I've been here for 123 days now (I wish I'd thought to celebrate the 100 day mark, but it doesn't really matter), and in that time I've rarely had many real opportunities to practice what little Japanese I do know. The occasional "where is...?" or "can I have...?", but little in the way of conversation.

Yesterday I helped the new Italian girl, Alessandra, to find a building for a language school she wants to join. When we got inside, I noticed a sign (ironically in English) saying something like "Use only Japanese in here please". As I waited for Alessandra to fill in some form or another I started pacing about looking at posters and reading notices I couldn't understand. Then, the Japanese girl who was dealing with Alex's application invited me to take a seat, and started firing questions at me in Japanese. They were fairly basic questions like "Where are you from?", "What are you doing in Japan?", etc, etc, and I understood them all. Answering them was another matter. I think I managed it okay, albeit with a few grammatical howlers, and she seemed to understand my answers.

When she'd finished with me, though, I realised I was covered in sweat, as if I'd just come out of an exam or a police interrogation. But that five minutes was really the most Japanese I'd spoken since I got here. And seeing as though everyone else in the room was paying 50,000 yen for a two week course, I'd just had a free lesson.