A fun little story.

I have enough time to log on at the hostel where Alex is staying so that I can tell this fun story while he finishes packing.

Last night, Alex and I went out for sushi. We sit down at the counter of the place, order, chat, and a couple minutes later, a large (American) man walks in, wearing jinbei, which are basically Japanese pajamas. He speaks to the people at teh store and fluent Japanese (he was ordering takeout) and sits down in the seat closest to him, which was at the other side of the corner from us, so basically right next. Alex says I should talk to him in Japanese. I lean over, and ask him how long he has been in Japan. He says 10 years, and asks about me, we talk about what he are doing here rather briefly, me as a student, he is in marketing, and then he says to me in Japanese, "so, where were you from before you started living in Japan" I tell him the states, and he looks at me really shocked and says in English "Dude, why the hell are we speaking Japanese!" I thought that that was pretty fun! We talked for a while longer and then his food came, and he left.

Peter