I have to admit, I get really annoyed when I speak Japanese and they speak English back. Even when they say "thank you" or "sorry" I find it irritating. Yesterday at the supermarket when I bought a 弁当 I asked 「おはしありますか」 and the woman replied "eeh, chopusuchikusu, ehh, insaido". Grr.

Another thing, I remember when I first arrived in Japan and couldn't speak a lick of Japanese, I found it strange that there was so much English and romaji written around the place (convenient as it was). In fact, I found it quite disappointing. It didn't feel much like the foreign country I was hoping for. These days I not only find it disappointing, but kind of pathetic, like they're selling off their culture for the sake of either 1) looking cool, or 2) "helping" foreigners. That's one of the reasons I like visiting the countryside in Japan so much, because of the lack of English. Although, I ended up getting on the wrong bus in the countryside once because I read the kanji incorrectly, and arrived in some remote town in northern Kyoto Prefecture, but I still hold the opinion that there is too much English.

Funny thing is, the Japanese don't seem to think this. A few weeks back, a student even went out of his way to say that he thinks Japan is not "foreigner friendly" enough! He was definately surprised when I told him that I hate all the English that's written around the place, even the romaji at train stations. He said, "well, that's because you study Japanese", but then I told him of my initial disappointment when first arriving, when I couldn't speak any Japanese.