A huge shout-out to my father-in-law who sponsored the trip for us!

Our Japan adventure only lasted for two fun-filled weeks but it’s enough for me to gauge my proficiency. My assessment had been rather different when studying by myself and just watching animes and listening to music. As expected, immersing myself in real-life situations where clicking the pause-rewind buttons was not possible helped me recalibrate and set my expectations and goals better.

Reading store signs, product labels, or directions in Hiragana /Katakana was easy enough, thanks to consistent practice but recognizing Kanji was still challenging. Fortunately, many Japanese signages or labels have English counterparts and for those that don’t have, Google Translate can be used.

Next step: Focus on Kanji-recognition and continue my progress according to relevance (e.g. household items).

When you’ve been studying Nihonggo for awhile and suddenly go on vacation to Japan, you will probably feel what I felt as soon as we landed: amazed and overwhelmed. It’s the language I could only listen to in songs, games or animes and all of a sudden I could hear an airport staff/crew greeting me in their native tongue which made me think, “I’m living in their world without subtitles.” I was isekai’d. Thankfully, self-studying Japanese wasn’t in vain. I could understand perhaps 60-70% of daily commute, conbini and meal conversations.

Next step: Continue what I have been doing so far – watching animes and listening to music- for daily conversations as it is quite effective. I have to add professional conversations here and there though to improve.

Greeting and asking where to go or what food was best to try were the easiest parts. Not being able to respond immediately and appropriately was the most frustrating one. I have no excuse for this. My first speaking practice was on the very first day when I had to ask a station master which exit was best to take.

Next step: Get out of my comfort zone and look for a speaking partner. I won’t get better at it unless I continue to speak and use the vocabulary stuck in my head.

I didn’t have much opportunity to write in Japanese but I left small notes for our Osaka host and an Ichiran Ramen shop in Kyoto. I also took advantage of IG stories in those 13 days but I can hardly call them writing practice. Let’s just accept that when traveling to Japan, writing in Nihongo isn’t really necessary nor is it expected.

Next step: Focus on grammar/ sentence construction for practice.

The Japanese residents I spoke with were incredibly polite and welcoming. I received a number of “上手(jouzu/good)” for my conversational skills but rather than be comforted by it, I felt more obligated to study even further. Read this post from Adam of Japanese Level Up and you’ll understand why. Then again, I’m happy to have reached one of my goals for learning Japanese (to travel with little help from translators).

My proficiency isn’t at the level where I can successfully break that barrier but going to Japan for the first time proved that it is sufficient enough to be welcomed to come in and out of the front door.