(1) It isn't fun. Not everyone of us knows the whole set and have to keep a digital dictionary in smartphone
(2) We don't assume the names of people based on their Kanji, because (surpise!) people do get offended by minor changes in pronunciation e.g Yamasaki vs. Yamazaki, with similar Kanjis.
That's why I always prefer to inscribe my Japanese notes with Kana in a superscript wherever needed. It is very tight in grammar but the language is not easy by any means. In fact, same goes for Chinese & Koreans.
Note that even (or maybe especially) Japanese people don’t do this either.
The first thing anyone introducing themselves does is say how to write/say their name.
> actually pictorial to some degree
Only in the same sense that star constellations are pictorial.
I really feel like this is appropriate.
Tree: 木
Forest: 森
For example, the character for people (民) comes from the image of a person being pierced through the eye, which was done to mark slaves in ancient China. Eventually the character and meaning evolved to the way it's used now.
Rest: 休 (person leaning against a tree)
Someone with a quirky personality might say that :)
Nah, OK, so it seems I've misunderstood that then.
Hei, vasta 27 v tässä pakkosuomen maassa...
I thought you were going to link this guy but both work :)
If you can imagine a language where 2k+ emoji are used as parts of words, with all the combination rules which emoji have, that would give you some idea.
But it does tax your memory (nothing compared to Chinese, though!), and takes time when writing by hand. Typing is significantly easier because a reasonable IME gives you variants to choose from when you type the pronunciation.