micro-agressions?

I seriously don't like writing so frequently. I mean, I like, because I have so much to share. This is supposed to be about my Japanese study, my Japanese study blog, but since I'm now in Japan, it's becoming more and more like a Japan life/Japanese journal.

Anyway. Today I went to the center of Kyoto alone for the first time. It was a bit scary on my way there because I got off on the wrong station, and had to ask for help a couple of times. It was scary, because I had time pressuring me. I got out of school at 4.30pm and had to be there (nasic, the place where I went to pay for the room rent and bed sheets) before 6pm. I arrived at around 5. Not bad.


Micro-agressions 

(Just want to make sure that I don't like this expression, at all.
Japanese people are really kind when they help you, speacially if they are the one's that approach you. So this expression sounds a bit rude from my point of view. But I have read about this a few times and this was the expression that it was used, so I'm using it. I'll try to make up my own expression for this phenomena someday.)

When I was in the wrong station a woman saw I was a bit lost/confused and gave me some directions. She started speaking in english (and pretty fluent!) but changed to Japanese after I started talking.
It's funny, that even though she talked in english, how I automatically replied in Japanese. It's like I was conscious that she spoke in english, but I could only produce Japanese, once again, my mind was set in the Japanese mode.
The fact that I'm not interested in replying in english might also have some influence, but in the heat of the moment, one just doesn't have time to think about all this right? One just replies and thinks about it later, what I'm doing now.
Now that I think about it, this is very interesting, and I probably only felt this for the first time after coming here.

Continuing.

Not only when that woman assumed I could not understand Japanese  but also in the train when I asked for help.
I was in the train, and was not sure in which station I should get out, and asked this guy (mid twenties?) that was standing on my side,

「あのっ・・・・すいません。京都駅で降りたいんですけど、どの駅で降りたらいいですか。 」
( I'm still now sure what the name of the station is, but I think it is 七条 something...)

「京都駅は次。」

「あ、ありがとう(ご)ざいます！」

Than, we turn faces, and the after some seconds in silence the guy turns to me again and 「日本語、上手ですね。」

So, was this really a compliment, accompanying the fact that he was surprised I could speak japanese or was it just the standard way to compliment a (every) foreigner? I mean...c'mon, what I said can be said by anyone with a travel guide, gotta be honest.

Also, I was not really sure how to answer, let's see:

いいえ、まだまだです。(this is what I replied)

Okay, this is (the parcial?) correct answer, because not only is true, as one is lowering itself. But the person made you a compliment, so, should one thank or not?
I think that answer I wrote above has some kind of an hidden "thank you" inside. Because I know I actually do know some Japanese  for me, replying that way already feels like a "thank you", as in "thank you, still not there yet, but will continue working to get better. 「まだ」 implies that one will continue doing something it is doing at the moment.

By saying "thank you" one is acknowledging the fact that one (itself) is indeed 上手. Thus, making itself look cocky, at least to the Japanese people. In the west, this is no "problem" I think.

The most important thing from today was the fact that. I'm now home. I studied everything in the morning in advance, because I knew I had to go take care of these payments.
And I'm bored! I'm bored to the point of looking back and thinking something like: "today was fun, today was challenging, scary at first, but fun now that I think about it. I want to repeat it."Ironically or not, today I started reading a book 「語学で身を立てる」 so I think it's kind of appropriate.

Besides, before all this I had this 日本経営 class, in which we spoke about the differences between Japanese and american 就職, 雇用, about the 単身赴任、年功序列 (I was actually the one who brought this one up, and next class intend on bringing the "Japanese-women-and-their-lower-status-at-Japanese-companies" subject next class). And got out of the class pretty confident because it reminded me of so many things I saw and lived when I was in Braga.

Also a bit of a complex matter to me, because I'm going to have to make some important decisions, and this class kind of opened my eyes a bit and made me even more clueless. I will leave this subject to another time, because I still need to do some brainstorming before I can write something about it. For those who are curious in knowing what I'll talk about, let's say something like company loyalty.  This is REALLY a complex subject for me at the moment and I seriously need to brainstorm first before I can say something.

So, I was bored. Actually writing here is becoming an hobby rather than just a diary. This blog is something I'll be able to read like forever, so it's going to be interesting to read this some years from now. I've been writing here a lot of things, Japanese language related, Japanese  japan life related, feelings, etc. you can expect picture, and when the opportunity comes, videos.

And I cannot end this post without congratulating, once again, 浜崎あゆみ for her 34th anniversary. She has been by my "side" ever since I started studying Japanese  Actually she is actually the main reason why I started studying it. So if it wasn't for her I'd never be here, I'd never met the most amazing people I know and idolize, I'd never be able to speak Japanese  I'd never become this sensitive, I'd never be me.
Hence having posted the "honey" song in the morning.

おめでとう ♥