Learning Japanese the hard way (is there an easy way?)

My first chance to speak Japanese to an actual Japanese person, I chickened out.  It was in my hotel, my first morning here.  I wanted to ask where to get breakfast.  I practiced before I went down.  I knew I didn’t have all the right vocabulary, but I felt confident that I had enough to get my point across. My nerves started to creep up on me in the elevator.  By the time I arrived at the lobby and the doors opened, I had lost my nerve.  I shuffled up to the counter and sheepishly asked the smiling receptionist where to get breakfast, in English.  She didn’t understand.  You would think this would encourage me to try again with my little sentence.  No, I had forgotten it by now as my nerves took over.  I did manage to say coffee.  Since they are almost exactly the same in English and Japanese, and it was seven in the morning, the kind lady behind the desk pulled out a map and pointed me to Starbucks.  I left the desk with the map and a feeling of failure.  Now I have not been studying Japanese long, but I should have been able to manage a simple “where is” question.  The simple fact is, learning a new language is hard.  Actually using it with native speakers is even harder. 

I have gotten a lot better since that first day.  My attempts are still grammatically incorrect, for the most part, and on par with the speech of a small child, but Japanese people are patient and kind, and we can usually come to some sort of understanding.  It doesn’t hurt that many of them are excited to speak English as well.  And are quite good at it!  In the park or walking to my subway station, I get hellos, good mornings, and sometimes how are yous.  I even had a stranger explain the markings in the stones at Osaka Castle in English when he saw me taking pictures of them.  Unlike me, Japanese people seem eager to test their speaking ability with a native speaker.  When I answer them in the little Japanese I know, they are always very excited and tell me I am very good.  It might not be true, but it makes me feel a little braver for the next person I meet.

These are the crests of the clans that repaired this part of the wall after the castle was destroyed.