I always have to spell my last name when making reservations anywhere.  Even the French automatically spell it the traditionally correct way  - LeFevre. I have to correct them to type in the American spelling - LeFever.

In Japan, the difficulty of this task has come to a new level and we have seen more interesting spellings than anywhere else. Moving from South Japan to North, here are versions 2 through 5:

LEHEBA

RESIBA

LEFIBE

LEFEBERU

Now, with my experience with the language, I completely understand the issue of "L"s and "R"s being used interchangeably, as their sound for them is right between the two. However, how do you explain this kicker we just received today as we arrived back in Tokyo?

MS. RESEGZ

I'm baffled. They must be too.