Baby Steps

Today, a random Japanese couple (tourists from elsewhere in Japan?) stopped me on the street to ask for directions to Hokkaido-something-Church. Yeah, (教会 was pretty much the only word I caught (other than "excuse me," "directions," and "Hokkaido") because I was too busy being completely caught off guard by their speaking to me. I guess being Asian (although I think Asians can generally tell Asian ethnicities apart, to some degree) means I don't get blatant stares from locals, nor am I immediately labeled as a 外人 like some of the others are. Some Japanese boy on a bike apparently caught sight of tall, pretty, white Julia and crashed his bike at the train station (she doesn't live in Hakodate), and I also hear Elliot's quite the popular tall, blue-eyed white boy from America. I personally think it's pretty obvious how foreign I am, given the cap on my head and braid (I think all the girls I've seen have buns or crazy hairstyles), not to mention the tank top I was wearing at the time (i.e., not a school girl's uniform). In any case, even if I was useless in all other regards ("Umm....I think you go straight on this street, but I don't know, sorry"), I was still pretty pleased with myself because:

a) They took it for granted that I could understand Japanese
b) They assumed I had a sense of direction. FAAAAIL.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to understand and say as much as I did, which just goes to show that I need to get out and talk to more people if something that minor makes me so proud of myself. Anyway, shortly after, I passed by the little rickshaw drivers' area like I do everyday during my 20-ish minute trek from HIF to the bus station, and although I initially said "Konnitiwa!" and went along my merry way, I finally got my courage up to double back and timidly ask the rickshaw driver who was there if he could spare some time. He was really friendly and didn't mind at all, thankfully, as I explained to him how I was first year student at HIF and we had to do an independent study project and I wanted to interview him, adding the disclaimer that being just a first year my Japanese was terrible.

I had prepared questions beforehand after school had ended (while in the lounge listening to some absolutely awful hip hop song on Ashok's computer which I'll naturally have to look up and download now), and once again was pleasantly surprised that the Japanese seemed to come naturally and I remembered most of my questions (and the right grammar!) so I didn't have to read out of my notebook while I interviewed my guy, Kawahira Takuya. (Disclaimer: I can't actually tell where his last name ends and his first name begins from where he kindly spelled his name out in hiragana in my spiral). I'm also afraid I completely forgot the polite way of asking for his name, so I hope he doesn't think I'm super rude and ungrateful now. I'll have to go back and give him my last remaining Texas omiyage (wikipedia it, I'm too lazy to hyperlink that), which happens to be a shot glass in case you cared. Although he very well may have been using really simple Japanese after my disclaimer, excepting one question, I understood everything he said (and he understood me!) which was super duper freaking cool.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to talk to random shopkeepers that I pass on the street slash random people whom I meet at bus stops now. Funny because I would never dream of doing any such thing in America because people scare me too much.

Onuma Park this weekend! But for now, homework and study time.