The original Japanese typewriter had quite a few more. There are over 85,000 Japanese characters, but the typewriter only had a 200 x 200 block of characters which only made up about 40,000 characters. Then, you had to use a pair of tweezers to pull out unused characters and place other characters one at a time. LOL

Then, when computers came out, they came up with a much simpler way to input combinatorics using either hiragana or romaji (English letters) that could be changed pressing a [henkan] or [change] button and you would have a list of choices to choose from which change you wanted. 

FWIW

Blows my mind

LOL...

Well, let me blow your mind even more...

All of the 85,000 characters are written backward making them even more difficult to read while they are in the print block set, but once printed, they print out perfectly! (* LOL *)

FWIW

Thank God for that.  When I lived in San Francisco I did speak some Japanese.....Now I only know a few phrases and words..So glad they have those translators(sp) now.

I don't think I will ever get to Kyoto..but if I went to Japan..that's where I would want to go.  I have had such vivid dreams of long ago.  Even met 2 men(not at the same time) and dreamed of them in Japan interacting with who I was.  One lived in Texas in this life and one in Florida.

would love to see him in person

Well, if you ever want to come to Japan to see one of his shows, I recommend you book a ticket for one of his shows a month or two in advance.

Once you've got the ticket, then plan your flight. I would recommend leaving the US at least 2-3 days before his show. That way if there is a flight cancellation or major delay, you still have a few days. Likewise, plan for at least one day of jetlag for you to get used to the new time zone. 

You would NOT want to fall asleep in one of his shows, but jetlag can and will do that to you.

Then you can take as many days after his show as you like for sightseeing. 

FWIW

Arigatou