.024 - wait, NO ONE speaks english?

You know that drop that people talk about when you go overseas? I thought it wouldn't happen to me. I thought that I'd be too resilient to let something like homesickness and a world filled with people who look nothing like me bother me. But it seems even I can't escape the inevitable realization of my foreign presence.

Today we were in class from the 10am till about 3pm. All day I chatted with the other Stanford students of SCTI. We shared our stories of our home stay experiences. We suffered through trying to get our wireless set-up. We went searching for groups to latch onto for Golden Week. But after all was said and done, the cosmopolitan nature of SCTI was not the homogeneous world outside our little floor in a building at Doshisha. And after finishing for the day and going outside to get some fresh air, I realized this full on as looked out on the sea of students walking outside our building. It's not that I was ignorant of this before. It was just disappointing that I couldn't share anything or start conversation with people walking around me. There might as well not have been anyone outside since the language barrier was so high. This kind of isolation definitely makes you cherish the small talk IN ENGLISH that I despise in the US.

Anyhow, my fellow blogger, Micky D, had a more optimistic approach to the inherent 外人(foreigner) feeling. He and I forced ourselves to speak with the Japanese people around us, even if it was to ask a question we already had an answer to. Doing this definitely got rid of the stories I was starting to make up in my head regarding my isolation and its seemingly never ending continuation.

Long story short, Japan is not the same place as US in regards to the people that can't speak the native language. That US notion of "you can't speak our language, so get out of our country" feeling just isn't present here. In fact, people are surprised/happy and very willing to help you improve your communication. You just have to be willing to fall flat and just try to talk.
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On a random note,
Please make sure you bring towels and toilet paper to any Japanese restroom you go to cause there's none in any of them. FYI.