/posts/

>japanese man offering me a potentially poisonous deadly drink (it was yummy)

>tfw i'm gonna frierenpooost and there's nothing you can do about it

Japan holds a special place in my heart.

Watching anime and learning Japanese have always gone hand in hand to me; the moment I began watching anime I feel completely in love with the way Japanese looked and sounded, so I began my journey understand the moon runes and the gyaru speech.

Thanks to that I met beautiful people online that were on the same path as me, a couple of years ago I made friends I still talk to this day. I also got my first job as a translator; the guys I currently work with decided to give me an opportunity to see what I was made of, and they hired me without prior experience nor certifications. To this date they are still my colleagues.

Having a job allowed me to spend money on stupid stuff, pc parts, videogames, you name it, and I was also able to save enough money to make big plans into the future at a relative young age. Fast forward a year or so, I went to the states to work for a couple of months and save up some money, then... I went to the country of the rising sun, Nippon, no less.

A lot of crazy things happened during my stay there, but there is a particular memory I want to share with you. Enough with the introductions.

There I was staying in Osaka, I had just resumed my translating job so I was looking for a cozy cafe to work in that allowed indoor smoking, after some time, I found one that was a few minutes away by walking.

The very polite owner gave me a menu as soon as I walked in, and I instantly knew that this place was different, it felt like a more "relaxed" type of cafe, not like the uptight ones at Tokyo, and I felt really at ease. Salarymen where coming and going each half an hour. After some hours worth of work, the owner told me in half japanese half english, that they were about to close but it was okay if I needed some time to finish things up.

Realizing that I understand Japanese, we talked for a bit about our countries, he told me that all the English he knew was the parts he remembered from previous English-speaking customers. I was surprised because his English was very good, however, it was easier to communicate in Japanese, so that we did. I taught him some English while he taught me some Japanese.

I was about to leave after paying, when it occurred me to ask him if there was a nice izakaya around (to go another time), he told me he knew a place, and asked me if a tachinomiya was fine (standing-only bar) to which I replied: "sure". He then told me to wait until he closed his cafe so that we could go together, and that it was his treat.

Next thing I knew I was in a japanese only bar having drinks and talking about life with a guy that could might as well be my grandpa, I even got to try hirezake! We also ate takoyakis and had a couple of smokes. The bar owner and the other locals were very nice as well, and, listen to this, they gifted me 2L of sake at the end of the night. 10/10 would recommend.

It was a beautiful experience. Things like these are why I love learning languages so much, the payoff for learning such a skill is too good to pass up. When the language barrier was destroyed, we were just a couple of dudes sharing our unique life experiences.

It was time to part ways, he told me to keep up the good work with Japanese and to keep improving. We bade farewell and headed back to our respective homes.

I hope this fueled your motivation to learn Japanese (or any other language) and that this story would give you the courage to follow your dreams and to realize that, given some time, small decisions can greatly change the course of your life. The butterfly effect is real bros.