The other night I got totally lost. Well not totally lost, because I knew generally where I was, but I had no clue as to how to get where I wanted to go and I had walked too far to go back to where I had come from (mainly because it was in the middle of nowhere too and would only take me farther from my destination). So there I was wandering when I stumbled upon the University and better yet a campus map. Blankly I stared at the map hoping that I could make some sense of how to get to my destination, or at least somewhere that was familiar.

A man, later I found an engineering professor at the Uni, stopped to find out what was going on; could he help? I explained where I wanted to go, he explained where I was in relation to that and how I might get there. He sent me off in one direction and as I headed in that direction I found that he was walking along with me.

We chatted about Japan and the area and my school. After finding out that many of my students had Japanese as their first language he asked how their grammar was (grammar is the focus for Japanese English language learners). Well, in truth it's about the same as any other kindergarten student at our school and probably better than the average Canadian kindergarten student.

About this time I realised that we were getting close to my destination. So I asked "had he been planning on walking this way in the first place?" No, he usually cut through the housing estate but tonight he was going to walk the less direct route with me.

This can be a really friendly place to live. People in general are heads down or looking straight ahead, focussed on their destination but in a moment of trouble those who can help (and that most often means speaks English) usually will.

Someone I know from Canada was visiting the past two days. She's been living in a small town in Japan where almost no one speaks English, really immersed in the culture (and as a result can speak pretty decent Japanese considering she's been here under a year I think). She too commented on how friendly and helpful people were here. Perhaps I haven't travelled around Japan enough to know what it's like in other places. It's made my transition here easier. Have I been taking it for granted, or at least not recognising the scale of it? Because trust me, every time I am in a bind and someone is found who can help me I am grateful and say a little prayer of thanks.

You should have seen the heads turn at the bank yesterday as I tried to do something a little out of the ordinary. There was this frantic turning of heads as everyone realised the problem and tried to find "the English speaker." I always feel so bad, it's me that should be so concerned. I mean really who should feel worse the average bank teller/shop person who can't speak English in Japan or the girl in Japan who can't speak Japanese?

Anyhow people really do try hard to help and will search far and wide to find someone who can.

Thank goodness for all these random good Samaritans.