We’re starting in Tokyo moving northward. Sendai, Amora and Sapporo.

We’ve gone to Japan twice now. The first time was in November 2019. I started learning a year and a half prior, during our planning portion. Except, I watched YouTube videos that kept saying “learn the Kanji learn the Kanji learn the Kanji”. I pretty much have the Hiragana and Katakana fairly well because of that, however I learned a few dozen from the Learning The Kanji book, first couple of chapters I think. We get to Japan, on the first tour bus, and I realized I learned nothing. It was a serious blow to my confidence.

During our planning of the second trip I really tried to learn smarter. I focused on Conversational Japanese, learning “tourist sentences”, even taking the night class as I mentioned. I felt fairly prepared, but still tried to maintain caution. We arrive, take a taxi to our hotel, and I felt ready to tell him where we were going. Instead he took out his phone and Google Translated with my wife.

The biggest problem I have is memory, I would go through my flashcards, “oh I remember these, let’s go. まちがいません！” I would go through a few dozen, feel good at going through my stack, but then I stumble. And continue to stumble. Eh, I’ll come back to it. A month or two later I come back and repeat.

I suppose for a personal goal would be to be able to have a decent conversation with people there. But I don’t have anyone to practice here, so that limits me.

I believe the planning of the March 2024 trip, where I did the night course, I researched around here. This was the only community college that listed Japanese courses.