I walked to the river to practice shakuhachi like everyday. At the beginning of my practice I ran into Takeshi one of my neighbors here whom I always say hello to but not much more. We talked for a minute or so about the shakuhachi in Japanese before he went on his way. As I was nearing the end of my practice a familiar face walked by. It was a woman whom I had briefly met before when her dog decided he liked the shakuhachi. After I had played through my last piece she was playing with her dog and then walked over to talk to me. I met Mugi as the dog is called. She tried to explain that it means wheat in English. Mugi is a miniature little dog only 7 months old. I also got her name, Naomi. We talked about shakuhachi and Mugi for a little bit in my broken Japanese and the few words of English she knew. Then I asked what time it was and met her husband. We talked abit more about the river and mountains and where Koyasan is located. I showed them the music I'm currently learning and explained best I could the different schools and types of shakuhachi music I had in my binder. She asked if I always come to the same spot. I told her I always come there at 10. She said we'll talk again and we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
That was probably the longest conversation I've had in Japanese thus far. We talked for probably 20 minutes or so. Taka's help certainly has given me more confidence in my speaking. The other day I even had a whole, short, but whole conversation with a passing fellow about the shakuhachi. I understood everything he said which was very nice.