The task of choosing where to eat out (gaishoku, がいしょく, 外食) in Japan can be a difficult one. Upon venturing out to a busy area in the evening in Japan, you will be met by a dazzling array of neon, endless signs for eateries, often from basement up to the seventh or eighth floor or above and stretching off into the distance in all directions, with menu-bearing touts (yobikomi, よびこみ, 呼び込み) intent on herding potential customers in the direction of their particular restaurant. How can you navigate through this to a meal that fits both your palate and your wallet?

Low-budget Eateries

For the frugal, there are three donburi (どんぶり, 丼) chains that you cannot fail to come across in Japan: Sukiya (すき家) , Matsuya (松屋, ), and Yoshinoya (吉野家). At these establishments, open 24 hours a day, you can buy a filling meal starting at just 250 or 290 yen, generally variants of bowls of rice covered with beef and vegetables (gyuudon, ぎゅうどん, 牛丼), although other options such as eel (unagi, うなぎ, 鰻) are also available. Selection of a dish and payment are often made via a machine, sometimes situated outside the restaurant to save space, so even foreigners with no spoken Japanese can order if they can read the text on the buttons, or try ‘pot luck’ and press a random button to select their meal.

Another option besides the donburi chains is yatai (やたい, 屋台), small food stalls with a few stools for customers. Ramen noodles are often the dish of choice at these places, and they are great in winter to warm you via both the food and being huddled around the stove/cauldron where the food is prepared. Alternatively, octopus balls (takoyaki, たこやき, たこ焼き) are a quick and tasty dish served at yatai that is particularly prevalent in Osaka.

Regular restaurants

A step up from the Japanese fast food options above is the izakaya (いざかや, 居酒屋). For an authentic Japanese eating experience, these are hard to beat. Often referred to as a Japanese pub, this translation really fails to do it justice. There are certainly similarities in the way that you will be greeted upon entering and leaving, the crowded seating arrangements that encourage interaction between tables and groups, and the ready flow of beer and other alcoholic beverages.

However, food takes a far more central stage in an izakaya than in a pub, and indeed, taking up a table just to drink without sampling the food is frowned upon. A visit to an izakaya can be challenge to one’s Japanese, as the menu is often written by hand on pieces of paper attached to the wall, which can make the kanji even more difficult to decipher than usual. However, as a meal at an izakaya usually involves many small dishes, if you are not sure of the meaning of an item on the menu then you can always order it and see without risking spoiling your meal. Other signs to look out for at particular izakaya are for tabehoudai (たべほうだい, 食べ放題) and nomihoudai (のみほうだい, 飲み放題). These refer to systems in which you eat or drink, respectively, as much as you like in a 60-, 90-, or 120-minute period for a set fee.

Besides the izakaya, there are a number of other middle-range restaurant options, at which, in contrast to the izakaya, the specific type of food available is reflected in the name of the category. Restaurants can specialize in food items such as yakitori (skewered chicken; やきとり, 焼き鳥), okinamiyaki (Japanese omelette/pancake; おこのみやき, お好み焼き), monja (pan-fried batter; もんじゃ), tempura (battered seafood or vegetables; てんぷら, 天ぷら), shabu shabu (Japanese hot-pot; しゃぶしゃぶ), and noodle dishes such as udon (うどん), soba (そば), ramen (らめん), and reimen (れいめん, 冷麺). Of course, sashimi (さしみ, 刺身) and sushi (すし, 寿司) are also always available. One particularly enjoyable option is the kaitensushi (rolling sushi; かいてんすし, 回転すし) , where the dishes pass by you on a conveyor belt, and the bill is determined by the number and colors of the various dishes that you are left with at the end of your meal (again not requiring too many Japanese language skills).

Foreign options

Despite the huge variety available within the category of Japanese food, you may sometimes hanker after something from outside the country. One budget option is Japanese curry, such as curry rice (kare-raisu, カレーライス), a hugely popular and somewhat watered down version of the traditional Indian dish. Alternatively, Korean food is a widely available option, which includes kimuchi (spicy Korean cabbage; キムチ), chijimi (Korean pancake; チジミ), and yakiniku restaurants (Korean barbecue; やきにく, 焼肉), at which you can grill food just like a barbecue at your own table. Such restaurants should be sought out in the Korean districts of the major cities, such as Shin-Okubo (しんおおくぼ, 新大久保) in Tokyo and Tsuruhashi (つるはし, 鶴橋) in Osaka, where the alleys around the station are clouded with the smoke of grilled beef. Any gourmet will really be spoilt for choice in terms of food in Japan.

To become truly established in Japan, you will have to find yourself an apartment or house in which to live. Although there are now a number of estate agents (fudousan, ふどうさん, 不動産) in the bigger cities in Japan who cater for foreigners and their housing needs, and companies might sometimes sort out the housing for employees who are new to the country, there are still numerous pitfalls in this process, and the better that you understand the rules involved, as well as the vocabulary that might arise, the better. Indeed, your Japanese proficiency may well be strictly evaluated during the application process, by estate agents, on the behalf of landlords (ooya, おおや, 大家), or by guarantor companies, whereby the success of your application may be dependent on your ability to convince others that your non-native status in terms of the Japanese language will not prevent any necessary communication with you or reduce your ability to fulfill your duties as a tenant.

Searching for a home

Once you know which area you want to live in, you need to narrow down the options. The major metropolitan regions are divided in wards (ku, く, 区), or in the case of Tokyo, wards and cities (shi, し, 市). The ward or city in which you live is sometimes important, as you must register your arrival at the ward or city office (ku- or shiyakusho, 区/市役所), and local taxes are administered at the ward or city level. Rather than searching on the basis of cities or wards, locations along train lines (sen, せん, 線) can be requested, generally in consideration of one’s workplace, as well as places with a certain walking distance (time) from the nearest station (ekitohobun, えきとほぶん, 駅徒歩分) .

The type of home may be describable using katakana, such as the somewhat misleading term manshon (マンション; an apartment in a larger building) or the familiar sounding apaato (アパアト; apartment in a smaller, often older, building). Types of such residences are further classified into 1K, 1DK, 2LDK etc., terms that shouldn’t prove a problem to English speakers, with the area (menseki, めんせき, 面積) generally given in m2, although the term tsubo (つぼ, 坪), equivalent to two tatami mats, can be used. The year in which the building was built is also more of an issue than it is in the West, with the dates of implementation of new building codes, with a view to earthquake durability, being key thresholds.

Moving in

Once you have found a suitable abode, all that is left is completing the application. Moving into a home in Japan can initially be expensive. Extra fees such as shikikin and reikin (refundable deposit and non-refundable ‘key money’; 敷金 and 礼金) can be added to the initial month or two of rent (chinryou or yachin; ちんりょう [賃料], やちん [家賃]) that is required upfront. Additionally, confirmation from your employer that you are employed is required, or an additional ‘guarantor’ fee is charged. However, nothing can beat the feeling of stretching out on the tatami for the first time with a heated boxed lunch (bentou, べんとう, 弁当) from the nearest konbini (コンビに; convenience store) and feeling truly at home.

Although most of the hard work has been completed by the time you move into a new apartment or house in Japan, there are still a number of tasks to be completed and things to learn, especially if this is the first time you have lived in the country. A good starting point is to give a small gift to your immediate neighbors; this is a good way to meet and greet, to demonstrate that you are not completely helpless in terms of speaking the Japanese language, and to show yourself so that any future encounters won’t generate too much surprise.

Garbage disposal

Another way to ingratiate yourself with your neighbors, as you should assume that they will be checking, is to follow the garbage (gomi, ゴミ) disposal and recycling (リサイクリング) instructions as closely as possible. The garbage collectors will also leave and label anything that you leave out on the wrong day or with the wrong packaging or preparation. Japan is one of the leading nations in terms of developing in an environmentally friendly direction, as is demonstrated by the relatively emission-free and quiet cars that you see on the road, for example. In the case of recycling, it could be said that the over-packaging of food and other products in Japan offsets the high level of recycling to some extent, but nonetheless, the level of adherence and dedication to recycling is to be applauded.
The key distinction to make first is between burnable (moeru, 燃える) and non-burnable (moenai, 燃えない) garbage. The burnable kind usually consists of items like old food and flimsy wrappers, while the non-burnable includes items that are somewhat more durable, such as pieces of metal, coat-hangers, and CDs. In terms of directly recyclable items, cans (kan, かん), plastic bottles (bin, びん), glass (グラス), and newspaper (しんぶんし, 新聞紙) are key items to be left out for collection. Burnable garbage is usually collected twice a week, with other items once every one or two weeks; the exact days and times will usually be displayed at the site near your home where garbage is left.

Paying Bills

A further issue that you need to deal with to ensure a smooth period of residence, besides not forgetting to keep paying the rent, is to pay the bills. The typical resident will have to pay electricity bills (denkidai, でんきだい, 電気代), gas bills (gasudai, ガスだい, ガス代), and charges for internet (インタネット), and mobile phone (keitaidenwa, けいたいでんわ, 携帯電話) each month, as well as for water/sewage (suidou/gesuidou, すいどう/げすいどう, 水道/下水道) every two months, although this can vary depending on the area. Payment can be made on a direct debit-type setup in some cases, although simply dropping in at a local convenience store (konbini, コンビに) or post office (yuubinkyoku, ゆうびんきょく, 郵便局) once you have received your bill through the post can be more convenient.

Despite the high-tech nature of much of Japan’s transportation system, the humble bicycle (jitensha, じてんしゃ, 自転車; compare with the kanji for car: 自動車) still plays an important role in the everyday life of many in the country. Although the streets aren’t heaving with cycles in the same way that you might see in Beijing or Amsterdam, they are frequently used to get to the nearest station and back as part of a commute. In fact, newly purchased cycles played a key part in enabling people to get from their offices to the suburbs of Tokyo and other affected cities when the Great Tohoku Earthquake struck earlier this year, when most public transport was shut down for safety reasons. The machine of choice for this role is usually the mama chari (ママチャリ) , a basic, sturdy, and reliable bike utilized by all different types of people. These can be purchased new for under 10,000 yen, and must be registered. This is usually completed by the bike shop (じてんしゃや, 自転車屋) for new bikes, and can be performed at a local police box (koban, こうばん, 交番) when buying second-hand bikes.

Bicycle parking

Ownership of a bicycle in a big city in Japan means that you will soon become familiar with chuurinjou or bicycle parking areas (ちゅうりんじょう, 駐輪場). The limited amount of space in the cities, and the sheer number of bicycles that can be left in some places, particular stations, mean that you can’t just leave your bicycle wherever is convenient for you, and there are numerous attendants around to ensure that you don’t and who remove those bicycles whose owners haven’t used the spaces designated for bikes or paid as necessary (signs saying 有料 [charge] rather than 無料 [free] should be looked out for). An eight-hour stretch usually costs 100 yen, although monthly passes can be bought for parking spaces at local stations. In fact, Japan is leading the way in terms of storage of bicycles at such sites; as it can often be difficult to find a space, a machine has been developed that can automatically whisk your bike off to some remote basement at the touch of a button, and deliver it back to the same point when you return (www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE4fvwTBtno).

Cycling Away from the Cities

Besides the usefulness of bicycles within the cities, Japan is an ideal location for longer-distance cycling. From Tokyo (東京), the slopes of the Japanese Alps and Mount Fuji (Fuji-san, ふじさん, 富士山), the beaches of the Shonan (湘南) coast, and the rugged terrain of Miura (三浦半島) and Izu peninsulas (伊豆半島) are all within easy reach. Similarly, from Osaka (大阪), the Kii peninsula (紀伊半島) and Lake Biwa (琵琶湖) are accessible. In fact, Japan boasts one of the world’s top cycle links, on which one can cycle from Shikoku (四国) to mainland Japan across six islands and bridges over the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海), exclusively on cycle lanes. It is a great country for avid cyclists.

It is quite easy to obtain a quick overview of Japanese verbs and how the basic forms work and are conjugated, although it takes a fair bit of time to be able to make these conjugations instantly and automatically for a wide range of tenses, verbs, and situations. In my opinion, verbs in Japanese have to carry a lot more weight in terms of conveying the intended meaning than they do in European languages. This is reflected in a number of ways, such as verbs being a larger proportion of the total number of words that you have to learn at early and intermediate stages of study, verb conjugations being used to indicate intentions or differences in status between speakers, and the equivalents of words like “want” or “should” that are kept clearly separate from the ‘main’ verb in English being incorporated within the verb in Japanese.

Regular and Irregular Japanese Verbs

One benefit of Japanese is that there are only two irregular verbs: する (suru; to do) and 来る (くる; kuru; to come). Thus, conjugations often differ markedly from what one might expect from the conjugations of regular verbs. It is also worth noting from these Japanese text examples that suru is only written in hiragana, while kuru is written in two different ways. The first way starts with a kanji symbol (来) and ends with a hiragana symbol (る). The second way contains only hiragana. In the first case, the kanji indicates the intended verb meaning, which doesn’t change (although its reading can), while the hiragana (called okurigana 送り仮名 after kanji in this context) can be changed to reflect the conjugation. So, for example, kita (来た), konai (来ない), and konakatta (来なかった), all with the same kanji, mean ‘went’, ‘don’t go’, and ‘didn’t go’, respectively.

In the case of regular verbs, there are two groups, called imaginatively Group I and Group II verbs, or sometimes –ru and –u verbs [which reflects the fact that Japanese verbs end in a ‘u’, that is, う (‘u’), く (‘ku’), す (‘su’), つ (‘tsu’), ぬ (‘nu’), ふ (‘fu’), む (‘mu’), ゆ (‘yu’), る (‘ru’), ぐ (‘gu’), ず (‘zu’), ぶ (‘bu’), or ぷ (‘pu’)]. The identity of a verb in terms of Group I or II is vital for the way it is conjugated, so it can be very useful if you can remember a verb’s status when you first learn it. A key difference between these groups relates to how the polite (-masu) form is made from the plain (or dictionary) form of verbs, with an extra syllable being present in the case of –u verbs [see Part 2 of this article].

Subject-Verb Agreement of Japanese Verbs

Another benefit of Japanese verbs is that one does not have to worry about subject-verb agreement. So, while you might have bad memories of language lessons from school involving endless repetitions of I am, You are, He/She is, We are, You are, They are, or J’ai, Tu as, Il a, Nous avons, Vous avez, Ils ont, Elles ont, this is completely unnecessary in Japanese. The verb doesn’t change in this manner.

To your average part-time learner of Japanese, the multitude of different components of the language that are to be studied in order to build a well-rounded proficiency can be a stumbling block when trying to develop an effective study schedule. Students may wish to improve their ability to listen to and understand spoken Japanese, to construct and pronounce their own sentences, to expand their vocabulary, to understand and correctly apply a wide range of grammar rules, to read hiragana, katakana, and an increasing number of kanji without difficulty, or to work on Japanese writing and correct stroke order. When students only have a few hours to spare each week, what should they focus on, how should they plan their study, and what changes might be necessary as their level of proficiency increases?

Goals for Learning Japanese

When deciding on what components to focus on, students must consider their reasons for learning the language and their goals. Some may want to master daily conversation, to read manga comics, or to understand Japanese films without subtitles. However, even in such cases, students should bear in mind that neglecting certain other parts of the language may be detrimental to their specific goal because all the components of Japanese are of course interwoven. For example, being able to write many kanji and remember the correct stroke order will speed up your reading speed, or an improved vocabulary obtained from a lot of reading will help make speaking and constructing sentences easier.

For students who have no specific target but just generally want to learn Japanese for fun, focusing on speaking and listening, with the associated need to learn how to apply and decipher grammar rules correctly, should be considered most important. A few hours of this type of study each week, with frequent revision of previous work, can be accompanied by vocabulary learning by making word lists of all the new words that one encounters during one’s studies.

Diversifying and Reviewing Progress in Japanese

As one progresses, it becomes increasingly necessary to add reading and possibly writing studies to one’s focus on Japanese. This helps bring some variation to one’s study schedule. However, as the number of different aspects of language study that one is engaged in increases, the necessary study load can become a burden. For example, after you have learnt the general English meanings and the kunyomi and onyomi readings of 500 or so kanji, then you will have to keep returning to these every week or two in order to ensure that you do not forget them. This is especially true since your memory of them won’t be reinforced by speaking or listening practice, or from studying grammar. So, to some extent, unless you are naturally using both spoken and written Japanese in your daily life, you will be engaged in a battle to stop yourself slipping backwards in terms of what you have already learnt.

At more advanced levels, students may want to consider particular specialist areas to focus on. As such, there is a dedicated literature as well as classes at Japanese language schools at which students can focus on Business Japanese or Japanese for other fields like Law, Medicine, and Science, with an emphasis on the terminology required to participate in these sectors effectively.

Japan is rightly known for the superiority of its trains (densha, 電車; ressha, 列車). This refers to not only the speed of the bullet train (shinkansen, 新幹線) but also the coverage of local trains, as well as trams (romendensha, 路面電車), within the major cities. With Tokyo’s urban sprawl making long commutes a daily ordeal for many salarymen, foreigners who find work there will also have to get used to this taking up large parts of their day, and to try and use this time effectively.

Learning Japanese by Traveling

Taking the train in Japan on a regular basis, having to deal with the various situations that arise, and getting travel information will involve you being exposed to a lot of new words, phrases, and kanji. Japan has clearly made a large effort to make its transport network more accessible to non-Japanese speakers, with English explanations and translations frequently available in road and rail systems, which is also expanded into Chinese, Korean, and others on the airport links. However, you can still be faced with rail maps written only in kanji in Tokyo subway stations, station staff who can only communicate in Japanese, and stations on train lines in Tokyo at which the platform signs are only written in hiragana and kanji. There is excellent information in English about all possible facets of train travel in Japan online, but you will still need some language skills to get by.

The first thing to learn is obviously the names of stations and lines. In fact, the station names are an ideal source for kanji practice, as they are usually written in English, hiragana, and kanji, so you can learn the correct readings of many kanji symbols. Indeed, many of the simpler kanji are used in station names, so for example, a trip around the Yamanote Line (山手線, kanji meanings: mountain, hand, line) in Tokyo will see you stopping at Shinagawa (品川: goods, river), Meguro (目黒: eye, black), Shinjuku (新宿: new, lodging), Mejiro (目白: eye, white), and Ueno (上野: up, field). Therefore, a great kanji starting point can be learning the characters on signs when your train stops at the same platforms every day on the way to work.

Studying Japanese while Traveling

Not only can the signs, sounds, and chances to communicate that are involved in train travel be used to boost your language skills, but the actual time spent commuting can be used for direct study. The average of 68 minutes for a one-way commute in Tokyo can be perfect for a study session before or after work, as long as you prepare the necessary study aids and can maintain your concentration while being crushed and having to keep your balance using only a handle suspended from the ceiling. You can see many Japanese practicing English on their commute, using textbooks or quietly repeating English phrases delivered via an mp3 player.

Listening practice using headphones may be the best option. You can drown out the frequent announcements and improve your ability to understand spoken Japanese, and the need to concentrate can also make your journey pass much more quickly. There are many podcasts available from iTunes for example, and many of the main Japanese textbooks come with CDs full of conversations, which can be downloaded onto an mp3 player with little difficulty. You could also record your own word lists as a way of boosting your vocabulary. Alternatively, kanji cards are another portable option, easy to use in a secluded space, but sure to attract a few inquisitive glances from your fellow sardines. It just requires the determination to study while still dozy in the morning or tired after a full day on the go.

An inherent quality of any culture or language is its uniqueness. To be classified as a separate entity, a culture or language must possess characteristics that differentiate it from others. So, while the commonly heard claim that Japanese language and culture are ‘unique’ is self-evident, this claim is often really intended to mean that Japanese and Japan are ‘uniquely unique’. This is mirrored in the use of the popular term ガラパゴス化 (Galapagos-ka), whereby the cultural and linguistic results of Japan’s previous isolation and its island nature are compared with the results of millions of years of biological evolution on the isolated islands on the other side of the Pacific.

How does Japan’s uniqueness rank?

However, these claims of absolute uniqueness should not be taken at face value, and one should certainly not believe the associated implication that this uniqueness makes Japanese culture and Japanese language, at some level, fundamentally incomprehensible to non-native Japanese. In fact, when comparing Japanese to the Académie française’s ongoing attempts to defend the French language against Anglicization or the official substitution of foreign loan words for new words based on Old Norse or Old Icelandic and the continued comprehensibility of 800-year-old texts for modern speakers of Icelandic, or indeed the nature of language isolates like Basque (France and Spain) or Ainu (Hokkaido, Northern Japan), then Japanese seems like an open-minded and adaptive global citizen.

In the case of the Japanese language, there are many footholds that speakers of other languages can find thanks to the influence of other languages upon Japanese. The most evident of these is the use of logographic Chinese characters in the form of kanji, which also shows considerable overlap with the hanja characters in Korean. This gives Chinese and Korean speakers a distinct advantage when starting to learn to read and write Japanese. Furthermore, Japanese is often grouped with Korean, along with the Ryukyuan language of the southern islands of Japan, which indicates that there are patterns of grammar and sentence structure that show some overlap between these.

Katakana and foreign words

The major feature of the Japanese language that speakers of Western languages will find as potentially some help (but sometimes not) isがいらいご (gairaigo, 外来語) or loan words from foreign languages written in katakana. Although many of the newer introductions of this kind come from English, and American English in particular, the early contacts of Japan with Dutch and Portuguese travelers and settlers, and later with French and German culture, which was particularly important in the fields of Law and Medicine, have left some imprint on the language.

For example, ズボン (zubon) and バカンス (bakansu) are from the French jupon and vacances for trousers and holidays, respectively, アルバイト (arbaito) refers to part-time work as associated with the German word arbeit, and マルモット (marumotto) is related to the old Dutch word for guinea pig.

However, while the above examples show that knowledge of other languages can provide some, albeit not much, help when learning Japanese, some of these connections can be rather difficult to understand or obscure, as a result of the need to adapt certain pronunciations to the Japanese range of syllables. So, バブル (baburu) refers to the ‘bubble’ economy, ノートパソコン (nooto-pasokon) refers to a notebook personal computer, ワンピース (wanpiisu) refers to a dress (one-piece), and ビッグバン (bigguban) refers to financial reform.

After you have met and had a number of initial conversations with Japanese people in Japanese, you will start to notice certain conversational patterns repeatedly appearing.

While this might feel slightly disconcerting, it also enables you to become familiar with the particular topics that are likely to come up and to handle such conversations fairly proficiently, even early on in your studies.

Introductions in Initial Conversations

Of course, any conversation with someone you haven’t met before is likely to begin with you giving your name (なまえ,名前) and your home country (くに,国). Talk may then progress to one’s job (しごと,仕事). This often includes mentioning the name of one’s company, if it is well known, and, for Japanese, one’s job status, using a set of terms that specifically and universally define one’s place in the company hierarchy. The question about how long (どのぐらい) you have been in the country may also be raised.

After these pleasantries, one might expect that the conversation would branch off into any number of other possible topic areas, precluding a beginner from being able to prepare or practice any phrases that might be useful. However, in fact, the conversation’s flow may not be as unpredictable as you might think (note that the involvement of alcohol might dramatically increase the unpredictability of your conversation’s path).

Other Common Topics in Japanese

After introductions have been made, foreigners will then surprisingly often be asked what their favorite Japanese food (にほんりょうり,日本料理) is, or indeed whether they can eat Japanese food or specifically raw fish at all. This may reflect a widely held conception in Japan that Westerners don’t eat fish (we do indeed eat less).

After you have convinced your interlocutor of your taste for sushi (すし,寿司), okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancakes), or takoyaki (octopus dumpling balls), you will often find the issue of your favorite hobbies (しゅみ,趣味) being raised. You may be taken aback if your typical response back home to such a question would be “beer and sleeping,” but the ‘hobby’ is a serious business in Japan, often a focus of dedication and pride rather than a lighthearted way to spend a few free hours from time to time. An additional and key question that may arise is ‘Nihon wa dou desu ka?’ (日本はど うですか, What do you think of Japan?). Here a number of responses are available.

One possible reply is ‘Sumeba miyako’ (住めば都,すめばみやこ, roughly translatable as ‘Wherever you live is best’) or, even better, ‘Daisuki desu’ (大好きです,だいすきで す, I love it!).

Many a language learner will tell you that the best way to master a language is to immerse yourself in it, so surely there’s no better way to progress in Japanese than to be forced to speak the language frequently during a holiday or a period of short- or long-term residency in the country.

However, with this in mind, such an experience should not immediately be equated with other linguistic holidaymaking opportunities such as a trip across the Rio Grande for an American or on the Eurotunnel to Paris for a Brit.

The average Japanese is far less used to meeting or speaking with people who have limited proficiency in their native language.

Your tentative attempts to order a meal, buy a train ticket, or ask for directions may be unsuccessful not necessarily due to your incoherent pronunciation or poor grammar, but simply due to the object (or self-perceived victim) of your inquiry being petrified, and thereafter beating a hasty retreat.  The advent of the JET program that has brought foreign teachers to many Japanese schools and the increasing emphasis placed on kokusaika (internationalization) and English proficiency in the workplace have changed matters; however, this is Japan, in which change often occurs very gradually.

The average Japanese is not used to meeting or interacting with individuals who do not look or act Japanese.

So, for individuals who do not have an Asian appearance, even error-free Japanese may simply be met with a refusal to attempt to understand what has been said, given the conventional wisdom that people who don`t look Japanese don`t speak Japanese. Alternatively, the unease caused by your appearance or body language may result in a retreat into keigo (honorific form of the Japanese language), which can make understanding much more difficult for less advanced learners. An awareness of these potential obstacles will save first-time visitors and students of the Japanese language some disappointment or frustration, and provide insight that a thick skin may be required to practice and pick up Japanese on the street.

Regional Differences

Of course, there are regional differences in the tendencies described above.  Most Japanese urbanites, especially in Tokyo and the Kansai cities of Kyoto and Osaka, will see, if not interact with, foreigners on a daily basis. Nonetheless, Japan`s long period of isolation and the dearth of established foreign communities (with the notable exception of Koreans) in Japan compared with the West are still reflected in people`s tolerance for mediocre Japanese, or in their willingness to attempt to work out the intended meaning of a sentence in which an incorrect preposition, for example, has been used. This is particularly noticeable in more remote parts of the country, such as the fishing villages of Hokkaido or the interior of Shikoku (the northernmost and the smallest of the four main islands, respectively).

Summary

These problems can be exacerbated by the fact that the Japanese are a very proud as well as obliging people, such that they may perceive that the need to hold a conversation in Japanese with a foreigner reflects badly on them, namely, in their inability to help you in your own language. A general understanding of these issues and an awareness of the novelty of a foreigner speaking Japanese are definitely helpful.