Signs of Progress

A couple of recent events that suggest my Japanese may be making progress.

First, while we were on the Tohoku trip, a woman mistook me for a Japanese person. Admittedly, it was dark and I suspect her eyesight isn’t too good, but we did have a very brief conversation, and it was only a bit later, when she came a bit closer, that she suddenly realised I wasn’t Japanese.

Second, today I went to a lecture on Shinto in Shibuya (which was very interesting, incidentally). I’m the only non-Japanese-looking person in the room, so I rather stand out, and another of the attendees spoke to me afterwards. In the course of the conversation, she asked whether I was born in Japan.

A while back, I read a website list of “You know you’ve been in Japan too long when…” things. My favourite was “…people stop complimenting you on your Japanese, and starting asking where you got your eyes and nose done”.

Nearly there…