I make slow progress in saying more than three words in Japanese…. Basically I can say arigato, arigato gozaimasu (the more polite form – I just discovered there is actually a ‘u’ at the end) and konichiwa.

It probably won’t go much further than that. I want to include please, till the end of the stay.

I know I would be lost in communication. To various levels. Some places are ok. Public transport in Tokyo generally has some information in English available, and I can navigate it.

In shops, it becomes more difficult, and I had a couple of situations where we clearly did not understand each other, but were all bowing politely and smiling. I think I get away with a lot.

Generally, even in small Japanese restaurants or soup kitchens, they do understand me and leave out the meat. I don’t care that it’s a meat broth, I’ll eat it. My mom also always throws in a chunk of meat into her stews.

After a few days in Osaka, I realize it is slightly different here. Albeit being a huge city, it is clearly not a tourist destination for foreigners. The Shinkansen emptied in Kyoto, only 5 more people stayed on in my compartment to Osaka.

The Hanami was practically a Japanese-only event, and even  in the Castle I may have spottet only a handful of other Euro’s – Spanish and French, comme d’habitude.

While the info in the public transport is mostly given in English, the staff seems to speak none… but understood I wanted to buy their local rechargeable transport card, and gave me a name – something I only understood later when I crossed that name written on another train station. That’s where I bought my ICOCA Card.

In underground metro stops, you may follow the Enlish signs slavishly… until they stop, and there is literally only Japanese on all the signs. Back to square one, or simply go up and try again.

Another example: my day trip on JR to Nara. I knew I was on the right track…

And one of these trains is the express local train to Nara. Can you spot which one?

I painstakingly compared brush/electronic strokes. And succeeded! The circle and triangle symbols still confuse me though…

The moment the train rolled in, they made an English announcement, probably knowing all the tourists wanted to get on that train only. By that time I had already figured it all out myself. Ha!

Another example in the Post office. It looked somewhat empty and there was a ‘closed’ sign on the counter – in English, nonetheless. But my question if they were closed triggered just confusion.

Well, as they were not complimenting me out, I decided I ask for stamps. It took a long time until they got it, I had to dig out my postcards to confirm.

I mean, what are the odds: clearly non-japanese guy runs into post office and wants something. Chances are: to buy stamps. 95%, wanna bet…? I mean, what else do they deal with…?

The whole procedure involved three super friendly members of staff. I got my stamps. But we were all sweating. 70 Yen each, I hope they understood Germany or Europe being their destination. They are really beautiful, btw. The stamps, I mean.

It is all really funny, and somewhat sweat-inducing… I should really have some kind of vocabulary book with the most common sentences. On the other hand, it’s so much more fun this way.

And there is some progress. If I know what to expect, for example the announcement of the next metro stop’s name, I do recognize it.

I also started to recognize a few names printed in Kanji, Japan, Tokyo and Osaka, for example. I find the one for ‘rice field’ really easy.

I’m not complaining. It’s adventurous. I have to watch Lost in translation again, however those two just get whet they deserve, you just have to go out and try, and see what happenes. I mean, honestly, nothing bad will happen except for a little confusion here or there.