A Japanese Update

It's really great. I'm learning! I can definitely tell my Japanese has progressed and is on the move. I've now had 3 private lessons and it's definitely worth the cash. I thought that at worst it would provide motivation to study, and it's been doing much more than that; my private teacher Watanabesan really knows how to teach, so I'm absorbing information and setting the bar during my lessons.

The other night I biked to the konbini because I was craving some junk food. I made my purchases and hopped back on my bike. Just across the street from the konbini is this grease trap ramen shop that I had been to once and avoided since but this night I was feeling particularly daring (and admissibly more hungry than chocolate covered peanuts could satiate) so I decided to make a brief stop to order and swallow a single order of gyoza. How did it take me this long to learn my lesson? I now realize fully that when you don't speak a region's native language and you look as white as a polar bear nothing happens quickly. It used to bother me, but I finally just conceded that things are going to take longer than normal and to just roll with it. A laugh and a "wakarimasen" (I don't understand) is a reasonable response in many situations. However, many positions I find myself in I can get through eventually, it just takes a lot of arm flailing, chicken scratching and the 3rd or 4th choice vocabulary word. (And that's on both sides of the communication!) Furuyasan (my usual tutor at my bunka center lessons) is particularly hilarious in his actions - just tonight he had me laughing at his air guitar playing.

So I ordered my gyoza from the lady, and I heard her talking to the man behind the counter (I found out later they are husband and wife) that I was the English teacher at Ihara High School. I think she was a little put off that I only ordered gyoza. The man started talking to me a sentence or two at a time until our conversation really started to warm and he came over and took a seat next to me at the counter. We talked about English and teaching and a relative of his in the United States. We talked about the weather and that sort of thing - even small talk takes a while to get through for me still. His wife kept badgering him to let me eat; often in our conversation I was left with gyoza in chopsticks, in limbo between my plate and mouth. He would say "gomennasai" (sorry) then start talking again the moment I had a full mouth. I found out that his name is Mitsuo Sano and he is 66 years old. We also talked about my name, Ru-Sa-, and my age, 24, and the fact that I'm 42 years his junior! Sanosan actually runs an autobody shop connected to the ramen shop - thus maybe a bit of the grease and grime. He and his wife both are super nice and really fun to talk with. They ended up cooking me some free ramen (I had already eaten a bowl of ramen for lunch, but I really couldn't turn it down). Sanosan wanted to give me free beer, but I told him I had biked, so I couldn't drink. (There's a zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving here in Japan, one that is rigorously kept for even bicyclists. I would lose my job and get shipped home if I was pulled over on my bike blowing a 0.01.) He then said I had to walk next time to the shop so that we could drink together.

We talked too about learning Japanese and the efforts I've been making so far. He told me to bring my homework to their restaurant and work on it there. Tuesday night really made me feel welcomed in my community.

It's really weird thinking back on our conversation - I realize that we were communicating almost entirely in Japanese - I know more Japanese than they know English (and that's not to make anything of my abilities, believe me). I have yet to feel like I'm communicating while using Japanese, I still feel like it's a cumbersome blunt object that I'm wielding, hacking away at tangles of uncertainty. I can't wait until the Japanese language is no longer a burden but rather a vehicle. (A shinkansen, maybe!)

Well, either way, we still ended up exchanging a lot of information, and I'm happy with whatever successes I find. Japan's not too bad; I can see movement and that's a good thing.