Making friends in Japan

I've dived into this internet place for now since the weather is pretty terrible right now and apparently it will be all day, so I'm trying to find something I can do without getting drenched (which puts temple-hopping right out of the equation).

Anyway, if there's one thing many younger Japanese enjoy it's the chance to test out their English on a genuine foreigner (particularly English people, as opposed to Americans, presumably because of the accent). Yesterday when I stumbled across the Ireland Festival here in Kyoto, I got talking to some young Japanese people of about the same age who were in charge of running the information desk. It's amazing how far a little Japanese and a little English will go, and in the end Mayu, Arisa and I arranged to go for an Irish meal (to mark a very early St. Patrick's Day, I suppose).

Talking over a traditional Irish stew (a rarity in Japan, surely?) I managed to learn some basic Japanese, the difference between Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana script, how names are written in each (and when), what names can mean when their Kanji symbols' meanings are interpreted. I learnt about Japanese music and film (of the modern kind). I learnt about all sorts. In return they learnt about much the same - some more English (although their English was suprisingly good, and certainly better than my Japanese), about English music (although it's way morw widespread here than Japanese music is in the West)...

A couple of hours later and I've made two good friends in an entirely alien country. You can definately go around all the temples and shrines you like, and watch as much Japanese TV as you want, but you will never fully experience a country unless you make the effort to actually get to know the people as well, especially in your own age group (funnily enough, they both said they never got to speak to younger English people either, which suprised me a little).

I guess I'd better move on since I've almost used up all my 20 mins just typing this (Japanese keyboards seem very cramped so I keep hitting the wrong keys).

More updates soon, hopefully with photos if I can connect my USB lead to my hotel's PC.

Take care,
James