I also love the Japanese version of "too many cooks spoil the broth", "too many boatmen will sail the boat up a mountain" (you'll need to wait for the Japanese for that one, my proverb books are upstairs)
Sendo oku ****e fune yama ni noburu (with lines over the first two o's)
few more
Mochi wa mochiya, "for rice cakes, go to the rice cake maker" (the right man for the right job"
Toranu tanuki no kawa zan' yo (line again) "don't calculate the value of a
tanuki skin before catching the
tanuki" (don't count your chickens before their hatched)
Chimi mo tsumoreba yama to naru, "even dust amassed will make a mountain (great oaks from little acorns grow)
He o hitte shiri tsubome, "there's no use scrunching your butt up after a fart" (there's no use locking the barn after the horse has run away)
Mitsugo no tamashii hyaku made, "the spirit of a three year old lasts 100 years" (the child is the father of the man"
Yanagi no ****a ni itsu-mo dojo (line) wa inai, "once cannot always find a fish under a willow (no one's luck lasts forever)
No (line) aru taka wa tsume o kakasu "a clever hawk hides his claws" (he who knows most, speaks least)
And finally their version of "if you don't succeed try try again)
Nana-korobi ya-oki, "fall down seven times, get up eight"
I'll do the second book later.
I agree with you, Patrick would have been nice.
