A friend came from Japan. I took Tuesday off and we went around town. It was nice to have someone to show off London to, and do half the things I'd love to do. She'd been to the two best galleries the day she arrived, and I eventually ran out of ideas so I took her to the pub.



Throughout the week we spoke in Japanese, we spoke in English. Since I left Japan, all those words and radicals and kanji I got to know have retreated to higher and higher shelves, out of reach of my mind's grasp. Phrases don't come easily any more. I need to think through grammatical structures before speaking them. Whole tracts of vocabulary are gone, just gone. But hanging out with Ran, bits came back, of course. All the parts of the language are still sitting waiting on shelves, somewhere in my mind, just buried in dust but within fingertip grasp.

The funny thing is, looking back, I can't even remember if we spoke in Japanese or English for most of the conversations we had. It's only been a few days. The message is there, and I know what we talked about, but I just don't remember.