NeoEdo said:And on the language note. Before leaving for Japan everyone (mostly people that where awe struck when they saw they also had cars in my pictures I took......and to think I was working with engineers at that time.......) would tell me "Oh yea they all speak english.....I'll be damned if anyone spoke english in Tokyo. Hell I had this old man start a conversation with me while on the JR to Akihabara. He spoke perfect spanish, said he was studying, and asked ME where I had learned to speak spanish.......the funny thing is I'm half Puerto Rican, half Mexican (true Mexican FYI)....but considering I've lived here for 20 years, I'd have to agree the old man spoke better then me, haha.
Yea IAWTP and all. Besides the english teachers at my school (and even then about 50% of them will never say more than a few words in english inside or outside of class), I've never had the experience in Tokyo or elsewhere of having a Japanese person speak to me in English. Sure I've had the occasional waiter that says "Smoke?" but a back and forth actual conversation in English is something I have yet to hear.
But then again I had a friend live with me during my Aichi-ken stay for a few weeks. He didn't know a single word of Japanese and at first I was afraid he wouldn't be able to find his way home or eat on his own. Yet when I had classes during the day he would wander off and go to art museums, meet people, and eat all kinds of food. So I guess the English speaking Japanese are out there, I just haven't met them yet ^^;