (Hero)

I was holding out for a hero till the end of the night

This one's bod and she's fast

And she's fresh from the fight

I needed a hero (Hero)

I was holding out for a hero till the morning light (Hero till the morning light)

She sure and it's now

And she's larger than life

I needed a hero (Hero)

I was holding out for a hero till the end of the night

This hero's bold and she's so fast

And she's fresh from the fight

I needed a hero (Hero)

I was holding out for a hero till the morning light (Hero till the morning light)

She's sure and now

And she's larger than life

I needed a hero

I was holding out for a hero till the end of the night

And found her

All That Over a Broken Latch

The latch on my balcony door broke the other day.

Nothing dramatic. The handle just gave up and spun off.

So I opened ChatGPT and asked how to explain the problem to the management company in Japanese.

Which is funny. 

I’ve lived in Japan for over ten years, teach in English and Japanese, handle emails in kanji, and navigate banks, hospitals, and city offices in Japanese.

Yet here I was, asking an app to help me say, “My door is broken.”

Silly, right?

I caught myself and decided not to use what it suggested.

Instead, I typed out what I'd actually say, awkward phrasing, half-formed politeness, hesitation, and all.

I typed into it, "This is what I’d really say."

The response surprised me.

After a year of chats, it has a memory stored of how I sound. It kept my structure, fixed my mistakes, and nudged things into more natural Japanese.

Suddenly, I had something that was still “me,” just cleaner, and I learned more about Japanese from the app.

That was when I noticed a word:

「ベランダ」

Beranda?

I stared at it for a second.

"How does “balcony” turn into that?" I asked.

「ベランダ」comes from Portuguese varanda, brought to Japan centuries ago through early trade.

It listed:

• ベランダ (Portuguese)

• パン (Portuguese pão)

• ガラス (Dutch glas)

• コップ (Dutch kop)

• アルバイト (German Arbeit)

• エネルギー (German Energie)

These are in actuality history.

They’re trade routes, missionaries, merchants, and contact zones compressed into everyday speech.

Every time someone says「ベランダ」, they’re unconsciously echoing the 16th century.

For years, I’d thought of katakana mainly as a crutch.

Something that makes English harder to pronounce.

And that critique is... incomplete.

What I saw right then was that katakana is also a record of integration. A system that absorbs foreign things, reshapes them, and makes them part of a larger whole.

In Japanese culture, this idea is often described as 和 (wa), meaning harmony. Different elements work together without erasing each other.

Katakana does that linguistically.

It carries Portuguese, Dutch, German, and English inside Japanese, without pretending they were never foreign.

Before this realization, I mostly saw katakana as a problem.

Now, I see it as a secret archive.

All that insight, triggered by a broken latch.

 

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I’m curious:

What’s your favorite katakana word?

How did you learn it?

Drop a comment and let me know.

 

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