It was midnight. It was cold. It was raining. It was time.

Umbrella in hand, I submerged into a murky Tokyo. My objective: Secure “lunch” (my biological clock screamed midday) and see for myself the dream, carefully nourished for fifteen years, turn into reality. After walking some blocks, I found a street with glowing lights and entered it.

Walking in a mixture of road and pavement (as many side streets in Japan are like) I found myself looking at multiple shiny banners with incomprehensible kanji. Some had pictures and sometimes words in roman letters or katakana (an alphabet only used when spelling foreign words) and so, I could deduce a karaoke and two restaurants from that. I picked one of my two options and entered.

There were 4 persons inside. A couple sitting at the back, one lonely person sitting not to far and at the balcony, close to the entrance, sat a middle aged white collar man, looking intently at the napkins in front of him. No waiters. I stood there looking at the restaurant and, naturally, they all looked at me.

Unsure of how to proceed, i decided to sit down at the balcony (the closest chair avaiable) and double check for someone that worked there. In my scrutiny, I noted that the middle aged bussiness man kept looking at me. Returning the gaze, he smiled and waved.

Now, let me stop for a second here and tell you about the major milestone of learning a language. That’s when your skills, for the first time in your life, are put to a real test. That’s the time when you “call” on the last round and it’s time to see the cards. There is no one there to help you out. The milestone: When you have to speak in a foreign language with a native speaker. In his own country. By yourself.

The time had come.

“Kon-Konnichiwa.” – I said. The man looked at me with interest in his eyes. I continued. [My name is Ian. What’s your name?].

Then there’s the pause. That’s the time when you finished speaking and you await for acknowledgement that the native speaker understood what you said. The japanese man widened his eyes and, after a moment of surprise, he answered with his name!

Second stage: [Can you speak english?] The japanese man smiled in a yellowish expression and answered “Gomenasai… Eigo wa wakarimasen.” [I’m sorry, I don’t understand english.] Okay, let’s do this.

The following minutes I, with my poor japanese, asked him how could I order food. For my surprise (And little did I know I would be surprised not a few times in this trip) he was eager to help. He showed me a menu that has sitting on the balcony that I had failed to see. He explained the flavors of lamen and clled the waiter for me and during all that time, I could understand most of what he said.

I decided to order a portion of gyoza and a shoyu lamen. The total was ¥590 (almost 6 dollars). As I awaited my food, I tried to discretely observe how they ate their food, to see if I would do it the right way. My “lunch” was in front of me in just a couple of minutes. Time to dig in.

The japanese man called me again. He wanted to explain the different sauces you could use in my gyoza. A really nice and helpful person. As soon as his explanation finished with lots of bows and smiles, his lamen got ready too. The food was good and the gyozas were awesome, specially with the hot sauce (not that common for japanese).

After eating, it was time again to test my japanese skills. I offered him my card with my name and e-mail. He was amazed! What succeded was a very funny conversation about international trips and foods. At some point I asked how should I pay for my meal and he shouted “Okaike!” that later I learned to be “The bill, please!”.

He left first, after once more bowing and complimenting my poor japanese. But right after I left, I saw the middle-aged bussiness man, with his suit on his head, trying to avoid the rain as he walked down the street. I didn’t think twice. I offered my umbrella and together, I went with him to where he parked his car, a few blocks away. He said many times [Not necessary!] and [Thank you very much!] and with that, he left. With a smile from ear to ear, it was about time to get back to the hotel. Then suddenly I realized that I had absolutely no idea where I was.

While accompaning the japanese man to his car, I didn’t pay attention to where I was going and on top of that, it was raining and really dark. Internet wasn’t yet enabled on my phone so google maps was not an option. I didn’t know the way back to the restaurant either. For the next 40 minutes, I roamed the streets of Shinjuku, trying to find someone to give me some information.

And finally, I found a konbini, a convenience store. They’re all around japan and are open 24 hours every day. Inside, a gentle old japanese man got a really big map and showed me how to get back to my hotel (and yes, all the information was in japanese.)

Five minutes later, I arrived at the hotel. I was soaked and indelibly amazed. I was finally in Japan.