Well I resolved one little problem - where to get a Japan Rail Pass from on a Saturday. No-one has ever answered the phone "Moshi-Moshi" to me before. I always feel vaguely uncouth if someone speaks to me in a foreign language and all I can do is crack on straight back at them in English, not even knowing enough to say 'Sorry I'm an ignorant monoglot and your lingustical stylings mean no more to me than does the sound of a caveman banging his enemies head on a hollow log'. Or words to that effect. Seems inelegant somehow - not to say ignorant.

Really I just wish I spoke more foreign languages. I say more - I speak (or used to speak) OK-ish French and can just about order the beers in Spanish, German, Serbo-Croat & Hungarian. But that's it. And the bit about ordering beers is not an exageration. I might be able to stretch to ordering a coffee but if you want to find your way to the railway station you're on your own mate.