Hi hanbun, I guess I have a couple questions for you. One, do you think it could be restaurant policy that they speak to customers in English? Have you seen them speak in Japanese to fully Japanese customers before? Along with that, maybe they speak in English because they are in America. Which I would find quite refreshing, thinking back to my college days and hanging around Japanese people, some of which refused to hang out with Americans and really practice their English, and well.... big surprise, never got any better.

I do also feel your frustration though sometimes. I am white guy, and I live in Japan, but I do speak fluent Japanese. Almost every time I go out somewhere with my girlfriend (who is Japanese) i get completely ignored. Now, that in itself is annoying, but it is even more annoying because my girlfriend is 70% deaf, and has to read peoples lips to understand them, but many times they speak too quickly for her. So here I am making all the responses to them, but they just speak towards her (sometimes the entire time). It can be really frustrating and quite awkward. So I really look forward to dealing with the people who are sharp enough to catch on to our situation, and quickly start addressing me.