It’s rare for Japanese people to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger but, for some of the older generation, foreigners are outside of Japanese society and therefore not subject to its limits. They also haven’t figured out yet that foreigners are just like any one else who travels to a foreign country; be it for business or pleasure, maybe we just want to read our book. Follows, a transcript of a recent and all-too typical conversation that took place on the train last night between myself, Bob and a random elderly Japanese man. As always, fully italicized sentences have been translated from the Japanese for your reading ease and my ego satisfaction.

Old Man: Do you speak Japanese?

Me: Um, a little. 

Old Man: Where do you come from?

Me: America. 

Old Man: [switching to painstaking but perfect English] What do you want to do in Japan?

Me: I’m not a tourist, I live here. 

Old Man: You live here?

Me: Yeah.

Old Man: Why did you come to Japan?

Me: Just because. 

Old Man: Why did you come to Japan?

Me: Because that’s the way it is, right?

Old Man: “Because that’s the way it is.” [back to English] What you job?

Me: [reluctantly] English teacher.

Old Man: Nova? Geos? 

Me: It’s a secret. 

Bob [in an awesome talk-block maneuver]: Excuse me, can I sit here? 

Old Man: Yes. [to Bob, in English] Where you come from?

Bob: I’m sorry, but I don’t speak English. 

The moral of this story is that my Japanese has progressed to the point where I can be cryptic.