Wikipedia doesn't entirely agree with you: "Both horizontal and vertical writing are used in Japan, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan where the Traditi

Wikipedia doesn't entirely agree with you: "Both horizontal and vertical writing are used in Japan, as well as in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan where the Traditional Chinese orthography is used. Traditional Chinese is also used in mainland China in a few limited contexts, such as some books on ancient literature, or as an aesthetic choice for some signs on shops, temples, etc. In those contexts, both horizontal and vertical writing are used as well. Vertical writing is commonly used for novels, newspapers, comics, and many other forms of writing. Because it goes downwards, vertical writing is invariably used on the spines of books. Some newspapers combine the two forms, using the vertical format for most articles but including some written horizontally, especially for headlines. Musical notation for some Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi is written vertically." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_and_vertical_writing_in_East_Asian_scripts#Japanese_and_Traditional_Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_and_vertical_writing... But I agree that you don't really have to worry about that. Just as we're lucky not to have to worry about this monstrosity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon