Learning Japanese

I came to Japan knowing one Japanese word: Konnichiwa. Hello. Four weeks into a Japanese ski vacation, and I know three Japanese words. Arrigato. Hai. Konnichiwa. Thank you. Yes. Hello. Thankfully, that’s all you really need to know to communicate in Japan.

I haven’t intentionally avoided learning Japanese. The language has just been incredibly difficult for me to pick up. When I traveled around Western Europe during my college semester abroad, I always made a point to learn a dozen basic words or phrases: Hello, Thank you, Please, Excuse me, Wine, Beer, My name is …, Where is the bathroom, Goodbye, Yes, No. I’ve tried to learn the same set of words in Japanese, but no matter how hard I try, how many times someone tells me how to say a word, no matter how often I check my phrasebook, I’m stuck with three words.

The rest of the time I point, nod, smile or act confused. I can sort of understand a few other words, even if I don’t fully know their meaning. The Japanese often say, “Arrigato dorimas.” My best guess is that emphasizes the thank you. Perhaps a Thank you very much. Cheers is kompai, but I don’t know if that’s a real cheers or just something Westerners say for cheers. In the past few days I’m coming closer to knowing “Excuse me.” Sumimachen, or something close to that. I have yet to try it out on a real Japanese person.

But the other phrases — You’re welcome, Please, My name is … — are totally lost on me. I’ve asked how to say those words. I’ve been told how to say those words. But I can never remember how to say those words. I have a 20-minute retention period, tops.

In other news, I had another pair of bindings break on me yesterday. I was borrowing lodge owner Nick’s tele skis, which had an old pair of Voile bindings. I noticed when I started skiing them that the binding cable was frayed. Sure enough, after the first run on the third day of using them, they gave out. I had gone in for a bathroom break, came back out, clipped into one ski, bent down to clip into the other, and POP! Binding snapped.

I went back, grabbed the last pair of tele skis in the lodge, and used those for the past two days. But with snow supposedly on the way (we've been switching between rain and snow for the past few hours), and the tele skis a mere 78 millimeters underfoot (which, once upon a time probably qualified as a powder ski), I’m likely switching to alpine for the last few days. Once again, thanks to Nick for the gear.