Overcoming the language barrier

Now, I started learning Japanese almost two years ago, the pace has been slow, and I have a hell of a way to go, but I am still frequently surprised at how with my little Japanese or with someone else's bit of English and some gestures, it is fairly easy to communicate with people in this country. In a whole variety of situations. And boy do I mean a WHOLE variety of situations.

Take monday for example. The town's board of education is merging with 5 others from local areas, so we had to pack up and move. I was doing my best to be helpful, but I am not well versed in the Japanese vocabulary necessary for moving house, so it was a bit difficult, until one of the senior members of staff began to point and gesture. Not only did he clearly signal what he wanted moved, and where to, we all found it quite hilarious and laughed a lot.

Another example is saturday. I was in the city, I'd had coffee with Fiona and done some shopping, and had some time to kill. So I decided to explore. Naturally this means going somewhere you haven't really spent much time in, so I headed to the city's red-light district. My my. It was daytime, so nothing much was going on, although it was still, clearly, a bit seedy. And as I walked down roads looking around, the last thing I expected was a man to jump off his bike and start talking to me in Japanese. He was a bar owner. And he wanted to tell me about his bar. In Japanese. With a few English words. It turns out his bar has girls. Well, it wouldn't be much use in the red-light district otherwise. Apparently the girls do something, but I don't understand the word. Oh, hang on, it's gesture time. He's making fish mouth. Oh... And now he's getting on his knees so his head is at about crotch level to mine (thankfully at safe distance). Eh? . He is pointing to the picture of the girls and makes the fish mouth again. And he rocks his head backwards and forwards... oh... OH! 10,000 yen for 40 minutes (I understood that bit, no diagram needed). And then he stands up and starts thrusting his pelvis, gesturing "no" at the same time. Yeah, you don't have to worry mister. They will not be coming into contact with my trouser area or any other of my areas thank you very much. I made excuses- "I have to meet my friends" only for him to show me a picture of an Italian woman who didn't quite have a fishmouth but had silicone bosoms and an excess of make-up. And hopefully some mouthwash. Managing to escape after a quick fire round of friendly questions to the foriegner I headed back to the city centre thinking of nice things like flowers and puppies and OH!

The rest of the weekend passed without event. An evening in Kurashiki with LeeJay and her American guest, more shopping on Sunday and then the fun bus home. You can't really top fish mouth in the street in the daylight, can you? Lord, I hope not, because if you can, I'm sure it'll happen here. To me.