As you may know, or may come to know, I'm quite fond of analogies (some of them strained). Today's analogy has to do with Butler's tough loss against Duke in today's NCAA Men's National Championship and a portion of my experience in Japan. Now, if you aren't familiar with Butler, they're a college team that has been gradually improving its NCAA reputation in the last 4 years. Their record was improving, but they weren't making it very far in the Big Dance until they made their magical run this year, putting up a gritty effort that fell short against Duke. Now, this may not hold true for a lot of them, but despite any public proclamations, I can't imagine that many of them really believed that the probability of them making it to a national championship was a high probability for them before the season started. A realistic goal was a Sweet Sixteen appearance, a nice goal would be making it into the Elite Eight, and it would be an absolute dream to be in the Final Four. And when all is said and done, making it to the National Championship but not winning once you get there, is the kind of moral victory that they'll hear from people for a long time to come, but will ring pretty hollow until they can make it back and win it. It may not have been a dream that they fully realized or appreciated until it was within reach, and once it taken away, I'm sure it will be a gnawing sensation that will fuel the long off-season work ahead. Now, given the amount of Japanese media that I consume (television, anime, manga, music) I had thought that it would be entertaining to learn enough to be able to read, write and comprehend a little bit more than I did. So I took classes for a little bit, and made a little bit of progress. I enjoyed the increased aptitude, and wistfully imagined that I would enjoy using a little bit of my knowledge if I ever went. Eventually, my schedule prevented me from continuing on with the classes but I found some alternate ways to continue my learning, if at an even slower pace. Once I finalized my itinerary for this trip, I tried accelerating a refresher of what I knew through some services I was already using like http://www.japanesepod101.com/. And once I arrived, I was conversational to a degree. A number of those pre-canned scenarios that you learn in language classes, were the stage where I shared my knowledge. Unfortunately, anything outside that stage, and I was at a lost. The joy and enjoyment I had the various times I was able to utilize my knowledge was somewhat lessened each time it came up short. I never dreamed that I would have that much fun using the language, and I felt the full potential and realization of the dream slowly slip away when I even started misunderstanding words and phrases that I normally would know. But it's left me quite hopeful for my next trip, and has re-energized me to intensify my learning efforts again. I know it will be a lot of fun to get much farther the next time!