The first time that I went to Japan stayed at a western style hotel. Everyone was very nice and most of the employee’s spoke English. It was like any other hotel in an America city.. My wife’s parents took us to a Japanee style inn in Atagawa.. Here none of the hotel employee’s spoke English. I couldn’t speak Japanese and they couldn’t understand English, but I was able to understand the message. I wanted to be able to communcate better in Japanese. This is one of the main reasons that I wanted to learn to speak Japanese.